Friday The 13th Part 8: Jason Takes Manhattan
One thing must be said right off the bat: This is certainly the best LOOKING group of female actresses ever gathered together for one Friday film. From the runway-model worthy victim in the opening boat scene, to the cute heavy metal rocker chick, to the sexy but bitchy high school prom queen (who tries to seduce her teacher), to the appealing but coked-out Asian honors student, to the super-adorable Jensen Daggett in the lead heroine role of Rennie, the casting department and director Rob Hedden obviously made a point of getting nice-looking girls who all stand out in their own way, and most of them can act too. Granted, the title is a bit misleading, as Kane Hodder’s Jason only “takes” Manhattan in the second half of the film, while the first half concerns him stowing away on a cruise ship taking the graduating seniors of Crystal Lake High to the Big Apple. Of course, the film suffers from obvious examples of Jason basically “teleporting” while pursuing his prey, standing one place and reappearing in another in an impossible fashion when his victim tries to escape him, and the gore and FX has once again been heavily censored by the pesky MPAA, diluting much of the impact of the kills (as in Part 7). On the other hand, this is definitely one of the more entertaining entries in the series, wisely taking its cue from Jason Lives and having a little bit of fun with the premise: Jason is obviously a screen legend by this point, so there’s no point in not showing him as he moves in on people, and Hodder does his best job in the role of his 4 attempts. With an opening theme song that perfectly sets the mood of the story, Jason proceeds to tear his way through the cruise ship in record time, leaving a handful of survivors who make their way to New York and apparent safety, but that’s where the real fun begins. Jason starts a dogged pursuit of those who got away from him, virtually ignoring all the other denizens of the city unless they get in his way (like one time when Jason actually RESCUES the heroine from some street trash junkies). You gotta love when Jason crashes his way into a diner and kicks the crap out of the oversized cook (played by Ken Kirzinger, who eventually would inherit the role from Hodder), to cutting through a subway train like a knife through butter, only to fall on his ass when the heroes hit the emergency brake (love the way he gets right back up like he’s embarrassed), to confronting a boxer who throws everything he’s got at him before Jason knocks his block off (literally) and of course his revered walk down Times Square itself, which includes destroying some punk rockers’ boombox. Through it all, Daggett (whose character has almost a psychic connection to the Big J) keeps the viewer rooted in her fate, and never loses her appeal. In the end, easily the most underrated of the legendary franchise…
8/10