It took me four, count them, four trips to the theater to see this movie. The first time, a 9:00 showing on a Friday night in Raleigh, NC...Sold Out. No problem, got a ticket for midnight. Should be cool. Went home, relaxed a bit after a long day at work and went back to the theater around 11:30. There was a long line to get in. I thought, "cool, should be exciting, lots of people mean lots of gasps and screams and that makes a movie fun."
Turns out that certain people in Raleigh can't quite understand that they are in a movie theater. The just love to walk in front of the screen mid movie and wave and start a conversation with their friends in the back row. Excuse me...what did you do, walk up to the ticket booth and mumble the word "movie" ? So the film starts, some dickheads next to me are laughing for no apparent reason. People start screaming while the previews roll. I figure, "Ok, it'll calm down."
Now the actual movie starts. We get about ten minutes in, everyone is laughing at the wrong spots, people are screaming for no reason. Blake (David Copp) stands up from the couch and everyone bursts out in laughter. The two dickheads next to me are wailing and clapping. Things have not started good. Something is happening on the screen in a police station. People are still filing into the theater and stopping in front of the screen to talk. People are yelling "SHHHHH." Now someone goes to the exit and opens it for a smoke. It is cold out and the theater becomes chilly. Something on the screen, looks like a hospital ward.
Enter the police and the theater manager. Ten seconds later, they are carrying a guy out. He punches the cop, they throw him to the wall and cuff his sorry ass. This is better than the movie. Now all his friends follow outside. I think, "maybe it'll get quiet now." Not that it'd matter, I've missed a lot already.
It didn't quiet down. For some reason, everyone starts coughing, choking. People are filing out by the dozens. I start coughing. My brother is hacking away. I think, "this is the part where Freddy kills us all and ends this nightmare." Turns out the cops used pepper spray on the guy, now it is in the air. The manager comes in and offers us refunds. Everyone rushes out. The gang is fighting the cops outside cuz the pepper spray guy is going to prison. Got my cash back, went home.
I come back on Sunday. Paper says, "Jason vs. Freddy: Two matinee showings: 3:40 and 5:10." Get to the theater at 3:15, the paper got it backwards, it was 3:10 and 5:40, and 3:10 is SOLD OUT. Arghhhh. I buy two tickets for the 5:10 show. Only costs $7.00. Coming from NYC, this is a shock to me.
So now I get to see the movie. Everyone reacts in the right places, all is right in the world. A couple of people still wandered in and stood in front of the screen, but it was ok, I guess.
Now, onto the review.... (Warning, some spoilers ahead)
The movie is one of the best films I've seen this summer. All the so called "pro critics" are panning it. One even said that the movie "exploits every cliche of the genre." Excuse me? These two created the genre! They can exploit whatever the hell they want! Then there was a local Raleigh reporter, not worthy of a name, who referred to the movie as a "low-budget teen horror flick." Keep watching movies by cellphone, buddy.
The plot is simple (What? You want to actually have to think in a film like this?). Freddy is stuck in hell because the people of Springwood have forgotten him thanks to a massive cover-up and some experimental drugs. Even the obituaries of his victims have been blacked out of the records. Without the townspeople fearing him, Freddy is powerless to enter their dreams. However, he is able to enter the dreams of Jason Voorhees, who it turns out is not dead, but asleep. Posing as Jason's mother, Freddy orders Jason to Elm Street to "make them remember what fear tastes like." Freddy's plan is that once Jason begins to kill, rumors of Krueger will re-surface giving him the power to come back. Interesting notion.
So Jason goes on a killing spree. His first murder, an awesome bed killing in which he repeatedly stabs major asshole, Trey, in the back and then, when the guy is still moving, folds the bed in half with the poor bastard still in it. At this point we also meet the other characters, Gibb, played by Katherine Isabelle (who is already a cult favorite of mine and many others for her role in "Ginger Snaps"), Kia (Kelly Rowland) and the star, Lori (Monica Keena), who is cute as hell, but annoys me at certain points during the film. Her line about not leaving until she sees Freddy dead is particularly annoying. We also meet the geek, Linderman (Christopher Marquette), and the stoner Freeburg (Kyle Labine in a Jay Mewes-Lite role), as well as several other characters, Lochlyn Munro as Deputy Stubbs, Brendan Flethcer as Mark, and "Scott Farkas" himself, Zack Ward, in a cameo as Mark's late brother.
More of the plot develops, the town has everyone who has ever heard the name "Freddy" in quarantine, on a pill that stops dreams. His name has not been heard in four years, and no incidents have been reported. Enter the second main character, Will (Jason Ritter, who is a dead ringer for Michael Pare in "Eddie and the Cruisers"). He is a friend of Lori's, as a matter of fact, they had a relationship four years ago and he has since disappeared. He sees her house on TV (the channel is convieniently named "KRGR", Bwahaha!) and the news report says there has been a murder. He has to find her, so him and a friend escape the hospital.
Basically what follows is that the name of "Freddy" begins to spread like a virus. Freddy becomes more powerful as rumors of his return run rampant. Nobody has even seen Jason yet, and nothing is linked to him. That is until Jason goes nuts at a rave party in the middle of a cornfield after someone sets him on fire. This is an amazing scene and it is different from anything Jason has ever done. Usually killing one by one, Jason gets a chance to attack anything that moves in this scene. My only quarrel with it is, like in "Attack of the Clones," (the scene where Anakin begins to kill the Sand People) the scene is too short, I wanted more mayhem. Then Jason begins killing people that Freddy had marked for himself (Thus, the teens begin to say that Jason is WORSE than Freddy). This makes Freddy mad, so he invades the dreams of crack head, Freeburg (in a funny Hookah smoking scene complete with Hendrix guitar music) and uses some huge ass tranquilizers to put Jason to sleep. Now Jason is in Freddy's world. Our heroes have, by now figured out what is going on. Their plan is to try and stop Freddy first and then deal with Jason. So they load the sleeping killer into the van and head for Camp Crystal Lake (which apparently is quite close to Elm Street.) There hope is to use Lori to bring Freddy out of her dream (a la "Freddy's Dead") and give Jason home field advantage at the camp. If Jason wins, he'a already home and should have no reason to follow them back to Elm Street. If Jason wins........
While they are taking him there, Jason and Freddy have begun to duke it out in the first of two unbelievable fight sequences. The audience was buzzing the whole time. Several moments brought thunderous applause. We even get some exposition about Jason's past and his childhood, a nice touch. There is also a silly scene where Jason is being drowned in the dream and Kelly Rowland is forced to give him mouth to mouth to spit up the water. It all leads the climactic battle at Crystal Lake as Freddy is brought into the real world to fight Jason (who is now awake). The battle rages all over the camp, there is blood, gore, flying gas cans and so much more. I won't spoil the ending or reveal the winner, but the ending is AWESOME! It makes the whole movie. We get to see Freddy go Wolverine-Berserker on Jason and even do some Kung-Fu. Great stuff. Jason just plays the powerhouse and beats the hell out of Freddy whenever he gets the chance. In the middle, there is a funny scene where Kia insults Freddy's manhood and winds up on the other end of a Jason machete blast, and Linderman dies a heroes death.
For not having played Freddy since 1994, Robert Englund is still the man. He plays the role with so much gusto and has so much fun with it. It is, after all, probably second nature to him by now. His perfectly timed one-liners add to the comic relief as the last half hour of the movie moves at a fever pitch. Ken Kirzinger brings a different feel to Jason than Kane Hodder did. Hodder is bigger physically, but Kirzinger's sheer size (6 foot 6 inches) is creepy for some reason. For what it's worth, I'm sure Jason is not the easiest role to play. I heard Kirzinger mention that at first, he was uncomfortable in the role, but he managed to feed of Englund's enthusiasm, which helped him a lot. As far as the "more expressive eyes" rumor that has been circulating, I don't know how much stock to put in it, but Kirzinger does make more noticible expressions, a look of pure shock, maybe even a smile? It's interesting. Could Hodder have pulled it off....I'm sure he could, but who knows why people do the things they do. All I know is Hodder could have done better than "Darkwolf." He derserves better. And I know he said he liked the film, but he still deserves more than that. Anyway, I digress...
The fight scenes, whoa! Ronny Yu really shows he knows how to do them. Freddy moves around at lightning speed, even busting out some kung fu which was good for a laugh. All the while, he uses creative methods to hurt Jason. Jason lands blows that sound like thunder. The sound effects add power to the shot and make each swipe sound like he is hitting with a ton of force. The fight plays to each of the monster's strengths. They duke it out for a good while and the pace never slows. Yu's use of cinemtography and colors is also a nice touch, using harsh reds when Freddy has the advantage and changing over to chilly greens when Jason is on top. An eerie blue is also used during a stalemate. A subtle touch, but effective. The shot of Freddy coming out of the lake is also well shot and looks ten times cooler than the trailer version (obviously an unfinished cut).
The only odd thing was that Jason was portrayed as almost a good guy in this film. Freddy gets a chance to get inside his head and abuse him a bit, even reducing him to "tears" at one point, and it makes you feel genuinely sorry for him. In what other Friday would the cast members actually try to save Jason from drowning so he could save the day. Cool angle!
All in all, an excellent movie. I'll see it again for sure. I recommend you do as well! (Editors note: Saw it a second time the other day.....same reactions from the packed theater - and this from a movie in it's fourth week -)
