ThiefHott Too much of everything

Onlinewsma Absolutely Brilliant!

Rosie Searle It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Justina The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Wuchak RELEASED IN 2009 and directed by Marco Brambilla, "Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant" is a fantasy/horror/comedy about a teen (Chris Massoglia) who is compelled to join a circus of freaks where he becomes (you guessed it) the assistant of a vampire (John C. Reilly) and learns of a war between two classes of vampires. Josh Hutcherson is on hand as his best friend while Michael Cerveris plays the mysterious Mr. Tiny. Ray Stevenson is formidable as a vampiric heavy.After the mega-hit of "Twilight" (2008), producers naturally thought that another young adult book series involving vampires might be profitable. As such, this movie is based on the opening trilogy of the 12-book series "Cirque du Freak: The Saga of Darren Shan" by Darren Shan (pen name of Darren O'Shaughnessy). It mostly focuses on the first book with uber-fans of the books complaining about deviations. In any case, the film wasn't a hit at the box office (costing $40 million and making back $39 million worldwide with $14 million of that made in North America). Regardless, I much prefer it to "Twilight."For some reason I always enjoy stories that center around life in circuses and carnivals. The excellent "Water for Elephants" (2011) is a good example. While that movie was decidedly realistic, "The Vampire's Assistant" is obviously rooted in fantasy.The first act is a low-key introduction to the two teen friends, their situation in life, and their intriguing visit to the Cirque Du Freak, which in English means The Freak Circus. The film improves in the second act with the excellent character of Larten Crepsley moving to the spotlight. Reilly is commanding and fascinating in the role. The third act is also really good, centering on the war between the vampires and the vampanese. The plot is involved enough without being too complex and the movie is impressively imaginative on practically every front.Salma Hayek stands out in the female department as one of the performers with a lame talent. But the creators don't really take advantage of her presence. In other words, don't expect anything like Salma's mind-blowing sequence in "From Dusk till Dawn" (1996). The striking Jane Krakowski is on hand, but her role is very small. Winsome Jessica Carlson plays Rebecca, a potential babe for the protagonist, I guess; she was only 15 during shooting and looks it.THE FILM RUNS 1 hour, 49 minutes and was shot in Louisiana (New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Folsom) and Los Angeles with studio work done in Universal City.GRADE: B

Dark Jedi I found this movie pretty much by accident when flicking through the Netflix catalogue. I thought what the heck and started to watch it. My hopes were really not that high. Actually I am not sure I had any hopes at all since I just stumbled on the movie and started to watch it on a whim. What I found was a rather okay and fun movie actually.The movie is apparently based on popular book series Cirque du Freak by Darren Shan. Unfortunately, in their usual arrogant manner, the Hollywood moguls decided to rip the books apart and mash together book one and two in this movie. It appears the general consensus is, not surprisingly, that the books are better than the movie. Nevertheless, the movie was good enough that I most probably will have a go at reading at least one of the books in the series.The movie itself then? Actually I liked it more than I expected. It took a little while before it got started but once it got going it was a good teenage magical fantasy adventure. I am actually a bit saddened that it appears there was never any sequels using the other books in the series.The name Cirque du Freak is well chosen. This is not the usual bunch of people with magical abilities or fangs or some of the other attributes you usually see in magic or supernatural movies. The members of the Cirque are freaks in every sense of the word. I do not think I have seen such a bunch of weird and bizarre creatures before. Heck, the vampire that takes Darrel as his assistant is probably the most normal of the bunch.The story is quite okay and the acting acceptable. The vampire, Creepsly, felt a bit underwhelming at first but he grew on me. So did Mr. Tiny who I definitely didn't like at first but found doing quite a good job of playing the evil mastermind towards the end. His sleaziness was downright creepy.I am sure a lot of the story and character development from the books were left out because there is so much more that could have been done with the story. Darrel befriending the snake man, the brewing romance, Darrels relation with Creapsley and all the other interactions and characters that took place. If the producer had wanted to do a good job he could easily have added another 40 minutes to the movie. A shame he did not.Bottom line, watching this movie was a pleasant experience. It is perhaps not a blockbuster but a nice little adventure, magic, supernatural and fantasy gem.

SnoopyStyle Darren Shan (Chris Massoglia) is a teen who loves spiders. His best friend Steve (Josh Hutcherson) loves vampires. They live in a surreal preppy suburbs. One day a freak show comes to town, and the two must go see. The ringmaster is vampire Larten Crepsley (John C. Reilly) and he has a special spider. Steve couldn't convince Larten to convert him. But when Larten's spider bites Steve, Larten is willing to save Steve only if Darren would become a vampire's assistant.There are a lot of name actors that seems to be slumming it in tiny minor roles. It's distracting especially considering the lead Chris Massoglia is so underwhelming. While I appreciate the costumes and the style of the movie, the story moves too slowly. There are too many scenes dwelling on the minutia rather than dealing with the main story. And John C. Reilly just don't fit the vampire stereotype. He's neither dark nor brooding. There is something just not right with the freak show.

Paul Magne Haakonsen Although I worked in a bookstore a while back, I never actually did read a single of the Darren Shan books, although just familiar with them from the genre and the covers. So I wasn't even aware that this movie was based on those, until I watched the DVD extras after having seen the movie.I found this movie in a secondhand store, and thought to myself 'a vampire movie with John C. Reilly, well that ought to be unusual', and so I picked it up and decided to give it a go.I will say that, much like "Twilight", this vampire movie is a vampire movie for a teenage audience. However, unlike "Twilight", this movie is not about love, sparkly vampires (though the big hair is here!) or werewolves (again, there is one of those as well). "Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant" is a bit more gloomy and dark compared to the lovefest known as "Twilight". However, that being said, it is not really enough to make it overly suitable for an audience out of their teenage years. I was waiting and hoping for a bit more than the movie did deliver.The story is about a young boy named Darren (played by Chris Massoglia) and his friend Steve (played by Josh Hutcherson) who come across a traveling freak show that is in town for one night only. They go there and enter a world of bizarre oddities and a brooding war between vampires."Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant" does have some rather impressive names to the cast list. Despite my first initial puzzlement about John C. Reilly being in a vampire movie, then he actually did a good job, and comes to show his diversity of being an actor outside the comedy genre. But the movie also has Salma Hayek, Willem Dafoe, Frankie Faison, Ken Watanabe and Ray Stevenson to the cast list. And much has probably be said about this already, but seeing Salma Hayek with a beard was just fun - and most impressively was that she carried it so well.One of the better things in the movie, was the costume design and the set designs. There were so many nice details to the clothing, and especially to the fream show camp. Keep your eyes open here, because there is a lot of really nice treats to behold. And if you get the DVD with the extras on it, I suggest you take the tour of the camp, because it is really worth it."Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant" is a teenage movie and a movie for fans of the Darren Shan books, I am sure. I found it to be entertaining enough for a single watching, but I doubt I will ever make a second watching out of it. It was just a bit too much out of my interest. As much as I have strained to point out the target audience age of this movie, then "Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant" was still more enjoyable than "Twilight" (of which, I mistakenly saw the first movie, and stayed well clear of all that came afterwards).