It seems that in the past couple of years vampires have become popular in our pop culture once again. Now we have the Twilight saga, numerous books, a TV show, and a new saga based on a book called Cirque Du Freak. Now, in my opinion, there's also another trend with these vampire shows/films...they STINK! Sorry Twilight fans but "Twilight" was one of the worst movies ever made. Well this trend continues on with John C. Reilly's new film, "Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant."
At the start of the film we see teenager Daren(Chris Massoglia) who has a great life and parents that seem to have his life all planned out for him. Then there's Steve his best friend who's the exact opposite. Steve is a bad influence that doesn't really care about his life and tries to drag Daren down with him. Soon the two friends receive a flier for a freak show coming to their town. At the show they see all kinds of weird people including a vampire named Larten Crepsley(John C. Reilly). After the show Daren steals Crepsely's spider which results in several things. Steve gets bitten which results in Daren pleading for help from Crepsley which results in Crepsely making a deal: The antidote in exchange for Daren becoming his assistant. This means that Daren must become a half-vampire. Soon after Daren embarks on a mysterious journey with Crepsley to find out his destiny.
As you might see from the paragraph above, the story itself is very interesting and has potential but instead it ends up being confusing and all over the place. Too many characters, though creative and unique, are introduced throughout this film and make it all the more hard to follow. It seems like there were too many things we have to comprehend in the film and everything was scattered. The main plot and concept of the whole saga isn't really revealed until three/fourths through the film so basically, "Vampire's Assistant" is setting itself up for a sequel. We see set-ups like this many times mostly in comic book films (X-Men, Spider-Man) where the first film is devoted to the back stories and origins of the main characters (the set-up film) and the sequel gets right to the action. That is the proper way to do set-up films. This film does it the wrong way focusing more on plot rather than character development and that is a large problem for the film.
That being said, the story for "Vampire's Assistant" is an interesting one and it is fun to see all of the "freaks" the are created for this story. Each one is creative with their shape, size, and even their personalities(an example of this is a teen who looks like a lizard, despite his deformity, he wants to be a rock star and tries to sell records at the shows). Like most vampire stories, we see several new powers the vampires posses like super spit and knock-out gas. All together, these things combine to show us a new world that is fun to see on screen.
Sadly, what helps bring this film down is the dialogue. The movie was filled with unneeded cursing, bad dialogue, and awkward moments which prevented the movie from being an entertaining action film. Also, the names of the characters are kind of disappointing and just plain weird. Some of the names are Mr. Tall, Mr. Tiny, the snake boy, etc.
The acting wasn't anything truly special, although I was impressed at how well John C. Reilly played his part. The action scenes were entertaining but the thing is, the things that I just mentioned only make up about half of what a good movie should include. Things like character development, plot, dialogue were absent in "Vampire's Assistant" and so this is what I have to say: "Cirque Du Freak"...a freak show indeed. I give it two stars out of five.
"Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant" has a running time of 108 minutes. The film is rated PG-13 for sequences of intense supernatural violence and action, disturbing images, thematic elements, and some language.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Friday, October 16, 2009
Zombieland in a Nutshell.
Occasionally, if I see a movie a week or two after it comes out I'll do what I'm calling a nutshell review which means that it will only be one or two paragraphs summarizing the film. My first nutshell review is the R-rated zombie flick, Zombieland.
Within the first five seconds of the film you see a zombie tear out a piece of human flesh and start devouring the person's insides. Then it flashes to all kinds of cannibalism with people being eaten, zombies being shot, people getting thrown out of their cars and splattering on the road...and that's just in the first five minutes. Yes, Zombieland is defiantly the most disgusting movie I've ever seen. But it had plenty of laughs, loads of great action and showed us a crazy world where in order to survive you have to "nut up or shut up."
In Zombieland we see two characters, Columbus and Tallahassee, who, we find out later on, are both looking for a family to not feel as alone in the apocalyptic world. However, at first, Tallahassee doesn't show it. Instead, he does all he can to kill all the zombies he can find in a number of different ways. Soon the two find two other girls that are on their way to California and eventually they decide to team up. Together they travel across the country fighting zombies and growing closer to each other and becoming a family. One of the last lines of the film were, "We had hope, we had each other."
This film had plenty of laughs throughout the entire film both physical and verbal. This film also featured the best actor cameos and one of the funniest scenes I've seen all year. The action was amazing. It was a truly fun film to watch. Just to give you a little taste...Most of you know the swing rides they have at all the fairs where you get into a chair, it lifts you up, and it swings you around right? Well in the climax, Tallahassee runs up, jumps on this ride holding on with one hand, and shooting zombies with a machine gun with the other. AMAZING!
The only downsides to this film to me was that, since I don't have a strong stomach, I felt disgusted with the first ten minutes of the film. Also, the movie was decorated with f-bombs and other cursing that was unnecessary. However, Zombieland was a great film that I won't mind spending money on when it comes out on DVD. 2 stars out of 4.
Zombieland is rated R for horror/violence, gore, and language. It has a running time of about 80 minutes.
Within the first five seconds of the film you see a zombie tear out a piece of human flesh and start devouring the person's insides. Then it flashes to all kinds of cannibalism with people being eaten, zombies being shot, people getting thrown out of their cars and splattering on the road...and that's just in the first five minutes. Yes, Zombieland is defiantly the most disgusting movie I've ever seen. But it had plenty of laughs, loads of great action and showed us a crazy world where in order to survive you have to "nut up or shut up."
In Zombieland we see two characters, Columbus and Tallahassee, who, we find out later on, are both looking for a family to not feel as alone in the apocalyptic world. However, at first, Tallahassee doesn't show it. Instead, he does all he can to kill all the zombies he can find in a number of different ways. Soon the two find two other girls that are on their way to California and eventually they decide to team up. Together they travel across the country fighting zombies and growing closer to each other and becoming a family. One of the last lines of the film were, "We had hope, we had each other."
This film had plenty of laughs throughout the entire film both physical and verbal. This film also featured the best actor cameos and one of the funniest scenes I've seen all year. The action was amazing. It was a truly fun film to watch. Just to give you a little taste...Most of you know the swing rides they have at all the fairs where you get into a chair, it lifts you up, and it swings you around right? Well in the climax, Tallahassee runs up, jumps on this ride holding on with one hand, and shooting zombies with a machine gun with the other. AMAZING!
The only downsides to this film to me was that, since I don't have a strong stomach, I felt disgusted with the first ten minutes of the film. Also, the movie was decorated with f-bombs and other cursing that was unnecessary. However, Zombieland was a great film that I won't mind spending money on when it comes out on DVD. 2 stars out of 4.
Zombieland is rated R for horror/violence, gore, and language. It has a running time of about 80 minutes.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Weekly Update
-Director Michael Bay announced yesterday on his website that Transformers 3 is now in production. Bay stated that they now have a story and that the film will be released in the summer of 2011. http://Rottentomatoes.com/, a popular movie site stated that this piece of news is their "Rotten Idea of the Week.) Hmm, I wonder why, OH YEAH...BECAUSE TRANSFORMERS 2 WASN'T THAT GREAT! Now don't get me wrong it wasn't a horrible movie but I don't think a 3rd film is necessary frankly because I think they've done all they can do with giant talking robots.
-There has been a great deal of Marvel Comic films announced in the past month that already are, or soon will be going into production. Plans are already made to make a second Wolverine film and a X-Men First Class movie, which will be based on the mutants when they were younger. Producer Laura Donner also said that an X4 could possibly be coming in the next few years which I don't think anyone expected. Other films that we will see in the upcoming years are Ghost Rider 2 and maybe even a film based on the popular Spider-Man villain Venom. Right now Venom has a writer and is in production so it will be interesting to see what Marvel does with this character. I think it's safe to say that Marvel is nowhere near done with their comic book films.
-There has been a great deal of Marvel Comic films announced in the past month that already are, or soon will be going into production. Plans are already made to make a second Wolverine film and a X-Men First Class movie, which will be based on the mutants when they were younger. Producer Laura Donner also said that an X4 could possibly be coming in the next few years which I don't think anyone expected. Other films that we will see in the upcoming years are Ghost Rider 2 and maybe even a film based on the popular Spider-Man villain Venom. Right now Venom has a writer and is in production so it will be interesting to see what Marvel does with this character. I think it's safe to say that Marvel is nowhere near done with their comic book films.
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