Anyhow, on to Fright Night...
I had 0 expectations coming into this movie, having seen but not remembered the original, and not seeing much advertising at all (and unfortunately, it has only made about $10M, so there was not much advertising to speak of). When you go in to a movie with no expectations, two things can happen, you can either be incredibly bored because you aren't expecting much and are not excited, or you can totally entertained and have a blast. Fight Night was a BLAST! It's getting about 75% on Rotten Tomatoes (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/fright_night-2011/), but unfortunately no one except the people on Rotten Tomatoes have gone to see it.
The premise is thus: Vampire moves into a Las Vegas suburb and terrorizes a neighborhood. Why a Vegas suburb? Glad you asked! It makes perfect sense really, folks are out in Vegas all night, and sleep during the day...vampire style! Who is this vampire? Well, its Jerry! Played by Colin Farrell, who is having a pretty decent summer as he also appeared in "Horrible Bosses". Colin Farrell does a damn good job of being shifty-eyed and full of testosterone, his vampire Jerry is smarmy and smug, and when get goes into bad boy mode, actually pretty unnerving. Unfortunately, I cannot really see Colin Farrell on screen without thinking of the sex-tape he made with: Nicole Narain (Google her!). It's readily available on if you Google it, and I recommend it for a fun late-night time killer!
Anyhow, porn aside, Colin Farrell is actually very believable as a vampire, but the story isn't really about him now is it? It's about the people trying to stand up to the forces of darkness, in this case the unlikely Anton Yelchin playing Charley Brewster, a newly made "cool-kid" trying to forget his nerdy past. Part of that nerdy past is Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse, who is trying his damnedest to be remembered for something other than Superbad, but unfortunately, this movie doesn't help).
When Ed comes to Charley and without burying the lead, drops the bomb that his new neighbor Jerry is a vamp, the hi-jinks ensue! One of my favorite parts of this movie was Charley's girlfriend, Amy (Imogen Poots, which is arguably the best name ever conceived). Imogen isn't very well known yet, but you'll see what I mean that she can have a very good go of this whole Hollywood thing! Charley's mom is played by Toni Collete, and she's pretty good, but doesn't get a lot of screen time. Without giving away all the plot points, the other big star in this movie is David Tennant, for of Dr. Who fame, and he plays a paranormal "expert".
I saw the movie in 3D, which has been pretty hit and miss this summer blockbuster season. Conan had it too, but it didn't add anything to the film, and instead detracted from it. In Fright Night the 3D is actually pretty fun, they go back to some cheesy pop-out stuff but nothing too egregious, and other than a few things popping out of the screen, there are some really interesting 3D scenes (not going to give them away though, but one involves a car chase!).
Anyway, I actually really liked this movie, and I'm going to give it a 4/5, not a 4.5 as my usual score is, but 4, its good, not great, but is very fun and entertaining. And for those of you concerned about seeing a rated R movie named Fright Night, most of the "R" comes from language, there really isn't much in terms of "Fright", so everyone should be able to see this movie and laugh out loud at the funny pop culture references!
In closing Fright Night = 4/5 and for those that care Conan = 2.5/5.
Peace!
