Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant (2009)

Geez. guys. So read the book, it's a lot better Darren Shan is a master. But anyway this movie gets 10 stars because it tries really hard and has a wonderful hard working cast (John C. Reilly) and it had the potential to be like really really good. But it has a good old 2009 vibe....just don't knock it till ya try it.

Apparently this is based on a book. I don't care. This movie is so, so bad. The effects are bad. The acting is bad. The script is terrible. There is only one joke that works (the friend of the main character gets pissed when he sees that the main character is presenting to be dead so that noone knows he's a vampire. Thats the only scene in this movie that I found to be genuinely entertaining). This movie is boring and tedious and I would not recommend it. Its not even worth waling about.

I loved the books so much and was very disappointed that they didn't make it a series to finish out all of the book! I am emotionally invested in these characters and want to see Darren win! The books kept me completely engaged. And yes, books are usually a lot more involved than movies but I really enjoyed the story line being told out loud and that it followed the book as accurately as it did. I enjoyed meeting all of the characters and seeing their many talents. I also loved the the little goblins. It's never too late to complete the series in movie form you guys! I love the comedic relief and timing. It kept the movie from becoming too frightening for my son to watch. He hasn't read the books yet but we both loved the movie.

Although I worked in a bookstore a while back, I never actually did read a single of the Darren Shan books, although just familiar with them from the genre and the covers. So I wasn't even aware that this movie was based on those, until I watched the DVD extras after having seen the movie.I found this movie in a secondhand store, and thought to myself 'a vampire movie with John C. Reilly, well that ought to be unusual', and so I picked it up and decided to give it a go.I will say that, much like "Twilight", this vampire movie is a vampire movie for a teenage audience. However, unlike "Twilight", this movie is not about love, sparkly vampires (though the big hair is here!) or werewolves (again, there is one of those as well). "Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant" is a bit more gloomy and dark compared to the lovefest known as "Twilight". However, that being said, it is not really enough to make it overly suitable for an audience out of their teenage years. I was waiting and hoping for a bit more than the movie did deliver.The story is about a young boy named Darren (played by Chris Massoglia) and his friend Steve (played by Josh Hutcherson) who come across a traveling freak show that is in town for one night only. They go there and enter a world of bizarre oddities and a brooding war between vampires."Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant" does have some rather impressive names to the cast list. Despite my first initial puzzlement about John C. Reilly being in a vampire movie, then he actually did a good job, and comes to show his diversity of being an actor outside the comedy genre. But the movie also has Salma Hayek, Willem Dafoe, Frankie Faison, Ken Watanabe and Ray Stevenson to the cast list. And much has probably be said about this already, but seeing Salma Hayek with a beard was just fun - and most impressively was that she carried it so well.One of the better things in the movie, was the costume design and the set designs. There were so many nice details to the clothing, and especially to the fream show camp. Keep your eyes open here, because there is a lot of really nice treats to behold. And if you get the DVD with the extras on it, I suggest you take the tour of the camp, because it is really worth it."Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant" is a teenage movie and a movie for fans of the Darren Shan books, I am sure. I found it to be entertaining enough for a single watching, but I doubt I will ever make a second watching out of it. It was just a bit too much out of my interest. As much as I have strained to point out the target audience age of this movie, then "Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant" was still more enjoyable than "Twilight" (of which, I mistakenly saw the first movie, and stayed well clear of all that came afterwards).