Fright Night (2011)

If you have seen the original Fright Night, which was very well received back in 1985, you might look upon this modern remake differently, I hadn't seen it prior to watching this new version so I didn't go in to it with any preconceptions.

Anton Yelchin (Chekov in the Star Trek reboot & soon to be seen in Odd Thomas) plays Charley Brewster, a teenager who is a bit of a nerd and has recently been accepted into a group of "cool" kids. Ed played by Christopher Mintz-Plasse used to be good friends with Charley, but they have drifted apart as Charley has been distancing himself from his former geekery.

Weird stuff begins to happen in their neighbourhood, the boys' schoolmates start disappearing, and someone has moved into the previously vacant house next door to Charley and his mother, there are plenty of signs of someone taking residence, but no one in the street has met the mysterious neighbour.

Ed is convinced that a vampire is hunting down the kids in the neighbourhood and killing them off, which Charley initially laughs off, but he starts to take this theory more seriously when Ed goes missing.

David Tennant as Peter Vincent

Fearing the worst, Charley and his girlfriend attempt to enlist the help of Peter Vincent played by David Tennant, who has a magic show in nearby Las Vegas in which he theatrically dispatches sexy lady vampires. And as it turns out, Charley's problems are closer to home than he first realised....

After the trend for gross out "torture porn" horror movies such as the Saw series, I'm glad to see a return to what I would call "shock horror" (see also The Woman In Black) with plenty of moments that make you jump out of your seat, that's not to say there isn't a fair amount of blood flying around, but not so much that it makes you feel physically ill.

Anton Yelchin is very good, even though he acts like a bit of a dick to Ed (who in fairness is sometimes a bit obnoxious himself), you end up rooting for him. I didn't have a strong opinion either way about Colin Farrell before watching the film, but he was very charming, and suitably creepy as Jerry Dandridge, the neighbour from hell.

For me, the stand out performance was that of David Tennant as potty mouthed Peter Vincent, for those of you acquainted with his portayal of Giacomo Cassanova, it's not a million miles away from that, and he certainly gets the best of the one liners.

There's a good deal of humour in the film, which in my opinion, makes it all the more enjoyable, a real modern day gothic treat.

Laurel & Hardy in Going Bye Bye (1934)

In this short Stan and Ollie are the star witnesses in a big court case, they provide the damning evidence that will see Butch Long sent to prison for the rest of his life. Butch is understandably rather annoyed about their willingness to come forward and seal his fate, this isn't helped by Stan asking the judge "aren't you going to hang him?"!

In the ensuing court room chaos, Butch resolves that if he ever gets out of jail, he will track them down, break their legs and tie them around their necks!

The boys fear the worst and desperately try to get together enough money to make their escape, they come up with a genius plan which involves advertising in the local newspaper for a traveling companion who will pay for the expenses of traveling out east.

Their prayers are answered when they get a response to their ad from Mae (played by L&H regular Mae Busch), who by sheer coincidence happens to be Butch's girl. Things get even more out of control when Butch turns up, having just broken out of jail, he needs to leave town as soon as possible and the unknowing boys agree to let Mae's mystery friend along for the ride "the more the merrier!".

Through a fairly unbelievable twist, Butch ends up locked in Mae's trunk, Mae tells Stan and Ollie that her friend is trapped inside "he fell in whilst packing" the boys mull this over for a moment and agree that it sounds like something that could realistically happen!

Cue an amusing set piece involving Stan & Ollie trying various means to try and open the trunk.

At the film's climax all hell breaks loose, and the cops turn up a little too late to save our two heroes, who in the final shot are in a reflective mood about the turn of events with Oliver exclaiming "Well, that's another nice mess you've gotten me into!".

Although I get the impression that this isn't held up as a classic Laurel & Hardy short, there are some great scenes. The business when Stan arrives at Ollie's home and proceeds to send him flying so that his head gets stuck in the bed frame, and the business played out when Stan is looking for his glasses when attempting to read the newspaper ad are great.

The scene with them using the drill, blow torch and hose to try and get the trunk open is a hoot.

I think this goes to prove that even some of the lesser Hal Roach made films stand up well to the test of time.

Laurel & Hardy in Hog Wild (1930)

Stan and Oliver prove that quality comedy is timeless.

In this talkie short from 1930, Oliver is a henpecked husband, who is nagged into attempting to repair the radio aerial on the roof of the Hardy family home. Needless to say his best friend Stanley is happy to lend a hand.

The film opens with a great skit, involving Oliver searching for his trademark bowler hat (unaware that it is sitting on his head!). In this scene Ollie proves that he is no mere straight man, hanging on to Stan's coat tails, he can pull off comedy timing with the best of them.

Stan arrives on the scene in his car.

He is obviously a great actor. Away from the big screen, having seen interviews with him, and knowing that he wrote a great deal of the material, and directed too he is no idiot, but his ability to pull off the gormless demeanour of the character he portrays on screen is pure bliss.

Ricky Gervais commented recently that one of the reasons he loves Laurel & Hardy, is that their comedy comes from the empathy that you feel for their characters, rather than laughing at their expense.

The boys set about their task, in suitably slapstick style. No matter how many times I watch their movies, I never tire of their humour. Ollie's plaintive looks in to the camera lens when things go awry are priceless.

The final section as the car veers wildly out of control is great, Stan was way ahead of Homer Simpson with his girlish screams (not to mention Ollie using "DOH!" on numerous occasions in their movies).

And the gag at the end with the squished car is the perfect ending to a very enjoyable movie.

These guys managed in 19 minutes what many so called film makers fail to do in 120!

AFI 100 Movies #85 Duck Soup (1933)

Argh! Where to begin?

I don't want to be entirely negative about this film. I suppose humour is subjective.

Groucho Marx as Rufus T. Firefly is very witty and comes out with some great one liners, Chico has some good exchanges with Groucho. I have to say, and I know this will divide opinion, Harpo is incredibly irritating. I like my fair share of "zany" comedy, but he just leaves me cold.

His one moment of class is the scene where he pretends to be Firefly's reflection in a mirror, the timing is perfect and it's genuinely funny.

But for me, the rest is pretty uninspiring. I like a lot of comedy from this era, for me what puts the likes of Chaplin, Laurel & Hardy and Buster Keaton above them is that their comedy comes from an empathy for the characters that they play. But I guess if we all liked the same things the world would be a boring place.

Not the least enjoyable film at this stage in the list but not far from it.