(Reviewed by Crazy Ralph) - I've heard many things about "The New Beginning", that it's a bad movie, the worst in the series and some say it's the black sheep of the series, but honestly, I don't think it's half that bad and I consider it the set up for 'Jason Lives' (My Favorite in the series)

The Plot:

Young Tommy Jarvis, a survivor of a brutal massacre performed by Dr. Jason Voorhess M.D. (That was a joke) is sent to a secluted halfway house out in the boondocks with many other troubled youths. After a disturbed man named Vic hacks away at the annoying over-weight and good hearted Joey, a fellow troubled youth, many people around the town begin to fall victim to a masked maniac!

The Goods:

Tommy Jarvis is the Laurie Strode of the Friday the 13th films, except he doesn't have a nice rack like Jamie Lee Curtis. For the first time in this series they return a character from the previous film without killing him in the first five minutes of the film (see 'Friday the 13th part 2'). Tommy makes up for a good nemesis for Jason. Tommy in this film, played by John Sheppard, is the perfect adult version of the character realism wise. Tommy was a child when Jason slaughtered his care free teenage neighbors, the mysterious hitchiker(Sandra from pt 2's bro) his dog and even his mom and attempted his big sis before Tommy went psycho and killed Jason himself, that's enough to fuck up anyone, I don't care who you are. John Sheppard, aside from being a good fighter (as seen in this film) played an older Tommy to perfection.

The supence and mystery of this film was incredible, I found myself on the edge of the seat when i first viewed this film, almost like a who dunnit, you were very curious to see if this was really Jason or not and if it is, how'd he return from the dead. They gave us some suspects, mostly pointing the finger at Tommy, while I pointed the middle finger at Ethal(The Crazy Ralph wannabe bitch hick..but thats for later)

Reggie was also surprising only because I hate child actors. I hate Haley Joel Osment, I hate Jake Lloyd ect, ect. I found the kid who played Reggie to be a very good actor, at least in this film.

And Finally, the Feel of this film. The story goes back to the first film, I'm not going to avoid spoilers, cause if anyone of us hasn't seen this film, shouldn't be in this section. Roy Burns, the weird paramedic avenging his dead son neatly parallells(sp?) the first films story and motivation. While Part 3 did homage the first film visually and obviously, this one pays homage in the story, which makes it good for the effort.

The Bads:

The pointless kills, I mean...I can understand why, in a small way, Roy Burns seeks vengeance against the people at the halfway house, but why the two kids on the side of the road trying to start up their car? why Lana from the diner and her coked out boyfriend and Reggies Brother? Reggies brother was a ploy used to make people suspect troubled Tommy, but why everyone else?

The ending, what the fuck? were they trying to set up Tommy as the next killer? that's too bad. If they wanted that so much, why not have him be the killer in this one. what good did this one do to set up a sequel with Tommy behind the mask? If you ask me, that was a could have been from the ending of "Final Chapter" it's too late now for anyone to really give a shit, like we did with Tommy's evil last look from the previous film.

The score, how I hate Manfredini...Nuff' said.

The Uglys:

Ethal, Junior and the Guy Looking for work were a complete waste. There was no need for them in this film, I guess Ethal was a lame attempt to get a newer version of my god and hero Crazy Ralph, but they failed miserably and I contimplated suicide many times while she or her idiot son were on screen, it as that painful, except the scene were Tommy kicks the shit out of Junior, I cheered like I was watching my favorite football team win.

Joey, he was annoying. Nuff Said. "Fine, be that way..." oh shut the fuck up man! goddamn he sucked ass.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10