Review of Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989) by David B — 19 Jan 2009

[font=Calibri][size=3][color=#000000]What should?ve been called ?Jason?s Trip to Manhattan,? due to the fact that ?Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan? takes place 70% on a cruise ship, easily ranks in the bottom 3 worst of the series.

We?ve already learned in previous installments that Jason is an unstoppable and un-killable monster with enormous strength. But wait, ?VIII? now shows us he can teleport as well! No wonder while all his victims run fast, he can always catch up with them without much effort.

In a lot of the scenes on the ship and a few in Vancouver, Canada (Oh, sorry, they?re saying it?s Manhattan, USA my bad,) he seems to just disappear and reappear right in front of the soulless characters.

Despite a few unique kills (true meaning to ?knocking one?s block off? and vanity kills,) most are just stale or just simply odd ? toxic waste is just left in barrels in alleys? And speaking of which, I have wondered why we never see Jason eat, but ?VIII? seems to show a ?Freddy Krueger? side ? when he kills, that seems to be soul-capturing, or nourishment to him, I suppose.

Again, in this ?Friday? installment are the usual suspects: scenes that don?t make sense (an anchored ship drifts off (??) with Jason on board, and he doesn?t seem to want to get off, despite he was at his home where he always tried to get to), sex and dumb characters with dumb ideas.

However, there were a few highlights: the soundtrack was pretty good (for the time,) the billboard scene was hilarious and the getting him out of the woods for once and into the city was interesting. Again, unfortunately, only expect that for about a half hour of the film, just like ?Jurassic Park 2?s dinos in San Diego.

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