The lovely Jennifer Morrison plays Amy Mayfield, a film student whose senior thesis is a film about a serial killer who kills people according to urban legends. She got the idea from a security guard who happened to be a security guard at another college where this supposedly happened. But as Amy makes her movie, her friends are dying one by one, according to urban legends. See the clever twist? It looks like Amy is next, but who is doing the killing, and why? When you find out who and why, you may be tempted to climb into the movie and kill someone as well. The only thing that frightened me during this film was the thought that it would be very ironic if I died while watching it. Even more frightening was the idea that I could be killed by someone wearing a fencer's mask.

So the plot is not original, but these days, that's not too surprising. And I did like Jennifer Morrison, which is also not surprising if you know me. And the movie did an OK job at setting up different people as being killers. Well setting up may be giving them too much credit. Going in real close on some faces and playing scary music was their idea of 'setting up'. The movie was trying to be very smart, and instead became very convoluted. I mean, the only person Amy trusts is the one person she's known for 30 minutes? And if you have a problem with flashing lights giving you a headache, I warn you now, there are a couple of scenes where that happens. The opening sequence was another one of those movie-in-a-movie deals but this one is so transparent it's ugly. The music in general for the film wasn't bad, but it was also very obvious. And the quick cuts, shaky camera deal has been way overdone.

Basically I was just bored with the movie. I am a fan of horror films, and I usually give them the benefit of the doubt. But here, the movie just wasn't good. I've had scarier dreams looking at this strange blue spot on one the face of one of my professors in law school (and if you've seen her, you'd be scared too). The first movie (and I say first in name only) was cheesy but entertaining. This one didn't even hit the cheese factor. It was just a mess of scenes combined into a passable movie. And I say passable in name only. What it comes down to is, if you find yourself liking Jennifer Morrison and her character, you'll tolerate the film. If you hate her from the start, there's not much in the movie that'll make you change your mind. Other than that ending I mentioned (with a little wink to the original), and a quick blink-and-you-missed-it joke with Jacinda Barrett (Real World-London alum), the humor level wasn't there. And the horror level wasn't there. The blood and gut level wasn't too bad, and poor Jacinda's demise was certainly entertaining. The rest of the 'horror' was just kind of, blah. The director, John Ottman, who is better known as a composer and editor (The Usual Suspects and Apt Pupil being two of his films), should stick to composing and editing. Which he also did on this film. Which may be the reason the movie isn't that good. Unless you're Robert Rodriguez I don't think you should be directing and editing your own film. Your concentration level isn't as high as it should be with either job.

So overall, Urban Legends: Final Cut has nothing to do with Urban Legend. If you liked the first one, there's no reason to believe you'll like the second one. Other than Jennifer Morrison and a couple of humorous and bloody moments, this movie was a mess.

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