Friday the 13th

CHICAGO – There were a disturbing number of remakes in 2011 that failed to justify their existence, including “The Thing,” “Footloose,” and, perhaps worst of all, Marcus Nispel’s “Conan the Barbarian.” The man behind the equally worthless remakes of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and “Friday the 13th” has carved out his own niche of dubious filmmaking decisions that make the original look like a masterpiece in comparison. The first “Conan” worked almost entirely because of the star power brought to it by Ah-nuld. The words star power and Jason Momoa have never been used together in a sentence before now.

CHICAGO – The reboot of “Friday the 13th” was another financially successful notch in the belt of Platinum Dunes, the film company behind the remakes of “Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” “The Hitcher,” and “The Amityville Horror”. Making $90 million worldwide and more domestically than any previous Jason Voorhees movie (that didn’t include Freddy Krueger), “Friday the 13th” has a following that will be ecstatic with the excellent Blu-Ray release for the slasher title.

CHICAGO – Your reaction to Marcus Nispel’s “Friday the 13th” is likely to depend on how nostalgically you remember the original and how you reacted to producer Michael Bay’s “remakes” of “The Amityville Horror,” “The Hitcher,” and “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”.

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Chelsea (Willa Ford) discovers Jason (Derek Mears) watching her from the shores of Crystal Lake.

CHICAGO – This 29-image slideshow contains the official press images for “Friday the 13th,” which was directed by Marcus Nispel and features Jared Padalecki, Danielle Panabaker, Willa Ford, Aaron Yoo, Amanda Righetti, Travis Van Winkle, America Olivo and Derek Mears as Jason. The Warner Brothers Pictures release opens on Friday, February 13th, 2009.

Blu-Ray Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Every time a movie gets remade, you can expect the original to appear in some varying degree of “special” edition on the home market. A week-and-a-half from the Michael Bay produced and Marcus Nispel remake of “Friday the 13th,” Paramount has unleashed deluxe editions of the original on Blu-Ray and the first two sequels on DVD.

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Helen Mirren as Elinor, Brendan Fraser as Mo, Rafi Gavron as Farid, Eliza Bennett as Meggie, and Paul Bettany as Dustfinger in the fantasy adventure Inkheart, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. Photo by Murray Close

CHICAGO – Warner Brothers has released a slate of images from their entire 2009 schedule of films, the first half of which are included in a 25-image slideshow below. The second half of the 2009 Warner Brothers slate will be posted a week from today, January 19th, 2009.

CHICAGO – The “mumblecore” movement, which is the made-on-digital-video movie revolution, has two significant practitioners: filmmaker brothers Mark Duplass and Jay Duplass.