Review - Let Me In

by Mr. Blunderson

I hate remakes and since this is a remake of one of my favorite movies in the last few years I was primed to hate the living crap out of this Matt Reeves rehash.

I waited to see Let Me In for a while in order to quell my rage and give the movie a chance... something I rarely do but since recently I have begun to feel like a massive douche for trashing movies on the internet I felt I had to give this film as much of a chance as I could. I owed it to myself.

I really tried.

Which is why it kills me that Reeves ruined it for me in the first 5 minutes.

Opening the film with a scene that occurs later in the story we get a cut to black and a title card that reads "two weeks earlier."

This is the device de jour in film making of late ( and TV for that matter) and people need to just stop. TRY SOMETHING NEW! Just tell the damn story. Drop the gimmicks and give me a well written story with gripping characters and a cohesive plot. That's all I need to enjoy a movie but apparently it is too much to ask.

So Sorry Mr. Reeves, I didn't really like your movie. I don't like remakes and I hated how you started the film.

That said, the damn thing looked great. Fantastic framing, lighting, locations... I really dug it. I found the choices you made on what you left out from the original movie interesting, even though it put more on the shoulders of your child actors... a burden I'm not sure they were quite able to bear, even though they came mighty close.

I was bummed that certain elements of the book were left out once more, although it is fair to say American audiences might not be ready for some of the horrors mentioned in the source material.

This is a story that is full of monsters of nearly every kind. Bullies, murderers, neglectful parents, and yes there is a vampire. The book adds a few more of the most despicable varieties and this rogues gallery allows the viewer to take from it what they want... this could be a movie about childhood angst and loneliness, it could be a movie about divorce, or being bullied, or if you absolutely insist one could take it as a fantastic vampire flick.

Now, I know I didn't love this movie but I applaud Matt Reeves for going as far away from Cloverfield as a person could go, cinematically speaking. And as imperfect as this movie might be it's still a million times better than Twilight could EVER be.

So props Mr. Reeves for making the best movie I will never be able to bring myself to like. Maybe it's not you, it's me... but it was also you for ruining it for me in the first 5 minutes. I'm sorry but that "two weeks earlier" device has been done to death.

But in the end I have to admit that it wasn't all bad. Great cast and I love how this movie oozes of the 80's. And since vampire's have been done such a disservice in media lately (I'm looking at you Mrs. Meyers and CW) I owe it to myself to give Let Me In a WHY NOT? on the Mr. Blunderson scale.