DVD Collectors Online

Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant, a review by KinkyCyborg

Title:Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
Year: 2009
Director: Paul Weitz
Rating: PG-13
Length: 109 Min.
Video: Widescreen 2.35:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital: 5.1, French: Dolby Digital: 5.1, Spanish: Dolby Digital: 5.1
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Stars:
John C. Reilly
Josh Hutcherson
Chris Massoglia
Jessica Carlson
Michael Cerveris

Plot:
Welcome to the Cirque du Freak, a traveling sideshow filled with magical creatures, misunderstood freaks, and the mysterious vampire, Larten Crepsley (John C. Reilly). Drawn to the dark, unpredictable world of the Cirque, 16-year-old Darren (Chris Massoglia) decides to trade in his ordinary life for a chance to become an immortal vampire. As Darren explores his newfound powers and faces unexpected enemies, he'll find that his existence as a memeber of the undead is filled with more challenges, suspense and fun than he ever thought possible. Based on the best-selling book series and co-starring Salma Hayek, Josh Hutcherson, Ken Watanabe, and Willem Dafoe, it's a fast-paced, suspenseful journey critics call, "Imaginative!" (Peter Hall, Cinematical.com)

Extras:
Scene Access
Feature Trailers
Deleted Scenes
Featurettes


I really enjoyed this as it was so much more than I was expecting which was a lame comedy that spoofed Vampire movies. Boy was I wrong! While there was some comedic elements, this was the first of what I'm sure will be many entries into an ongoing story about warring vampire factions. Gorehounds looking for buckets of blood will be disappointed.... but what this movie lacks in gore it makes up for with story and mystery.

The two young male leads, Josh Hutcherson and Chris Massoglia were good but the casting for those characters could be completely interchangeable with any multitude of young actors. The real strength of this movie lies in it's veteran cast. John C. Reilly shows us once again that he has leading role savvy as the central vampire, Larten Crepsley. Now if someone could only convince him to stay away from Will Ferrell....  Willem Dafoe, in a rather limited role, clearly pays homage to Vincent Price and is marvelous! His final scenes in this one tease us with the promise of more from him in the forthcoming sequels. Salma Hayek, as the bearded lady, was fine as well, although really... who was looking at her beard??

Throw in Ken Watanabe, Patrick Fugit, Orlando Jones and others in their roles as the various 'freaks', each with their own potential stories to explore made for a spectacular collection of characters and endless possibilities in what should be a franchise. I checked on IMDB and do not see any news of a sequel yet, but I'd be shocked if this one doesn't play out much much more.

Looking forward to the continuing of this story and would recommend this movie to fans of the genre!

KC

Rating:

(From KinkyCyborg's Random Reviews 2010 on October 14th, 2010)

The Man Who Knew Too Much, a review by addicted2dvd

The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
This film, the first version of The Man Who Knew Too Much, propelled ordinary filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock to superstardom and established him as the premier director of suspense-based thrillers. Unsuspecting tourists Leslie Banks and Edna Best stumble into a plot filled with international intrigue when they make acquaintances with a good natured Frenchman played by Pierre Fresnay. After being murdered, Fresnay uses his dying breath to divulge a 'secret' to Banks, involving a plot to assassinate a diplomat. Pursued by sinister agents, Banks' daughter (Nova Pilbeam) is kidnapped and held to ensure Banks tells no one of what he knows. Unable to turn to the authorities, Banks must take it upon himself to rescue his daughter and try to prevent the assassination at the same time. The film builds to a terrific climax and also features Peter Lorre in his very first English speaking role.

My Thoughts:
I thought with all the talk of Alfred Hitchcock going on here at dvdcollectorsonline.com that I would at least watch this one from my collection that I have never seen before. This is one of those cheap public domain $1.00 DVDs that you can find at many stores. I bought it 5 years ago at a local Dollar General Store. Being a public domain dollar dvd the quality is far from pristine. But it is watchable. Better then I was expecting actually. The movie itself was good... but I have seen better. There was just a few things scattered in the movie that rubbed me the wrong way. For example... beginning of the movie you see a shot fired into a window where people are dancing. All the sudden a guy just stops and stands for a few seconds... opens his jacket and you see a spot of blood over his heart and says something like "look there". Then he slowly goes down in the arms of the woman he dancing with and gives her a fairly long explanation and the key to his room to find evidence of a murder plot before he dies.If the blood spot wasn't directly over his heart I would have said fine to it all... but there is only so much suspending of believability. There is a few instances such as this... but over-all a good movie.



(From Weekend Movie Marathon: 2/27 - 2/29 on February 27th, 2009)

The IT Crowd: Version 3.0 - (mini) marathon, a review by Tom

01. From Hell (2008-11-21)
Writer: Graham Linehan (Writer)
Director: Graham Linehan
Cast: Chris O'Dowd (Roy), Richard Ayoade (Moss), Katherine Parkinson (Jen), Matt Berry (Douglas), Chris Morris (Denholm), Tom Binns (Nolan), Togo Igawa (Mr Yamamoto), Jonathan Ryland (Gary)

Great start to a new series. Everyone had a fun storyline.

Rating:

(From The IT Crowd: Version 3.0 - (mini) marathon on July 31st, 2009)