Friday the 13th, Part V - A New Beginning

Buy This Item Friday the 13th, Part V - A New Beginning  List Price: $9.98  Available from Amazon  $8.49  on 12-7-2008     Features Actors: Anthony Barrile, Suzanne Bateman, Dominick Brascia, Todd Bryant, Curtis Conaway Directors: Danny Steinmann Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC Language: English, French Subtitles: English Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.) Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Number of discs: 1 Rating: Studio: Paramount DVD Release Date: September 25, 2001 Run Time: 92 minutes Average Customer Review:   194 Reviews 5 star:  (40) 4 star:  (36) 3 star:  (43) 2 star:  (39) 1 star:  (36) See all 194 customer reviews...   (194 customer reviews) Reader Reviews Friday the 13th: A New Beginning is one of the installments that normally takes a beating from the fans. Most people seem to bash the movie based on the fact Jason isn't the killer. But let's break it down a bit. Jason is the main focus of the series, even in the original his character is the driving force of the events that came to be. By this time though we had 3 movies with Jason and I understand why some fans get upset. The funny thing is a lot of people bash these movies for being the same exact thing, but when something different is tried it gets bashed for that. Go figure. The problem with franchises is after the 2nd installment you have to keep the same formula and can't stray too much therefore after a certain amount of sequels it's just a rehash. But I just don't get the hate for A New Beginning. I enjoyed Halloween 3, but ok fine I get why people hate that movie since it has nothing to do with the previous 2, but A New Beginning continues the story and never strays from the formula that made the Friday the 13th franchise so popular. If Jason had been the killer in the movie honestly what would have changed? The only difference would be the final act. Some of the damage the killer took, Jason would be able to handle. But remember this; different director and possibly a different take on Jason. The final few minutes though would have been totally different. Can everyone honestly tell me those 5-15-min would have made what so many people call a terrible a movie to a horror classic? I think not. Granted a solid final act can maybe salvage the movie, but in no way will it make the movie great. What came before cannot be erased. Having Jason as the killer really wouldn't have changed the majority of the movie. We have a killer in a hockey mask. That is exactly what we would have gotten with Jason as the killer. Only some of the final act would be different and as I stated before a different director might have a different take on what damage Jason could take. A New Beginning has a high body count and nudity the gore though is lacking, but what you already saw in the first 4 movies are here as well; same concept with different characters. As for the movie itself A New Beginning does have its fair share of flaws. The screenplay by Martin Kitrosser, David Cohen & Danny Steinmann is rather weak. None of the Friday the 13th movies in general are known for their brilliant scripts, but as of this point in the series this was probably the weakest. The idea on the other hand was one of the better ones. I felt the writers didn't put enough focus on possible suspects. Outside of really Tommy Jarvis nobody else was really a suspect and when adding mystery in, well you need the mystery. While the script isn't the worst you can find it's just a bit weak with some decent ideas that aren't explored enough as a whole though it gets the job sort of done. Martin Kitrosser also happened to be one of the writers for Friday the 13th Part III. As much as I loved that movie, like this one there were great ideas. It seems the writers were halfway there with a plot, but just didn't finish it up. The script as I said is weak, but has one of the better ideas of the series. Besides the character of Jason, this was the first time a survivor from a previous movie returned with a large part, Alice only had a brief cameo in Friday the 13th Part II. I thought that was an interesting idea brining back the Tommy Jarvis character. A New Beginning is very much Tommy's story, but the funny thing is of all the main characters Tommy has the least amount of lines I don't even think he put together a full sentence. The idea of the Tommy character was a good one. I like how it's showed how he has been affected by the events of The Final Chapter. But I also feel it was a missed opportunity; Tommy moping around looking angry and on the verge of going insane at any moment grows old quickly. The character stays the same for the whole movie he wasn't developed at all. The twist with Tommy was fairly predictable, but at least the character sort of went somewhere, though in Jason Lives the ending is ignored making it pointless now. Bottom line is the lack of suspects really hurt the movie, and it was fairly obvious to me Tommy wasn't the killer. While if he was it could have very well worked, but it would be the too obvious choice, in the end like I said the who the killer is doesn't come as a shock due to the what I felt was the dead giveaway, but besides that more focus is put on Tommy and you know it just won't be him. Danny Steinmann also directs and at times seems to get some things right, but other times he's way off. About the whole killer angle, Steinmann pretty much gives it away the first time we come across the killer, the look he gave the camera I felt was a pretty much dead giveaway. In general the Friday the 13th movies are looked down upon, but honestly I thought the first four were actually fairly well done. While you can find better horror flicks, they are better than the reputation they often get. There was some good tension and suspense and the filmmakers all aimed to make a scary and suspenseful movie. I'm sure Danny Steinmann tried the same, but it just doesn't work quite as well. He never really uses his setting to his advantage and the killer just shows up and you are dead. I felt like the kill scenes were rushed. In my opinion it's not so much the kill scenes that scare us or leave us in suspense it's the build up to them. If done a certain way the murder itself can be quite scary, but the set up is probably the most important. I just felt like there was no true set up and I never really felt much tension through any scene during the movie. I don't think Danny Steinmann did a terrible job he just does it by the books and delivers your standard by the book stalk and slash movie. Not every character is gonna get a big elaborate chase scene; for starters it would make the movie too long and lets face it come a certain time it's gonna grow old. But set ups on the kill scenes were a big reason why A New Beginning falls flat at times. From a visual side A New Beginning isn't very good; the zoom INS really look cheap even more so when used in a kill scene. I personally found this movie rather badly shot at times. If you are looking for gore you'll find very little of that in A New Beginning. The Friday the 13th movies were known for their cuts to the kill scenes, but I'm not sure how that affected this movie. Either way this one has the least amount of gore at this point of the series, but also has one of the highest body counts of the series, so in the end it works out well. Though despite those flaws A New Beginning isn't a total waste; the fans are a bit harsh on this one, but it's really not a terrible movie. The characters while not fully developed aren't bad. Actually those are the few scenes I think Danny Steinmann got right, while on paper they are a bit lacking, Steinmann is able to give them a little personality through just a shot or a certain movement the characters had. Obviously the characters main purpose are to die, but isn't that the case with most slasher movies? These characters may not be as interesting or likeable as some past characters, but there are some that became fan favorites. The acting is your typical performances you normally find in these movies, but for the record I just wanna say that while some of the actors in this series were a bit lousy I don't find the acting as bad as people say. Come on these are slasher movies what do you really expect a Robert De Niro type performance? The actors in this one for the most part got the job done. Violet played by Tiffany Helm was one of the more likeable characters of the series. She's not the only likeable character in the movie though. The character of Tommy Jarvis now played by John Sheppard was an interesting character as I stated earlier. I like how they brought him back and show what has become of him since his encounter with Jason. My only problem is the lack of dialogue. I get the point of the character, but one word answers through out the movie does get a bit annoying at times. Ethel played by Carol Locatell was a riot! In my opinion she steals the show. I found the character to be hysterical and she really brings a lot of life to the movie. Pam played by Melanie Kinnaman was my favorite character in the movie. I thought Pam was an excellent heroine I wish the material could have been a little better and I think she would get more respect from the fans. When all is said and done Friday the 13th: A New Beginning isn't the trash that it has been made out to be. By this time the Friday the 13th formula was wearing thin and A New Beginning offers a slight change to that. The biggest reason this movie is hated is for the lack of Jason. As I said before I'll say it again; even with Jason the movie would have been the same exact thing until the final few minutes and again if the movie was that bad, those final few minutes wouldn't have made this movie any better.  Comments (19) | Permalink |  function showYesNoCommunityResponse(uId,result,value) { var msgLayer = getElement("thanks" + uId); if ( result == "SUCCESS" ) { msgLayer.innerHTML = "Thanks for the valuable feedback you provided to other Amazon.com readers and reviewers. Your vote will be counted and will appear on the product page within 24 hours."; } else { showVoteErrorResponse(msgLayer,result,value); } } (Report this)

Friday the 13th, Part V - A New Beginning List Price: $9.98 Available from Amazon Price: $8.49 Updated on 12-7-2008.

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