Quick Look: Freddy Vs. Jason (2003)

People in the Movie: Robert Englund, Ken Kirzinger
Director: Ronny Yu
Pigeonhole: Horror / Satire / Slasher / "Comedy"

In a Nutshell: Freddy Krueger (Englund) remains in hell since he was killed by his daughter in 'Freddy's Dead'.  He wants out so he can get back to terrorizing teenagers, however, he has no 'power' as it seems all the people in Springwood, Ohio have forgotten about him.  Freddy decides to scare the town straight by "convincing" Jason Voorhees (Kirzinger), who is also in hell, to go kill teenagers on Elm Street so the people will fear that Freddy is back (since there will be no witnesses to who is actually committing the murders) and thereby giving him back his ability to enter the dream world.  Jason begins his mass murder spree and Freddy gets his powers back - one big problem though: Jason is not going to stop his killings, which is taking away Freddy's potential victims, so inevitably, as the title suggests, the two horror movie icons fight it out.  Caught in the middle of this battle are a glut of horror movie stereotypical numb-skull teens, most of which perish, much to the audience's delight.

Recommendation: If you like or both of these series or characters, you should see this.  It is very tounge-in-cheek and I cannot even really call it scary.  'R' rating is for horror movie violence and splatter, language, sexuality, underage drinking and drug use.

Let's be honest, you do not watch a movie titled 'Freddy vs. Jason' expecting anything other than high quality humor.  Beyond figuring out a way to get these characters on screen together, I really have to compliment the job done to pay homage to many of the previous movies in both the Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th series, either with similar scenes, diaglouge, or plot elements.  It is a fun challenge to watch this film and try to remember exactly where, when, and who was involved in the similar previous incident.
The movie does "seem" to focus a little more on Freddy and less on Jason.  I personally had no problem with this, considering that Jason, in general, is more of mindless killer, where Freddy did actually contribute to dialouge and offer a "little more" to the plot development of his respective movies.  But, I do feel that it is worth noting the imbalance towards Freddy, as far plot goes.  On the flip side, Jason is responsible for all but one of the killings - so I guess one could say "things even out".
Playing one of teen victims is Kelly Rowland, of Destiny's Child.  Jason Ritter, (John Ritter's son) is also one of the other characters.

Extras:
- The last film with Robert Englund portraying Freddy Krueger, as of this writing.
- There were at least 18 drafts of this film going back to 1987 before the final product came together.
- There were multiple different endings considered, my favorite of which would have been Freddy and Jason, after a prolonged fight, being snagged with chains, with Pinhead appearing to ask "Now what seems to be the problem?"