Freddy Krueger versus Jason Voorhees. What else do I have to say?
First, let me say a couple of things. There are a number of horror/slasher film series out there that are considered classic. Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Child's Play, Hellraiser, Evil Dead, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and to a lesser degree, Children of the Corn and Scream. Now, of these series, I have only seen the first Friday the 13th, none of the Nightmares, the first Child's Play, none of the Hellraisers, all of the Evil Dead (among my favorite movies ever), none of the Massacres, the first Children of the Corn (Stephen King), and all of the Screams.
Now, what all that has to do with this review is simple: I'm not a big slasher fan. But, I wanted to see this clash of the horror/pop icons. Possibly, just for the reason that they were exactly that: pop icons. However, I went into this movie knowing two things: this movie was going to be both great and awful at he same time. By that, I mean as a movie, it would dreck, badly written and acted, but despite that, I would be beside myself in glee at the carnage and the very idea of these two meeting.
And, I was not dissapointed. On either account. The plot is pretty basic: Freddy has been forgotten. So, he ressurects Jason one more time to kill on Elm Street to make the poeople remember the name Freddy Krueger. However, Jason starts taking away Freddy's thunder. And victims. This leads to the epic clash the title promises. And what a battle it is.
Some specifics: the first victim, actually a hallucination used by Freddy, is a naked, skinny-dipping girl. Very nice. One of the later victims, whose boyfriend is killed by Jason early on, is taking a shower as the boy is killed. When she has her clothes on, she's a B-cup, no more. We see 'her' in the shower, naked, no face showing, and she's suddenly a D-cup. That was possibly the worst use of a body double ever. It's like somebody figured Pam Anderson could stand in for Gwyneth Paltrow adequatly.
Nudity aside, the creepy factor is low, but the gore factor is high. And, its funny. I now feel the need to rent all 7 or 8 Nightmare movies and see if Robert Englund is as funny as he is here.
The dialogue is so bad, it made me sick. I wanted to slap the screenwriters. One of the people I saw the film with said "The dialogue in Terminator 3 was worse." No, that was Shakespeare compared to this. But, the battle, and it is a battle, is definatly worth sitting through that for. They beat the everlovin shit out each other. And in the end, Freddy gets stabbed by his own dismembered arm (so awesome!) and is decapitated. Jason, as it should be, drowns in his home of Crystal Lake. Sorry for ruining the end, but you had to of known that it would be something of a draw. You can't pick a winner out of these two icons. And the rumor is next time: Ash from Evil Dead will be joining the party. That would be fun, or as Ash would say "Groovy!"
Anyway, this movie gets rated differently. 1 out of 5 stars for actual movie quality. 4 out of 5 stars for pure enjoyment. Wow, it gets a 5. That's better than most critics gave it. And folks, it made 36 million dollars on opening weekend. Twice what SWAT, the #2 film, made. Not too shabby for a regular old horror sequel.