Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
I was sent a test disc for this title but can’t review it for reasons that become obvious as you dig into the supplemental stuff. In a documentary called “The Many Faces Of Jason Voorhees,” I am one of several people interviewed on-camera. It’s surreal for me to look at, and I’ve decided to have a contest as a result of watching the documentary: guess how many gallons of nacho cheese my giant Macy’s Day Parade Float Head ™ can actually hold. Still, the humiliation’s worth it, since Joe Bob Briggs, one of my heroes, is also in the documentary.
Massawyrm apparently also saw the disc and liked it quite a bit. In fact... maybe too much... read on and you’ll see what I mean...
Hola all. Massawyrm here with a look at today's fun as all hell DVD release "Jason X". Now right off that bat I was interested in checking this out as it's a New Line DVD and, well, New Line is one of the only 2 companies out there that really have a grasp on how to release a DVD right (the other being Universal). Sure some of the other companies have put out some sweet DVD's, but they're just not constant. A great one here, 10 bare bones there. Now while Jason X isn't exactly overflowing in features, what it does have is all top notch.
There's of course the usual stuff: The trailer, trailers for other New Line horror films (sadly only 3, but one of them is Nightmare on Elm Street, and despite the fact that I already have it on 2 other discs, all the talk in the documentaries of Freddy vs. Jason gave me the hunger to watch it and Bam! there it was) and commentary.
But then there are 3 other features that really sell this thing. First and foremost is a 30 minute documentary on the history of Jason Voorhees called appropriately enough "The Many Lives of Jason Voorhees". Now this was quite simply a great documentary that really gets to the roots of the mythology and history of Jason as told by series creator Sean S. Cunningham, Kane Hodder and a whole slew of critics and fans, most notably the king of low budget film critics and patron saint to geeks everywhere, Joe Bob Briggs, Mark Borchardt and Mike Schank (of American Movie fame) and of course AICN's own Drew McWeeny AKA Moriarty. Some really great things escape the mouths of the critics. Mike Schank manages to prove yet again why we find him so damned amusing with the statement "I think horror movies are cool because only cool people watch them - I think." Moriarty manages to smirk his way through his interview while comparing the Friday the 13th series to Greek tragedy. And Good ole Joe Bob steals the whole show with such statements as "Freddy is the smartest monster of all time and Jason is a mongoloid. How fair a fight can that be?" All in all its a delightful documentary that covers the whole history, from its creative inception all the way up to Freddy Vs. Jason. Coupled with the movie, this makes the disc worth owning alone. But wait, there's more.
There's also a 15 minute documentary on the making of the film that skips the usual 30 minutes of DV that the directors wife shot during the filming that comprises most similar making of's and rather focuses on the make up, costuming and gets fairly technical discussing and illustrating the notions of green screening and digital transfers and editing. While not as engrossing as the "Many Faces..." Documentary, this is a cut above the usual making of's and is something many folks will actually watch more than once.
And finally there's the feature that really sold me on this disc. "Jump to a Kill". Now I had dinner two weeks ago with Harry, Father Geek and Johnny Wad after a very enjoyable screening of below. During the dinner we had a great discussion on Horror films and Harry joked "You know what I want. I just want a tape of all of Jason's kills. Just the money shots. Not the movies, just the kills." We all went off on the notion as "since there are 4 hour tapes of sexual money shots, why can't we get one of the slasher money shots?" Well, it seems that New Line beat us to the punch...almost. While Jason's entire bevy of kills are not presented, every Kill in Jason X is. And you can select exactly which kill you want to see. The Whole kill, without any of the frills. Select a character and watch 'em get their's at the hands of Jason. And if you're the type of fellow that isn't bogged down by the necessity of silly things like Plot or character exposition, you can actually watch the whole film, in sequence, with all of the boring parts taken out. Just the kills. In order. Right down to the last scene. Hell, I watched that feature 3 times last night alone.
Nothing like a little bloodshed cut neat and clean together to make a night complete.
All in all this was a great fun DVD that's definitely worth checking out. And hey, if any of you are bored enough to bother cutting together that "money shot" tape and want to send me a copy, hey, I'll proclaim you my new best friend or something.
Until next time friends, smoke 'em if ya got 'em. I know I will.
I’m not going to tell you what we did after that dinner conversation, no matter how much you ask, but I will sell you the photos for $30 each.
For the record, Massawyrm’s on crack, and I don’t mean mine. Fox and Anchor Bay are just two of the DVD teams also doing an exceptional job with special features, I think, and it’s important to give credit to ALL the companies who actually get it right so that other companies will follow suit. Wade through those BUFFY or SIMPSONS box sets some time, or some of the excellent sets from A&E or Pixar, and tell me that only Universal and New Line have their shit together. It’s an increasingly competitive field, and the consumer wins. Vote with your dollar, right?
"Moriarty" out.
