With an excellent crowd of audience, a fresh, new take on Friday the 13th "remake" and Jason Voorhees back to his original roots at Crystal Lake
I couldn't be more entertained than I was during this wild slasher flick.
Plot crunch: Friends Wade, Amanda, Richie, Whitney and her boyfriend Mike go camping at Crystal Lake in search for a field of growing Marijuana plants that appears to be somewhere close to the old, rusty and legendary Camp Crystal Lake. However, after Wade has spooked his crew by the of Jason Voorhees, they never thought they'd actually stumble upon the killer himself. Turns out that Jason isn't just a legend, and he starts the new Friday the 13th with insane killing sequences. Then we meet Clay Miller who returns once again, apparently, to Crystal Lake to look for his missing sister Whitney, who was last seen near Crystal Lake. Hee meets a group of college kids who are spending a wild weekend at one rich kid's parent's cabin. The following kids are alpha male Trent, who seems to be provoked by Clay after his date for the weekend; good-girl Jenna, helps him look around in the woods, slutty Bree, hilarious token (Asian) Chewie and (African-American) Lawrence, free-spirited Chelsea and sex-seeking Nolan. But as soon as Jason finds out that they are in his woods, all hell breaks loose. On Friday the 13th, the kids wind up in Jason's vicious hands and suffer horrible fates as the day rushes to a heart pounding night of terror at Crystal Lake.
First: The movie was bad-ass. As a big fan of most of Friday the 13th films (Part 1 to 5 mainly, Part 2 being my all-time favorite), I could see some fun references that were in the original movies of the series. There's enough fun nudity and sex sequences, but they aren't really that rough and instead make them look funny as Jason attempts to distract one of the couples for his next prey. The killing/death sequences are very, very disturbing during some parts (a girl is burned alive inside a sleeping bag that hangs above a campfire, a guy is tortured with an ax thrown into his back but Jason ruthlessly pushes him on the back and it impales through his chest, and one guy is impaled but that's not enough he's shoved onto a back of a truck with these poles sticking out and it impales him so badly, then the car drives off with his feet dragging along the road).
Second: Jason was insane. I haven't seen him so ruthless and brutal since Part 7 (in his uncut killing sequences that were trimmed down by the MPAA, but search for them on YouTube). And the best thing I liked about him is that he ran furiously after some of his victims. He did walk, but oh boy, did he run too! He wasn't super-human well, up until the end he kind of was, but hey, he had a thick neck! But throughout the entire movie, his victims managed to injure him. However, it didn't stop him from killing some more. My only problem was that Jason't wasn't too much on screen, because I would've wanted to see more scenes on him. But the movie was only 97 minutes so I'm bumped for the unrated DVD release.
Third: For me, the acting was slightly above-average for actors who I'd never seen before (Willa Ford, Julianna Guill, Arlen Escarpeta and Jonathan Sadowski). Jared Padalecki and Danielle Panabaker were quite a good leading couple, and Amanda Righetti's performance was really good. But cut to characters. Despite for all of them being stunning and beautiful, I enjoyed every single one of them, but I just couldn't help but to want to know something more about them. I knew what everyone's names were from looking at the film's IMDb page but I didn't hear many characters' names up until near the end. More character development, or simply less characters in the movie, would have done justice for me. But I prefer Whitney and co. over Trent and co.
Fourth: Now I'm really not a guy who notices if one's directing on a movie is good or not. Don't blame me, I just forget and I barely know how to spot it. But all I can say is that I think Marcus Nispel did a fine job on this new Friday the 13th, and I surprisingly didn't see much similarity or style to his take on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, since some people seem to notice. This movie, however, should have been longer than only 97 minutes. Some parts felt kind of rushed and some characters didn't really get to shine. Let's just say that the phase could have worked out better. And one last thing, the writing could have been strictly better. There wasn't enough suspense like in the first four Friday flicks.
But here are some "best of the best" in the movie that I want to share. Favorite character: I would have to say either Chewie or Lawrence because those two were hilarious, but my vote goes to Trent. You can't help but to love to hate the guy! Favorite death sequence: It's a tie between the sleeping-bag-on-fire and impaled-by-poles-on-truck.
Overall: I give this a solid 8/10 for being a crazy-fun bloody slasher ride and Jason's return was phenomenon. Plus, one of my favorite "teen-idol" actorsPadaleckiwas playing the lead role and I think he did good. I actually didn't see one bit of Sam Winchester there, to be honest. In addition, I had a very, very good and lively crowd inside the theater. I couldn't have asked for a better Friday night at the movies.
As a fan of the Friday the 13th franchise, this one is a strong entry to a reboot.
Plot crunch: Friends Wade, Amanda, Richie, Whitney and her boyfriend Mike go camping at Crystal Lake in search for a field of growing Marijuana plants that appears to be somewhere close to the old, rusty and legendary Camp Crystal Lake. However, after Wade has spooked his crew by the of Jason Voorhees, they never thought they'd actually stumble upon the killer himself. Turns out that Jason isn't just a legend, and he starts the new Friday the 13th with insane killing sequences. Then we meet Clay Miller who returns once again, apparently, to Crystal Lake to look for his missing sister Whitney, who was last seen near Crystal Lake. Hee meets a group of college kids who are spending a wild weekend at one rich kid's parent's cabin. The following kids are alpha male Trent, who seems to be provoked by Clay after his date for the weekend; good-girl Jenna, helps him look around in the woods, slutty Bree, hilarious token (Asian) Chewie and (African-American) Lawrence, free-spirited Chelsea and sex-seeking Nolan. But as soon as Jason finds out that they are in his woods, all hell breaks loose. On Friday the 13th, the kids wind up in Jason's vicious hands and suffer horrible fates as the day rushes to a heart pounding night of terror at Crystal Lake.
First: The movie was bad-ass. As a big fan of most of Friday the 13th films (Part 1 to 5 mainly, Part 2 being my all-time favorite), I could see some fun references that were in the original movies of the series. There's enough fun nudity and sex sequences, but they aren't really that rough and instead make them look funny as Jason attempts to distract one of the couples for his next prey. The killing/death sequences are very, very disturbing during some parts (a girl is burned alive inside a sleeping bag that hangs above a campfire, a guy is tortured with an ax thrown into his back but Jason ruthlessly pushes him on the back and it impales through his chest, and one guy is impaled but that's not enough he's shoved onto a back of a truck with these poles sticking out and it impales him so badly, then the car drives off with his feet dragging along the road).
Second: Jason was insane. I haven't seen him so ruthless and brutal since Part 7 (in his uncut killing sequences that were trimmed down by the MPAA, but search for them on YouTube). And the best thing I liked about him is that he ran furiously after some of his victims. He did walk, but oh boy, did he run too! He wasn't super-human well, up until the end he kind of was, but hey, he had a thick neck! But throughout the entire movie, his victims managed to injure him. However, it didn't stop him from killing some more. My only problem was that Jason't wasn't too much on screen, because I would've wanted to see more scenes on him. But the movie was only 97 minutes so I'm bumped for the unrated DVD release.
Third: For me, the acting was slightly above-average for actors who I'd never seen before (Willa Ford, Julianna Guill, Arlen Escarpeta and Jonathan Sadowski). Jared Padalecki and Danielle Panabaker were quite a good leading couple, and Amanda Righetti's performance was really good. But cut to characters. Despite for all of them being stunning and beautiful, I enjoyed every single one of them, but I just couldn't help but to want to know something more about them. I knew what everyone's names were from looking at the film's IMDb page but I didn't hear many characters' names up until near the end. More character development, or simply less characters in the movie, would have done justice for me. But I prefer Whitney and co. over Trent and co.
Fourth: Now I'm really not a guy who notices if one's directing on a movie is good or not. Don't blame me, I just forget and I barely know how to spot it. But all I can say is that I think Marcus Nispel did a fine job on this new Friday the 13th, and I surprisingly didn't see much similarity or style to his take on The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, since some people seem to notice. This movie, however, should have been longer than only 97 minutes. Some parts felt kind of rushed and some characters didn't really get to shine. Let's just say that the phase could have worked out better. And one last thing, the writing could have been strictly better. There wasn't enough suspense like in the first four Friday flicks.
But here are some "best of the best" in the movie that I want to share. Favorite character: I would have to say either Chewie or Lawrence because those two were hilarious, but my vote goes to Trent. You can't help but to love to hate the guy! Favorite death sequence: It's a tie between the sleeping-bag-on-fire and impaled-by-poles-on-truck.
Overall: I give this a solid 8/10 for being a crazy-fun bloody slasher ride and Jason's return was phenomenon. Plus, one of my favorite "teen-idol" actorsPadaleckiwas playing the lead role and I think he did good. I actually didn't see one bit of Sam Winchester there, to be honest. In addition, I had a very, very good and lively crowd inside the theater. I couldn't have asked for a better Friday night at the movies.
As a fan of the Friday the 13th franchise, this one is a strong entry to a reboot.
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