Genre - Horror/SlasherYear Released - 2009
Running Time - 100 minutes
Rated R (for strong bloody violence, graphic sexual content, language, and drug material)
Directed by Marcus Nispel (who also directed the '03 Re-Make of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre as well as Pathfinder)
Written by Damian Shannon & Mark Swift (both of whom wrote Freddy vs Jason) and Mark Wheaton (who also wrote The Messengers)
*Based on characters created by Victor Miller (who wrote the original Friday the 13th)
Cast Includes:
Amanda Righetti (Return to House on Haunted Hill - she was also in several episodes of The O.C.)
Jared Padalecki (the '05 Re-Make of House of Wax, Cry Wolf, and he also plays the role of Sam in the television series Supernatural)
Danielle Panabaker (Sky High, Yours, Mine, and Ours, and Mr Brooks)
Travis Van Winkle (Accepted and Transformers)
Aaron Yoo (Disturbia and Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist)
as well as several others, including Willa Ford (UFC Fighter Chuck Liddell's girlfriend!)
and Derek Mears as Jason (he also played Chameleon in the '07 version of The Hills Have Eyes Part II)
Plot Summary:
When his sister goes missing, Clay travels to Crystal Lake - against the advice of the police and local citizens - to search for her. While at Crystal Lake, Clay gains the assistance of a young woman, who was visiting the lake with a group of her college friends. As Clay continues to search for his sister he meets Jason Voorhees, a killer who stalks Crystal Lake.
Review:
So, here we are with a "re-imagining" of the classic 1980's slasher film that spawned a legendary horror franchise. . .
Rather than just re-make the original, the creators decided to take different aspects from the first four films and intertwine them within this film. Did they succeed? It's all a matter of opinion. . .
Me personally - I'm just excited to see my namesake back on the big screen! :-)
It has been 8 years since Jason terrorized us on his own and it has been 6 years since he shared the terror with Freddy.
One thing that I definitely liked was the fact that the filmmakers covered Jason's backstory within the first five minutes. We see Pamela [Jason's mother - played by Colonel Kira from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - I forget her real name] acting out her retribution upon the camp counselors, whom she blamed for Jason's death, back in 1980. [we all know how that turned out, and the filmmakers didn't waste any time explaining it - thank you!]
The film then jumps to the present day, where we get to see Jason, in all of his glory, punish others for the death of his mother. . .
Here's the trailer:
The trailer promised us 13 deaths and 13 deaths we get to see! :-)
[my favorite probably being the scene right before Jason obtains his hockey mask ~ simplistic I know, but extremely realistic, I thought]
The most surprising death involved an arrow and the most-memorable death is probably the one that takes place in the water.
As for the story. . . It could have definitely been better!
[I am still perplexed as to why, exactly, there were mine shafts underneath Camp Crystal Lake?!? and as for the end ~ I did not like the end at all. . .]
But enough of that ~ like I stated at the beginning of this review, I am just thrilled that Jason is back on the big screen! Derek Mears played a great Jason! Very menacing, which I loved!
Also, Marcus Nispel set the tone and the atmosphere perfectly.
The acting was good, there were a lot of great kills, some good "jump" moments, and there was plenty of exposed female flesh ~ all of these things being why we love this franchise after all :-)
So, while Part VI: Jason Lives remains my personal favorite, I still enjoyed this one, and it is a worthy addition to the series!
4 Skulls
Jason
Posts
30 comments:
Nice review, as always. Although you liked the movie a little bit more than I did, I must agree that Mears was an awesome Jason. He brought a lot to the part. Very menacing and he really moved!
Sweet! I was starting to get worried about this one, especially since I can't stand the writers. BTW, I'm currently watching Mindscape/Alan Moore.. I'll write up on it when it over.
PS: Moore has a really heavy accent, so heavy the thing is subtitled. lol
I reviewed it over on my site too (http://www.cinesploitation.com/?p=2122). I loved this one. I thought it captured the heart of '80s slasher fun.
Hey bud,
You know this is my favorite slasher franchise of them all, and I am really excited/scared to see this one, as I did not care for the "re-imagining" of Texas Chainsaw (although I did enjoy the sequel/prequel).
Leaving the theater with my family last night after seeing Coraline, the next showing was already sold out, and a group of teens came out while we were waiting for our taxi, and spoiled the entire ending! I was pretty upset to hear who lived, as well as the traditional stinger.
Still, I want to catch this one in the theater, if I can ever find a babysitter.
After this one, they are doing the reboots of A Nightmare On Elm Street, followed by Hellraiser. I wonder if Rob Zombie's Halloween had anything to do with all this...
Mears rocked! I agree that just seeing Jason back on the big screen is enough. What more do ya need! Solid remake, in my opinion.
Seems to me that all of us Jason fans are feeling the same way towards this new movie. Not knock-down awesome, but good and just great to have Jason Voorhees himself back on the big screen!
I'm glad to see you liked it.
I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree.
One thing that I definitely liked was the fact that the filmmakers covered Jason's backstory within the first five minutes.
Glad to know this. "Backstory" was what killed the Rob Zombie Halloween
Part VI is my favorite too, man. In fact, it's my favorite movie of all time. :) I gotta say, I liked the '09 remake more than you and lotsa other people seemed to, but I think that's because I had such low expectations going in and was so pleasantly surprised that it didn't suck nearly as bad as I thought it could've.
Lisa,
Glad you agree that Mears rocked the part! :-)
J
Mike,
I am definitely interested in hearing about The Mindscape of Alan Moore!
J
Greg,
Glad to hear that you enjoyed this one - I will definitely be checking out your review!
J
Bill,
I can't believe those teens ruined the ending for you - Grrrrrr :-(
As for A Nightmare on Elm Street - that is definitely a re-make that I am not happy about!
[I am not excited about Hellraiser either - the only thing that gives me hope for this one is Barker's faith in its director]
These films would have been re-made, Halloween or not - Hollywood is simply out of fresh, original ideas. . .
J
Johnny, Wings, SS,
Glad to hear we are all feeling the same on this one :-)
J
William,
A more detailed explanation, please :-)
J
Ryan,
I am actually one of the few who enjoyed Rob Zombie's interpretation of Halloween. . .
As for this one - I understand bringing these films to new generations, however they still have the originals to fall back upon! A quick summary, I felt, was all that was needed, and for me, it was sufficient!
J
Astro,
I agree that it could have been worse, however it could have been way better as well. . .
At least we agree on Part VI! :-)
J
Wow, I am quite surprised to see that the general consensus of Rob Zombie's Halloween is not well-received. I really thought it was brilliant, and that the backstory was a very important aspect of the film. Not only that, but that Daeg Faerch proved his acting chops at such a young age, and seeing the kid from Spy Kids playing a bully getting his just desserts really worked for me.
Ah, well.
I'm on your side Bill - I enjoyed RZ's Halloween very much! :-)
J
http://dvd.ign.com/articles/952/952951p1.html
According to this, they're already working on an uncut DVD version that supposedly will make it quite a different film than the one we seen in the theaters... Its says another story line and more sex... I look forward to more "Bree" and her "stupendous" physique thats for sure!!! :)
I hope it makes the movie better because I really wanted to like this
Mike,
Yes, I've heard that [though I will still go read the article]
I've heard it's like 20 or so more minutes - including a longer scene where Jason obtains his hockey mask, and like you said more sex, etc - if it does include more Bree, then I'm all for it! ;-)
Hopefully you will like it better on DVD - you really hated it, huh?
J
I have yet to see this and with that I have so much shame, things have just been so scattered, but I'm about to see it any day now and I cannot wait. The review lead me to my already existing expectations, so I am sure I will enjoy it. Nice review!!
Thanks Te! :-)
As long as you go in with the mindset of seeing the "Friday Formula" you will not be disappointed. . .
Be sure to stop back by and let me know what you thought!
J
Finally saw this film and I actually did like it. I was also dissapointed with the ending, but overall I think it was a pretty good film. I wrote the longest review that I have written about a film in a long time about it, so I suppose that says something. :D
Te,
Glad to hear that you enjoyed it ~ I'll be sure to check out your review today. . .
J
And i must say it was surprisingly quite good. I wasn't really expecting anything from it but having seen all the other Friday the 13th movies i thought why not?!. But yeah it was decent.
Glad you liked it Lucy ;-)
Sorry for the delay in my response.
Before I say anything, I'd just like to point out that I didn't hate Zombie's Halloween. Was it great? No. Was it as good as the original? Did it even capture the spirit of the original? No. But it was fun, it was watchable, and it was a different spin on a familiar franchise. Zombie made Mike Myers down n' dirty, which I didn't mind much (personally, I've never been a huge Halloween fan... too elegant for my tastes, I'm more of a Texas Chainsaw or Friday The 13th guy) and reimagined a somber suspense slasher series as a scuzzy, scummy, survival-horror character study. Out of 5 stars, I'd give it 3 or 3.5.
As for the Friday The 13th remake... well...
Ugh.
Personally, I hated it. I thought it was too predictable and mostly uninteresting. It seemed, to me, that nobody really put much time or thought into the script. I know, I know. "This is a slasher movie, dude!" or "It's a Friday The 13th picture! Whaddya want? Shakespeare?!?" That's what everyone's been saying. But even the lamest of the Jason movies seemed to spend more time coming up with a plot than this one did. Seriously, in all complete and total honesty, I myself could have written this script over the course of one long weekend. The best part of the whole movie I thought was the Asian kid, all that gratuitous boobage (America Olivo, I love you!), and the "wrapped in a sleeping bag and roasted over an open fire" kill. Speaking of kills, I thought they were also EXTREMELY lackluster for a slasher flick. ANY slasher flick, and ESPECIALLY for a Jason movie. Literally, with the exception of the "hot chick roasting over an open fire (Merry X-Mas?)" kill, every single death in that movie was either Jason pushing someone onto a sharp object, or just stabbing 'em. That's it.
Oh yeah, some guy gets shot with an arrow. Whoop-dee-doo.
The acting was poor. The direction was lame (the film looked like every other damn "grim n' gritty" horror remake that's come out in the last few years, from that piss-poor Hitcher remake, to the actually quite good Hills Have Eyes remake, to Nispel's own godawful and, sadly, trend-setting TCM remake). Everything tries way too hard to be "dark" and dirty so it comes across as nihilistic and "edgy" but it only succeeds in coming off like it's trying. Too much manufactured morbidity, without any actual, genuine morbidity. Way too stylized.
Logic and continuity go right out the window. I swear, there were gaps in rationality in this flick you could drive a truck (with a snobby prep impaled on the back of)through.
One of the worst things though, in my mind, has got to be the lack of personality. Not only do all the characters lack personality, but the movie itself, I felt, lacked personality. And worst of all, Jason lacked personality.
Contrary to a lot of criticisms of this movie, I don't really mind the idea of a running Jason. And Derek Mears did a fine job with all that running, jumping, n' stabbing. I actually like the idea of a more realistic "homicidal hermit/sociopathic survivalist" take on the character. But it just went nowhere. Like I said, no personality whatsoever.
The plot was weak and meandering. There was no real thrust to the narrative until the heroes wind up in Jason's underground lair (underground lair? what the fuck?). At this point, I though the movie got a little better. Business seemed to pick up and there was some actual energy injected into the otherwise banal proceedings. I especially liked the seeing the goody-two-shoes girl get killed. That, to me, seemed to signify that suddenly all bets were off. Now, anything could happen. Anyone could die. Everyone could die. Jason might very well just stab that pole-smoking fashion model hero guy right in the face with a machete and then go home to watch CNN or something. There's even a moment where you think, maybe, Jason did kill the dude, and maybe these kids aren't going to make it. Maybe Jason's going to win. But it doesn't go anywhere. Nispel took what little good will he earned from me and promptly squandered it by instead taking the movie into a climax that was agonizingly uninspired, average in every way, and utterly predictable (who didn't see that woodchipper death coming fucking miles away?). By squandering that minute modicum of goodwill he earned from the death of "the innocent virginal good girl" he thereby negated the impact of her death. No longer a symbol of a new rejection of cinematic convention, her death became just a woefully transparent bid for shock value that, frankly, failed. I know exactly what the writers were thinking when they penned that scene. "Awesome. We just killed off the heroine. Everyone's gonna think we're really edgy and original." No, we wont', dumbasses. Because it was not edgy, and it certainly not "original." The first time a slasher movie knocked off the good girl that you expected to survive, it was original. The next few times, it was still fresh and surprising. Nowadays, it's practically a cliche' in and of itself. A passionless, boring, insincere, lip service bid for recognition.
And the ending itself, were Jason comes back? Blech. Okay, I understand the attempt to hearken back to the original's ending and give it a nod. But was anyone surprised when it happened? Furthermore, I hate (not just in this film, but in lots of films) when the protagonists who just saved the day/got away from the killer/whatever and thus EARNED THEIR RIGHT TO LIVE get killed off at the end of the movie (or in the very beginning of the next one, as in Hostel 2... I still think that they should've left the kid from Hostel 1 alone in Hostel 2 instead of forcing in that terrible decapitation prologue) just for the sake of one, last, mediocre (and totally expected) jolt. I don't mind seeing all the heroes die in a movie, don't get me wrong. In fact, I'm a big fan of tragic/downbeat endings. But they have to be organic to the development of the story and the tone of the film, and when you just tack it on there at the end for the sake of a shock (that, in fact, fails to shock... because we've all come to expect that final shock), it just feels forced and, worse yet, it completely makes the entire film we just saw pointless. Why the FUCK did I just watch these unlikable retards run around like chicken with their heads cut off for an hour and a fucking half only for them to get killed in a completely pointless, stupid way, at the very last second, as if on a whim? What is the fucking purpose of that bullshit? Someone tell me! Please! And, seriously, are you gonna tell me that Jason played dead PERFECTLY the whole time while our heroes dragged his heavy ass (yeah, I'm sure they had a real fucking easy time picking up that huge sonofabitch) over the pier so they could toss him in at daybreak? Never once when they were lugging that enormous motherfucker did they notice a pulse or breathing. Or did he just come back from the dead (for no reason whatsoever) at the end there? The hell is that shit?!?
Sucky, sucky, sucky, sucky. Through and through. It had its moments, but they were few and far between.
At least that's my opinion. If you disagree with me (which, by the looks of your own review of this film, it is obvious you do, in fact, disagree with me) then that's fine. Everyone's entitled to their own opinion. I hope you my vehement disagreement as a personal affront. It's not. I just... did not like this movie. That's it.
When I saw it in the theater (for free, thank gawd) there was actually a point in the film where I got up and went to take a crap. That might not seem to be a big deal to you, but I NEVER do that. In fact, I HATE it when people do that. I hate when people come in late, leave early, or leave for a drink or a bathroom break and come back in the middle of the movie. I have an enormous respect for cinema, and I think other people should too. And so I get irritated when people don't give over their full attention to a movie for the length of its running time, especially when viewed in the theater. But I cared so little, and I felt so flat-out insulted by this seemingly actively mundane picture, that I actually got him to go take a dump. Keep in mind that, last night, I went to go see The Wrestler for a second time. I did not pay for my admission. And I had to piss like you wouldn't believe. I had to pee from the moment the credits started, because we got there with little time to spare and I didn't get a chance to take a quick pre-movie run to the bathrooom as I expected to be able to. So I really, really, really had to piss. But I didn't leave my seat until the movie was over. AND THIS WAS A MOVIE I'D SEEN ALREADY BEFORE!
That should tell you, I think, how much I really, truly disliked the movie.
Here's my biggest criticism though. If I had to one level flaw at the Friday remake that I think it the most important, it would have to be this.
It was generic.
Generic. There was nothing about it that made it special. There was nothing special about it that MADE it a Friday The 13th movie. None of that Friday magic was anywhere to be seen. No flair, no spunk, no verve, and no fucking BALLS.
It came across just like every other "kids in the woods being picked off by a deformed/masked maniac" horror movie that you see cluttering multiplexes and Blockbuster shelves these days.
Really, if you took away the hockey mask, you could have called this movie Wrong Turn 3 and no one would have noticed any fucking difference.
You could have given him a Nixon mask and titled the film I Am Not A Crook, and it would have made no impact on the final product.
And that's all I have to say 'bout that.
William,
You win the prize for the longest comment! [I was grinning from ear to ear when I 1st saw your comment - an entire review/bash in and of itself!] :-)
I of course do not take your side as a personal affront - we horror fans are often in disagreement with one another, however that is not necessarily a bad thing - we love our genre, and to each their own!
I completely agree with the majority of what you had to say - points that I touched upon, but did not go into as much detail.
The difference was that I put all of that stuff on a back burner, and tried to just relax and enjoy Jason back on the big screen - though I again completely agree that this movie could have been any Slasher flick. . .
Thank you for leaving your thoughts and opinion - that is why I have this blog afterall! ;-)
J
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