Of all the "Friday the 13th" movies -- and I think there were 19 or 20 or them -- "Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes
Manhattan" probably annoyed me the most. And that's really saying something, too, considering Part 6 gave me the dry heaves and Part 5 killed my dad. Part 8 has the alluring title of "Jason Takes Manhattan," which causes one to think of so many wonderful things. At last, Jason will be out of the woods and in civilization! New York is a crazy place; will anyone even notice him? Jason is a guy who kills (or tries to kill) every person he sees. How will he react in a city with several million people? The mind reels at the possibilities. We've sat through seven crappy movies so far; now, finally, there might be some pay-off, some reason to have learned so much about the automated killing machine we call Jason. And then ... Jason doesn't actually GET to Manhattan until more than an hour of the film has passed. And when he does arrive, he spends 20 minutes chasing kids through a deserted part of town that could be ANY city. We only get a few minutes of "only in New York" material, and it's all at a point in the movie when no one cares anymore, i.e., the end. It's the ol' bait-and-switch. We're lured in with promises of Manhattan mayhem, and all we get is more of the same stupid stuff.
To read the rest of this review, click on the relevant link below.