Josh Hutcherson

‘Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant’ With John C. Reilly Not Freaky Enough

BrianTT — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:51:49 -0600

Rating: 2.0/5.0

CHICAGO – For everything that Paul Weitz’s “Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant” does right, there’s something about the film that just doesn’t work. More manic than quirky and more cluttered than consistent, “Cirque” features a few great performances and interesting characters but they’re sabotaged by the other members of this cinematic freak show.

With a plot that plays like what “Beetlejuice”-era Tim Burton might have done with the current vampire craze (“True Blood,” “The Twilight Saga’s New Moon”), “Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant” is an adaptation of the books by Darren Shan that is constantly shooting itself in the foot through bad editing, a distracting supporting cast, a super-dull lead, and far too much expository dialogue. A non-ending that tries to set up the franchise a la “The Golden Compass” doesn’t help the feeling that you’ve just watched a tragically incomplete film.

(L to R) Crepsley (John C. Reilly) makes a curious proposal to Darren (Chris Massoglia) in Cirque Du Freak: The Vampires Assistant.
Photo credit: David Lee

Darren (newcomer Chris Massoglia) is a high-school kid with an obsession with spiders. His best friend Steve (Josh Hutcherson) is the more mischievous of the two and his goth obsession happens to be with vampires. The two are thrilled when a mysterious limo with plates that read “DES-TINY” toss them a flyer for the ‘Cirque du Freak,” a traveling show stopping in their town that night.

(L to R) Darren (Chris Massoglia) is introduced by Crepsley (John C. Reilly) to the freak show in Cirque Du Freak: The Vampires Assistant.
Photo credit: David Lee

Darren and Steve head to the show and the audience is introduced to the massive supporting cast including the Wolfman (Tom Woodruff Jr.), Gertha Teeth (Kristen Schaal), Rhamus Twobellies (Frankie Faison), Alexander Ribs (Orlando Jones), Madame Truska (Salma Hayek), Corma Limbs (Jane Krakowski), Evra the Snake Boy (Patrick Fugit), and the MC of the show, Mr. Tall (Ken Watanabe). Of course, the star of the evening is a vampire named Larten Crepsley (John C. Reilly) and his magic spider named Octa.

After the show, Darren sneaks back stage to catch another glimpse of Octa and ends up stealing the creature. Meanwhile, Steve straight-up asks Crepsley to turn him into a creature of the night but is denied access into this immortal club. After Octa bites Steve, the two former friends are thrust into another ancient war between the peaceful vampires led by Crepsley (and a cameo from Willem Dafoe) and the violent ones known as the vampinese. Manipulating both sides is the twisted Mr. Tiny (Michael Cerveris) and his gross lackey Murlaugh (Ray Stevenson). Darren becomes Crepsley’s assistant and a half-vampire and Steve becomes a ward of the dark side. Darren gets a monkey girl love interest (Jessica Carlson) and the film officially pushes the “cluttered with characters” threshold to the limit.

Most of the supporting characters in “Cirque du Freak” fail to register at all with recognizable faces like Jones, Hayek, and Krakowski ending up more forgettable than anything else. Only Fugit steals every scene he’s in as a snake boy who really just wants to be an Emo band.

All that saves “Cirque” from total disaster and what makes a potential sequel something not worth totally dreading is the typically strong work by John C. Reilly. Recalling Michael Keaton’s work in “Beetlejuice” or Jack Nicholson’s in “The Witches of Eastwick,” Reilly beautifully blends creepy and charismatic. He nearly saves “Cirque” from itself.

Ultimately, “Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant” feels like it was mangled at some point in production. Either the screenplay was re-written too many times or things got really freaky in the editing room but there are too many awkward tone transitions and scenes that fall flat. It is a rare film that can be both cluttered with small characters and subplots and this boring at the same time.

Finally, filmmakers really need to make sure their film stands on its own and not just as a lead-in to a potential franchise. If a screenplay features characters talking about “prophecy” and what will happen at nightfall in the final minutes, send it back for a rewrite. The great franchise openers like “Fellowship of the Ring” actually have climaxes and endings that stand on their own. “Cirque” clearly wants to be the opening act for a film franchise. With this lackluster opening act, it would be truly freaky if a sequel actually happens.

‘Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant’ stars John C. Reilly, Chris Massoglia, Josh Hutcherson, Jessica Carlson, Michael Cerveris, Ray Stevenson, Patrick Fugit, Ken Watanabe, Salma Hayek, Orlando Jones, Frankie Faison, Willem Dafoe, and Jane Krakowski. It was written by Paul Weitz & Brian Helgeland and directed by Helgeland. It opens on October 23rd, 2009. It is rated PG-13.

By BRIAN TALLERICO
Content Director
HollywoodChicago.com
brian@hollywoodchicago.com

Jules Verne’s ‘Journey to the Center of the Earth’ With Brendan Fraser Stars Film’s 3-D Effects

HollywoodChicago.com — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 21:59:06 -0600

Rating: 3.0/5.0

CHICAGO – Jules Verne’s classic 1864 science-fiction novel “Journey to the Center of the Earth” has been adapted well in excess of a dozen times into films, radio and stage plays along with several made-for-TV movies and video games. It has even been adapted into two amusement-park rides.

So what new approach is taken with the Brendan Fraser 2008 remake of “Journey to the Center of Earth”? Well, 3-D glasses. Also, it isn’t so much an adaptation of the book but a very weak narrative film that uses action sequences from the book to make for cool, 3-D effects.

Brendan Fraser stars as Trevor in New Line Cinema’s release of Eric Brevig’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth”.
Photo credit: Sebastian Raymond, New Line Cinema

Trevor (Brendan Fraser) is a volcanology professor at a college where he’s about lose his research lab. His sister-in-law drops off his nephew, Sean (Josh Hutcherson), to spend 10 days with Trevor. Sean’s mother also drops off a box of items left behind by his late father.

Left to right: Brendan Fraser stars as Trevor, Anita Briem stars as Hannah and Josh Hutcherson stars as Sean in New Line Cinema’s release of Eric Brevig’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth”.
Photo credit: Sebastian Raymond, New Line Cinema

In it, Trevor finds a copy of Verne’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth” with notes from his brother and lab partner. Deciphering the notations, Trevor believes the correlation between the seismic readings he has found in his lab and the notes in the book mean something.

That’s why he and Sean travel to Iceland where Trevor’s brother went missing to investigate. There they meet a guide, Hannah (Anita Briem), who’s the daughter of another Verne follower and scientist.

She leads them into a cave where they begin to discover that everything Verne wrote seems to be fact. All of the personalities of these characters seem thrown together quickly and without enough depth.

The narrative itself feels like a forced way to do things that take place in Verne’s novel without actually doing a literal adaptation. The story, which is credited to three writers (Michael Weiss, Jennifer Flackett and Mark Levin) along with Jules Verne, seems like one of those 40-minute films you watch in IMAX at a museum that’s chock full of science facts.

Left to right: Anita Briem stars as Hannah, Brendan Fraser stars as Trevor and Josh Hutcherson stars as Sean in New Line Cinema’s release of Eric Brevig’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth”.
Photo credit: Sebastian Raymond, New Line Cinema

Since the film is released for the regular multiplex cinemas, the cheesy and dramatic scenes and corny laugh lines are almost groan worthy. Luckily, these are few and far between to make room for the film’s strongest assets: the action and use of 3-D imagery.

The best thing to be say for “Journey to the Center of the Earth” is that it’s completely self-aware of what it is.

In a time when every “kid” film tries to speak on two levels to not alienate adults, this film seems to make no attempt at being anything more complex than a “PG”-rated, action-adventure movie.

There’s no attempt to make the characters overly sexual, to include bad slapstick violence or to use spicy language. If you have young kids, you could do no better for a good, clean summer movie than these fun-packed 92 minutes.

The character of Hannah is especially interesting because she’s portrayed as weak damsel in distress who finds safety in Frazer’s big and muscular arms. Briem’s character transforms “Grrrl Power” into a bright, funny and strong woman, which is something that’s not portrayed enough in movies for kids.

RELATED IMAGE GALLERY
View our full, high-resolution “Journey to the Center of the Earth” image gallery.

RELATED READING
More film reviews from critic Dustin Levell.

But the real star of this film is its 3-D effects, which were created by the new RealD Cinema format.

Gone are the days of glasses that are red and blue. Those days have been replaced by stylish, clear-tinted spectacles. The film itself could almost be seen as a 92-minute product pitch to make more 3-D movies. This is a gimmick that hasn’t caught on since the fad hit in the 1950s.

Fans of the book or one of the other many remakes of “Journey to the Center of the Earth” shouldn’t look to this film to do anything that really highlights Verne’s masterpiece.

However, families wanting to see something light this summer while avoiding more aggressive films like “Hellboy II: The Golden Army” or “Hancock” could find some solace at the movies with this picture. People uninterested is seeing Brendan Fraser run from dinosaurs, though, can wait until Aug. 1, 2008 when he’ll be running from mummified corpses in “The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor”.

“Journey to the Center of the Earth,” which stars Brendan Fraser, Josh Hutcherson and Anita Briem, opened everywhere on July 11, 2008.

By DUSTIN LEVELL
Senior Staff Writer
HollywoodChicago.com
dustin@hollywoodchicago.com