Freddy Vs. Jason

An article by Don Quixote    2 Comments

It was a weekend filled with movies and relaxing. The one that probably struck a cord with me the most was the one we watched last: Freddy Vs. Jason. Now, I’ll be completely honest with you, I am not a fan of slasher flicks. I don’t know what it is, they just don’t hold anything for me. I’ve seen a few of the Freddy movies back in High school, and the only film with Jason I’ve ever seen was Jason X, which I watched as a fluke (and which is actually how I ended up TiVo’ing this movie – I figured I saw Jason X, I might as well see Freddy Vs. Jason), but I knew enough to have a general concept of what this film was supposed to be about. In it, Freddy, alone in the depths of Hell, sadden by the fact that he was wrongfully driven away by the town folks from his playground of dreams, decides that it’s time for him to come back. Now, the only way that he can come back is if the kids know about him and more importantly are afraid. This put poor Freddy in a hard spot since the town had cleared away all record of him. I felt bad for the guy. So he did the only thing a nightmare demon can do, he brought back another killer and sent him to do a copy cat crime in Freddy’s home town in hopes that he might stir the memories of the towns folks and recapture that fear and thus his power.

Jason, who appeared as nothing more in a lap dog in this film (which was rather frustating for him I am sure), went off to do Freddy’s bidding and killed a few people. This of course had the effect that Freddy had hoped for and he once again regained his power. However, rather than being encouraging and greatful to Jason for helping his accomplish his goal, Freddy tried to run him out of the picture. For me, this is really where the movie broke down for me and I was saddened by the outcome.

I mean here we have two talented professionals, both masters in their own right, set on a downward spiral that led to their ultimate demise. Why? Simple pride. Freddy couldn’t tolerate that Jason too might be sucessful in his back yard. Rather than seeing what the two of them could accomplish working together, it became a personal war between the two of them. In the end, they lost sight of what was really important, the killing, and it brought a tear to my eye. Rather than understanding the synergy that the two of them might share, rather than seeing the death toll they could rack up together, the movie ended in a fight between the two of them for who was the better killer. I mean come on?! Where is the respect?! Sure, Jason has a different method than Freddy, he takes a straight forward approach, lumbering along and then, slash, but it works. It’s simple but it works. Freddy is the master of the dream, and has a wonderful flair for the dramatic and that has it’s place too. They could have killed alot of kids that day, but no, pride won the day and those sinful kids (with their drinking, smoking, sexing and drug taking) of Elm Street and Lake Crystal got off without really learning anything. Another opportunity wasted. Oh Freddy & Jason, when will you ever learn? I can only hope that in the next movie, when Mike shows up, you’ll work together for the greater good instead of being selfish.

Also on the “I watched these movies this weekend list”:
Miracle
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This is one movie I wanted to see when it came out, but I didn’t have a chance to. I’m a sucker for true stories that inspire, and a sucker for any story that shows us kicking the Russians buttocks (Hey, I’m a child of the 80′s). The movie itself was pretty good, nothing super, but I liked it and even got a little choked up when the US Hockey team won. All in all, a good family flick.

The Goodbye Girl
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The Goodbye Girl has been sitting on the TiVo since January. I got so sick and tired of TNT running ads for this and listening to Hootie singing the song that I just snapped and recorded it. This was of course a made for T.V. remake of Neil Simon’s Goodbye Girl with Jeff Daniels (always gotta root for the Michigan boy). I really liked it. It was cheesy, and totally a chick thing, but dang it, I liked it.

Love Liza
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I’m a huge PSH (Philip Seymore Hoffman) fan. I had watched this movie before, but Michelle had never had a chance to watch it, so this was yet another flick that made the TiVo list (I’m telling you, I have no idea what I would do sometimes without TiVo). This was a horridly depressing movie about a man (a webdesigner) who’s life kills herself and leaves him a note. He turns to sniffing gas to get high and takes up a liking for model planes. The film ends with him burning down his house and walking half naked down the street. But WOW can this guy acted. It was a good movie and if you are in the right frame of mine should catch it if you get the chance.

Lastly, Michelle and I had a chance to do a little bit of board gaming this weekend and we chose the En Garde remake by Reiner Knizia: Duell. Basically it’s a card game that simulates the feel of fencing. It was a total blast (well, I ended up beating Michelle, but it was still a good time). Well other than cleaning the house for Game Night tomorrow and getting the lawn mowed, that was my exciting weekend. Oh that and I converted the Andrew-Peterson.com message board into PHP, ported over most of the Photo Gallery and installed some new blog software for Andrew… but other than that, nothing else.