I went to see "Friday The 13th" on Saturday and enjoyed myself immensely. The critics were a little too harsh, methinks. The re-make had all the bimbos and boners that one would expect from a slasher-horror flick, but they were all added lovingly, layer after layer, to the project. The pure camp of the later Jason movies – Jason X, anyone? – has mutated into something much more satisfying. Yes, we want to cheer the gruesome deaths, but you need a semblance of realism to make this scary as well as comic. I jumped more than I laughed – which I cannot say of the last, say half a dozen.
Among the realism is a simple assumption that marijuana is a staple among the next generation. Pot carries marginally less stigma than alcohol at this point. The puffing, like the sex, is not portrayed in some prurient way. It’s just there – like the now ubiquitous gay sex jokes among straight dudes. From American Beauty through Weeds and the Harold and Kumar series, let alone Pineapple Express, there’s no question to my mind that there’s a tectonic cultural shift out there. The law remains anomalous – as it does on gay questions. But the next generation is past this debate; and one wonders when the law will fully catch up.
