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Vampires are hot these days. Family friendly fantasy is hot these days too. So Darren Shan’s THE SAGA OF DARREN SHAN series seems like a good choice to make the jump to the big screen. In the hands of director/co-writer Paul Weitz and L.A. CONFIDENTIAL writer Brian Helgeland it becomes a captivating world of fantasy creatures and bizarre freaks.

Darren Shan (Chris Massoglia) and Steve Leonard (Josh Hutcherson, BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA) are best friends, but Darren’s parents don’t like their son’s bad influence. One night, the two sneak out to see a freak show where they meet Mr. Larten Crepsley (John C. Reilly, CHICAGO), a centuries old vampire with a colorful, but deadly, pet spider, Madam Octa. This intrigues Darren, an arachnid-phile, and Steve, a troubled young man yearning to be a vampire. Darren steals Mr. Crepsley’s spider, which bites Steve. So to save his friend, Darren agrees to become Crepsley’s vampire assistant in exchange for the antidote.
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Check Out the Trailer

Throughout AMELIA, I kept thinking of a lot of other very good biopics like MILK and WALK THE LINE. Sadly for Mira Nair’s film, I was thinking how they portrayed similar plot elements so much better. AMELIA doesn’t ride high on the overcoming odds elements that Harvey Milk’s film story does, nor does it have nearly as a captivating love story as Johnny Cash and June Carter. But it tries to.

Hilary Swank gives another fine performance as Amelia Earhart. Right at the start, we are thrust into her big first flight as a passenger over the Atlantic. The stunt flight was promoted by top PR man George Putnam (Richard Gere, CHICAGO), who quickly becomes Amelia’s lover and then husband. But as the many speeches Swank gives on the subject Amelia needs to be free and that drives her to a love affair with aeronautics pro Gene Vidal (Ewan McGregor, MISS POTTER).
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