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Thursday, August 25, 2011

Fright Night and Conan The Barbarian 2011

Fright Night 2011 is a remake of a 1980s somewhat teenage vampire horror movie. Not all that bad really. It went to have a sequel, which I don't remember at all, and since it's not on Netflix yet, probably won't see until who knows when.

I will say that this is a rare movie, where the remake is much better than the original. And hopefully it does well. And from what I have read it seems to be.

It's that odd mix, of comedy with horror without becoming too much of a joke. They managed to update the film sensibly to 2011 from 1985 or so.. without it all coming apart.

And this credit I will place squarely before the feet of the writer. The one person that every movie and show needs, but usually get's the least respect and attention.

Which now leads me to my second part..

Conan The Barbarian 2011.. I mean, after almost 30 years and zillions of rewrites they still couldn't seem to make anything but a mess.

I liked the cast, it's an action movie after all. Sword and Sorcery (Not Fantasy)so I wasn't expecting Shakespeare regardless of your opinions of Momoa (See Game of Thrones or SGA)

But when you have $90 million dollars, and all the backing in the world. And the movie is simple.. And they still couldn't get the job done.

Which should be of no surprise really.. When was the last time they could make Fantasy or Swords and Sorcery anyway?? Lord of the Rings almost a decade ago, and then the original Conan movies before that.

After all, they couldn't even make a Dungeons and Dragons movie work. And that should have been easy.

They can make good action movies with cars and guns in them. But make that horses and sword and it all falls apart.

But anyway, we had one movie with a low budget $18 Million, relatively small cast. And a great writer being a 1980s remake vs another 1980s remake with $90 million budget, larger cast all the sets and backgrounds in the world. And apparently no writer to speak of And years of developement time and both in 3D and guess which one comes out ahead??

Yeah, when will they learn to start with a great writer and a better script. And stop short changing where it counts. Just because it's an action movie doesn't mean it shouldn't make any sense.

Fright Night 2011 3.5 stars out of 5
Conan The Barbarion 2011 2 stars out of 5



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