Close Encounters of the Third Kind

The year 1977 has been famous for science-fiction since that same year “Star Wars” was released, but there was another popular flick released that year: Steven Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” Rafer Guzmán said in his review, “The two movies are in some ways polar opposites: one a swashbuckling space opera, the other a drama about humans who make contact with alien beings.” “Star Wars” has never left the world of pop culture, thanks to the number of re-releases, prequels, sequels and spinoffs, but “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” has become the well-known modern classic, brought back only for major anniversaries. This year marks the film’s 40^th and it’s going to have a 4K digital restoration and a re-release in theaters for one week.

Guzmán said, “It’s hard to overstate how good Spielberg’s movie is (this is the 135-minute Director’s Cut) and how contemporary it feels even today.” It’s a convincing, completely exciting story about a blue-collar family man, Roy Neary, played by Richard Dreyfuss, whose truck is almost teleported up by a spaceship on an isolated road one night. After that even, Roy starts acting unevenly and haunted by visions, even as his wife (Teri Garr) and children (Shawn Bishop, Adrienne Campbell and Justin Dreyfuss, Richard Dreyfuss’s nephew) leave him. What Roy doesn’t know yet is that a famous UFO researcher, Claude Lacombe, played by Francois Truffaut, is helping the U.S. government prepare for a historic meeting with aliens.

“Close Encounters of the Third Kind” is in certain respects three stories in one. It’s somewhat a space alien routine, a how-would-things-go setting that weighs the impact of alien encounter around the world, from Mexico to India to Wyoming. It’s also an exciting great horror movie, if only for the four minute part where the aliens take a child (Cary Guffey) from his mother (Melinda Dillon) in the middle of the night – a masterpiece of filmmaking that is among Spielberg’s best work. Guzmán said, “Finally, “Close Encounters” is a modern-day parable about an Everyman who becomes a much-mocked prophet.”

Guzmán continued, “The movie’s focus on communication — which surfaced again in last year’s Oscar-winning “Arrival” — is summed up beautifully in John Williams’ famous, five-note musical theme. Though it’s been spoofed by everyone from Roger Moore’s James Bond to the “South Park” kids, that little riff remains as shivery and evocative as ever.” It’s the perfect supplement to Spielberg’s amazing, breathtaking film.

Special note: Spielberg’s father was a Computer Scientist and his mother was a Musician. When the aliens land their ship, the humans make contact with them by making music on their computers. When James Lipton mentioned that scene when he was interviewing Spielberg, Spielberg said that he didn’t notice that he was intending it to be his parents until Lipton mentioned it on the interview. Good job there Mr. Lipton.

In the end, if you haven’t seen this movie, why are you reading this review? It’s one of the best and most classic movies ever made. I remember seeing parts of it when I was a kid, and it’s one of my brother’s favorite movies, and I can see why. I absolutely loved it, and I think everyone else will as well when they see the movie, so definitely see it if you haven’t.

Alright everyone tomorrow starts the final franchise that I will be looking at for this year’s “Halloween Month.” I’m excited for it, and I think everyone knows what franchise I’m talking about so stay tuned tomorrow to find out.

Friday the 13th (2009)

James Berardinelli started his review out by saying, “Sometimes I wonder if there's a point to reviewing something like this. Then again, if I shared my thoughts about Sex and the City, why not Friday the 13th?” Let’s start off by saying this: If all you’re looking for is nudity, blood and gore, this film gets that all over. None of the murderers are really new, but they are a handful, and why bother being tricky when axes, machetes, knives and pointed sticks will be the right way to do it?

Berardinelli admitted, “Call me a rebel, but I ask a little more from my horror movies. Much as I enjoy the crimson tide of copious bloodlettings, I like the film to work on another, slightly higher level.” The best horror films come from a level of almost intolerable tension. There’s none of that here. At the least, tension is needed to a point of character identification, and it’s silly to debate that anyone in this movie could be considered a “character.” They’re just pawns put up to be killed. The story doesn’t make complete sense, but that goes with how it was made. No more are filmmakers taking their time and effort on a horror movie screenplay are no one seems to care.

Calling “Friday the 13^th” as a 2009 remake is wrong, even though that’s how it was called. It’s more of a combination of the first three movies. The movie tells us at the beginning that what transpired in the original 1980 movie is actually the backstory. From there, it starts going in a new direction, mainly having the events of this movie go through what happened in parts two and three. Berardinelli mentioned, “There are echoes of those movies here, but we're not in strict remake territory. This Friday the 13th is to the series as H20 is to the Michael Myers saga.” The older events and characters stay but the later, juvenile ones are taken out so things can get a fresh start. Not that they’re being replaced by anything that can be an improvement.

“Friday the 13^th” starts off great – a high-energy backstory that puts the places in order before the long opening title sequence. Berardinelli said, “Had the rest of the movie followed suit, I'd be recommending it to more than nudity-and-gore lovers.” Sadly, the main story is a mess, with every cliché right where it’s needed, the character doing the ridiculous things you can call on from fans of horror movies, and no suspense at all about who’s got a chance to survive to the ending. The narrative part is extremely uneven, but that’s probably not what long time fans of “Friday the 13^th” series will see (or care about).

The time around, our characters to be slaughtered are a group of college graduates who have driven up to a summer home built at the end of Crystal Lake, not that far from the well-known “Camp Blood.” (Paying tribute to the original, the location is still in Sussex County, New Jersey. However, unlike the original, it wasn’t actually filmed there.) The seven vacationers are Trent (Travis Van Winkle), the generic bully who screams like a girl, his girlfriend, Jenna (the hot Danielle Panabaker, currently starring as Caitlin Snow/Killer Frost on CW’s “The Flash”), Bree (Julianna Guill) and Chelsea (Willa Ford), the hot girls who you know will get naked, Lawrence (Arlen Escarpeta), the token black character, Chewie (Aaron Yoo), the token Asian, and the completely forgettable Nolan (Ryan Hansen). Also amongst the group are Whitney (Amanda Righetti), who is held hostage by main villain Jason Voorhees (Derek Mears), and her brother, Clay (Jared Padalecki), who is searching Crystal Lake for her. It’s superfluous to discuss any of the plot since it copies most of the slasher films ever made.

Berardinelli said, “The blood, intercourse, profanity, and nudity are more extreme here than in the 1980 movie, but I suppose that's progress.” The thing that’s really bad about this remake of “Friday the 13^th” is how little effort went into this film. Berardinelli said, “The original may be a landmark on the cinematic landscape in terms of its importance to the genre, but it was not a great motion picture.” There was a chance here to take the main idea and do something innovative with it. For about 15 minutes, it looked like it was happening. After that, we get something that’s more lifeless, more pointless, and less enjoyable than anything in the original. Berardinelli mentioned, “Remake, reboot, re-envisioning - whatever you call it, it amounts to the same thing: a cynical money grab. This movie exists for the same reason that Rob Zombie's Halloween travesty was made - because the studios behind the projects won't give up until every last cent is bled out of the titles and they survive only as punch lines to bad jokes.” This is the twelfth movie with Jason Voorhees, Camp Crystal Lake, and/or any mixture of the two. Do we really want a thirteenth? There is actually talk about it, and it was supposed to come out this year, but because of director issues, it has been pushed back. This is basically what director Marcus Nispel and co-producers Sean S. Cunningham and Michael Bay have given us, especially with this one invisible.

I actually made the mistake of seeing this one first before I went back and saw the previous 10. I regret doing it, but seeing this one before the original, I still thought it was bad. I don’t think it’s as bad as “Jason X” but it’s worse than “Jason Takes Manhattan,” if you can believe that. Just do yourself a favor and never watch this one, especially if you liked the original. This is one of the worst horror remakes I have ever seen.

Wow, does it feel better to finally get that one out of the way. We have now come to the end of “Friday the 13^th-a-thon,” it has been a long time coming. I know there is one that I skipped over, but just wait for that. There's something I need to do before I review that one, so just hold on, that review is coming. Stay tuned later today when I review a classic movie that everyone should check out around the Halloween time.

Leatherface

Simon Abrams started his review by saying, “A good prequel or sequel to the proto-slasher "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" is not unimaginable.” Series co-creator Tobe Hooper didn’t quite get it with “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2,” nor did the makers of surprisingly decent “Leatherface: Texas Chainsaw Massacre III.”Abrams said, “These near-miss efforts make it tempting to recommend abandoning poor Leatherface, the hulking, mute, flesh-mask-wearing chainsaw buff. After all, Hooper and co-writer Kim Henkel's original film will always cast an appropriately large shadow over post-1974 horror.”

However, the attempt that the makers of “Leatherface,” a new prequel to the franchise released on Video On Demand today, is not only a bad one, it’s poorly executed. “Leatherface” tries to show fans what made the man we know the killer he is famous for. Abrams said, “Sadly, the makers of "Leatherface" didn't put enough thought into a sleepy story that could easily be titled "I Was a Teenage Leatherface."”

If you’ve seen any of the past films of “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” or any post-1974 horror film taken place in the countryside, then you know the land of “Leatherface.” There’s a sick family led by heartless mother Verna Sawyer, played by Lili Taylor, and they come together killing trespassers. The film begins at the birthday party of poor pre-teen Jed, played by Boris Kabakchiev, now asked to kill a random local. Jed doesn’t kill the man using the chainsaw that’s gifted to him, but he also doesn’t completely refrain from murder. That puts him up against Verna, and Texas Ranger Hal Hartman, played by Stephen Dorff, although for completely different reasons: Verna wants Jed to kill, and Hartman actually wants to stop him.

Cut to about a decade later, when Jed is forcibly separated from his family and put in an insane asylum. The residents at this hospital are re-named for their own safety, and it appears that Jed has grown to become Bud, played by Sam Coleman, since he fits the physical attributes of a young serial killer: overweight, awkward, wears coveralls, doesn’t speak, and scared of women. Abrams said, “So it's no surprise when Bud becomes, after a short period of heavy foregrounding, a supporting character in what appeared to start out as his own story. After all, what kind of hillbilly killer gets to be the star of his own film?”

Bud goes along during a maniacal hospital escape committed by desperate killers Clarice (Jessica Madsen), and Ike (James Bloor), and short-tempered teen Jackson (Sam Strike). Jackson could take or leave every murder, but Ike and Clarice do a lot of it. Their selected prisoner, kindhearted nurse Lizzy, played by Vanessa Grasse, starts an unsuccessful hesitant love for Jackson. Along the way, Verna and Hal are following close behind the escape patients.

Despite this completely difficult story, “Leatherface” isn’t really a character-driven film. Abrams noted, “Screenwriter Seth M. Sherwood instead delivers a series of opportunities for co-directors Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury ("Inside," "Livid") to make slick but indistinct tableaux of violence and suffering. Bustillo and Maury don't seem to care about their meat puppet protagonists beyond figuring out the best angle to film actors play-stabbing other performers in the neck, or determining how to undercut their tedious thriller's giddy teens-gone-wild mood with extreme close-up and sub-David Fincher orange-brown filters, as in the emblematically lifeless sequence set in a road-side diner.”

The latter scene is really a let-down because it never stops showing the emotional split between its clearly confused pacing and showing and its tough substance. You might think this is good to show a murdering pattern that’s shown in the right way of immoral rebellion against society. However, you can’t blame Bustillo and Maury for showing in violence for the fun of it, since they give us plenty indications that violence is also the worst thing ever. Just look at how it doesn’t show a victim’s huge eyeball as he bleeds. Or look at how the filmmakers pause for a short while to show another poor victim begging for her life just before she’s shot in the face. Abrams said, “Surely this should exonerate Bustillo and Maury from killjoy charges of soulless exploitation!”

That doesn’t happen a lot. Previously, Bustillo and Maury have successfully given shocking, over-the-top gore without ruining their films’ reasonably nice look of fear. However in “Leatherface,” gore, jump cuts and really disturbing images are the only things the show character. Abrams ended his review by saying, “So when Leatherface does, eventually, start to become the famous sociopathic killer we know him to be, it doesn't feel like a loss of innocence, nor does it feel like a gross triumph for misunderstood misfits. It's just a trite ending to a introductory story that never really needed telling.”

In all honesty, the only thing I like about this movie is Stephen Dorff’s character. He was the only good character that you cheer for. The others were just cardboard cutout, cookie-cutter stereotypes that you have seen in every horror film. I don’t recommend this film at all, avoid it. You won’t like this one at all, especially if you haven’t been a fan of the past movies in the franchise. Just stop making movies in this franchise, you’re beating a dead horse by trying to recreate the magic that Tobe Hooper got done right once in the original movie.

Ok, now that we got that done with, stay tuned tomorrow for my take on the “Friday the 13^th” remake.

Jason X

If “Jason X,” released in 2001, was supposed to be completely absurd and silly on purpose as the last 10 minutes, the filmmakers might have really nailed something.

The climactic scene of this science-fiction/horror film is not in any way funny and entertaining, and looks like it says that even the filmmakers had known what a stupid idea this whole film was at the start.

Jeff Vice is right when he said in his review, “Unfortunately, it takes nearly 80 minutes to get to that point — an experiment in tedium that's filled with more of the sickeningly gory nonsense we've come to expect from the "Friday the 13th" series.”

Despite that a good amount of the film takes place so many years into the future, the beginning scene is set in 2008, as project leaders (Jeff Geedis, David Cronenberg, Markus Parilo) at the Crystal Lake Research Facility try to find a way to kill the apparently immortal Jason Voorhees, reprised by Kane Hodder, who’s, as Vice says, “under lock and key.”

As you guessed, he escapes and soon murders everyone in the building, except for Rowan, played by the hot Lexa Doig who starred in the syndicated show “Andromeda,” who traps Jason in a deep-freeze chamber.

Cut to the year 2455, a group of student explorers (Chuck Campbell, Melyssa Ade, Dov Tiefenbach, Jonathan Potts, Lisa Ryder, Melody Johnson, Derwin Jordan, Tani Gellman, Kristi Angus, Robert A. Silverman, Peter Mensah and Boyd Banks) finds Rowan and the frozen Jason and brings the two of them on their spaceship. The students thaw and heel Rowan, but they fail to listen to her terrible warnings about Jason, who soon goes back to murdering on the ship.

Vice said, “What is baffling is that this ludicrous premise is played with more of a straight face than it merits, so by the time the filmmakers decide to camp up the action, it's pretty much too little too late.”

Worse, there’s no suspense in the movie because every character is not likable in any way. That can be thanked to both the atrocious script (by newbie Todd Farmer, who has a small supporting role as one of the space marine victims) as well as the underwhelming performances.

Vice ended his review by saying, “The only performer who seems to realize just how awful all this is, is Doig's "Andromeda" co-star Lisa Ryder, playing an all-too-familiar android character that might as well be called "Data-ette" because of her obvious similarities to the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" character Data.”

As I have stated yesterday, this is the worst in the “Friday the 13^th” franchise. It’s completely ridiculous, and it makes you wonder what the filmmakers were thinking when they made this. Were they thinking that it would be a fun film? I didn’t have any fun or enjoyment with this one. If anyone did, great, but I didn’t. My advice is to never watch this film because it’s that bad. There is nothing likable in this movie. Ok, maybe the look of “Uber”-Jason, but that’s about it. When he shows up, you think it will start to get good, but it doesn’t.

Thank goodness I’m done with that god-awful movie. Stay tuned tomorrow when I finish up “Friday the 13^th-a-thon” with the remake. Let’s just hold on and see how that is, because it’s one of those remakes that I don’t recommend. Want to know why? You have to wait tomorrow to know in continuing with this year’s “Halloween Month.”

Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday

Shortly after the horrendous “Friday the 13^th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan,” Paramount sold the rights to the “Friday the 13^th” franchise to New Line Cinema (the same company who created Freddy Kruegar). The time between the eighth and ninth sequels was four years, the longest everyone went through without a new “Friday the 13^th” movie. Originally titled “Friday the 13^th Part IX: Jason Goes to Hell,” it was changed to “Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday,” released in 1993, where they wanted to interest every fan. George Rother stated in his review, “It’s a good title, but the purist in me likes the first title better.” Once again, the word “final” is in the title. Look, we’ve been through this before and know the deal. Rother said, “I’d like to preface my next point by saying that I do like Jason Goes to Hell. It’s campily entertaining and has a fair amount of gore. My problem with it is that it attempts to explain why Jason Voorhees can’t die. BAD IDEA! Some things are just better left unexplained. The fact that Jason can’t be killed is something that should be accepted on faith alone, much like a child believes in Santa Claus bringing toys to all the children of the world in a single night. It’s a paradox really. I wanted to know why Jason couldn’t die, but deep down I really didn’t.”

Rother goes on to say, “All that aside, the explanation offered up by Jason Goes to Hell is absolutely ludicrous, so much that I still shake my head in disbelief twenty-odd years later.” It should have made the movie into a complete failure, but in a strange way, it doesn’t. Look, I know this is a bad movie, but it’s the kind that you like to watch because of how much fun you have.

In the years since he went to New York, Jason is now back to his original home and went back to his murderous ways. As the film starts, a young woman, played by Julie Michaels, walks to her cabin at Crystal Lake. It’s night, she’s alone and does everything girls in horror films shouldn’t do (like going outside to get something from a shed, takes a shower). As you might have guessed, Jason, reprised by Kane Hodder, shows up and chases her through the forest…right in the middle of the FBI. They shower him with bullets before blowing him to smithereens. Seeing how they believe they have finally killed him lets us know that they don’t know who they’re up against. His corpses are taken to a secure government building for the autopsy. The coroner, played by Richard Gant, becomes hypnotized and eats Jason’s beating heart. He becomes possessed by Jason’s spirit. I’ll explain it for everyone. The spirit, which clearly looks like a giant black worm (or a turd, if you want to describe it that way), moves from one body to another as it needs to, normally when one body starts to decay. How nice. Continuing, for Jason to go back to his human form, he needs to be reborn through a blood relative. In other words, only a Voorhees can kill a Voorhees.

Coincidentally, Jason does have family in the Crystal Lake area, like his half-sister Diana Kimble (Erin Gray), her grown daughter Jessica (Kari Keegan) and infant granddaughter Stephanie (Brooke Scher). This causes Jessica to return to Crystal Lake and be reunited with her ex-boyfriend/daughter’s father Steven, played by John D. LeMay. He’s completely aware of the situation thanks to bounty hunter Creighton Duke, played by Steven Williams, who also is out to kill Jason. Jason changes into a few different bodies in his forceful mission of Jessica and her baby while Steven tries to protect them. Rother said, “As I write this, I’m thinking about my initial reaction to Jason Goes to Hell upon seeing it opening day way back when. It sounds more like a sequel to The Hidden (another New Line release) than an F13 movie. It’s this kind of thing that makes me smile with bewildered delight.” At least the movie doesn’t take itself too seriously. Rother said, “Directed by Adam Marcus, it’s decidedly tongue-in-cheek, especially with allusions to other classic horror flicks of the 80s. I won’t spoil the surprise by pointing them out here, I’ll only tell you to pay attention to certain background objects in the old Voorhees house. This raises a real quandary for me. Should I discuss the final scene or not? I mean, this movie is 21 years old, so most people have seen it. Also, it sets up the events of a particular sequel, so it’s not like I’m dropping a major spoiler. I guess I’ll leave it alone for now.”

One thing that you should like about “Jason Goes to Hell” is how many people have come back for this movie. Producer Sean S. Cunningham and composer Harry Manfredini both return to the franchise. Also, Kane Hodder reprises the role of Jason for a third time. Rother said, “It dawns on me that I failed to mention him in previous reviews and the man certainly deserves his props.” He makes a great Jason Voorhees. There are also some of the best kill scenes. Here they are: an assistant coroner (Dean Lorey) gets stabbed in the back of the head with a probe, a naked woman (Michelle Clunie) gets cut in half from behind (really graphic), Jason smashes two cops’ (Mark Thompson and Brian Phelps) heads together, a man’s (Adam Cranner) arm is broken in a grotesque way, another (Leslie Jordan) gets scalded in a deep-fryer, a woman’s (Rusty Schwimmer) face is literally smashed in, another woman’s (Allison Smith) head is crushed until blood comes out and a decapitation (Kipp Marcus). Rother noted, “I counted 18 onscreen deaths and 4 body jumps (I didn’t count them with the killings). The previous two F13 installments weren’t particularly gory, so it’s nice to see a return to form. Actually, Jason Goes to Hell is the goriest F13 yet. Of course, I’m talking about the unrated version on DVD as opposed to the one released theatrically. Other than the woman (Michelle Clunie) being cut in half, I couldn’t say what was added or expanded. It may be more-than-sufficiently bloody, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s the silliest entry in the series. If I may return to a point previously made, sometimes the answer to a burning question proves unsatisfying. Perhaps it’s best not to seek answers at all to certain questions. I remember hearing a classmate make a similar point when 2010 came out in December ’84. He said that while it’s a good movie, it spoiled the mystery of 2001: A Space Odyssey. I get it, I really do. That being said, I like Jason Goes to Hell as a slasher flick, but not as an explanation of Jason’s immortality. I prefer to keep thinking of him as the hockey-masked killer that never dies no matter what.”

Look everyone, I know that this is a bad movie, but I actually enjoyed myself when I was watching it. It was different, for sure, but in a way that I actually thought was interesting. It didn’t repeat the same gags as before and tries something new, which I give it credit for. Plus, the look they gave Jason was actually fresh, we get some great creature effects and it's very different from the rest. Definitely see this one and see for yourself. If you don’t like it, I understand, because people like to say this film is a mess. If you do like it, more power to you. I might place this under the sixth movie on my list, but I would have to rethink the list up before I rank them again.

Alright everyone, time to grab on to your vomit bags again. Tomorrow we will be looking at the absolute worst in the franchise. I’m not looking forward to it either, but just bear with me. The sooner we can get it over with in “Friday the 13^th-a-thon,” the sooner I can get back to good stuff in this year’s “Halloween Month.”

Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan

The on-screen body count is 19 and Jason Voorhees, reprised by Kane Hodder, doesn’t even get to New York until the last 20 minutes of “Friday the 13^th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan,” released in 1989.

Richard Harrington stated in his review, “For bettors, then, these are the key numbers: 19-20-13-8. Also zero, which is the amount of inspiration and achievement in this continuing saga of the little boy who drowned in Crystal Lake 30 years, seven films and approximately 286 teenagers ago (30-7-286). As to why the saga continues, think of this kind of gross: $200 million (and realize that lottery tickets and numbers games are just the homeboy version of Hollywood).”

The most amazing pride of “Jason Takes Manhattan” is that Crystal Lake High School even has a graduating class to have a senior trip to New York. For some reason (probably the script thought it was needed) they don’t fly, or take the train or bus. They take a rundown boat with cruise ship goals. It’s called Lazarus, which is right since Jason has been resurrected once more from the bottom of the lake (probably around the same time the script was found in a trash can). “This voyage is doomed,” says Fred Henderson, playing Jim Carlson, and just then, Jason’s doing his part of population control in murderous ways that will be known to anyone who saw the previous movies. Harrington noted, “He's still a tricky devil, moving into the frame just as a victim slips out the other side, looming from all directions and generally saving the scriptwriters from being concerned with anything approaching logic.”

Harrington continued, “Most of the film takes place on the Lazarus, possibly the only ship more dangerous than the Exxon Valdez.” Even the radio dies by the time Jason gets on the ship. Among the passengers is bright Rennie (Jensen Daggett) who’s having visions of a drowning boy (Timothy Burr Mirkovich), her sycophantic guardian Colleen Van Deusen (Barbara Bingham), her concerned biology teacher Charles McCulloch (Peter Mark Richman), a boyfriend Sean Robertson (Scott Reeves) whose soon-to-be-dead father is the ship’s captain (Warren Munson), and different high school stereotypes (Saffron Henderson, David Jacox, Sharlene Martin, the hot Kelly Hu, Gordon Currie, Martin Cummins, V.C. Dupree and Ace the dog). Not everyone makes it to Manhattan, as you might have guessed. Harrington said, “The survivors abandon ship and row the rest of the way to New York, emerging from a raging storm and a raging Jason as drip-and-blow-dry as the day they left their dressing rooms.”

Harrington continues, “Jason, of course, has been moldering in his watery grave, but when he shows up on a crowded subway train for the finale he doesn't make much of an impression on his fellow passengers, typically blase New Yorkers who seem thankful he's not a panhandler (lucky for him, Bernhard Goetz isn't around).” Rennie and Sean are saved by a timely river of toxic acid – no, not the Hudson – but everyone knows Jason Voorhees isn’t completely dead.

As I had stated yesterday, this is easily one of the worst installments in the franchise. There are terrible characters and weak kills. When Jason finally gets to Manhattan, it gets good for a little bit and there are brief highlights, but the one hour and four minutes spent on the boat really kills the movie, similarly to Peter Jackson’s mistake in the 2005 “King Kong” remake.  The beginning with Todd Shaffer and Tiffany Paulsen was ridiculous and didn’t serve a purpose at all.

Well, we finally got that out of the way. Stay tuned tomorrow where I look at an installment that I like but everyone else hates in my “Friday the 13^th-a-thon” in this year’s “Halloween Month.”

The Foreigner

On the outside, “The Foreigner,” which came out 4 days ago, promises to be Jackie Chan’s return to the huge action thrillers, and for what we get, the film succeeds in doing that. Alex Welch said in his review, “What most audience members might not be expecting, though, is for the film to also be a strange combination between a Taken-esque revenge story and a convoluted political thriller involving the British government and a new faction of angry, young IRA terrorists.” Those two storylines should not be able to be in the same film, which makes it a tribute to how much “The Foreigner” gets right, that the two very different plots manage to mix together as good as they can.

It’s not bad that director Martin Campbell has casted two skilled acting veterans as the stars of the film, with Pierce Brosnan and Jackie Chan. Both actors are assigned with populating roles that are opposing to the on screen characters they’re most well-known for. Welch said, “Brosnan, for his part, trades in his suave, Bond-like heroic swagger to play a corrupt politician who often closely resembles a mob boss, while Chan turns in a grim and quiet performance, directly contrary to the comedic roles most American audiences associate him with.”

Adapted from Stephen Leather’s 1992 novel The Chinaman, the film is set in modern-day London and Belfast, where a new team of terrorists called “Authentic IRA” claim the people who did a London bombing that murdered over a dozen citizens and many more are injured. Among the victims is the daughter (Katie Leung) of Quan Ngoc Minh (Chan), a Chinese restaurant owner with a history serving in the Vietnam War Special Forces. Left without any other family members to mourn with, Quan decides that he will track down the terrorists and avenge his daughter’s death.

Quan’s quest eventually brings him coming across Brosnan’s Liam Hennessy, a politician with, as Welch said, “Violent roots in the pre-Good Friday Agreement IRA, but who dedicated the latter half of his life to bettering the relations between Ireland and England, while also keeping his pockets full and political appeal high.” With his possible connections to the new IRA team of bombers are in hiding, Quan begins to plant some bombs in order to scare and threaten Hennessy until he, as Quan thinks will happen, disclose the names of the Authentic IRA members who did the bombing.

Quan’s quest is about as simple as it says, and when Chan sometimes cuts through all of Hennessy’s guards and defenses, “The Foreigner” stays with its dark tone and basis. Welch said, “But The Foreigner is also much more of a two-hander than any of the trailers or synopses have let on, and the B-plot involving Hennessy working his way through all of his connections to try and secure his political position takes up a shockingly high amount of the film’s runtime.” With enough twists and turns to look more like a political thriller than anything else, you could forgive if you forget that “The Foreigner” has been given as being a simple revenge story while watching it.

Welch said, “Under the control of any other director, The Foreigner could have very easily become a jumbled mess of a film, but Martin Campbell (who directed Brosnan as Bond in GoldenEye before rebooting that franchise with Casino Royale) is able to streamline all of the action and political machinations in a way that makes them as digestible as they possibly could.” That doesn’t mean the film doesn’t get hurt from its determined story, and “The Foreigner” often hesitates over having to adapt a book’s 1990s roots for the modern day, as multiple characters are forced to explain the history between the IRA and British government before than explaining the actions further of its main terrorist group.

However, like he did with films like “Casino Royale,” Campbell directs the film’s action scenes in such an instinctive, intense way that they often land with huge impact. Even though he is not playing for slapstick comedy this time around, Chan is as entertaining to watch in “The Foreigner” as he has ever been, and the ways where he takes down Hennessy’s guards makes Chan be a really powerful onscreen participant. Welch mentioned, “That includes one action sequence set in a modest Irish bed and breakfast, which many will justifiably tout as being the film’s greatest achievement.”

Welch goes on to say, “The Foreigner uses the talents of both Jackie Chan and Pierce Brosnan quite well, turning the well-worn personas of both actors on their heads.” Thanks to so many forces to cause movement and violent action scenes, “The Foreigner” mostly succeeds at what it was trying to do, even if that also means you’ll likely have already forgotten about it by the time you get home from watching it.

My brother and I saw this today and we both liked it, but we didn’t like how it was all pro-Britain and the torture scene at the end. People like to think the torture scenes we see in movies work in real life, but it doesn’t. However, Jackie Chan does a great job, like always, and if you’re a fan of Jackie Chan and Pierce Brosnan, then definitely see this film. Bear in mind, it’s slow and dialogue-heavy. Not that much action, but I think that’s what Campbell was going for.

Alright everyone, hold on to your vomit bags. Tomorrow I will be looking at one of the worst installments in “Friday the 13^th-a-thon” in this year’s “Halloween Month.”