Date: January 6, 2004

Source: MSNBC Entertainment

Posted by : Steph1138

This from MSNBC,

"The horror, the horror
Freddy Krueger versus Jason Voorhees in a fight to the finish. Let’s hope it’s the finish anyway. This dreadful conglomeration of horror clichés and non-thrills is the brainchild of New Line Cinema, which figured it could combine two successful slasher franchises into one bloodthirsty extravaganza, the result being beaucoup box office. It succeeded on that level — it reportedly grossed $80 million domestically — but it fails at every other.The problem is, these types of pictures have nowhere to go, because the genre is so oversaturated with mundane mayhem that fails to connect on any logical storytelling level. It’s just an excuse to trot out familiar characters in overly familiar situations in the hopes of scaring the daylights out of dimwitted teenagers.At least this two-disk package has enough in the way of extras to keep horror fans busy long after the final slash is administered in the feature. Disk One has both widescreen and fullscreen versions of the film, plus commentary by director Ronny Yu (whose previous claim to fame was helming “Bride of Chucky,” so you know he had a lot to live up to here) and a menu that allows you to “Jump to a Death” for those viewers who would rather not be bothered with the mechanics of the deeply complex screenplay. Disk Two has deleted or alternate scenes, also with commentary, behind-the-scenes featurettes, storyboards and photo galleries, the original theatrical trailer and a music video. There is also DVD-ROM stuff as well, including an item called “The Cutting Room Floor Edit Activity.” There had been 17 prior “Friday the 13th” and “Nightmare on Elm Street” productions before this one. Let’s hope the dead remain buried this time. Check out this special feature: For pure laughs, you can’t beat the “Development Hell” segment on Disk Two, in the mini-doc about the film’s evolution. Considering the seriousness with which the participants talk about the preparation and making of “Freddy vs. Jason,” you’d think this was a Fellini retrospective put out by the Criterion Collection people instead of a bloody gorefest done for the sole purpose of raking in dough. New Line Cinema ($29.95)."

Freddy vs. Jason DVD released January 13, 2004