How do relentless turkeys like Cirque du Freak attract the kind of talent like director/writer Paul Weitz, co-writer Brian Helgeland, actors John C. Reilly, Willem Dafoe, Ken Wantanabe and Salma Hayek? Who got this ball rolling and where can I address my nasty letters? This year has had its share of kiddie movies that play like a kind of bouncy castle for the brain (G-Force, Shorts), but never any as shockingly unpleasant as Freak. Based on the young adult novel series, The Saga of Darren Shan, the movie, where some snot-nosed teen becomes a circus-freak vampire, has an outdated good-kid/bad-kid dichotomy. It makes me down-right queasy that a movie would simply explain that good grades make you the hero, while an abusive home life makes you unequivocally evil.
I think it's disingenuous to pitch the movie this way when the film itself acknowledges…
A fraudulent issue movie for the socially empowered? I just thought it was a nice…
I saw the movie in St. John's, Newfoundland tonight. It started a little slow but…
The story is also based in truth, via the documentary 'The Men Who Stare at…
The movie had me till the end...ANNNNND we'll just montage the hard part and SUCCESS!…
© 2009 Coast Publishing Ltd.
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