The 33rd review!
I rented four movies from Family Video the other day and I picked out the first 3 pretty quickly. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get a SECOND free movie, and let me tell you how much Family Video’s layout sucks when you don’t know what you want. I wondered each aisle for each letter of the alphabet trying to find a horror that didn’t look like something some kids did in their spare time. After being there a half an hour later than I planned I finally came across...
Fright Night 3D (or in my case, 2D)
I had remembered that Larry absolutely hated this movie, but he loved (500) Days of Summer (man did that suck) and thought Public Enemies was something other than an extremely boring movie with a bunch of people who look the same getting killed. In my defense I wanted to like Public Enemies but it sucked.
Allow me to make some confessions; I like Colin Farrell a lot, whether he’s a bad guy, a good guy, an in between Irish hitman, a Horrible Boss, and now, a vampire. As long as he doesn’t have a bulls-eye on his forehead (shudder), I’m for it. Farrell is badass. I also for some reason really like McLovin. So putting those two into a horror-ish movie was something I was going to enjoy.
As for the story, vampire moves in next-door and “there goes the neighborhood!” It’s not so much scary, but it’s a fun vampire story. It has charm, it never takes itself too seriously, and it’s just a fun movie. There are some scenes that can be considered frightening but nothing that would stay with you, just a good time. One part I think they missed a little bit was not keeping up the cat and mouse between the two of them. It’s pretty early in the movie that Anton Yelchin figures out Farrell is a vampire and as soon as the sun goes down Farrell decides it’s go time. The movie seemed a tad long for something like this so maybe they felt they didn’t have time, but I felt it hurt the movie a little bit. Kind of like the games the two played in Disturbia.
One aspect of it I did enjoy was that it used a lot of old school vampire mythology. They had an aversion to crucifixes, didn't like garlic, didn't fucking sparkle in the sunlight, and they coudn't enter houses unless they were invited. It seems a lot today people put their own spins on what a vampire should or shouldn't do, and I appreciated the rules that I learned as a kid. Twilight is terrible.
If you’re planning on seeing the movie, it’s enjoyable, mainly for Colin Farrell though. There’s just something about the way every time he sees Yelchin he says, “Hey, guy.” The way he says is badass and creepy at the same time. Jerry (the vampire) has been alive for 400 years so he has a definite arrogance about him and is always one step ahead, which makes for some entertaining scenes. Even though he’s a monster in the movie you can’t help but like the character. Maybe not the best use of Farrell’s talent, but I’m not complaining, without him it would not have been as good
Like I said, it’s not scary and situations like this are when people start questioning my rating system, “HOW COULD YOU GIVE FRIGHT NIGHT A BETTER RATING THAN THE WOMAN IN BLACK?! LOL!!!111!!!!ONE1!!!!!11” My rating system is based on entertainment, and I was more entertained by Fright Night.