POTTERMORE!
Let’s be friends!!!
LightErised38
September 2011
August 2011
“The true writer’s scrutiny of imagined scenes both feeds on and feeds his real-life experience: almost without knowing he’s doing it, the writer becomes an alert observer. He may even become such a watcher of people that he seems an oddity to his friends.”
—John Gardner, On Becoming a Novelist
Pottermore: Let's Be Friends!
Can we please be friends?
LightErised38
Pottermore
If you wanted to be my friend, that would be okay.
LightErised38
Add me!
Fright Night: The Review
It’s the remake of film from 1985 which starred Chris Sarandon and William Ragsdale. Only this time around, they got things right with the sexy Colin Farrell as the irresistible vampire Jerry and the adorably tough Anton Yelchin as Charlie Brewster. David Tennant gives new and hilarious life to Peter Vincent, The Vampire Hunter, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse plays Charlie’s former friend Evil Ed. One of my favorite understated actresses Toni Collette is Jane Brewster and fills the role perfectly. Dave Franco, for anyone interested in him, is also in the film. The casting was great.
The special effects were cool, and it’s definitely not a movie for the squeamish if you don’t handle blood and exploding guts well. There was quite a bit of profanity, drug usage and it was bursting with sexual innuendo, but who would expect any less from Farrell playing a 400 year old vampire.
David Tennant and Christopher Mintz-Plasse deliver some zingers and at least this time around, Amy was much more believable. The original Amy (Amanda Bearse) looks a little young and it’s hard to believe she’d be the apple of some hot vampire’s eye, but this Amy (Imogen Poots) is much more attractive and even gets noted as being a slut. Well, that makes sense.
In short, go see it if you’re in the mood for a frightened jump, adore Anton, admire David, or enjoy gawking at a muscular Colin. Or if you’re into the nerds, Christopher doesn’t fail. It’s a fun film sure to make you laugh and squirm in your seat, but only in terrified sort of way, nothing kinky.
SPOILER ALERT:
I enjoy the story line of the original, but I think this time around they had room to improve upon it, and they didn’t fail. Moving the story to Las Vegas was a smart choice: it makes sense for hiding a vampire. It allows you to remove the character of Billy Cole - a character that didn’t make sense in the first place - and it gives the Peter Vincent character a more feasible background as well. Setting Ed and Charlie up as former best friends made their relationship more feasible, and making Jane Brewster not completely dumb seems more relevant to the time. However, I had a hard time liking the new Charlie Brewster for about two-thirds of the movie - he was kind of a jerk, and the original Charlie wasn’t quite like that. He makes up for it though. Back onto Peter Vincent, making his character reminiscent of Criss Angel mixed with Russell Brand was a nice touch, and I appreciated the fact that they gave him a real reason to want to kill the vampire. I think making Jerry more evil and playing it up that he was going to build a clan was also nice. The night club scene was also better executed, and it was better for the story to give Amy a reason to want to be with Jerry as they did in the reboot - makes things much cleaner. I am glad they left alone the apple, Jerry’s favorite snack, and they left the famous “Welcome to Fright Night… for real.” line untainted. Naturally, the special effects are much better, so the ending was much better.
SOME THINGS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED/SHOULD WATCH FOR:
- Mintz-Plasse makes a really funny Twilight reference. Enjoy it.
- Lisa Loeb, one-hit wonder of the 90’s with “Stay (I Missed You),” makes a cameo, and delivers a line something like, “He’ll be sorry he missed you.” [laugh.]
- Chris Sarandon, the original evil Jerry himself, also has a minor part as Jay Dee, an innocent bystander who happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. I approve.
- They make good use of technology. In the original, mirrors play an important part in revealing Jerry’s character, but in this version, it’s cameras and video.
My biggest gripe with the film is some of the iconic lines they left out. One of my favorite parts in the original occurs when Peter Vincent holds up a crucifix to defend himself against Jerry, but Jerry touches it and says you have to have faith for it to work. Well, that didn’t happen in this one and that’s lame. Also, I prefer the cliff hanger creepy ending of the original whereas this one just lets you know Charlie Brewster is about to get some action. Whatever, I still recommend it.
Do yourself and Anton a favor and go see it!
