Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan is a better one out of the second half of the series. In this movie, Jason finds himself a stowaway on a cruise ship full of high schoolers bound for New York City. He slaughters his way around the ship, and when it ends up docking, he chases the final few survivors around New York. This as as good as you're going to get in the fatally flawed Friday series, so I suggest anyone that watches this movie just watch and enjoy without worrying about how unrealistic and hokey it is.
Kane Hodder, who played the best Jason, really took hold of the role in this movie. I'd give him credit for Part 7, but that movie sucked the big one. The other actors are okay for this movie, though naturally, it's not great. The plot and dialogue are also alright for this kind of movie. Like I say, this isn't the best movie in the series, but it's the only later one that I can say I was entertained by. Jason enters the realm of comic relief in this entry in two very funny scenes. One where he smashes through a box holding up some thug's boom box. The thug stands up to fight, and Jason turns and lifts his mask, scaring the thug off. The second where a guy is punching Jason in the face to no avail, and then Jason punches his head clear off his shoulders.
The one thing that bothered me about this entry is that the title is the most misleading title you'll ever see. When I first rented this, I was expecting the whole movie to be in New York. No, instead we have to sit through a long boring boat ride until the last 10 minutes of the movie when Jason finally sets foot on Manhattan Island. All in all an okay entry, but it's not great.
5/10
