When it comes to famous directing siblings, perhaps the first names that spring to mind are either the kings of gross, The Farrelly Brothers (Dumb and Dumber, There’s Something About Mary, Stuck on You, Fever Pitch) or the Academy Award-winning team of Joel and Ethan Coen (Blood Simple, Raising Arizona, Fargo, No Country for Old Men, Burn After Reading).
There's a double vampire tag team of films this season: the upcoming New Moon, which is the next installment of the Twilight franchise, directed by Chris Weitz, and the subject of this review, which is directed by Paul Weitz. We’ll see which brother reigns supreme. I don’t need to tell you which film is the more highly anticipated of the two, but between Paul and Chris Weitz, my money is on Paul as to who delivers the goods. Early word of mouth does not sound promising for New Moon but Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant will be far and away the better of the films.
Between the two directors, Paul has a far better resume. To be fair, however, most of their films have been directed together. From their breakout cash cow American Pie through the Chris Rock vehicle Down to Earth and the fabulous Nick Hornby adaptation About a Boy, I’d say they’ve done fairly well working together.
After they decided to tackle their own projects is where their choices started to lag in quality. While Chris cracked out another novel adaptation with The Golden Compass, Paul gave us the hilarious In Good Company but also the Mandy Moore-starring American Dreamz. Luckily with the latter he was working again with Hugh Grant whom he first teamed up with for About a Boy.
Paul has also managed to work with two great co-writers when not working directly with brother Chris. While the lackluster Down to Earth was written by Chris Rock and his friends, Weitz has been able to work with the great Peter Hedges on About a Boy and has now teamed up with Brian Helgeland for Cirque du Freak.
Thankfully, Helgeland is working in his element here seeing how he has written both great and pretty dismal offerings himself — The Taking of Pelham 123, Man on Fire, Mystic River, Blood Work, A Knight’s Tale, Payback, The Postman, Conspiracy Theory, L.A. Confidential, Assassins — and has also ventured into the horror genre before with some offerings in TV (Friday the 13th and Tales From the Crypt) and on the big screen (A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master and Robert Englund’s directorial debut 976-EVIL).
Article comments
1 - John Lake
There are some wonderful writers here at BC!
2 - Chris Bancells
While I am getting a little tired of the vampire fad, I have to admit that the cast here really piques my interest.
3 - Emma
I have to say after reading the entire Darren Shan saga that the film is totally inacurate. The film follows the storyline of Harry Potter more than it does the storyline of Darren Shan! Major characters are missed out, major scenes are missed out, characters are added and changed and the storyline has changed so much I'm starting to think that I must have a completley different copy of the book than the writers. I am completley appaled by the film and wouldnt recommend it to anybody. The film completley ruins the imagery that you get when you read the book.
4 - Meggie
I really liked the film. It was sooooooo much better than i thought it would be! Many people watch the film, so they don't have to go through the long and antagonizing process of just having finished a good part just to see that you have to wait another four months for the next part to come out!(at least for avid readers! ;D)
Also, some people totally avoid reading, so the film would give a good amount of information, just leaving the viewer wanting more. I've read a few of the books and, true, they are different, but what film has ever flawlessly portrayed the book?
I rest my case =]
5 - bobzilla
i agree with emma the film sucks
6 - CKB
I am appalled at the absolutely unnecessary complete TRANSFORMATION of the story. It is hardly recognisable, and the film does not do the books, which are fantastic, any justice whatsoever.
7 - A Geek Girl
I've been dying to see this film. I had no idea about the history of these two brothers. It'll be interesting to see how the vampire sibling rivalry turns out.
Thanks for the great review. It's going to make watching both films far more interesting.
8 - Joanna Rajkowska
Cirque du freak is a story that makes you want to know what’s going to happened next. Once the movie was advertised, I knew it was going to be a fantastic movie and I knew I was going to really enjoy it.
The introduction to the movie made me think “What’s going to happen next?”
Most of all I loved the cast. It was amazing because the movie was made for teenagers and most of the cast were in their teens.
I would certainly recommend this movie to anyone who likes a little bit of action and horror.
9 - katya
I love the film but it talks about two brothers but the book talks about two friends.
10 - KKaa
I LOVE the Darren Shan books, I've read all of them. I was Sooooo exited when the movie was coming out, thinking it would be like the books. I was So VERY wrong! It was RUBBISH,and i couldnt even follow the storyline, I would never recomend this movie to ANYONE!
11 - Saupe
As an avid fan of the Darren Shan books, i thought the movie had potential be amazing. How very wrong. Most of the plot features nowhere in the book, they have literally thrown in the biggest twist from the end of the series into the first film, and pretty much ruined the whole theater scene, a massive battle, steve becoming a vampianeze hunter and alot more, i was absolutely disgusted.
Worst book to film adaptation i have ever seen. Yep, even worse than the massacre that was lemony snickets series of unfortunate events and Harry Poter HBP