My expectations were low. I had never heard of Darren Shan’s series books (a twelve-book franchise that began in 2000) that this film was based off of, and I was confused and on the verge of crying over the casting of John C. Reilly as a vampire. Worse still, Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant had this sleazy sense of studio greed oozing about it. Some jokers at an indie studio managed to make a mint by adapting Stephanie Meyer’s nauseating teen-fave novel, Twilight (which came out in 2005), into an equally nauseating teen-fave movie. Nevermind the fact that said jokers (including Meyer) effectively managed to ruin the how vampires were portrayed in both literature and motion pictures in the process — they still made some mad money, dammit! And so, the big studios were on the lookout for something that they could make some mad money off of.
Archive for 23 February, 2010
*Blu-ray Review* Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant
Posted: 23 February, 2010 in Movies/TVTags: adaptation, Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant, Comedy, Darren Shan, Horror, John C. Reilly, Orlando Jones, Salma Hayek, teen, Willem Dafoe
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*DVD Review* Cinematic Titanic Live: The Alien Factor
Posted: 23 February, 2010 in Event, Movies/TVTags: ‘70s, bad, Cinematic Titanic, Don Dohler, Mystery Science Theater 3000, Science Fiction, The Alien Factor
The lights in the auditorium fade. A large, boxy white dot — the product of primitive late 1970’s video technology — appears on screen, prompting J. Elvis Weinstein to quip, “In the beginning, there was Pong.” And thus begins the second Cinematic Titanic Live, the latest release in Joel Hodgson’s MST3k riffing offshoot. The main course at this roast is The Alien Factor, an extremely amateurish 1978 science fiction movie from Baltimore’s famed Do-It-Yourself filmmaker, Don Dohler.
