Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Eric Bird Movie Review: Let Me In

Who's In It: Some little kid, the little girl from Kick-Ass and Richard Jenkins (No relation to Leroy).

What It's About: Typical boy meets girl. Girl drinks neighbors' blood. Hilarity ensues.

What I Was Expecting: I loved the Swedish film, "Let the Right One In", of which this is a remake. In fact, the original may make my list of the Ten Best Films of 2001-2010. But, as director Matt Reeves is part of the JJ Abrams circle, I had faith that this would be a quality remake.

What I Got: A solid remake. There were some tweaks that made it interesting for people who've seen the original and they're in all the right places. What I did find interesting is that in some areas of the film, it's less subtle and in other areas, it's even more vague. There's also more focus, if memory serves me correctly, on the details of the relationship between the little girl and her caregiver. I don't recall knowing the details of how their relationship came about in the original. And that is a case of not needing to know that much back story. Does this little girl (boy?) really care about the guy/boy or is she just using them? The original didn't address it. The remake wants to imply she's just using them. All in all, still a good film, if not as classic as the original.

Grade: B+

Oscar Potential: If the rest of the year is slow, it might pull a Best Picture nom. Maybe editing, cinematography, score. But I wouldn't hold your breath on any of them.

Five Random Thoughts:

1. Movies just shouldn't have 12 year olds naked in bed with other 12 year olds. Just creepy. And yes, I realize that was the point.

2. How on earth are they shooting these scenes where the car rolls over and you can see it's not a stunt man inside?

3. The scene near the end where the vampire helps the little boy was kinda terrifying in the original. In the remake, the audience laughed.

4. Is this JJ Abrams crowd becoming the live action Pixar? Even if the movies aren't great, they are at least endlessly watchable.

5. Still not sure why they felt the need to change the title.

Trailer Park:

The Warriors Way: Crouching Cowboy, Hidden Donkey? Kung Fu in the Old West. Very curious.

Burlesque: I cringed. 

Due Date: Trailer still amusing. Nothing new to say though.

Saw 3D: Having only seen the original, I just don't know why anyone should care anymore.

Black Swan: Leave it to Darren Aronofsky to make an interesting looking movie about ballet.

Skyline: I'm always up for an alien invasion flick. They don't even have to good.