Post by Mr.HoRrOr on Aug 24, 2011 14:01:53 GMT -5
Plot:Senior Charlie Brewster (Anton Yelchin) finally has it all going on: he's running with the popular crowd and dating the most coveted girl in his high school. In fact, he's so cool he's even dissing his best friend. But trouble arrives when Jerry (Colin Farrell) moves in next door. He seems like a great guy at first, but there's something not quite right-but everyone, including Charlie's mom (Toni Collette), doesn't notice. After observing some very strange activity, Charlie comes to an unmistakable conclusion: Jerry is a vampire preying on the neighborhood. Unable to convince anyone, Charlie has to find a way to get rid of the monster himself in this Craig Gillespie-helmed revamp of the comedy-horror classic.
Cast:
Anton Yetchin
Colin Farrell
Toni Collette
David Tennant
Christopher Mintz-Plasse
Imoghen Poots
Sandra Vergara
Dave Franco
Emily Montague
My Thoughts:A cheesy remake of an equally cheesy original.
Review:"Fright Night" (1985) was not one of my favorite vampire movies. Or horror movies in general. In fact, I was more a fan of the sequel, "Fright Night 2" really. Anyways, when the remake was announced, I really didn't think much of it. But after seeing the redo, I still don't see it as a terrific product. Nonetheless, it captures mostly the cheesy and teenage'ish spirit of the original. "Fright Night" follows a teenager named Charlie Brewster (Yetchin).
Who is trying to score the girl of his dreams (Poots). Much to the dismay of his ex-BF Ed (Mintz-Plasse). Who Charlie has basically told to take a hike in order for him to hang out with his new girlfriend and her friends. Ed though one night informs Charlie that his new neighbor Jerry (Farrell), is a vampire. And that Charlie needs to beware of him. After an arguement ensues between Charlie and Ed, while they're trapsing around the house of one of their other friends who has mysteriously vanished, Charlie heads home and leaves Ed. Ed runs into the local school bullies, but manages to escape.
Unfortunately, he escapes right into the clutches of Jerry. Jerry informs Ed he knows Ed knows what he really is. Ed falls victim to Jerry just as Charlie learns Ed was telling the truth. But is it already too late for Charlie, his mom (Collette), and his new girlfriend? I found it interesting first off that this movie was set in Las Vegas. Or a suburb of Vegas. I can't remember the last time a horror film was set in Las Vegas. Usually it's some small town in middle of nowhere USA. This movie had a lot of guts choosing Vegas as a scenery for a horror film.
Very out of the ordinary. Albeit we don't see much of Vegas in the movie beyond a few of the usual overhead, brochure-type shots you see in those commercials about vacationing. At any rate, one thing you have to like about "Fright Night" is it gets right to the action and kills off a modestly major character early on in the game. I would've hated for this movie to have been relegated to teenagers yammering on about how much life sucks for 35 minutes before our first vampire scene. Farrell as Jerry is a decent villain.
He's cocky, shrewd, and has a massive killer instinct. But at times, he seems to ham it up in the role too much. Just a bit though. Nothing hugely noticeable or anything that becomes a real drag on the movie as a whole. His victims, beyond Ed, are also people who you really would expect to 'get it' in a horror film anyways. For example, the local bullies who Ed ran into early, are eventually victims of Jerry's. As is a local stripper. Can't tell you how many horror movies I've seen where the neighborhood douchebags and a random dim-bulb stripper get offed. That's usually the cliche of it all.
Albeit still hilarious. Farrell does good in the role though, especially as the movie goes on and nears more towards the end. Poots as Charlie's love interest Amy strangely enough, manages to come off actually as not annoying. A big point for this movie. Usually, the coveted girl or the love interest of the male lead in these sorts of movies just oozes obnoxiousness. Poots manages not to do so. Not sure if that's because she's a good actress, or if her character was just kept tighter script-wise than usual. But I'd divvy it up about 50-50 to both sides I guess. As for Yetchin as Charlie, he's a total douchebag early on in the film.
Especially after he disses Ed for this chick. With the writers apparently having no time or will to insert any backstory into why this happens. Other than Charlie is tired of making silly dress-up videos with Ed. It would've been nice to have that small plot arc developed a little more. Sure...people grow apart all the time in real life. But Charlie just seemed to throw Ed right into the grinder quickly. Which was strange considering it didn't seem like they were growing apart.
But like Ed had done something to Charlie in the past that he was still sore about. The mechanics and dynamics between the two were very heated and nasty for two people who were just friends like last week. But I blame the writers for not adding more meat to that part of the story. "Fright Night" doesn't have many deaths nor is it very bloody. It skimps on the blood and gore. Something the original didn't do really. In "Fright Night" redux, we get the usual scenes of people lying dead on the floor with blood "around" them, and those quick off-camera screaming kills.
Other than a death sequence which happens near the end of the movie when Charlie is confronted by a vampire in Peter Vincents studio, there's not much gory stuff in this movie. Speaking of Vincent, his characters was highly annoying. A total 180 from the Peter Vincent of "Fright Night"s 1 and 2. A quaint and quiet yet brave vampire hunter, played brilliantly by Roddy McDowall. This Peter Vincent, played by David Tennant, is just like nails on a chalk-board. His voice, accent, attitude, persona...all ANNOYING.
It's a good thing this movie spares us too much of him. We get a few scenes with him in the middle of the movie, when Charlie seeks out his assistance on how to defeat Jerry. While others come near the end. And by the end, he's even more annoying. But considering the climax has a ton of vampire action, that kind of distracts from his annoying persona. "Fright Night" reduxes Peter Vincent, reminded me more of Russell Brand. Which I don't know if that was intentional on behalf of the filmmakers or not. If it was, that's very, very sad.
Meanwhile, Toni Collette doesn't get a ton of screentime in the movie being the mom and all. But her scenes mostly come and go without any real conflict. But watching her try and hide her heavy New York accent was pretty comical. Everytime she spoke, you just kept thinking..."what's that accent doing living in suburban Las Vegas?'' "Fright Night"s best moments come at it's conclusion though, where some sweet vampire FX are put on display. FX which we only see one time early on in the movie where a vampire exposed to sunlight explodes, literally.
The movies climax doesn't score many dialogue or style points with me. But Farrell is at his most vicious as Jerry, and the vampire action is a-plenty. So I can't really complain. This movie is heavy on cheese though. And not the charming 80's kind delivered in the original. It's instead, more that 1999-2008 teen-horror movie kind of cheese. Which can get annoying and overbearing at times. "Fright Night 3D" is a pretty break even redo though. A film which could've turned out far worse than it did. You don't really wanna judge a movie on that alone, but it's just the plain truth.
Positives:Yetchin's Charlie character eventually grows on you as the movie goes on. After he starts out of the gate as a pretty not-so-nice guy. The vampire fx were really well done. Explosions, death by sunlight and all. Poots as Amy was pretty good, and Farrell was modest as Jerry. Mintz-Plasse as Ed was good also, although he's not in the movie enough I thought. Also props for setting the movie somewhere fresh, aka suburban Vegas.
Negatives:Farrell has a tendency to overact at times. Not enough Ed scenes, as he was a pretty likeable character. Probably one of the films only truly likeable characters. The dialogue in the movie can get too cheesy at times, and the new Peter Vincent is PATHETIC.
Overall:Two stars out of four.