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| | Location: Home » Horror » General » Friday the 13th, Part VIII - Jason Takes Manhattan | December 3, 2008 |
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| Friday the 13th, Part VIII - Jason Takes Manhattan | 
 enlarge | Director: Rob Hedden
Actors: Jensen Daggett, Kane Hodder, Todd Caldecott, Tiffany Paulsen, Tim Mirkovich
Studio: Paramount
Category: DVD
List Price: $9.98
Buy New: $3.92
You Save: $6.06 (61%)
Buy New/Used/Collectible from $2.84
Avg. Customer Rating:  (243 reviews)
Sales Rank: 21542
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), English (Subtitled)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD
Running Time: 100 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: PARD322984D
ISBN: 0792180321
UPC: 097363229841
EAN: 9780792180326
ASIN: B000069I0C
Release Date: September 3, 2002
Theatrical Release Date: July 28, 1989
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
A passing boat bound for new york pulls jason along for the ride. Look out new york here comes hell in a hockey mask. Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 08/22/2006 Starring: Todd Shaffer Scott Reeves Run time: 100 minutes Rating: R Director: Rob Hedden
Amazon.com
Start spreadin' the news... Jason Voorhees, the cleaver-hoisting man in the hockey mask, has finally left Crystal Lake behind and taken his vagabond shoes to the Big Apple. Actually, Jason spends most of his time on a cruise ship bound for Manhattan, carving up the unluckiest high school graduation party ever. You'd think the change of scenery might breathe new life, or death, into the series, but chapter 8 is standard stalk 'em and slash 'em fare, albeit with a nautical slant. The title hints at a comic tone, but except for the one-joke idea that Jason fits right into the menacing urban scene, forget it. (The comedy would wait until the surprisingly entertaining Jason X.) This one does have a pretty leading lady, Jensen Daggett, whose visions of the young drowned Jason are occasionally creepy. The grown-up Jason, like "these little-town blues," is melting away. --Robert Horton
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| Customer Reviews: Read 238 more reviews...
 Could have been the best in the series. Never moves outside the lines enough to get there. November 20, 2008
Jason Takes Manhattan (Rob Hedden, 1989)
Back in the day, I actually had some small amount of hope for Jason Takes Manhattan. The trailers made it look as if this was finally the Friday the 13th movie that was going to not take itself seriously and finally head over into the realm of comedy. Yes, fool that I am, I really believed that. If you can find the original trailers on Youtube, watch them and tell me I'm wrong. They play up the one-liners ("There's a maniac trying to kill us!" "Welcome to New York.") and give no indication whatsoever that this is going to be just another run-of-the-mill Friday the 13th film. So, yes, I had hope. More fool me.
The plot: Jason finds his way onto a cruise ship sailing to New York and does what Jason does best. Then, when the survivors get to New York, Jason tracks them down, though he also has various levels of street trash to wade through as well.
Yeah, it's your typical Friday the 13th movie, though with both Jensen Daggett and Kelly Hu emerging from this cast, in retrospect it had the most starpower going for it than any Friday film since the original. But this is a Friday film, and so the actors therein seem almost coached to give bad performances. (Never has this been more in evidence than in the case of Mark Richman in this film--one of television's most recognizable character actors falls just about flat here.) You'd never know from watching this they'd both go on to have successful careers, but there you go.
About the best I can say is that if you like the Friday the 13th series, this one (unlike the film that came after it) is not likely to put you off. If you're not a fan, this one isn't going to change your mind. *
Surreal Jason November 11, 2008
Ok, the Friday the 13th series is probably my favorite movie series ever created. What's weird is that my favorite all time movie series also has within it's numbers one of my most hated movies ever. The movie i'm speaking of is of course none other than this turkey, Friday the 13th Part VIII Jason Takes Manhattan. More like Jason hangs out in Vancouver doing a poor job subbing for Manhattan for the last 20 or so minutes of the film. Whatever. This is the same series that said the 4th one was the final chapter so i'm not going to nit-pick on this. What I will gripe about are the bloodless deaths, terrible acting, inane dialogue, and complete lack of any sort of semblance of plot structure. Jason kills teenagers on a cruise headed for Manhattan. Jason chases the survivors in Manhattan. Jason is vanquished. Easy and painless. I've dealt with worse plots and in the same series (ahem Part V ahem) and still enjoyed the hell out of the film. Part VII though does a perfect job destroying my will. The acting is deplorable even for this series, they must have literally grabbed high school drop outs off of the street cleaned them up put them in front of the camera and gave them cue cards to read. That can be the only way I could wrap my head around these acting performances. I'm watching this movie right now and here is an example of one stellar scripted exchange: There are weapons laid out on the floor and everyone grabs one except Julius who stares intently. One guy asks, "what's up Julius you're not taking a weapon?" Julius replies, "No" he then pauses dramatically for about 10 seconds.........and exclaims, "except this gun!!". Wow. I am dumb-founded. This director must have been doing something in between takes to allow crap like this to make it into the final print. Either that or he just didn't care because he knew no matter what Part VII of any series is going to be stretching it. He was right to nap on this one except for one problem: he wrote the script! So this idiot has no one to blame but himself. He wrote himself into this mess. I also want to punch whatever executive at Paramount thought it was a good idea to ditch the classic Friday score and sub in generic rock instrumentals and truly bad 80's title music. It's laughable. Even the way Jason is resurrected is hokey and laugh out lout bad. At least the movie lets you know in the first minute or two how crappy it is going to be. The MPAA really hit this one hard as well and that certainly didn't help my views on this one. The movie is fulled with cutaways and aftermath shots and no real gore to speak of. I think this has the distinction of being the most bloodless Friday film. That's just the icing on the cake to me. Part VII sucked really bad too but at least it had decent kills and Kane Hodder running amok. Kane even looks tired in this one like he knew what kind of crap he was participating in. At least this movie put an end to Paramount's mis-treating of this franchise and allowed to go to New Line for a creative revival with Jason Goes to Hell.
There are a couple of positives though because it is a Friday movie it can't be all bad. There is one cool set piece kill where Jason stalks one of the teens in the disco-techque on board the ship. That scene is also famous for introducing us to magical teleporting Jason! Yes, i forgot to mention Jason teleports in this one. I kid you not. Why he does this I will never know but he does it throughout the film and everytime he does it makes me sigh in disbelief. See I tried to get positive and I just don't think it's possible here. Ok, I thought the main girl was really cute when she wasn't making me cringe with her crapt-tastic acting. On a nostaligc note, this was the first Friday film I ever saw so I think that's only reason I can ever watch this thing. If you're a Friday newbie I suggest you save this one for last, you'll be happy you did. For completists only.
Far and away the worst film in the series November 8, 2008
Jason's my main man, and you know that - but Friday the 13th Part VIII - Jason Takes Manhattan is absolutely horrible in just about every way imaginable. It is far and away the worst film in the entire series. I simply have nothing good to say about this film. The only way I can even stomach its existence is to theorize that Freddy vs. Jason (New Line Platinum Series) might never have been made were it not for this cinematic atrocity. In other words, had this film not been such a flop at the box office (earning little more than fourteen million dollars), Paramount might never have sold the franchise to New Line Cinema, and I don't think we would ever have seen a battle royale between Jason and Freddy had the two slasher icons not been brought together under the same network.
Warning: beware of plot holes and inconsistencies of gigantic proportions. I won't even bother to tell you how Jason gets resurrected from the bottom of Crystal Lake yet again because it is extremely hokey. Suffice it to say that Jason's back, and this time he makes his way onboard a ship full of graduating seniors headed for a visit to New York City. As luck would have it, Rennie Wickham (Jensen Daggett) defies her uncle's wishes and decides to come along - despite her intense fear of water (which may or may not have something to do with Jason). Her uncle (Charles McCulloch) is one of the school's teachers and the man in charge of the big trip to the Big Apple - and he is an insufferable, stuck-up bore with some serious control issues when it comes to his guardianship of Rennie, whom he took in to his home after her parents were killed in a car wreck some years earlier. Guess what happens? Jason gets to work killing everyone on board the ship, and then he goes after the small band of survivors who manage to find a dock and escape into and under the mean streets of the Big Apple.
Even Kane Hodder was unable to show the least bit of inspiration or excitement in his work as Jason this time around. The whole film is just surreal, partly because it takes Jason out of his natural element, but mostly because the script is awful, the cinematography is awful, the acting is awful, and the ending is just ridiculously lame. I don't know what writer/director Rob Hedden had going through his head during filming. You have a dog that disappears and then reappears with no explanation, Rennie periodically sees vision of a young Jason trying to reach out for her, pointing to a past connection that would never fit into any possible Friday the 13th timeline, and the ending is just plain stupid. Then there's the soundtrack featuring some of the worst music I've ever heard in my life. Between that and the female actresses' hairstyles, I just have to hope and pray that young people today and in the future don't pick up this film and start to think it represents even the first thing about life in the glorious 1980s - or the otherwise sound Friday the 13th series as a whole.
 How many times are you going to come back Jason? October 29, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Due to diminishing returns this would be the last go around for Jason through Paramount studios. With about a 14 million dollar take at the box office (if calculated to this date by inflation it would be around 30 - 40 million dollars today) it did not do too well. So Paramount sold the rights to another studio.
This movie was an attempt to take Jason in a whole new direction. This time he was taken out of his home (and sometimes resting place) in Crystal Lake and to the most infamous of cities - Manhattan. And the results? Sometimes the movie works well and sometimes it doesn't.
Jason is revived from his watery grave yet again. He murders a young couple and is soon on his way out of the confines of Crystal Lake (has anyone stopped to figure out how to stop Jason by now? S.W.A.T. team? Government? President? Military?) He finds a large boat that has a group of graduating High School students going for a cruise. And he decides to hop aboard for unknown reasons.
Once aboard it doesn't take Jason long to get back into what he knows best. The voyage is pretty much doomed to say the least. The boat is headed for New York and one of the most famous and infamous cities in the world meets one of the world's most infamous serial killers.
I thought this movie was kind of entertaining. Not great, but at least it kept things interesting. Although trying to figure out the ending will be a whole 'nother animal. There were some funny, albeit brief, moments of humor in this movie. The meeting of Jason and Manhattan, New York is up for debate as to whether it was something to behold or not. Jason does do some murdering and creates some havoc while there. But was there enough of it to satisfy most casual viewers?
All in all, this movie does take Jason in a new direction. And a final direction under one studio. It was the last time Jason and Paramount and would team up. Why not give him a vacation in New York? He did deserve a well needed rest from his usual 9 - 5 in Crystal Lake after all.
 Better Than Woody Allen Vs. Manhattan October 12, 2008
Before this nifty slasher was released there wasn't a good movie to date that featured Manhattan as a backdrop and that includes 'Woody Allen Vs.Manhattan' (known simply as 'Manhattan' overseas) it is true that both films share similar plots (and Yes Allen's does predate this) but 'Jason Takes Manhattan' improves upon Allen's one trick pony filmic style. Sure it is just as formulaic as Allen's own films but damn if it isn't hilarious, touching, thought provoking and horrifying! High School senior Rennie is taking a cruise for her school trip but she is scared of water and hopes that the boat doesn't sink. She is shown to be scared of water through a very long series of flashbacks that show her Uncle Charles trying to drown her for some reason and also for some reason (or no good reason, you be the judge) there's a little boy at the bottom of the water when she's drowning with a warped face which is the only part of the movie that I didn't get which is made even more confusing by the fact that they always flash to the weird kid when they show Jason. Why do they do that? The plot is confusing enough, some girl is black mailing her teacher (who looks just like Uncle Charles) for a good grade in school, another girl wants to be a rock star and some dude falls on a spike! Do we really need a weird kid that shadows Jason added into this 'Altmanesque' ensemble of characters? Also there's an aging Ship Captain who gets his throat slit blodlessly, a struggling boxer and a cokehead blonde who is a twin of the whore that is blackmailing the teacher. All of this in ninety minutes not to mention a film geek with a camera stuck to his face and some dude in a hockey mask that is in love with Rennie and wants to kill everyone else on the ship so they can be alone but then the ship sinks and they are forced to go to Manhattan. Wow, what a movie!
A majority of the film takes place on the boat which was a very clever move on Director Rob Hedden's part, to name a film 'Jason Takes Manhattan' then really have Jason take a cruise ship instead. So anyway some dude dies in a sauna related accident, and some girl dies off screen from that flashback kid in the hockey mask and some other girl gets killed by Jason (who also wears a hockey mask but is NOT the kid in the flashback) because she is on the dance floor. After the ship hits an ice burg the remaining crew (Rennie, Uncle Charles, Struggling Boxer and Sean) did I mention Sean? S*** I forgot Sean, I also forgot to mention the guy with the big hair that got stabbed with a spear gun and his guts came out. So Sean is the guy in the jean jacket that Rennie loves and he likes her because he gave her a fake gold necklace of the Eiffel tower (WTF? they're going to NYC!) and his Dad is the Capt. that got his throat slit by a hand from off screen and Sean found his dad dead but didn't seem to be too upset, hey, he also found his bff impaled on a spike and seemed cool with that too, what is with this guy?
So they hit an ice burg but it was cool because they were like five minutes away from Manhattan and they went there but Jason, The Flashback Kid AND The Falshback Kid in grown up hockey mask form (NOT Jason) all show up too and are all separately responsible for finishing off everyone except Rennie and Sean who wind up in Times Square and both seem pretty cool considering they just watched everyone they know get slaughtered by three different Mad Men. Rennie also conquered her fear of water even though she was briefly kidnapped by two heroin junkies.
Suck it Woody Allen! This film was able to capture your simplistic visual style, quotable dialogue, complex characters and relatable situations and one upped you by adding multiple villains and endless bloodshed to make it a far more rewarding and entertaining experience and it also wasn't in Black and White.
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