I don't know, I guess the first Urban Legend film left some questions unanswered so we have Urban Legends 2. The sequel's set at a film school and starts with a movie set, though you're fooled into thinking you're watching 'Final Destination 2'-at least I was. The basic plot of UL2 revolves around a group of film students competing for the prestigious Hitchcock Award, which can lead to a Hollywood career-surely something to kill for, right?

One girl, Amy Mayfield is set up right away as our film's heroine. For her Hitchcock Award submission, she decides to do a horror film based on urban legends. This upsets one of the circle, Toby, who feels that she's taken his genre so he decides not to help her. So we are presented with our first contestant in the 'Who's the Killer?' game-he's angry, he's competitive and he seems slightly loopy - therefore he's a red herring.

The first death is a young lady who brushes off Toby; her drink is drugged then she wakes up in a tub of ice with a fresh cut on her side-yes, her kidney's been removed. But that's the only part of the urban legend for she gets dispatched with a broken window. Unfortunately for her, she had plans to go out of town so she's not missed. The next death is a suicide, a young man, Trevor, whom everyone thought would win the award and be on his way to great success. But his film is given a low mark and he's distraught. Amy also seems to have a crush on him but is too shy to say anything.

The next contestant in the killer contest is Joseph 'Joey' Lawrence (yes, from TV’s Blossom); he seems to be a Hollywood brat with a studio exec father who's always on his cell phone. Made me wonder why film school tuition was wasted on this guy-he never did anything and always used his father's connections to get things done. But he's also sort of dark and moody so I guess that counts.

The only two guys that WEREN'T contestants were Dirk & Stan (played by Michael Bacall and Anthony Anderson respectively). They were the two nerdy FX guys who worship George Lucas. You know Anthony Anderson's career is on fire! I think he's challenging James Brown to be THE hardest working man in show business! 16 films in 4 years! Wow! Go Anthony! He seemed to be having fun in this role too.

ANYWAY-when news of Travis' death spreads across campus, Amy's in shock. Joey-I mean Joseph, takes advantage of this to let her know he knows her little secret-her father was a well-known documentary filmmaker, therefore she wasn't much different from him with having connections. I'm not sure why this was such big news but I guess it figured in the subplot. We're then introduced to Simon, played by Marcus Hofschneider (from the Oscar nominated Europa, Europa to this. *sigh* But then he WAS in The Island of Dr. Moreau too, so maybe this wasn't far behind.) He'd been recommended by Trevor to film Amy's movie. The next death is one of the actresses in the film-and I use the term loosely. Sandra (played by Jessica Caulfield) is derided by everyone as a bad actress yet they still hire her-I guess because she's a good looking blonde. I'm thinking her death (filmed by the killer) might be the snuff film type of urban legend because Amy & her group watch what they shot that day, only to have the film switched with the actual killing tape. Amy is distressed while the rest of the group is impressed with Sandra's acting. They go back to the studio but nothing's out of place so they leave. And like the first victim, Sandra was planning to go out of town anyway therefore she's not missed either.

That night, Amy notices a light in the closed bell tower that Trevor killed himself so she goes to investigate. She finds......Travis, Trevor's IDENTICAL twin brother! He can't believe his brother killed himself so he's here to investigate. Of course because Amy was attracted to Trevor, she finds herself drawn to Travis but could HE be the killer? Or how about the production assistant, Kevin, who's pretty much treated like dirt especially by Joseph? He's applied 6 times to the film school but can't seem to get in. And he LOOKS kind of crazy too! Well, I'm not sure why this is called Urban Legends 2 since the storyline pretty much stands on its own. There IS a character from the previous film-Reese, the sassy security guard played by Loretta Devine. Evidently the school in the first film covered up the scandal and she was fired when she wouldn't go along with he program. She & Amy bond over their love for Pam Grier movies (that actually comes in handy at the climax of the film).

The story gets pretty twisted with first making Amy seem smart then having her put her faith in a total stranger, jeopardising her friends in the process. Aside from the deaths I mentioned, none of the others have much to do with urban legends. Though it's not a major thing, it still seems silly to align yourself with urban legends then not really present them. I'd be remiss not to mention the handsome Hart Bochner as Professor Solomon; I hadn't seen him in quite a while and this was a pleasant surprise.

Do I recommend Urban Legends 2: The Final Cut? Well...it gets a thumbs in the middle from me, mostly because Amy's actions put her friends in danger and though she was initially presented as smart-she did some DUMB things. And the unmasking of the killer was pretty much out of left field too. I guess in a way it made sense but made the previous stuff seem really silly. I mean, I never saw victims so unwilling to fight to save themselves! Okay, now that I'm thinking about it, I guess I DON'T recommend this movie.