Customer Reviews

Friday the 13th 8 [VHS]

5 star:		(82)
4 star:		(57)
3 star:		(42)
2 star:		(40)
1 star:		(49)

 

 

First of all, the title is misleading. Due to budget restrictions, Paramount wouldn't let them film a lot in the Big Apple, so Jason's only in Manhattan for about twenty minutes of the movie.
The rest of the time he takes to slaughtering students on a graduation trip on one of the student's father's ship. It's all more of the same formula which was definitely getting tired by this 8th installment. There's little suspense and veteran character actor Peter Mark Richman looks embarrassed to be involved. The least entertaining of the eleven films to be sure.

I'm not so sure there is a lot to say. My brother asked me to watch and review Friday the 13th part 6: Jason Lives and I told him I would do better than that and I would review every last one of these movies because I tend view them as one phenomenon and rarely as films that stand to be judged alone, despite their amazing record for failing to deliver accurate continuity. Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan is one of the silliest movies ever made. Its dialogue, effects, story and overall direction are so horribly bad it allows parts seven and nine to sort of hide behind it. Although I've found time to skewer those films as well. In my eyes, part 8 is not quite the worst of the series but its real close.

Jason is electrocuted again from an underwater cable that hit a boat's anchor. He wakes up and jumps aboard the boat. The boat is on its way to New York and is full of young adults ripe for some killing. It takes a while before the boat actually gets to New York, which I'm sure bothered some people because the audience was likely looking forward to seeing Jason rampage through a different locale and the title certainly suggested more of that than we actually get. So Jason hangs out in a boat and has ample time to murder quite a few people. The boat sinks and only five people remain. Jason gradually kills them during his run through the Big Apple. The highlight of the movie is actually when he takes about twenty or so punches to the head from a boxer and then he punches the boxer's head off. Classic campy killing that keeps my smiling years later. Jason ends up in the sewer and gets drowned by a flood of toxic waste. For some reason it shows Jason as a little boy again after the flood clears out from the sewer. That part was never addressed in the final two sequels in any capacity whatsoever. Then again continuity is by no means expected from these films, especially by its seventh sequel.

Even as a kid I was very disappointed with part 8. Audiences agreed for the most part as it grossed just $14 million and cost $5 million. Compared to the rest of the movies before it this showed that the film series was on the decline. Some people view this as the best of the series and others absolutely despise this film. I lean more toward the latter of these opinions. It is incredibly silly and doesn't deliver in the way it could have. If it was the Jason from part 6 that rampaged through New York we may have had the comedic masterpiece of the series, but Jason Takes Manhattan pulls far too many punches...well, except for when he punched that dude's head off.

I would like to say it was a nice change to see Jason get out of the woods and go somewhere, however there are some serious problems with this movie. For one, is Camp Crystal Lake an island or something? It would have never crossed my mind that Camp Crystal Lake is on an island in the Atlantic Ocean somewhere. Oh well, so what, no big deal, a tiny dumb flaw. The next problem arises with the title. Anyone seeing this movie would assume Jason spends most of his time in the streets of New York and half the movie takes place on the boat. Ok, so a little deception on the makers' part. The biggest problem I had with this movie was the ending. How in the world did Jason transform into a child as the sewage washes over him? I know the main character had visions of the little boy that tried to drown her as a child, was that all it was, was her vision? On the up side, I really enjoyed the idea of adding more evil to the movie besides Jason himself. Not only do our survivors from the boat ride have to deal with Jason in the city, they have to deal with New York's evils too, such as the rapists and druggies. A surely different flavor for the series and a good movie, however could have been made much better if the makers didn't leave such big obvious errors and holes in the movie.

I thought this movie is way better than other people say. First off, yes, it has more comedic elements to this one, but also remains the suspence. It also manages to go somewhere beside boring old camp crystal. The characters are actually somewhat likeable for a horror movie, and they can show somewhat decent acting talent. The only thing I felt was out of place was that most of the movie took place on a ship, not in New York. Oh well, still remains a great addition to a tiring series.

By far the worst Friday ever. What is this piece of trash. This movie looks like it was made for TV and the acting is down right embarrassing. Who picked these people. Why is Jason away from Crystal Lake. And whats up wiyh him turning as a boy again. Simply atrocious. I have this one in forsake that I am a huge Friday Fan,but this was completely unneccasary. Part 8 makes Parts 6 and 7 look like masterpieces. Don't reccommend it stick with the first 5. Jason goes to Hell was an improvement but not much. This is a comedy. 1/2 a star.

FRIDAY THE 13TH PART VIII: JASON TAKES MANHATTAN DVD REVIEW

*** ½

Release Date- September 15th, 2009

Paramount never really gave the Friday the 13th movies very good DVD releases, which upset a lot of fans. When you look at the films Paramount has produced it's easy to understand why the Friday the 13th flicks weren't top priority, but these films also made a lot of money for Paramount and they should have done a little something instead of just the trailer, which they stopped with The New Blood; after the success of Freddy Vs Jason, Paramount, put out a decent boxed set, and now with the 2009 Friday the 13th reboot, Paramount has given Deluxe Edition releases.

The Deluxe Editions feature new transfers and features and overall has been alright with the exception of The Final Chapter, which might be the best release of 2009. Jason Takes Manhattan the last of the Paramount series now gets it due with a Deluxe Edition Release.

THE MOVIE
Often seen as one of the weakest of the Paramount series and it's not hard to understand, but overall I quite enjoyed this part. By no means is this a classic of the genre and nowhere near as good as the first 4 or the 6th, but with that said it's simply a fun movie that gets far too much heat.

PACKAGE DESIGN
I would have preferred the original cover art with the I Love Ny poster, but this one is pretty good and is sort of like the alternate poster, with a couple of changes, but it looks good and isn't made to look too modern and the slipcase is 3-D, which is really cool.

AUDIO COMMENTARY- Jensen Daggett, Scott Reeves, Kane Hodder
Entertaining track, but not the best I've heard, but fans should enjoy this one.

NEW YORK HAS A BIG PROBLEM: THE MAKING OF JASON TAKES MANHATTAN- 17:57
Top notch making of feature that covers all aspects of the film; the one thing clear is everyone involved had a lot of fun making this movie and are all proud of it; while there is nothing really major here it's still a solid feature that fans should very much enjoy and a lot of the people involved with the film appear as well; interviews with Rob Hedden, Kane Hodder, V.C. Dupree, Jensen Daggett, Scott Reeves, Peter Mark Richman, Tim Mirkovich, Steve Mirkovich, Tiffany Paulsen, Sharlene Martin, Fred Mollin

SLASHED SCENES- 12:20 16 scenes
Here we have 16 scenes that were cut from the final cut of the movie; most of the footage are just extended scenes and they were cut for a reason; while some of the footage is interesting, but inserting them back into the movie would slow the pace down; we get a couple of scenes that feature a bit more gore, but it wasn't much actually; Jason Takes Manhattan is probably the least goriest of the series and apparently there are more scene with gore that were cut, but for what ever reason weren't on the release; my guess is the footage wasn't found; originally this movie was hit with an X rating and based on the gore scenes included I really don't understand why; the 80s were very tough for horror flicks in particular slasher flicks; I suppose they were seen as nothing more than exploitation flicks and thus far the MPAA came down really tough on them, but yeah based on the gore seen here I don't get why at all; overall this was an interesting feature, but nothing here is all that great.

GAG REEL- 4:52
Nice filler feature, which was fun, but nothing great, but with that said the last shot in the gag reel is hysterical! It's too good to spoil.

TRANSFER
The new transfer is mastered in High-Definition and looks far better than the original release; all the transfers for the Deluxe Editions look a lot better than the original DVD releases and while the transfers add a lot more detail that was lost on the previous releases so far the only one that really enhances the movie was The Final Chapter, which had a pathetic transfer that looks more high quality VHS than DVD. Like I said the Blu-ray's and DVDs do add a lot more detail they don't enhance the movies all that much with the exception of a few details here and there that weren't present on the old DVDs; Jason Takes Manhattan at the time was 20-years old and the print looks excellent and fresh; also the new transfer also opens up the screen more and we see more than we did on the original DVD release; dirt and grain are pretty much gone and Jason Takes Manhattan looks very good.

AUDIO

5.1 Surround
2.1 Surround

The new sound mix is strong, but doesn't really enhance the movie at least I didn't think so, but the sound is very good besides that.

FINAL WORDS ON THE DISC
Overall Jason Takes Manhattan was a solid release, but I would have liked it more if some of the features were carried over from the boxed set; the features are cool and transfer is very good, but like I said it doesn't enhance the movie the way The Final Chapter's new transfer did. While I wouldn't say this is a must have I would recommend it seeing as it's a decent release that fans should enjoy; this may not be one of the best Deluxe Editions, but it' a solid one.

A year after Tina Sheperd sent Jason Voorhees (Kane Hodder) to his watery grave in Camp Crystal Lake, he's been resurrected for more murdering. A beautiful senior student named Reenie (Jensen Daggett) with her teacher uncle Charles (Peter Mark Richman)and a fellow teacher Colleen (Barbara Bingham) are boarding a cruise boat to New York City with a class of students (Saffron Henderson, David Jacox, Kelly Hu, Scott Reeves, Sharelene Martin, VC Dupree, Martin Cummins, and Tiffany Paulson) to their graduation over there as Jason becomes a stowaway as he brings bloodshed to a ship of nightmares but later on Reenie with Charles, Colleen and two survivors escape to New York as they think they are safe for the mean undead goalie is gonna take over the big apple with any weapon or kill in a game of killer hide and go seek.

Very entertaining installment is one of the weaker entries of the neverending Friday The 13th saga. This movie does have some creative kills like a Sauna Rock through the chest, Syringe stabbing and some other sick killings that will make you feel almost dirty. The film does take first part on a boat then second half in New York like the title promised as i like the alright performances and atmosphere of this film. It did bad at the box-office as it was the final movie for Paramount to do a Friday The 13th movie before New Line Cinema took over the series in 1991 when they bought the rights.

This DVD has terrific remastered sound and picture with nice extras like audio commentary, a featurette, slashed scenes featuring gory violence that was cut to avoid X rating and gag reel.

This has got to be the worst film ever made in the history of film. How this guy was given the green light to make this movie, I'll never understand. This is an Alan Smithee case if I ever saw one. But, ironically, I find this one of the most enjoyable in the series because of this. Being that this movie is so rotten, it's one of the most amusing and hilarious films I have ever seen. It is the perfect Mystery Science Theater party movie. Jason is(naturally) brought back to life(by electricity again. Who thought of this juvenile idea anyway? What is he, Frankenstein's monster?), and slaughters everyone on the boat. He may have been on the boat only an hour or two, but he knows the layout better than everyone else. He manages to teleport himself everywhere. He's huge, black, slimy, wears a hockey mask(not exactly a low profile), and manages to stroll about the ship without anyone noticing him. When they get to the Big Apple, does Jason go beserk and murder everyone? Nope, for some unknown reason he only goes after the surviving crew members who can't seem to shake Jason even in a city the size of New York(all you'd need to do is get in a cab and say "take me to the other side of town", and you'd lose Jason forever.). Of course they all roam about the alleys and side streets instead of staying out in the open. Jason also knows the layout of New York City as though he were a native. And what's with this stupid psychic link between the leading lady and Jason? Ever notice when a horror series goes on for awhile, they throw that stupid, unscary psychic angle in? Halloween 5 for example. The most unbelievable thing in this movie is when the two survivors run into the sewer. If you were being chased by Jason, would you run to a friggin' sewer? They meet a sewer worker who informs them(and I am not kidding here!) that the sewers fill with toxic waste at midnight. Maybe this is true in the New York sewer system, but I have never heard of anything so ridiculous in my life. Jason's unmasked and he's in much better shape than the previous movie. In fact, he looks about as scary as Steve from Blue's Clues. Jason's "death" defies any kind of rational explanation. There had to have been some serious drugs used by the filmmakers to come up with that crap, and even more serious drugs consumed by whoever agreed that it was a good idea. Watch this one folks, it's funnier than any intentional comedy out there.

If not for the travesty that is Jason X, this would be the worst movie in the series. I tend to not give movies 1 star ratings because there's usually something redeemable in every movie. No, not this time. Everything in this movie is bad, the acting, the plot, the script, the "fauz" location, even though I know why more of the movie didn't take place in New York. Even the ending was terrible.

I can't say that I recommend this movie to anyone. The Friday the 13th buffs may even want to pass on this one.

In 1989, the last year was here for the greatest horror decade ever! After '89, we got breif glimpses of Freddy, Jason, Michael Myers and Leatherface in the '90s. As a matter of fact, Jason himself, only got 1 '90s flick under his belt, " Jason Goes To Hell : The Final Friday. " But I have this great feeling the '00s of the 21st Century will bring back the '70s and '80s masters of the silver scream! Well, in '89, we got " Leatherface : The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3 ", " A Nightmare On Elm Street 5 : The Dream Child ", " Halloween 5 : The Revenge Of Michael Myers " and " Friday the 13th Part VIII : Jason Takes Manhattan. "

In Jason's 8th, he left for the wilderness to take a litte vacation to New York City! Many fans dislike this entry, seeing how most of the film takes place on the trip to New York, rather than the Big Apple itself. But I love this film, Jason looks really cool, and of course Kane Hodder returned from Part VII, to portray Mr. Voorhees. He's also returning once again to play Jason in the upcoming, highly-awaited Jason X. There's little gore here, and the nudity is very quick ( Jason throws the nude blonde against a mirror, we get to see some of her before she crashes into the mirror.) Still all of the installments in this series are great!