Let Me In...to the theatre so I can watch this movie again.

For the most part, I despise American remakes of foreign horror movies. They always dumb down the source material to make it PG-13 in an effort to sell more tickets and destroy the essence of the original. Let Me In is the very rare exception, and it came close to surpassing the original. The film was a near perfect adaptation. The two leads were both fantastic, the setting was very surreal and foreboding, and the music was top notch.

The basic plot for the movie is as follows. Owen (played by Kodi Smit-McPhee of The Road) is a 12 year old boy who is going through hard times. He is neglected by his mom and has bully problems at school. He soon meets a young girl named Abby, (played by Chloe Moretz Grace of Kick Ass fame) and the two form a relationship. The catch is that Abby is a vampire. My only real nitpick is the addition of religion to the plot. I felt like that took away from the story, because it focused less on a relationship between two different people and more on a “good and evil” tone.

The acting was great. Kodi and Chloe had great chemistry together and the both continue to show that they have some real acting talent. Chloe’s creepy yet romantically cute portrayal of a vampire played very well off of Kodi’s abused/borderline psychotic yet lonely and sympathetic young boy. They both perfected their given roles and gave the originals a run for their money. The only other “main” character in the film was Abby’s father/protector (played by Richard Jenkins). Elias Koteas (Casey Jones from the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) has a “hey, it’s that guy” role as the police officer and he did a great job as well. The other bit of acting that needs mentioning are the bullies. Like the two leads, their personalities played well off of each other. I can’t spoil it but needless to say, they are some of the better “villains” in recent memory because you can sympathize with them.

One of the strongest points of the movie was the musical score. Michael Giacchino (Star Trek, Speed Racer, and many Pixar films) has crafted an amazing score. When the movie needs tension, Giacchino uses slowly paced hard drum hits and loud trumpet blasts. When the movie calls for a more creepy/romantic turn, he uses a slow piano and a slow paced violin. I’m normally not a huge fan of horror soundtracks, but this one that I will be purchasing.

This is a very easy movie to recommend. I know I say this a lot, but this is coming from someone who hates remakes.

Scott PIlgrim vs. the World

I’m not sure a simple review can show anyone just how amazingly epic Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is, but here goes nothing. It was a fantastic movie, and one of the most fun times I’ve had at the theaters in ages. Everything, down to the absurd plot, was flowing with artistic creativity. The only “negative” aspect of the film is that you really have to understand gaming culture. If you don’t, many of the film’s jokes won’t make any sense. For this reason, it’s a very hard movie to review.

The basic plot of the movie is this. Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) is madly in love with Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Edward) and wants to date her. Normally this would sound like a romantic comedy, but there’s one small catch. In order to win her heart, Scott must fight and defeat her seven evil exes.

It’s hard to touch on every single actor in the film individually, but they all did great jobs. I’ve never been a Michael Cera fan, but he did a fantastic job here as Scott Pilgrim. The standout would have to be Kieran Culkin as Scott’s gay roommate, Wallace. He stole the scene every time he was on screen.

It’s literally impossible to talk about this movie without mentioning the sound effects and visuals. The moment the Universal theme and logo appear in 8-bit, you know you’re in for a treat. The movie was filmed like it was a video game. During fight scenes, everyone would have health bars and they would flash red when “low” on health. The best effect, however, was “vs.” sliding onto the screen right before a fight would begin. When a character died, they would explode into coins and numbers would appear in their place, symbolizing points. The fights were also very stylized and fast paced, like a fighting game.

The music was also very stylized and “gamelike” in nature. Nigel Godrich has made the perfect score for this movie. He did a remix of the “Fairy Fountain” theme from Zelda for the dream sequences. The “boss battle” music is great as well. It uses a mix between 8-bit and 16-bit style music mixed with fast paced drum and violin scores.

All in all, this movie was amazing and it’s an easy recommendation. It's just pure, unadulterated fun.