Vampire's Assistant 022310

A boy with a minor spider obsession and his best friend with a minor vampire obsession go to a freak show where John C Reilly performs an act with a huge, deadly spider. Our lead character develops some kind of obsession and sneaks into the dressing room to steal it. In the process he finds out that John C Reilly is a vampire. After stealing the spider the best friend is bitten and winds up in the hospital. In exchange for an antidote the lead agrees to become a vampire and help John C Reilly with his act. After faking his death and joining the freak show, the boy becomes aware of the world of the supernatural and the forces at war around him.

This is a kid movie but I was interested because it looked funny. It was actually a very enjoyable movie. It never went too far into the Harry Potter plagiarism. There was the whole magic world people aren’t aware of aspect but let’s be honest, MIB did that before HP. John C Reilly does an excellent job of playing someone with a dark than rather silly sense of humor and actually plays the part really well. The best friend (the kid from Journey to the Center of the Earth) is on my list of young actors to keep an eye on. He’s not great or a prodigy or anything but he is steadily improving with each new role and could very well become very good.

This is a kid movie so it was very predictable and occasionally cliche. There was the whole theme of don’t judge others until you get to know them. The expected romance with the monkey girl (yeah you heard me). And the humor was frequently cheesy. Typical stuff you’d expect. Although the language was to a Goonies level.

It is a kid movie but it’s one you can have fun watching when you’re bored. It seems made for a sequel and I hope it gets one because the characters are fun and I’d like to see them again. C +