ON CIRCUIT: 30 Days of Night, Bee Movie and La Vie en Rose.
30 Days of Night
Adaptation of a graphic novel series by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith. In Barrow, Alaska, there is darkness for 30 days in winter. For the purposes of the movie, this period arrives at a certain date and this is when a group of vampires, led by Danny Huston with wacky pointed teeth and black contact lenses, shows up to chomp away on the exposed fleshy parts of innocent townsfolk. Their only protection is a sheriff, played by Josh Hartnett. There isn’t much riffing or variation on the traditional vampire theme and director David Slade is clearly of the opinion that more is more, so there is lots of blood, lots of gore and lots of vampires in black coats standing around as if auditioning for a remake of the Michael Jackson Thriller video. — Peter Bradshaw