Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)

I just saw this one last summer so I thought I'd be more forgiving of it...but nope....it's awful and makes Part V look like Citizen Kane.

"Jason Takes Manhattan" is a real lofty title compared to what Jason ACTUALLY does in this film. Let's face it - the Muppets took Manhattan more than Jason does. In fact, looking at Jason's face - I'm wondering if he wasn't the Muppet that got left behind. This is more like "Jason Takes a Boatride".

This franchise has probably long since jumped the shark....but when you're taking cues from Crocodile Dundee (the whole fish out of water concept) - maybe it's time to hang it up.

The more Jason "dies" - the stronger he's getting too....Jason can now teleport! But Jason doesn't even get all the kills....camera guy shoots his friend (always make sure you're wearing your glasses before pulling the trigger), and even the lead final girl kills her teacher in a car crash....and - oh - half the kids go down with the ship.

I'm a sucker for films set in NYC - but it's obvious that all but a few minutes of the NYC scenes weren't actually filmed here. ("Here's a cheap spot to film - let's just throw a bunch of garbage in the streets - no one will notice.")

I did love the rocker J.J. (Joan Jett?)....who air guitars with an actual guitar & gets it way too soon. And how many times have we seen a terrible band and fantasized about impaling them with their own instruments? All the time, right?

Death by sauna rock is also great. But so many of these characters have all the time in the world to try to escape or run or make even an ATTEMPT at fighting back - but nope - too many times they just sit, watch, scream & wait a minute to be killed. I'm not sure if that's Jason killing someone, or simply "suicide by Jason".

To their credit, attempts at humor were made. Jason seeing the hockey billboard might be my favorite single funny moment in any of the films. Jason scaring away the group of "punks" (because punks and skinheads always hung out in Times Square in the late-'80s....even though - if you're trying to be consistent with the timeline of the franchise, we should be sometime in the 2000s by now) by simply lifting up his mask. OK...that's some funny stuff.

There's a lot to slam this movie for....but I think you do the film an injustice by trying to go too deep with it. And that's fine - if it's a fun watch - then all is forgiven....unfortunately - this really wasn't.

This was the final Friday the 13th film released by Paramount. At this point, we're at the end of the '80s, they sold the rights to New Line Cinema, and in many ways, a true end of the original era.