After accidentally reading another movie critic?s review of a movie while skimming the net for animal?porn, I stumbled across a good idea. That critic takes a pen and notepad into the theater with him and takes notes while watching the movie. Since I have a terrible memory, I decided?it would be a big help for me to do the same. These are the notes I took:
Theater empty except for a few people sitting behind me. Apparently know each other, despite sitting on opposite aisles, are discussing grocery shopping, weather in other states, and phone rates.
I have free popcorn thanks to a $10 band card I bought from one of my employees. I don?t really like popcorn, yet I feel as though I have achieved a small victory. Abducted looks like another Bourne ripoff. Accidentally stuck napkin in mouth instead of popcorn.
Then the lights went fully out and I realized that I also don?t have a luxury that other critics have: private screenings. Not being able to write in the dark, I had to give up, so I?m just gonna have to wing this. Fright Night is pretty much a throwaway movie. Not a total waste of money, but?not far from it. Stick to a non-3D matinee viewing and you should leave feeling only slightly?murderous.
Fright Night is a remake of the 1985 um? classic? It?s the story of teenager Charley Brewster (Anton Yelchen), a young man struggling to keep his geeky past a secret from his new friends and hot girlfriend, Amy (with the not-so-hot name Imogen Poots). He lives with his single mother in Nevada, his father having abandoned them after discovering that sex causes babies. Things are seemingly going as Charley had planned until kids and families start randomly disappearing. Most are willing to chalk it up to them just up and leaving the Vegas area, which understandably arouses no suspicions. I?ve never been to Vegas and yet I can?t wait to leave there.
But then Adam,?one of Charley?s friends disappears, and another one of his geeky ex-friends,? Ed (McLovin), won?t let it go unnoticed and lets Charley know that he?s an a-hole for not caring.?He?s sure that Charley?s new neighbor Jerry (Colin Farrell)?is not only behind the disappearances, but that he?s also a vampire. Charley unfortunately doesn?t heed Ed?s warning and guess what??Ed pays the price. ?WTF? Ed pays the price?? you say? That?s right my children, life?s not fair.
Once Charley views videos?on Ed?s computer of Jerry NOT being visible while onscreen, he realizes too late that Ed was right: he is an a-hole.?Following up on?Ed?s work, he enlists the aid of an unwilling ally,? TV magician Peter Vincent (David Tennant). Vincent has an unusually large collection of vampire/werewolf/rapper weaponry, to such an extent that experts now consult him. I won?t be giving anything away by saying that the reason he has such a collection is that he, like a lot of us,?lost his parents to a?vampire as a child. He only survived by hiding. Care to guess which vampire turns out to be the one that killed his family? Let the vampire hunt begin!
Fright Night offers nothing new, but I will give it a thumbs up for restoring some credibility to vampires by making Jerry vicious and frightening. Recent movies such as Twilight; Still Twilight; and Isn?t It Dark YET? have rendered vampires into nothing more than fanged butterflies sprinkled with fairy dust. Colin Farrell is the one bright spot?in the entire flick and is, as Russell puts it, ?both menacing and smoldering? as the villainous bloodsucker.
Wait, I didn?t even see this movie. Are you sure that?s not what you think?
Let me read that part of the review over again? nope, says clearly that you said it, ?both menacing and smoldering?.
McLovin as Ed though, I?m not so sure about. I know in the original his part was that of an outsider and a weirdo too, so maybe it?s just his voice that bothers me. But the fight scene between he and Charley, more comical than scary, needed to be toned down a bit. I also don?t see the need to go old school and have Charley and Peter arm themselves to the hilt before the final battle: stakes, crosses, shotguns, a copy of War and Peace, etc. Admittedly, I haven?t done battle with a vampire, a few umpires maybe, but never a vampire, so maybe I?d feel differently if I were in their situation.
There were a couple of genuinely tense moments where I found myself concerned that my Raisinettes might not last through the whole movie, and Charley?s attempt to sneak a hot chick out of Jerry?s house undetected kept me on the edge of my seat. Other than that, a bit of a cheesy horror flick. Come to think of it, so was the original.
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Source: http://manicmoviegoer.wordpress.com/2011/08/21/movie-review-fright-night-2011/
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