Os Radley

In even-paced contemporary British vampire flick "The Radleys" Kelly Macdonald & Damien Lewis, with teen kids Bo Bragason & Harry Baxendale, seem a regular middle-class Yorkshire-coast family... til the kids learn (the hard way) that they're actually all vampires (albeit abstaining ones). Lewis' active-vampire bro (also played by Lewis) comes to help them through this tricky period, but makes matters worse (drawing in suspicious neighbour Shaun Parkes, fearing for the safetly of son Jay Lycurgo). Director Euros Lyn & writer Talitha Stevenson may want it to be the first of a new "Twilight"-esque franchise, but it lacks the requisite bite, flair and style for that. Mediocre.

The Radleys is a painfully dull, pointless attempt at a vampire comedy that fails on every level. Damian Lewis, who deserves much better, is completely wasted in this lifeless suburban vampire story, which has no bite and zero humor. The film's weak attempts at social commentary are as bland as its characters, turning it into a tedious mess of worn-out vampire clichés and shallow family drama. The pacing drags, the jokes fall flat, and there's no real horror to speak of. Director seems confused about whether to focus on comedy or drama, leaving the audience stuck in a boring limbo. The Radleys is a bloodless disaster that should've stayed buried, only serving to remind us how far the vampire genre has fallen. Lewis ought to fire his agent for dragging him into this cinematic nightmare, which is about as thrilling as watching paint dry at a funeral.

Matt Haig was recommended to me this year and I've read little else since. His non fiction books such as reasons to live are a must and really resonate, The Midnight library was brilliant too (fiction). Being a lifelong horror (and especially vampire genre) fan to boot m, I therefore refused to follow our house rule of not watching anything less than a 6/10 IMDb rated film, I subsequently had to go solo and ultimately paid the price for deviating. This is a poor adaption of the what is one of Matt's less engaging books and with too much background missing and story changes to appease some misguided social duty it really misses the mark. I gave it a 5 as I could appreciate what it should have been having read the book, however if you went straight in to the film I think it would be less. I really hope future film adaptions of his books are more worthy as he is a fantastic story teller and human being!

A bit harsh the ratings this lighthearted vampire flick gets on here. Well that's only my opinion, and my wife's I guess as she enjoyed it as well. Okay it's not a movie that will blow you away, but which one really does in this genre? It's certainly good enough to watch once, and although some actors could have done better overall it wasn't all that bad. I've seen Damian Lewis and Kelly MacDonald doing better in other movies but they were still enjoyable to watch. I'm glad I watched it. Would I watch it again in the future? Probably not, unless I forget everything about it and then I wouldn't mind rewatching it.

This one will probably leave the shock and horror addicted as cold as the corpses of the victims.

This is a new take on the vampire theme exposing the internal challenges on the other side of the fence.. It starts with a seemingly ordinary family with a dark secret: they are vampires. They choose not to drink blood Kelly Macdonald and Damian Lewis manage to pull off the difficult task of showing the nuances behind giving into cravings and fighting those cravings in search for something better and the dangers of not dealing from truth. I very much doubt this movie would have been successful without stars of this caliber.

The rest caste have supported and exposed the sensitivities and choices that lead down the path of darkness or the bumpier road to something more meaningful and each was given their time to shine.

A bit of a Hollywood ending wraps it all up.

I liked it.