Harry here, haven't gotten the dvd yet for this one, but Quint has... here ya go...
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Ahoy, squirts. 'Tis the crusty seaman, Quint, here this time with a look at New Line's big release of their successful and very fun team up flick, FREDDY VS JASON.
This DVD comes pretty packed. It's a 2 Disc Set filled with commentary, documentaries, trailers, TV spots, galleries, storyboards and at least 3 Easter Eggs. Not to mention a butt-load of deleted scenes.
DISC 1:
Has the movie in both full screen and widescreen, a commentary track by Ronny Yu, Robert Englund and Ken Kirzinger and a "Jump to a Death" feature.
-COMMENTARY
The idea for the track is a good one. Freddy, Jason and Ronny Yu in one room, interacting and bullshitting about the movie. Unfortunately, I'd say 85% of the commentary track is just Robert Englund filling time. There are a few instances where Ronny sheds some light on certain scenes or actors, but most of the time it's just Englund spinning wildly trying to fill in the dead space. I applaud him for the effort, but it doesn't make a very interesting commentary track.
-JUMP TO A DEATH
This allows you to either pick a specific death and watch it without having to bother with the rest of the movie, or (this is my favorite) you can put it on random and it'll pull one of the 13 deaths in the film up randomly. Fun, but it doesn't really have much longevity. It gets old pretty quick.
DISC 2:
-DELETED OR ALTERNATE SCENES:
This really started the disappointment in the disc that I felt. Not so much in features (there are a lot of special features packed onto this disc), but in quality. Out of the 18 or so deleted scenes, there is only one that I think doesn't suck. It's an expansion of the one kill Freddy gets in the movie. The cut scene is called Dream Signs and gives off that feel of classic Freddy... The dead brother in the picture winking at the live (soon to be dead) younger brother...
It just really got me how terrible every single one of the cut scenes turned out to be, including, but not limited to, the worst line and delivery combo that has ever been put to film... You remember in the trailer the one line that made you go, "Wait... maybe this is going to be a little too over the top..." I'm sure you remember it! "Place your bets!"
Well, it turns out that isn't the whole line like everyone thought it was. In the cut scene called "Place Your Bets" we see Freddy pulled into the real world and faces down with Jason. Then Monica Keena warbles the line, "Freddy Vs Jason! Place your bets!" When I say warbles... imagine the worst Soap Opera line delivery possible and put the horrible line "Freddy Versus Jason! Place your bets!" into that delivery.
Most of the cut scenes involve the teens, which, granted, where the least interesting thing in the movie to start with, but there was some horrible, horrible set up... "Our friend just died. We're freaked out... but it's good for us to go to a rave... What's it doing way out here? Well, they don't want the cops to bust it up, of course..."
And the original ending... doesn't work. The wink that is in the film is much better.
Now, I give credit to the filmmakers for cutting these terrible moments and scenes out of the theatrical film, BUT the fact that they filmed them at all lowers my respect for what they accomplished in the movie just a tad.
THE PRODUCTION
-FANGORIA MAGAZINE ARTICLES
Surprisingly, this is my favorite feature on the Freddy Vs Jason DVD. This is about 50 pages of reading a pair of articles Fangoria ran chronicling the entire history of FREDDY VS JASON as a film in production. It lists from script one, who did what, when it was changed, who picked it up later... basically a step by step through the production hell that was FREDDY VS JASON, leading up to how all the pieces fell into place for it to finally begin shooting.
-PRODUCTION FEATURETTES
Out of all the features and doco/behind the scenes stuff, this is the best stuff on the DVD, thanks in great part to Ronny Yu. You really see how Ronny bent this film into being as good as it could possibly be. The only drawback to watching these features is seeing the takes that didn't work being shot and having to withstand more Monica Keena overacting and Kelly Rowland being a clueless, vacuous ditz.
My favorite of the sub-featurettes here was ART DIRECTION: JASON'S DECORATING TIPS. Really solid stuff, probably the best "How they did it" piece on the DVD.
-VISUAL EFFECTS FEATURETTES
Ohhhhh, boy... This is where my negative feelings for the disc come into heavy play. These guys, Ariel Velasco-Shaw and Kevin Elham take you through 12 featurettes all on the big effects scenes in the film. They seem like nice enough guys, but I can't imagine why they agreed to be a part of this DVD. It's going to keep them from getting work!
I'd say at least 95% of the time they say something like this, "Well, we didn't really know how to do this effect, so we tried something onset... It didn't work, so we had to reshoot it later... It didn't work, so we do what we always do, fall back on CG!"
In essence this is what they're saying: "We didn't have a clue when it came time to shoot, so we scrambled to try something that didn't work... Then we spent time and money to reshoot this error and we still didn't plan ahead and it still didn't work. So, we just spent a lot of time and money making sub-par CG shots that could have easily been done practically if we spent any amount of time thinking about it beforehand."
That might be a bit harsh, but that's what it comes across as. It made me wonder how they got anything done on the film that looked halfway decent!
-GALLERIES
There are 6 Storyboard Galleries and 5 production galleries. Good stuff if you're into that sort of thing. The storyboards were my personal favorites.
PUBLICITY AND PROMO
-PRE-FIGHT PRESS CONFERENCE
A little press thing that happened at Bally's in Las Vegas. Ken Kirzinger and Robert Englund showed up (in full costume and character), had a weigh-in and a little shit talking by Freddy. The odds of the fight were posted and Jason was Vegas' favorite. Always listen to Vegas! They know the score! Fun little promo.
-MUSIC VIDEO
Terrible, terrible, terrible. Tell me why they don't include any bit of the Freddy or Jason theme music? Tell me why they don't at least have anything to do with Freddy or Jason in the music video itself? Tell me why ILL NINO sounds like everybody else out there right now? Tell me why we had to listen to this bullshit instead of some piece of creepy music?
-MY SUMMER VACATION: A VISIT TO CAMP HACKNSLASH
This was the feature I was looking forward to the most. If you remember, Camp Hacknslash was an Ain't It Cool event, thought up by Harry and executed brilliantly by Tim League, owner of the Alamo Drafthouse. It was a great time, a summer camp filled with horror themed activities.
So, I was excited to see the feature on the DVD. The featurette is really good, a lot of fun... I saw a lot of my friends and it does act in a way kinda like a video yearbook for those who attended. We see the ups (wet t-shirt contest) and the downs (male schlong waving) of the night. Other than a few minor nitpicks I have regarding presentation of the events, the featurette really captures the fun of the event
That's about it on the special features. There are of course trailers and TV spots that I didn't go in to. Nothing really spectacular. On the whole, color me disappointed with the DVD. It's not a good sign when the special features of the movie make you think less of the finished product and talent involved.
Anyway, that's it from me. I wish I woulda liked the DVD more, but oh well. As Billy Bob would say, "They can't all be winners, can they?" 'Til next time, this is Quint bidding you all a fond farewell and adieu.
-Quint
