Movies beginning with the letter "U"

WARNING:Proceeding beyond this point means you're willing to look at all of the reviews in NO particular order... if you wish to see them alphabetically, I suggest you return to the top of the page and click on the movies you wish reviewed...

Urban Legend

"Someone has taken their love of scary movies one step too far..."

Yes, I know that's Scream's tagline, but it fits. Really it does. What better way can you explain the existence of this let-down? And it had such a promising beginning, too!

It starts out with a woman driving at night, in the rain, on a long, dark, stretch of road. Realizing she's about to run out of gas, she stops in at a creepy-looking gas station. A creepy-looking attendant with a stutter comes out to help her (and, it would appear, leer at her). When she gives him her credit card he disappears for a moment (all the while the creepy music is playing, so we know something is about to happen) and returns, asking her to come with him. The credit card company wants to speak to her. She makes sure she has her mace and then follows him into a dark and creepy-looking room. It all looks to be that this attendant guy is gonna bump her off, right? Well, she thinks so, too, and when he locks the door and advances on her, she maces him, goes out a window and back into her truck. He chases after her, and when she drives off, he calls out after her (well, stutters after her), "There's someone in the back seat!"

Needless to say, she's bumped off, but not by the creepy-looking guy.

Sounds like one of those neat legends we heard as a kid, right? That's what's so neat about the premise of this movie. All of the murders are based on what are known as Urban Legends (hence the name of the film), stories passed down from age to age, and often thought believed true. You ever hear the one about Mikey (the Life cereal kid) eating Pop Rocks and drinking a soda? He died, right? Wrong. That's just an Urban Legend.

Unfortunately, the movie does not hold on to the originality of its premise, degrading instead to one of those "Young Adult" thrillers (girl meets boy, strange things are happening, girl suspects boy, oops there's a "surprise" ending that we saw coming a mile away!) right down to the contrived motive of the killer.

Is it worth watching? That depends. If the ending is important to you, no. If you like watching teenagers strangled, hacked up, dismembered, and watching the protagonist start to think it's a conspiracy because nobody believes her, you might want to look into it. I will tell you this... my movie-watching partner called the climax/resolution "unsatisfying"... and I think I have to agree.

By the way, the film stars Jared Leto, Alicia Witt, Josh Jackson, Robert Englund, and Rebecca Gayheart.

This movie is rated R for violence, language, and partial nudity.

SCORE: 6 A promising beginning and intriguing premise couldn't save this cliche-ridden film. Not scary in the least, the director going for the "sudden" scares that work for maybe half a second, I felt that my time had been wasted by the ending. Still, there are a couple of cute little in-jokes, one involving Jackson and the song usually associated with is TV show Dawson's Creek, the other involving Gayheart and a commercial. Despite these two hints of cleverness, however, the movie was a real let-down. Rent "Scream" instead. Return to top