Jason’s back: ‘Friday the 13th’ x 12
My predilection for genre movies should be clear from the affection I voiced for the 3-D antics of My Bloody Valentine in a mid-January blog post. With the Friday the 13th remake close at hand, Tony and I spent January binging on all but one of the first eleven Friday films. (We skipped the especially incoherent Jason X, which I saw at a midnight show at the Danbarry way back in 2001.) Here’s how I’d rank them, in order of preference:
- Friday the 13th (1980)
- Freddy vs. Jason (2003)
- Friday the 13th: Part 2 (1981)
- Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)
- Jason Lives: Friday the 13th Part VI (1986)
- Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood (1988)
- Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)
- Friday the 13th: Part III (1982)
- Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday (1993)
- Jason X (2001)
- Friday the 13th: A New Beginning (1985)
Although digesting ten episodes of the Friday franchise in a month was frequently taxing, it nevertheless heightened my anticipation of the remake, which made its debut Friday, February 13. After seeing it, it’s something of a missed opportunity. After all, if you get the chance to start over after nearly a dozen films or 28 years (whichever comes first), then you might do something more creative than essentially culling together a stew of Jason’s Greatest Hits. With echoes of Parts 1, 2 (did you spot the wheelchair?), 3, 4, 7 & 8, the highlights are the extended opening and Jared Padalecki (“Supernatural”), whose likable quasi-victim protag acts as counterpart to Jason Ritter’s character in Freddy vs. Jason, which was penned by the same pot-obsessed dynamic duo as this one.
The degrees of violence vary wildly from nonexistent (premature cutaways) to an overstayed welcome (screwdriver in the neck). It’s a competent slasher flick, and certainly it’s the best-photographed Friday yet. But when it comes down do it, it’s just not the least bit clever or inventive — par for the course, I guess, but I’d secretly hoped for more. (Particularly discouraging is that amongst all the mayhem, one girl is inexplicably kept alive as a plot device.) Only the third movie featuring Jason to be shot in ‘Scope, after Part 3 (which had to be, due to the over-under 3-D process) and Freddy Vs. Jason. Memorable for me as the largest screen I’ve ever seen a Friday on, since I’ve seen most on video, except for Jason X (at the Danbarry) and Freddy Vs. Jason (at the Regal).
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