I've been reading some reviews by "established critics", and I can only say one thing in reply: OUCH.
Lighten up, folks! This is Jason we're talking about -- a guy who wears a hockey mask to cover his hideously deformed face, and who walks around hacking up innocent people for no purpose other than to entertain us, his morbid fans -- not high art. This isn't a metaphoric allegorical coming-of-age tale about a gay person struggling with his own sense of identity (you know, the types of movies these critics typically like but often bore the rest of us silly). It's blood and guts and screaming. (Perhaps I'll rant more on this at a later date. For now, I'll apologize for the detour and get back to the movie at hand.)
The movie opens with Jason being studied at the Crystal Lake Research Facility. It has been decided that since he can't be killed, he should be cryogenically frozen so that his rampage will end. More than 400 years later, Earth has become an inhospitable dead zone. Some students on a field trip discover Jason's frozen corpse (as well as that of Rowan, the resident Jason expert who was frozen at the same time). Once the students return to their spaceship, they resuscitate Rowan and determine Jason "dead". Of course we all know what that means -- Jason will thaw out himself and decide not to be dead anymore.
Any fans of the Friday the 13th series of films will not be disappointed. Our hockey masked hero has some new ways to kill off his prey. There are also a few new twists, like Kay-Em 14, a rather pretty android who can kick booty. (She was my favorite character because she got all the best lines.) There's also the tag line: "Evil gets an upgrade." And what an upgrade.
Kane Hodder returns for his fourth outing behind the mask, and I just want to say that Hodder makes for an imposing Jason. Just seeing him on the screen beside a scrawny Azreal (or even muscular Sgt. Bronski) is enough to evoke a sense of foreboding.
In fact, my only true complaint with the movie is actually in the titles of the past movies. Please, studios: Stop making "final" movies if you're just going to bring the characters back for more. New Line has now done this twice: First with the Nightmare on Elm Street series (Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare was followed by Wes Craven's New Nightmare), and now here. Also, Paramount, while they still had the hockey mask, was guilty of the same -- the fourth film was titled Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter, to be followed by Part V: A New Beginning. Knock it off. We're going to go see the movies anyway, so you don't have to lie to us.
I tend to highly enjoy horror movies, and the slasher sub-genre is probably my favorite. While the plots are overly simplistic, there's nothing like watching a senseless bloodbath to help reassure yourself you're alive. Jason X, I'm happy to report, is just such a bloodbath.
This movie is rated R for strong horror violence, language and some sexuality. (I'd hasten to add brief nudity to the list.)
SCORE: 7 -- Jason's 8th outing (though the Friday series' 10th) proves to be just as fun as all the others, though it does take itself less seriously than the previous films. Good gore effects and a high body count, coupled with a sci-fi atmosphere gives Jason a newly updated look and feel. If you're a fan of the machete wielding monster, you won't be disappointed! Recommended for slasher fans! Return to top
Steven Spielberg directs a movie about a Dinosaur theme park with living attractions. Sam Neill is Alan Grant, an archeologist who believes that some dinosaurs evolved into birds. Laura Dern is Ellie Satler, his girlfriend and paleobotanist. Jeff Goldblum is Ian Malcom, a "chaotician". Sir Richard Attenborough is John Hammond, owner of Jurassic Park. His two grandchildren (Lex and Tim) are played by Ariana Richards and Joseph Mazzello.
There isn't really a lot happening as far as multiple storylines. It's pretty straightforward. Hammond clones dinosaurs (a good friend of mine and I had a heated debate on the very possibility--he's absolutely convinced it could never happen, and though I partially agree, I thought the movie's explanation was plausible at least), sets up a theme park / zoo to display them, and then calls on Grant and Satler when an accident occurs that puts question to the park's safety. Malcolm is along for the ride, but Hammond doesn't particularly like him. (I kind of liked the line, "I bring scientists, you bring a rock star.") As part of the investigation, Hammond sends Grant, Satler, Malcolm, the lawyer (Genarro, played by an actor I'm not familiar with), and the grandkids on "the basic tour". Things do not go according to plan.
This is the only spot in which Jurassic Park even tries to branch off-- and that is only in order to move the story where it needs to go. Dennis Nedry (played annoyingly--which is a compliment; the character is annoying, not the actor-- by Wayne Knight) sabotages the park's security systems so that he can steal fifteen dinosaur embryos for a rival research company. (Can you say "greedy"?) In doing so, he sets all the park's creatures loose. (So I didn't feel all that bad when he munched it.) The two cars on the tour are attacked by the Tyrannosaurus, and Genarro is killed. Tim is nearly killed when the T-rex knocks the car he's in off of the track and into the holding area (there is a drop, you see). Alan and Lex must go after him, thereby separated from Malcolm, who they think is dead anyway.Tim turns out to be okay, but now they have to somehow make it back to the Visitor's Center. Meanwhile, Ellie (who had been separated from them before the disaster) and Hammond mount a search and rescue for the missing people.
I placed Jurassic Park as my all-time favorite movie, above Wizard of Oz, Star Wars, and even above the Elm Street movies, which I find a totally hilarious series of films. Why? Simple. Spielberg and company didn't sacrifice character development in favor of action and special effects-- you can see Grant's transformation from the rigid "I hate kids" man at the beginning to the affectionate protector at the end. They gave the children something to do other than just whine (though there was some of that going on: "I hate trees," whines Mazzello in one scene. Richards responds with, "They don't bother me." "Yeah, well you weren't in the last one."). Suspense (my favorite kind of emotion in a movie of this type) was artfully and skillfully combined with what I have termed "sudden movement" scares, which I hate if that's all a movie depends on-- see Child's Play 2.
The cast works well together, and Goldblum provides some excellent comic relief, despite his tendency in his roles lately to stutter. The scientific banter at the beginning was constructed well enough so that you knew the writers knew what they were talking about, without going entirely over the audience's head. And the music!!! John Williams's score was so breathtaking, I went right out and bought the soundtrack. (My personal favorite is the trumpeted JP theme.)
I found very little wrong with this movie. Just a line at the beginning made me do a double take (Genarro says, "If they're not convinced, I'm not convinced", when it should be the other way around, I think-- the investors weren't taking the tour, he was!), and a camera angle was a bit improbable (Lex hides inside a compartment in the kitchen; the raptor sees her head on, then runs into a metal panel, as it was her reflection-- if the raptor was really seeing a reflection, it would have been its own that it saw...). I got over that, though, and watched the movie for what it was: FUN!
Jurassic Park is rated PG-13 for some language and harsh violence, but what movie these days doesn't have that. Not appopriate for very young children.
SCORE: 10 Nearly perfect, with only tiny plotholes that make virtually no difference in the finished product. Well written, well acted, a must see for everyone!
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This movie was a little different from typical Friday the 13th fare. Yes, there's still mindless violence. Yes, there's blood, sex, and nudity. Yes, Jason is still one mean blankety blank. So what makes this movie so different? Glad you asked.
First of all, there's the plot-- this movie actually had one, to some extent. And it went a long way in explaining Jason's apparent indestructability. It seems that only someone related to Jason can truly kill him-- conversely, only through his "spirit" taking over a relative's body can he come back to life.
It starts out with a seemingly innocent young woman entering a cabin at-- you guessed it-- Crystal Lake. All of the cliches are played out in the first ten minutes, with her stripping down to take a bath, dropping something on the floor (while she stands in front of the mirror), the lights going out, the opening and slamming doors, the excruciatingly slooooooooooow movements, until finally Jason appears. She runs away, clothed only in a towel, through the forest; Jason follows. Suddenly lights come on all over the place. Jason is disoriented, of course. It turns out that the girl is with the FBI, and their mission is to kill Jason. So they do. The blow him up with some kind of incendiary device.
Interspersed among the opening credits is the medical examination of Jason's burnt corpse. Many funny remarks are made by the examiner-- NOT! When he gets to the heart, he notes its enlargement, and that the "blood" inside is black. Through a disgusting sequence of events that I won't disclose here, Jason's "spirit" inhabits this doctor.
So Jason goes in his new "body" in search of his only living relatives (his sister and niece) so that he may be reborn. Here's where the plot gets kind of "confusing", and I don't have enough space to explain the whole thing. Suffice it to say that several plot twists and turns and some conniving and shifting and other stuff result in Jason's rebirth. Can Jessica and Steven stop him before he continues his killing spree? Duh!
I have to admit, though, that as much as I liked this movie, one thing left me dry. How the heck did Jason get from New York back to Crystal Lake? And wasn't he a "little boy" at the end of Part VIII? Did they take what little continuity there was and just toss it out the window for this movie? That was my only reservation about the film. It's actually quite good.
Rated R for graphic violence, language, and some scenes of nudity and sex. Not appropriate for children.
SCORE: 6 This one holds up MUCH better plot-wise than its 8 predecessors.