Mitternachtszirkus – Willkommen in der Welt der Vampire (2009)

Mitternachtszirkus – Willkommen in der Welt der Vampire: Directed by Paul Weitz. With John C. Reilly, Josh Hutcherson, Chris Massoglia, Jessica Carlson. Teenager Darren Shan meets a mysterious man at a freak show who turns out to be a vampire. After a series of events, Darren must leave his normal life and go on the road with the Cirque du Freak, becoming a creature of the night.

“My tween-age daughter has become a fan of all things vampire thanks to the u0026quot;Twilightu0026quot; books and films, so she asked me to take her to see this movie, even though itu0026#39;s based on a different series.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAlthough u0026quot;Cirque du Freaku0026quot; shows its u0026quot;young adultu0026quot; target audience, it was not as bad as many teen-oriented films I have seen. It had an interesting, if simplistic, storyline, and was effectively filmed. I agree with the comments that especially commend the Freak Show scene as an early high point, but the rest of the story moved along at about the right pace, and I never found myself bored.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIu0026#39;m told the teen lead was very attractive, but heu0026#39;s not much of an actor. His evil counterpart, played by Josh Hutcherson of u0026quot;RV,u0026quot; was somewhat better. Iu0026#39;m not a real John Reilly fan, but he did a good job in his leading role. Willem Dafoe was wasted playing, essentially, a vampire version of John Waters. I would hope that Ken Watanabe and Salma Hayek would have a bit more to do in future installments. Ditto Orlando Jones, who hasnu0026#39;t done much since the horrible u0026quot;Evolutionu0026quot; nearly killed his career. I also hope the character of Mr. Tiny is written better in the future; this guy was a pain to watch, and came off more like a sweaty pedophile than a supernatural referee or whatever the hell he was supposed to be.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eParents: nothing to worry about here. Iu0026#39;m not even sure how it came in at PG-13, unless there was some mild profanity sprinkled in that I donu0026#39;t remember. This might be a little complicated for little ones, but ages 8 and over shouldnu0026#39;t be scared by anything they see here. Best of all, itu0026#39;s not too painful for adults to watch if you must. Then again, Iu0026#39;m a veteran of the Pokemon movies; Iu0026#39;ve been to movie hell, so I can sit through anything now.”