Popped out to see Let Me In this last weekend. It's the US remake of Let The Right One In, a Swedish movie about a boy who befriends the vampire girl who moves in next door. I managed to miss the original though, on the strength of this one - and despite its flaws - I may pick up the DVD for comparison.
It's very well done, perfectly cast - Chloe Grace Moretz is one to watch in the future, I suspect - and really rather gory. Plenty of blood gets splashed about, but you do at least get the impression that young Abby is ingesting some of it, unlike the messy undead horde in 30 Days of Night.
I do have gripes, however... It's uncomfortable to watch at times, particularly when it becomes apparent that there is a certain amoral quality to it all, despite the kids being, in theory, old enough to discern right from wrong. Such concerns are quickly dismissed, though, when Owen phones his father to ask if people can be evil, and the father immediately assumes this question is the result of another lecture from Owen's ultra-religious mother. It's also quite obvious that Abby, who has been "12 years old for a really long time" has been having a particular kind of relationship with the man everyone in the film assumes is her father... at least until Owen finds old photographs of them. But seeing her loving touches on a supposedly older man is not the really creepy part. The really creepy part is that there's no indication of Abby's true age... only that she has a predilection for 12 year old boys...
And there are far too many unanswered questions... not least what happens to Owen's mother. The last we see of her, she's either sleeping or dead... but neither are confirmed. The very open ending just left me wondering why Owen chose that path, considering he could have had no idea how it would work, but he'd seen exactly how it would end.
And then, being really picky, I suspect the folks who did the CGI took Ms. Moretz's measurements before filming commenced... and before a growth spurt in the young actress - the fast-moving, animalistic version of Abby seems to be a couple of inches shorter and a fair bit skinnier. It moves well enough, but it doesn't reflect young Chloe's appearances as Abby.
The rest of my weekend was a bit of a bust, frankly. Saturday was mostly wasted, though I did get some photography done of my most recent acquisitions. I stayed up to watch Blade (TV series, not movie, and exhibiting even less impressive 'vampire action' in comparison to Let Me In) and Dark Blue... though neither are particularly inspiring... Just typical, generic American telly.
Before the movie on Sunday, my old mate Paul and I had lunch in the Uxbridge Pizza Hut (just for a change), though it did eat into our proposed browsing/shopping time. Despite assuring our unusually well-spoken waitress that I could tackle a whole large Stuffed Crust Pepperoni Feast, I had to ask for a doggie bag... only to throw it away shortly thereafter, because I couldn't take it into the cinema. Shame... as her suggestion of having the remains for breakfast ("That's what I do!") seemed so very tempting...
On the way back, we passed a gathering horde of zombies at the gates of the shopping centre, awaiting the arrival of some celebrity or other, to light the Christmas Lights. How joyous.
I watched Star Trek: The Motion Picture in the evening, and was stunned by the repetitious homoerotic undertones in Kirk's pleas to his former crew. That, Bill Shatner's terrible acting... and the ponderous story... In many ways, it's probably one of the finest Star Trek stories ever filmed... but the initial flypast of the rebuilt Enterprise went on far too long, and any sense of urgency the story might have had was lost the moment James Tiberius Kirk took command of the starship named Enterprise.
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