New Line Video
– Review by John Weber
The
much-ballyhooed, ten-years-in-the-making
movie battle between Freddy Kruger and Jason
Voorhees has finally been filmed. And although
FREDDY VS. JASON delivers the goods in the
end, it takes a heck of a long time to get
there.
Director Ronny Yu's (BRIDE
OF CHUCKY) climatic battle is everything
that fans of the NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET
and FRIDAY THE 13TH film series could have
hoped for, with all kinds of blood, guts,
gore and what have you emanating from our
two bad boys.
But Ronny, why oh why so much
backstory?
Sure, some basic setup is
needed, and the premise isn't bad. Freddy
(Robert Englund) can't get into the nightmares
of the Elm Street kids anymore. They don't
know who he is (the authorities have hushed
up the original Freddie stories) so no one
can become frightened of him and have bad
dreams. So what's a razor-taloned maniac
to do? Find himself a flash-and-blood slasher
to get those teenyboppers good and scared!
In no time at all, Freddy gets into Jason's
(Ken Kirzinger) dreams and manipulates the
lumbering maniac into knocking off various
teens on Elm Street (amazing how close Camp
Crystal lake is to Elm Street). Before you
know it, everyone's talking about Freddy
again, no one wants to go to sleep and he's
ready to do his thing. Except that Jason
is still around, knocking off teens who
screw, drink and screw again, hogging all
the credit.
It takes a very long
time to set up this plot and there's way
too much exposition between our generic
teen heroes/victims, including Monica Keener
as the stereotypical scared virgin who gets
pissed off and finds courage during the
closing skirmish, and Kelly Rowland of Destiny's
Child, who plays her tough girlfriend. There
are some amusing killings along the way,
especially when Jason plods into the middle
of a rave – and offs most of the kids
(and the beer keg). But there could have
been a lot more of the typical Freddy wisecracks
– Mr. K. was much more muted in Freddy
vs. Jason than any of the ELM STREET series,
and that's a mistake. Although next to the
always-silent Jason, I guess Freddy was
practically Don Rickles.
I won't give away the plot
twist that allows F. and J. to battle in
the real world, but it works. Hey, it isn't
Shakespeare (although Willy told some pretty
gory tales in his day), but fans of the
series won't be disappointed. Just have
patience... if you get through the dull,
boring stretches, there's quite a squishy
treat at the end.
