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Jason X (2001)
Exceeds all expectations... roll on Jason XI
After the rather disappointing Jason Goes To Hell, I was almost fearing the worst as soon as I heard New Line were going to take Jason Voorhees quite literally into outer space. A laughable idea surely, and a desperate one at that. After much delay though, I finally got to see the movie on July 20th 2002 at a UK cinema no less, the first time a Friday The 13th movie has been released on the big screen here since the pretty awful Part V: A New Beginning back in 1985. So, first of all, hats off to New Line and Entertainment Film for having the guts to give a tenth film in a slasher series a cinema run in the UK!
To say director Jim Issac overcomes the shortcomings of the initial idea, is a bit of an understatement. Thanks largely to Todd Farmer's competent and sometimes witty script, Issac is able to keep things moving at a good tempo, utilising the larger scope of "Jason in space" to come up with some superb set pieces, and a visual style that is far more impressive than anybody has really given it credit for. A knowing, but mostly controlled sense of humour helps too, preventing the film from being swallowed up by its own outlandish storyline, meaning the final barrage of over the top action during the last 20 minutes work a treat. Sure, it all becomes rather laughable, but then the film makers are in on the joke too.
I can't really understand why so many have attacked the acting either. I mean, what were we all expecting? Laurence Olivier or Anthony Hopkins to pop up? Or maybe, Al Pacino as Jason? Come on people. This is a low budget movie, with a young mostly unknown cast, and to be honest it's one of the best collected casts of the entire series (probably the best since Joseph Zito's "The Final Chapter").
Indeed, the cost of the film doesn't seem to hinder Issac's ambitions. Apart from the expected top class prothestics, the use of CGI for the space scenes is very impressive indeed ,particularly for a $15 million movie.
Finally, a word for Kane Hodder. Playing Jason for the fourth consectitive time, he's as imposing and serious as ever. Whilst Farmer's script has fun with the trappings of the series (the jokes about premarital sex etc), never does he make fun of Jason, and Hodder's performance emphasisis this with some magnitude. This must be the most screen time Jason has been allowed, and to Hodder's credit that despite his frequent on-screen time, he never looses his sense of menace - not once. The film may not be that scary, but Hodder's Jason always had me glued to the screen.
To be honest, Jason X is everything I hoped it would be, and more. The only real damaging aspect of the film is Harry Manfredini's cheap sounding music score, which threatens to kill any menace Jason has. If there is a Jason XI, I just hope another composer is hired, because as good as Manfredini's early Friday scores were, his last two, for Jason Goes To Hell, and now Jason X, have in all honesty been pretty dreadful.
Placing it in with the rest of the series, it would probably be 3rd on the list, after the awesome "The Final Chapter", and the under-rated if flawed "Jason Takes Manhattan". Great fun, just don't, as some people seem to be doing, expect Shakespeare. Besides, Shakespeare was never this much fun.
Spiders (2000)
Okay, predictable, but great fun!
Well, having sat through countless low-budget monster flicks in my time, Gary Jones' SPIDERS is like a breath of fresh air. Okay, it's all very predictable, with the old conspiracy style "government creates some kind of horrible hybrid monster via experiment that goes wrong" storyline being utilised in the same old way countless movies have before. However, it's to Nu Image's credit that they've produced such a fun, energetic monster movie, which more often than not actually manages to betray it's low-budget origins very successfully.
Even the performances are all pretty good, at least as far as these "B" movies go, although the script gets progressively more desperate as the movie goes on, particularly during the excellent TARANTULA style finale when the giant spider wreaks havoc in the city. Indeed, despite the sometimes laughable dialogue, SPIDERS succeeds where it might have failed, in that the special effects are quite superb. Okay, we're not talking top of the range Hollywood here, but the KNB guys have produced their magic again with some very impressive animatronic effects sequences. The CGI spider also comes across very well, and I was hugely impressed with the finale, where I couldn't believe so much had been achieved on such a low budget.
No, it's nothing ground breakingly original, but then it never pretends to be for one minute. SPIDERS is pure and simply a "fun" and at times "creepy" monster movie, and comes highly recommended.
The Last Broadcast (1998)
Far better crafted and executed that Blair Witch!
Apparently made for less money than THE BLAIR WITCH, this film was brought to my attention by a friend when we were out shopping one Saturday afternoon. It had just come out on DVD and we decided to give it a try. The result? Well, we will come to that on a minute!
Firstly the rumour that the makers of the BLAIR WITCH may have seen this at the Sundance festival, and then proceeded to make their version of a "mockumentary" style horror movie, is all too believable. THE LAST BROADCAST is certainly filmed in the same style as BLAIR, but there's one big difference. Whereas BLAIR WITCH was a all-out gutsy portrayal of just the recovered footage that our film students actually shot, LAST BROADCAST is an altogether more interesting and far better written insight into the investigation of footage by murdered filmmakers of a "shoddy" cable TV show called "Fact or Fiction".
The claim in previous reviews that the acting is of the "college" variety is just not fair at all, especially as the performances here are just as naturalistic as those in BLAIR WITCH. Sure, BLAIR is more frightening, but LAST BROADCAST is certainly more interesting.
LAST BROADCAST also brings into play the notion of how the truth can become distorted in the editing process of the footage found, and this too is skillfully executed by the filmmakers.
With a superb, shock ending that really does make your mouth drop, this is one of the best low budget movies you're likely to see, and is far more intelligent that BLAIR. Must see.
Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984)
The darkest and best sequel of them all! Jason chills!
After the rather unscary if enjoyable exploits of the gimmicky FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 3-D, it was a pleasant if scary surprise to see director Jospeh Zito taking Jason back to his darkest roots.
The all too "bright" lighting of part 3 is replaced by the most sombre and realistic of the entire series, and Zito's use of Jason quite simply outclasses any other director since, with the viewer hardly allowed to see him properly until the actual finale. FX maestro Tom Savini returns to provide some excellent make-up, providing the best un-masked Jason of them all, and even Barney Cohen's script is pretty good, allowing an interesting array of characters to develop.
Especially good is Crispin Glover, and his mad dance scene is worth the price of admission alone, and a young Corey Feldman also impresses. So too does the fiesty Kimberly Beck as our heroine, and she really does look scared to death during the chilling finale.
By far the scariest of the series, in a way it's a shame this wasn't the final chapter after all. One of the very best slasher movies.
Jaws 2 (1978)
The best sequel, but not a patch on Spielberg's original
It's rather a shame that this first sequel to Spielberg's smash-hit shark story has suffered so much due to the age-old "sequels are rubbish" syndrome. Unlike the lacklustre and ridiculous JAWS 3-D and the dire JAWS THE REVENGE, JAWS 2 does maintain the feel of the first movie. Great photography, a class music score from John Williams, and far better effects on the shark, combine with an above-par script and some competent performances, to make an enjoyable and well made sequel. The last twenty minutes in particular is tense stuff (even if that girl's screaming does drive you up the wall!), and the end-duel between Roy Scheider and the shark is brilliantly put together.
Not as good as the original then, but a worthy and underrated sequel nevertheless!