September 13, 2011
Deliciously, wickedly entertaining, and the best thing Colin Farrell has done by far since In Bruges. This is a whole, richly imagined world, and not just a tired re-tread of the moderately OK 1985 original. The writing is clever, funny and plausible, by Marti Noxon, part of the team who scripted Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
The cast are simply awesome, of which more in a moment, but the immediately striking thing is the setting. Of course, Las Vegas would be the perfect place for a vampire to go unnoticed – lots of people working nights, a huge transient population – but the movie stays resolutely clear of the tawdry glamour of the strip, placing the main characters in a small square development of new houses plonked down on the outskirts of the desert. The houses are big by UK standards but are clearly built of crap by cowboys, have mean little back yards, and seem desperately insubstantial; the whole development appears vulnerable, far away from the big city lights on the horizon, not protected by the city’s services, and the lights are going out. House after house falls empty, in the context of the American housing crisis – is this people unable to keep up their mortgage payments and running away, or is something more sinister happening to them?
The opening sequence tells the audience exactly what they are faced with – an experienced predator who enjoys taking risks and plays with his food. Thus much of the ‘is he? Isn’t he?’ plot-line of the original movie is done away with in one breath-taking swoop, to be replaced by a beautifully plotted and scripted series of confrontations between the vampire and the good guys. Anton Yelchin (Chekhov in Star Trek) is entirely convincing as Charlie Brewster, the nerd who turned. Unexpectedly gifted with a gorgeous blonde girlfriend (delightfully named Brit Imogen Poots) he is now too cool to hang out with his former nerdy best mate, ‘Evil’ Ed and has to be blackmailed into snooping around deserted houses in search of vanished classmates. Swiftly he realises that his new neighbour, the hunky Jerry - ‘Jerry? What kind of a vampire name is that?’ – played with devastating ironic charm and menace by Colin Farrell – is indeed a vampire, and devotes himself to trying to protect his divorced single mum (the ever excellent Toni Colette) and aforesaid scrumptious girlfriend. His main strategy is to enlist the help of languorous, wasted Russell-Brand lookalike David Tennant.
There are some brilliant one-liners, which I won’t spoil for you. I never could see the thing about Colin Farrell before, but now I can. His vampire is extremely attractive at the same time as being horribly evil, gloatingly relishing his power to terrify and destroy his victims, and frankly enjoying his battle of wits with Charlie. The FX are good without being astounding, the 3D-ness is mainly employed for the splattering of blood and body parts. Very enjoyable and strongly recommended.
The cast are simply awesome, of which more in a moment, but the immediately striking thing is the setting. Of course, Las Vegas would be the perfect place for a vampire to go unnoticed – lots of people working nights, a huge transient population – but the movie stays resolutely clear of the tawdry glamour of the strip, placing the main characters in a small square development of new houses plonked down on the outskirts of the desert. The houses are big by UK standards but are clearly built of crap by cowboys, have mean little back yards, and seem desperately insubstantial; the whole development appears vulnerable, far away from the big city lights on the horizon, not protected by the city’s services, and the lights are going out. House after house falls empty, in the context of the American housing crisis – is this people unable to keep up their mortgage payments and running away, or is something more sinister happening to them?
The opening sequence tells the audience exactly what they are faced with – an experienced predator who enjoys taking risks and plays with his food. Thus much of the ‘is he? Isn’t he?’ plot-line of the original movie is done away with in one breath-taking swoop, to be replaced by a beautifully plotted and scripted series of confrontations between the vampire and the good guys. Anton Yelchin (Chekhov in Star Trek) is entirely convincing as Charlie Brewster, the nerd who turned. Unexpectedly gifted with a gorgeous blonde girlfriend (delightfully named Brit Imogen Poots) he is now too cool to hang out with his former nerdy best mate, ‘Evil’ Ed and has to be blackmailed into snooping around deserted houses in search of vanished classmates. Swiftly he realises that his new neighbour, the hunky Jerry - ‘Jerry? What kind of a vampire name is that?’ – played with devastating ironic charm and menace by Colin Farrell – is indeed a vampire, and devotes himself to trying to protect his divorced single mum (the ever excellent Toni Colette) and aforesaid scrumptious girlfriend. His main strategy is to enlist the help of languorous, wasted Russell-Brand lookalike David Tennant.
There are some brilliant one-liners, which I won’t spoil for you. I never could see the thing about Colin Farrell before, but now I can. His vampire is extremely attractive at the same time as being horribly evil, gloatingly relishing his power to terrify and destroy his victims, and frankly enjoying his battle of wits with Charlie. The FX are good without being astounding, the 3D-ness is mainly employed for the splattering of blood and body parts. Very enjoyable and strongly recommended.