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Friday the 13th
| Movie Rating: |
 | 7/10 |
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| DVD Rating: |
| 5/10 |
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| Overall Rating: |
| 7/10 |
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Movie Details: View Here
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Starring:
Jared Padalecki
Amanda Righetti
Danielle Panabaker
Jonathan Sadowski
Special Features:
Other Info:
Video: Widescreen 2.35:1 Color (Anamorphic)
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1
French: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
Run Time: 97 min
Rating: R
Synopsis from DVD Cover:
Terror goes to extremes in this reimagining of the Jason legend for today's horror fan. Enter for the first time the subterranean lair that is Jason's den of torture and fear. See him discover the mask that hides his deformed face. Experience a whole new level of fright. And try to remain calm. The intense violence, the unique kills, the jolting scares: live them all in the all-new Friday The 13th.
Quick Review:
Even though I'm a huge horror fan, somehow I had made it all the way through my life without seeing any of the "Friday the 13th" movies until just before this latest remake came out, when I finally saw the original AND part two. They were great - full of blood and sex and a silent killer in a hockey mask. This new installment in the Jason franchise is no remake; in fact, they should've just tacked a 13 on the end of it, because it has nothing to do, plot-wise, with the original except locale and killer.
In fact, the film opens where the original ended, with a flashback to the beheading of poor old Mrs. Voorhies. Several decades later, some dumb, sex-starved teens wander into the woods in search of a pot field and are quickly sliced and diced. A month and half later, dumb, sex-starved rich teens take the partying up a notch by showing up at Crystal Lake but proceeding to do their partying in a fancy cabin. All the while, there's one decent guy (Jared Padalecki) looking for his missing sister (Amanda Righetti), and, of course, Jason's (Derek Mears) ready to kill them all.
It's strange to look at a movie like this now and think that back in 1980, this was all new territory. No kids getting whacked in the woods, no dude in a hockey mask-the world hadn't really met Kevin Bacon. It's a new playing field now, and after a dozen Jason-inspired thrillers, plus a video store's worth of knock-offs-hell, the whole slasher genre is a knock-off if you want to get technical about it-everything has seemingly been done. You always hope, though, that there might be something new, some glimmer of originality. As far as premise, that hope goes unrealized. Kids + Woods + Naked Parts + Blood = F13. Mears does add a new kind of urgency to Jason that works without stacking on tons of new back-story, and Padalecki and Righetti are much more competent than most slasher leads, but there's really nothing to make this any different than its many predecessors. It's a fun watch, though, and you'll cheer when some of the rich kids meet their bloody end.
From what I've read, most of the Special Features are on the Blu-ray edition, and as I am not that technologically advanced, I only saw the DVD. The Uncut version of the film clocks in at 106 minutes, and in those nine extra minutes, we get more gore in the death and more naked in the naked scenes - nothing movie-altering. There's also a featurette called "The Return of Jason Voorhies" that just talks about the preparation involved in making a new generation's Jason, and some Deleted Scenes (including a WAY better version of his hockey mask acquisition). Overall, an OK package, but not much.
In Conclusion:
Full of gore, boobs, and running, "Friday the 13th" isn't anything new as far as slasher films, and it only exacerbates the trend of creating characters we want to see die, but Mears is a chilling new incarnation of Jason, and this is a fun and satisfying watch.
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