Let Me In

Let Me In (2010)

90% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 201 reviews)

Runtime: 115 minutes

Directed by: Matt Reeves

Starring: Chloe Moritz, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Richard Jenkins, Elias Koteas

From: Overture/Hammer (a new revival of that classic name)

Here’s a movie that I wanted to see on the big screen but I never got the chance to. In hindsight, that was a poor decision on my part. I mean, I saw the original movie, Let The Right One In, on the big screen back in late 2008 and that’s a pretty tremendous film. I mean, I rate it very highly and it’s something I can watch on DVD many times, which is not a common thing for me. I heard mixed things about this film and how it compares to the original. It’s an awfully tough task to even be on the same level as the original, but…

For the most part, it’s the exact same movie as the original. You have the snowy setting, most of the same characters (but with different names), the same general plot, and so on and so forth. The main difference is that some of the minor characters got dropped so that more of a focus was put on Owen (Oskar in the original) and this time the aspect of him going through puberty is brought in. And yeah, it’s set in New Mexico instead of Sweden. I’m not quite sure why they chose that particular state, but then again here, the setting isn’t as big of a factor as Sweden was in LTROI. Otherwise, except for minor things like that or the fact that the policeman researching the case is more of a factor here, the movie is almost identical. Whether or not you think that’s a bad thing is up to you. I mean, I’m not quite sure myself if that’s good or bad.

I do say that you should see the movie whether or not you see the original. I’d say that the Swedish version is the better flick, but this remake is far better than what I expected. It wasn’t “dumbed down” for American audiences (at least not too much; that’s probably why it didn’t do so well at the box office; I could have done without the frequent reminders that the movie is set in the early 80’s, with the standard selection of songs that for the most part you can hear on XM/Sirius’s 80’s station. I’ll never look at Burnin’ For You the same way again after the way it was used in this movie and a big car crash sequence), the performances are at least good, the atmosphere is nice, the music score-when it isn’t bombastic-works for the film. It’s just that the Swedish movie is so great, it’s an awful task to try and match it.

On its own, the movie is well worth seeing and again, I dun goofed by not watching it in a movie theatre. Bad bad Blair. If you want to see a serious vampire film that’s actually mainly about love and growing up and is the complete polar opposite of that God-awful Twilight crap, check this out.

I'll be back Wednesday night, where I'll review something a little different.