With the TWILIGHT about to descend on DVD, This Weekend’s Film Festival looks at good young vampire films. I guess young vampire is an oxymoron though. Young-looking vampires would be a more accurate statement. The opening film made my best films of 2008 list. There’s also a tightly written anime tale. A twist on the vampire genre from horror master George A. Romero. The quintessential ’80s young vamp film, which originated the term “vamp out.” And we close with one of the best child vampires in movie history. So put your feet up and pour yourself a glass of red wine, but if you don’t drink wine then you might be too young or just right for this week’s lineup.
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Movies love affair with the vampire stretches back to the earliest days of the cinema. Various directors have put their stamp on the horror subgenre and when it comes to pop culture vamps few films exceed THE LOST BOYS in popularity. So why does Joel Schumacher’s fairly standard vampire flick have such staying power? Why does it float above so many others like it? The cast. They were good then and now the film stands as a time capsule for a period in film history.

Michael Emerson (Jason Patric, RUSH) moves with his recently divorced mother Lucy (Dianne Wiest, HANNAH AND HER SISTERS) and little brother Sam (Corey Haim, LUCAS) to live with his hippie grandpa (Barnard Hughes, TRON) in Santa Carla, the murder capitol of the U.S. On the boardwalk, he is smitten by Star (Jami Gertz, 1992’s JERSEY GIRL), a street kid who hangs with a gang of punked out lost boys, lead by David (Kiefer Sutherland, TV’s 24). Not wanting to look like a wuss, Michael takes David’s increasingly dangerous challenges. In the meantime, Sam meets the Frog Brothers, Edgar (Corey Feldman, DREAM A LITTLE DREAM) and Alan (Jamison Newlander, 1988’s THE BLOB), at comic book shop, where they warn the new kid in town to read up on vampires, because it could save his life. At first Sam doesn’t believe in bloodsuckers, but when it turns out that Michael has been tricked into drinking blood, he might have Dracula living in the next room.
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Coming at the height of the first wave of John Travolta’s career, the hit romance made line dancing, rodeo, cowboy hats and country music popular. Travolta’s character Bud could be a cousin of his Tony Manero character from SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER. They’re both working class young men who find self worth in their public hobbies. Their treatment of women is questionable at best. And when is comes to clearing a dance floor few are better.

Travolta’s Bud gets married young to Sissy (Debra Winger, TERMS OF ENDEARMENT), but Sissy isn’t the kind of wife he imagined. She doesn’t cook or clean and doesn’t like being told what to do. Bud works the oil refinery during day and hangs out at the county bar at night. When their favorite watering hole gets a mechanical bull, Bud gets hooked, but he doesn’t like it when Sissy wants to ride too. Ex-con Wes (Scott Glenn, THE RIGHT STUFF) has no problem showing Sissy how to ride and soon Bud and his wife are on the rocks and Bud’s in the arms of the slumming rich girl Pam (Madolyn Smith Osborne, FUNNY FARM). When the bar announces a bull-riding contest, Bud decides to train with his uncle Bob (Barry Corbin, TV’s NORTHERN EXPOSURE) to beat the arrogant Wes, who has now made Sissy his woman.
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Movie nerds are supposed to be misunderstood, awkward people, but likeable. Drew Barrymore plays her lead character in NEVER BEEN KISSED with awkwardness to spare, but also with a huge dose of annoying. There are reasons why some nerds are not liked, Barrymore’s Josie Geller reminds us of them all.

Josie is a copy editor at the Chicago Sun-Times. I wonder if this was done to try and butter up Roger Ebert for a good review? I guess, it worked; it’s the only thing that explains his three star review of this junk. Anyways, Josie really wants to be a reporter, but Gus the editor (John C. Reilly, CHICAGO) doesn’t think she has the strength to be a hardnosed journalist. But then in an editorial meeting, unpredictable publisher Rigfort (Garry Marshall, A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN) randomly picks Josie to go undercover as the high school student to discover what the modern teen is really like. When Josie tells her slacker brother Rob (David Arquette, SCREAM) what her assignment is, he reminds her that high school was hell for her. And sure enough, Josie has the same set of social skills she had back then. A threesome of popular girls ridicules her and the big man on campus Guy (Jeremy Jordan, BIO-DOME) makes joke out of her, until Rob poses as a student and makes her popular.
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I saw this at about the same time I saw the 2008 political thriller VANTAGE POINT and am surprised at the similarities. They both have gimmicks in how they structure their story and they both deal with politics. But what’s even more surprising is that the romantic comedy DEFINITELY, MAYBE executes both of those elements better than the other movie. Romantic comedies are usually slavish to conventions, and thrillers are supposed to throw new twists at us each time out. While DEFINITELY, MAYBE isn’t perfect, it respects its audience enough to know what its talking about when not in romance mode.

Will Hayes (Ryan Reynolds, BLADE TRINITY) is getting divorced. His young daughter Maya (Abigail Breslin, LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE) wants to know how her father and mother met, and why they’re splitting, so Will begins to tell her his dating-life story since college — only changing the names to protect the innocent (and add a bit of mystery to who is Maya’s mom). The first suspect is Emily (Elizabeth Banks, W.), Will’s hometown sweetheart. Maya isn’t convinced it’s her because in romances the guy never stays with the original girl. Next is April (Isla Fisher, THE LOOKOUT), a vivacious woman who isn’t big on commitment, which often casts Will in the role of boy friend not boyfriend. The third and final suspect is journalist Summer (Rachel Weisz, THE CONSTANT GARDENER), who turns out to have a lot in common with Will.
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Neil Jordan followed the success of THE CRYING GAME with this adaptation of Anne Rice’s bestselling horror novel. It actually wasn’t his first foray into horror having made the fairy tale-infused chiller THE COMPANY OF WOLVES in 1984. While INTERVIEW doesn’t have the scares of a typical horror film, it does contain some of the existential dread that classic horror contained, as well as the best romanticized version of the vampire myth to hit the screen.

In the 1700s, Louis de Pointe du Lac (Brad Pitt, 12 MONKEYS) was already a successful plantation owner at the age of 24. However, his wealth was unable to ease the pain of the death of his wife and child; he longed for death. This is when Lestat de Lioncourt came into his life and offered him “the choice he never had.” Lestat said he could ease Louis’s pain by making him a vampire, but in losing his life, Louis doesn’t lose his humanity, and struggles with drinking the blood of humans.
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Clocking in at under an hour, this anime feature is a perfect example of how a simple story is elevated to something more with perfect direction. Hiroyuki Kitakubo creates a gripping horror thriller through tense pacing and iconic imagery. BLOOD doesn’t take the vampire myth in a vastly new direction, but it uses our knowledge of the legend to keep us captivated in this world.

It’s 1966 and Saya (Youki Kudoh, MEMOIRS OF A GEISHA) is the last of the original vampire. The secret U.S. government organization called Red Shield has contracted her to rid the world of chiropterans, bat-like bloodsuckers that pose as humans to turns others. Her handler is an agent named David, who respects Saya as humanities only hope. A new chiropteran is rumored to be on a U.S. military base in Japan, so Saya goes undercover as a student. It’s Halloween and the school is hosting a dance for the students to get their minds off recent deaths. Sharon (Rebecca Forstadt), a young student at the school, looks at Saya with suspicion, while the school’s kind nurse Caroline (Saemi Nakamura, TV’s HEROES) will find herself trapped in the middle of this bloody mystery.
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Show me to the way to Up now!

It’s been a month since the last Getting Buzzed column appeared and there has been a solid release of trailers creating buzz in the movie world. Here are 20 films that look promising.
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Now that the Oscars are over and the awards have been given, what is left? Well, for this edition of This Weekend’s Film Festival we take another chance to celebrate the best of cinema from last year. There are a flood of the best now on DVD, so it’s a great chance for movie fans to catch up with ones you might have missed or reconnect with films that are too good to see only once. We have Oscar winning and Oscar nominated performances. A bio pic and a pic from Israel. A bizarre film about a play that’s about life itself. A performance that will make you smile. And simply the best film of 2008. You can’t go wrong with this lineup.
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PINOCCHIO is a classic because it combines tight storytelling with gorgeous classic animation for a story that has a purpose. Lessons are common to films intended for children, but this animated adventure never preaches, but never shies away from its message. The world is full of temptation, so how can a naïve puppet not go bad?

Geppetto (Christian Rub, SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON) is a lonely puppetmaker who wishes upon a star for his new marionette Pinocchio (Dickie Jones, DESTRY RIDES AGAIN) to come to life. That night, the Blue Fairy (Evelyn Venable, ALICE ADAMS) arrives and makes his dream come true. She promises the naïve puppet that if he is brave and honorable, he will become a real boy. To give him guidance, she makes the wisecracking Jiminy Cricket (Cliff Edwards, HIS GIRL FRIDAY) his official conscience. However, on the way to school, Pinocchio is easily lured off the right path by huckster fox Honest John (Walter Catlett, BRINGING UP BABY) and his dimwitted, mute cat accomplice Gideon (Mel Blanc, LOONEY TUNES).

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