1985 is a popular year for remakes. Some of the movies remade from that year in one form or another are "Weird Science," "Teen Wolf," "Mad Max," "Day of the Dead," and "Fright Night." It's rare that a remake is as good, or better than the original. "Fright Night" was respectable, but not as good.
The movie takes place in a tiny suburb outside of Las Vegas. Charley Brewster (Anton Yelchin) and his mom Jane (Toni Collette) live next door to Jerry (Colin Farrell), the vampire. Charley and his mom are wholly unaware of this. Charley is far too consumed with his new life of popularity now that he has the hot girl, Amy (Imogen Poots), as a girlfriend. He is made aware of his neighbors night time activities by his nerdy ex-best friend, Ed (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), vampire tracker extraordinaire. When Ed went missing Charley decided to act.
Because I saw the original and it was such a classic, this version only reminds me how much better the original was. The original was funnier and quirkier while "Fright Night" 2011 goes for a more serious approach. They threw Christopher Mintz-Plasse in there, gave him a few funny lines, and dubbed this a comedy. It was hardly a comedy. So now, instead of a rather plain, yet funny girlfriend, Amy (who was played by Amanda Bearse in 1985--well known as Al Bundy's neighbor Marcy Darcy in "Married with Children"), we get a hot-and-she-knows-it Amy who looks like a clout chaser and didn't have a single funny line.
The Peter Vincent (David Tennant) this time also wasn't as appealing. Peter Vincent was the Vegas showman who Charley went to for help against Jerry. In '85 Peter Vincent was hosting a fledgling late night vampire TV show. He was played by Roddy McDowall, an older man with this funny look of fear on his face nearly all the time. 2011 Peter Vincent is a younger British man who drinks, swears, and is surrounded by scantily clad women. He was comedic, but he wasn't funny.
So, as I mentioned, the 2011 version is not as bad as a lot of remakes out there, but the original is still better.
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