The Lost Boys (1987)

[Movie 11 / Day 8]


The Lost Boys is a teen-vampire movie that starred a who's who of 80s faces - the two Coreys, Feldman (who starred in so many fondly remembered 80s movies, including Gremlins, The Goonies and Stand By Me, before being doomed to obscurity) and Haim (who always seemed to have his gob open and fat tongue lolling), Jason Patric (who is much better in this than the painful Speed 2) and Kiefer Sutherland (who seemed to nail the bad-boy role before becoming doomed to 24).

It's pretty tame fair compared to modern vampire flicks, but it's still worth a watch. The vampire effects themselves, whilst simplistic, are done well enough not to become a laughing point now.

My rating: 6.4 / 10
IMDB rating: 6.9 / 10
Running time: 97 mins
IMDB link

In the Valley of Elah (2007)

[Movie 8 / Day 6]


Tommy Lee Jones seems to only get better with age. He's brilliant in this fairly depressing movie (based on a true story) of a father trying to trace his son who is AWOL from the US Army. He's also backed up by a solid supporting cast, including Charlize Theron, Jason Patric (who makes up for the abysmal Speed 2 here), Josh Brolin (who, for me at least, can do no wrong at the moment)... Even Susan Sarandon seems perfectly cast as the depressed wife - and that's saying a lot, as she usually irritates the shit out of me.

It's a bit too long and the ending is a bit meh, but overall it's enjoyable. Depressing, though.

My rating: 6.9 / 10
IMDB rating: 7.5 / 10
Running time: 121 mins
IMDB link