This is a movie review... I will not outright spoil things, but if you want to really experience a movie fresh and clean, there is information below that will dirty you up! So beware of mild semi-spoilers.
Synopsis: A vampire comes to town and wants to put on a play he's written. But according to ancient vampire lore (you all know this one, right?), he can't do that unless a human director presents opening night for him. So he hires our hero, who casts some of his friends. Toil and trouble ensue.
Scariness Type: Maybe you will laugh to DEATH! No, it's not that funny really. But it's definitely not scary.
Rating: 3/5 Holy Grails.
Awarded:
Most Celebrity Lookalikes. I swear, there were only two real "name" actors in this movie (one being the Karate Kid, and the other Jeremy Sisto), but everybody else in it instantly reminded me of some very famous actor. The vampire was a cross between Paul Reubens (who is well known for his vampire portrayals), and Robert Downey Jr., the hero was Jason Biggs, his girlfriend was Drew Barrymore, his best friend was ... oh, the guy I always call "Boy Meets World's Friend", his dad was Eugene Levy, and Hamlet himself was a young blonde Michael Ian Black. Maybe only in certain moments. And maybe "very famous" is a stretch in some cases there. But people I recognize immediately anyway. It was weird, not something I've seen before. Actually, I semi-recognized the girlfriend as herself (Devon Aoki), but she was really pulling some Barrymore stuff here. There were really no characters where I didn't at least go "Oh, he's acting just like... hmm... who is it..." It became a fun game.
Good Stuff: Well, it's a comedy, and it's very ridiculous. It has a fairly unclear silliness level, occasionally dipping into
Hebrew Hammer/
Airplane levels of totally random, other times way up in the high-falutin' romantic comedy range, but it is always making some sort of joke, and so it's pretty entertaining. Some jokes are pretty good, some are kinda weak. Jeremy Sisto's performance is really amusing to me. He's just being totally ridiculous for no reason. You can tell the director really wanted them all to just get crazy and not worry about acting real, just acting funny.
Bad Stuff: I am no thespian. I never read Hamlet, and I've never seen it. I am pretty sure that that greatly diminished my ability to appreciate this movie. Just from how it was going, I suspect it was constantly referencing Shakespearian things and Hamlet in particular. For all I know, the entire plot was a parody of the play (probably not though, there was nobody going crazy, and I know that happens in there somewhere). It's definitely the kind of movie theater majors make for their friends to get. Kind of an inside joke for drama geeks. But not a college project like Thankskilling, this is a real movie with production values and everything.
One other bad note is that the plot seemed kind of random. I couldn't really guess where it was going just because it went weird places, not following typical storytelling. I am suspicious that this is again because I don't know Hamlet.
Classic Rules Of Film: If someone hands you a pen in Act 1, warning you that if you are in a play about Hamlet and vampires you need to call the number on the pen, you better call it in Act 2, just in case.
My Take: Comedy's a tricky business, and that's where the 3/5 rating comes in here. It was funny, but not funny enough. Definitely not bad, and it's a high 3/5, but you know, I have comedy standards. I guess I don't have much else to say. It was a very silly movie, which is nice. I think very Dumb comedy is the most appealing, where they don't really worry too much about how real people would act and just go nuts.
Artistic Nonsense: Oh I don't know. Like I said, I don't know Hamlet and I think I missed a bunch of artistic nonsense as a result. Let that be a lesson, kids: read your classics, or you won't get the subtext of horror comedy!
Our next movie will be
Lake Mungo. I think that's down the road from
Sam's Lake.
