Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with a nice selection of reader reviews for the new FRIDAY THE 13TH movie... I have my own thoughts on the flick, but I'll be back later to unleash those. For now, I'll let this selection speak for itself. You'll get uber-positive, uber-negative and mixed-positive. I fear for the super enthusiastic one... I mean, wanting to love up on FRIDAY THE 13TH is just asking for trouble. Jason doesn't like that kind of stuff... Beware of spoilers!
Harry, Not sure if you had a reviews for this yet. Be forewarned, this is a stream-of-consciousness review. I just got back from it! Michael Bay's FRIDAY THE 13TH isn't so much Micheal Bay's. It actually feels like a Jason movie. It doesn't ignore the original, and pays homage to it while still managing to feel new; it is suspenseful, intelligent, and downright kick ass! The actors are adequate and actually fun to watch. And the production value is slick without ruining the grunginess that comes with a good Jason flick. Anyway, the kills are tremendously fun. Not too quick, and all plausible in the most grotesque of ways. The nudity is Grade A. Baby oil even comes into play... and the best nude scene is water-related. And there is suspense! Unlike recent horror crap of the past few weeks, this film delivers. Jason is a mean dude, and you actually fear for these helpless teens. At first, I was afraid he was going to be humanized, but he isn't. They give him a dimension of intelligence that the rest of the films did not have; he is resourceful and he calculates what he does. But most important of all, he's badass and scary! This Jason fits in snug with the rest of 'em! Having not been a fan of the Texas Chainsaw remake, I was afraid of Marcus Nispel's hand in this film. But he does not falter. It's an 80's movie amped up for the new millennium...in fact, it's the best horror remake since Aja's The Hills Have Eyes. If I have complaints, it's that the hockey mask moment isn't as important as it should have been. And they should have just called this Friday the 13th, Part 11...i'm sure it wouldn't have tainted its release one bit. It's a helluva ride and horror fans would have cared less if it was a re-imagining or a re-whatever. But I can't complain. Gore. Nudity. Suspense. And JASON!!! He will kill you if you don't go see this! Bring on Part 2...or Part 12...whatever. Call me Kighty!
Thank's Kighty. I agree with you about the mask moment, but I'll have more on that soon. On the opposite side of the coin, here's Reid who didn't care much at all for it... which probably means he'll survive this posting... Unless he's smoking a joint, of course.
Hello Harry, I recently won advance passes to see Friday the 13th and thought I'd share my thoughts for your site. I'm not a fan of remakes in general, so take the following with a grain of salt. I don't want to write an extensive review of the film as, to be quite honest, the film hardly deserves one (of course, saying that will probably make some people want to see it even more). Here's what I gather from having seen it today... *BEWARE MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD If you think it's cool that Jason: ... kidnaps one of his victims and keeps her chained in his basement for a month (yes, like Silence of the Lambs). ... has a security lighting system in his backyard so he can flick the switch at his leisure to make killing trespassers more convenient. ... is well known by the locals but no one does anything about it because he "only wants to be left alone." ... is an expert marksman with a bow and arrow. THEN THIS IS THE MOVIE FOR YOU!!! If, however, you read this and think, "That really isn't in the movie, is it?" Well... watch at your own risk. In the recent documentary, "His Name Was Jason," one commentator states: "Nothing can kill Jason." Sadly, a remake can. R.I.P. -Reid
And the final review of this batch, which is a little bit from stack A and a little bit from stack B. Enjoy!
Hey Harry, (some slight spoilers ahead) I normally don't send in screening reviews, because I work for a movie theater and do print screenings every other week, but this was a different situation. A friend of mine got passes to an early screening of the new Friday the 13th (from here referred to as FT13), to which I responded, "Who do I kill to get the other passes." Simply put, I am a horror nut. It does not matter if it's a slasher, a thriller, supernatural, psychological, new, old, lost, found......I eat it up. So to get a chance to see FT13, even earlier than I normally would, was a dream come true. I should start off by saying that while I enjoyed the film, I did not love it, which may piss a lot of people off, but it's the truth. It starts off simply enough by letting you know in the opening credits that this a remake/sequel/retooling all in one that includes many a wink and nod to the films that preceded it. What Impressed me a lot was the section that directly follows the opening credits, which is a pre-title sequence.......that lasts around 20 minutes. It definitely got the audiences blood pumping in the best sense. Slight humor here, mass nudity here, and death. There is actually a point in the movie where I felt compelled to list off in my head each time a lead character made a suggestion in a 2 minute period to add "and die" at the end. Fans of the series willl be pleased to hear that all the staples, good and bad, of past FT13 films are on display. The only nagging issue was, I wondered when the last time Jason actually killed a "camp counselor" in the series. Since everyone states that's the revenge Jason is carrying out. The movie is paced along the lines of part 4 and 7. Kids are in the woods for a good time. Kids have alcohol. Kids fool around. Jason puts end to teenagers' fun, while doing his part for population control. The movie is literred with the usual tropes of humor, nudity, more nudity, more humor and blood. Sadly the amount of blood spilled isn't as high as it has been in the past, nor were the kills as inventive as past enteries, though again, fans of the series will laugh at certain kills that are definetly inspired by pervious films. The films gets a couple extra points for trying to build in logic as well as coherence to the Jason mythology, and no not in someway that involves Druid Cults, Aliens, or ressurection.....at least none that I notices. Jason in this film also seems to be an aspiring weed farmer, seeing how part of the plot is based around a plot of that particular herb, which is located.....wouldn't you know it.......at Camp Crystal lake (though that gives another explination as to why none of the councelors were paying attention to Jason). The cast is servicable at best, meaning they dusted off what stock characters they missed the most and then inflated them with helium only to then let the air out a few minutes later, but then again, what are you expecting from this type of film. Jared Padalecki does his part of being serious, by wearing a serious mask all film, Danielle Panabaker pouted a lot with her collagened upper-lip, and then there were two blondes (who got naked), the token black guy, and the token humorous asian (who both spend the movie token). Though my favorite of all the stock characters was Travis Van Winkle, who went not playing another rich douchebag named Trent, which he aslo did in "Transformers".......with the same name, but he also looks like Tom Cruise's illegitimate son. In the end I was pleased with the movie. It was entertaining, engaging, begging for audience participation, had some fun kills, and didn't piss anyone off too much. Sure there are bound to be their gripes and moans, and cries of outrage that the series was defiled, and changed, that this isn't "THEIR" kind of FT13, but then again this isn't high art. It's a Slasher film. There have been slasher films that attempted to be Artsy, some that were pretentious, but that's not a friday film. At the worst I can honestly say they don't make them like they used to. The slasher films of the 80's were something special, even when some were downright atrocious. All I know is while I might break down when the Blu-Ray of this new FT13 makes it's way around, it's the original series that will probably get more replay from me, warts and all. If you feel compelled to use this, call me EXAYBACHAY, "He Who Talks Loud, Saying Nothing" (hope you like the reference)
