Vampires seem more human than ever: Daybreakers Review

This movie wasn't the greatest vampire film of all time, but it did some justice to this genre, which has taken many hits in this era of film.

Daybreakers set in 2019 is a film that makes vampires seem more human than ever.

In most movies featuring the undead, vampires are immortal, untouchable creatures that run into relatively no problems, besides the occasional sunlight and holy water.

In Daybreakers the vampire outbreak has created a world overpopulated by vampires and the number of humans left is running thin. Basically, the vampires are running out of blood and need to find a solution fast.

In this film, when vampires do not feed on human blood, they become primitive and more bat-like creatures (see photo left). These primal vampires are mostly the poor who cannot afford blood, as it is bought and sold like food in the movie, even in coffee shops in the subway.

The main character Edward Dalton (Ethan Hawke),thankfully not a Twilight reference, is a hematologist at the leading vampire blood research facility who is charged with finding an alternative to human blood.

Edward does not like being a vampire and feels sympathy for the humans, which his boss Bromley (Sam Neill) sees as weakness.

Bromley is the head of the blood research corporation and is basically the vampire equivalent of Lex Luthor, evil businessman character.

While trying to find an alternative to human blood, Edward eventually stumbles upon Elvis (Willem Dafoe) who has cured himself of his own vampirism and leads a band of humans attempting to spread the cure and stay alive.

From there the movie leads down the path of Edward dealing with this newfound cure while the vampires deal with the lack of blood as most, like Bromley, do not believe in a cure.

Edward is left with the fate of the human race within him and now must face a world full of vampires with the single cure that can end the darkness forever.

The vampires in this movie outcast their lesser, blood deprived vampires showing an almost elitist human quality. The vampires were afraid that their source of life was running out and made decisions to preserve their race, never before in a movie have vampires had to make decisions like this and seeing it was very enjoyable and interesting.

The special effects in the movie were done very well and put a primal spin on the vampire. There are also a few cool takes on vampire transportation in daylight, like cars that have cameras on the roof and sunblocks on the windshield so they can drive in the day and see where they are going.

Acting wise, Sam Neill was very convincing as the big bad business boss vampire. Ethan Hawke's performance was good as well, although I felt like he was channeling some Christian Bale in this film. Willem Dafoe's southern-like character is downright hilarious and adds some comic relief to all the gore and neck-biting vampirism.

I'm going to give this film a B.

The film's ending could have been better done and it feels like a little more could have been explained about the initial vampire outbreak. Other than that and a little overuse of ridiculous, less-than-realistic gore in some scenes (arms being ripped off, heads rolling around) this film did the, sometimes difficult, vampire genre justice.

Michael Cera's Best Performance Yet: Youth In Revolt Review

This movie had everything a smart teen comedy should. When I say smart, I mean this film has nothing in common with the endless spinoffs of American Pie being passed off as "teen comedies" today.

Michael Cera has defined his young career with this movie.

His ability to portray the split personality between the main character, Nick, and his alter-ego, Francois, is a staple in teen comedy history. Nick creates Francois while meeting the girl of his dreams, in order to be the bad-boy that she wants.

Through Francois, Nick is able to do things he would never dream of doing, like stealing his fathers' car and talking back to police officers.

Cera pulls off constant laughs as Nick, doing what he does best as the awkward, love struck loser. But, in the scenes where Francois Dillinger is on the screen, Cera transforms into an equally hilarious bad-boy with an attitude that keeps the laughs coming.

The cast of this film worked great around Cera and made this film extremely enjoyable and clever. It is arguably the best cast in a teen comedy since the original American Pie.

Portia Doubleday plays a great role as Nick's love-interest Sheeni. She is everything from mysterious to artsy and is a great character to watch while she pushes Nick to be bad.

With a touch of Zach Galifianakis as Nick's mother's deadbeat boyfriend, a sprinkle of Justin Long as Nick's love interest's stoner brother, a few scenes of Ray Liotta as a smarmy cop, a little of Steve Buschemi as Nick's father, and finally Fred Willard as the creepy neighbor makes this movie one of the best comedies of the year.

In the film, Cera's character Nick goes from being a vinyl listening virgin to burning down half of his town to get the girl of his dreams to love him, and along the way takes viewers on a hilarious ride full of awkward teen moments and great interactions with those adults around him.

I'm going to give this film an A-. The only real place I found problematic was the speed of the movie. There were a lot of crazy things going on in a relatively short film, compared to others out now like Sherlock Holmes and Avatar.

It is a great comedy that is extremely clever with its split-personality plot line and is 100% worth going to the movies to see.

Daybreakers and Youth In Revolt Reviews This Weekend

Two movies with great hype in two different genres are coming out this weekend and I plan on seeing both of them.

First, Youth In Revolt looks to be a hilarious teen comedy that combines great comedic actors Michael Cera, Justin Long, and Zach Galifianakis.

Cera is known for his awkward teenage characters in movies like Superbad and Juno, while Long does some of his best work in Waiting. Galifianakis is fresh off the second buzz of The Hangover which stemmed from its DVD release in the recent past.

The movie's plot sounds extremely promising with Cera playing both his usual awkward teen character as well as an alter ego which is more badass.

The second movie, Daybreakers, looks just as promising, but in the horror genre.

Daybreakers looks like it will bring prominence back to the vampire horror genre which has been absolutely made a mockery of by mainstream popular culture.

The cast of this movie looks great with Willem Dafoe and Sam Neill. The storyline about vampires running out of human to harvest for blood sounds creepy enough to get most people interested in the film.

From the looks of the trailer, the vampires look promising as they are represented as these mutant-like creatures. The special effects on the vampires themselves look like they will scare most people.

I am interested to see how the few humans left on the planet avoid capture in a world filled with vampires. It is a very interesting concept, which reminds me a bit of I am Legend. If it's anything like that movie, while being original, I will enjoy it.

I am looking forward to reviewing both of these movies when this weekend.

Freddy Isn't Dead: A Nightmare On Elm Street Preview

Well, it seems that 2010 will be, yet again, a year of horror remakes.

The originality in Hollywood's horror department has really been lacking, and nothing orignial has really drawn massive hype since the first Saw film. So, we are left with remakes and revamping of classic horror films.

Michael Bay, the producer of this film, was able to somewhat successfully remake with Friday the 13th. On the popular movie critic site RottenTomatoes.com, the movie is summed up as well-constructed but unoriginal.

I see this movie going in the same direction as Friday the 13th as there is little that can be done with a franchise so ingraned in our mind as the Elm Street series is. Robert Englund, who IS the definitive Krueger will not be portraying the killer in this version, which leaves die-hard fans stunned.

Instead, Jackie Earle Haley, known for his performance as Rorschach in Watchmen will be taking over as the glove wielding psychopath. Haley's performance in the trailer looks convincing, but fans of the series will always miss the sadistic sarcasm of Englund's original Freddy.

Bay's input behind this remake makes it sure to have plenty of action, with some meaningless dialogue. After all that is what slasher films are known for and he followed suit with his remake of Friday the 13th.

The problem with Bay's horror style is that Freddy is no ordinary slasher killer. He talks, unlike Michael Myers or Jason Vorhees, and has his own wit and dark humor. Wether or not Haley will be able to recreate this element of Freddy will reveal itself within the movie.

If this movie is done well I could see a complete rehashing of the entire series. Just please, no Freddy vs. Jason remake.

Werewolves Could Be Scary Again: The Wolfman Preview

Here is the latest trailer for the upcoming remake of the 1940's classic The Wolfman.

Usually horror movie remakes are either a hit or miss. They can be absolutely terrible like The House of Wax, or they can be brilliant, like Dawn of the Dead (2004).

I strongly believe this version of The Wolf Man will be a hit, largely in part to its spectacular cast. Benicio del Toro, Hugo Weaving, and Anthony Hopkins are all actors that can make a movie great alone. Combining them in a movie of this genre set in this time period will be like watching true magic.

From the looks of the trailer, the effects are very well done, and we will get to see yet another take on the werewolf transformation. This one is sure to piss on New Moon's sad excuse for werewolves.

Del Toro and The Wolf Man will lead the charge, bringing Werewolves away from making teen girls fall in love with them, to making them scream like they did in 1941.

Hopefully, the cold night of February 10th is a full moon.

The New Holmes: Sherlock Holmes Review

Happy New Year everyone!

I think I will start out 2010 reviewing Sherlock Holmes, the newest take on the classic tale of the brilliant English detective.

To sum this movie up, I dissect it into three parts: The dialogue, The action, and The overall story.

First, the speaking parts in this movie are clever, but they do get old fast. Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law as Holmes and Watson bring the sarcasm to the tenth degree. It does get old very fast, and I expected more with the brilliance of the dialogue within the orignial Sherlock Holmes tales. One can only take so much crass sarcasm in a faux British accent.

Downey Jr's portrayal of Sherlock Holmes is different from the Holmes we know from the book series. Downey Jr's Holmes is scruffier and less gentlemanly than his literature counterpart. This may turn some fans of the original book off, but I enjoyed this version of Holmes. After all, you have to get a bit dirty doing the work that Holmes does on a daily and nightly basis.

The action sequences in the movie are very entertaining. This movie introduces a slow-motion sequence where Holmes breaks down exactly what he is going to do to the villain within the fight, while performing the actions in a slow-motion. The only problem is when, directly after, the scene is replayed at normal speed. This type of action sequence highlighted Holmes' ability to quickly deduce ways to neutralize attackers with a variety of strategic hits. I felt the replay at normal speed after we had already seen what Holmes did to his opponent was unnessicary. Luckily this filming technique is only used a few times.

Finally, the overall story was one that can be a bit hard to follow. Due to its incorporation of black magic and the supernatural with Holmes' logic and scientific deduction, the plot can leave the viewer scratching their head at the end. Although there are many explanations as to how Holmes' eventually solves the mystery of Lord Blackwood's (a great villain, I may ad) powers and saves London from terror, the storyline fits together well and provides for an entertaining watch. Downey Jr. and Law clash as either could be the hero in this film, but they work well together when it counts. In the end, Watson and Holmes fight valiantly together, but once again we see Holmes taking the forefront and figuring out Blackwood's devious plot, and explaining it to Watson, as we would read in an original Holmes tale.

The story is left open with a mention of Professor Moriarty at the end of the movie, and it gave it a sort of Batman Begins feeling, where the Joker was mentioned at the end to leave room for a sequel. I would most likely see a sequel to see how Professor Moriarty would be represented, as he is one of the greatest villians in all of literature.

I'm going to give Sherlock Holmes a B+.

Clash of the Titans Trailer

Double Wow.

This movie, scheduled to come out March 26th, is a remake of the 1980's classic.

I now understand why some old movies are allowed to be remade. This movie looks absolutely epic and has a great cast.

Liam Neeson as Zeus is a great pick. Just looking at how Zeus and Hades are represented in this movie makes one word comes to mind: stunning.

Sam Worthington as the main character, Perseus, was a great choice as well. He is establishing himself as one of the premier action stars of today with his work in Avatar and Terminator Salvation.

The Kraken is another discussion entirely and I cannot wait to see more screen time of this thing. The CGI looks great in the scenes with the giant scorpion and Medusa.

I'd suggest actually watching the original movie's representation of the monsters, then watching this trailer and having the same reaction I did.

I'm not looking for an amazing plot line and great dialouge with this movie, but if I get one I will be happy.

Also for you music geeks, like me, the lead singer of Muse is doing the music, so get extra excited.

With this and Iron Man 2, spring 2010 should be a great time for movies.