{"id":1805,"date":"2011-02-01T07:11:07","date_gmt":"2011-02-01T15:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/?p=1805"},"modified":"2021-04-22T08:33:39","modified_gmt":"2021-04-22T15:33:39","slug":"review-letmein-bd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/2011\/02\/review-letmein-bd\/","title":{"rendered":"Let Me In Blu-ray Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Let Me In<\/em><\/strong> is a great film with solid performances all around and a story that, for someone not so enamored with the vampire subgenre, really worked. Matt Reeves as a director was also impressive establishing truly scary and creepy shots without going overboard.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>
\nLet Me In (2010)<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Genre(s): <\/strong>Drama, Horror
\nAnchor Bay | R \u2013 115 min. \u2013 $39.99 | February 1, 2011<\/p>\n

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MOVIE INFO:<\/span>
\nDirected by: <\/strong>Matt Reeves
\nWriter(s): <\/strong>John Lindqvist (novel\/original screenplay); Matt Reeves (written for the screen)
\nCast: <\/strong>Kodi Smit-McPhee, Chlo\u00eb Grace Moretz, Elias Koteas, Richard Jenkins<\/p>\n

Theatrical Release Date: <\/strong>October 1, 2010<\/p>\n

DISC INFO:<\/span>
\nFeatures: <\/strong>Commentary, Featurettes, Deleted Scenes, Trailers, Digital Copy
\nNumber of Discs: <\/strong>2<\/p>\n

Audio: <\/strong>English (Dolby TrueHD 5.1)
\nVideo: <\/strong>1080p\/Widescreen 2.40
\nSubtitles: <\/strong>English SDH, Spanish
\nCodec: <\/strong>AVC
\nRegion(s): <\/strong>A<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

THE MOVIE<\/strong> \u2013 4\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Obviously doing remakes is nothing new in Hollywood but I\u2019ve noticed a minor trend in remaking recent movies as well for either a certain demographic (Death at a Funeral<\/em>) or a different culture\/country (Insomnia<\/em>). This leads me to Let Me In<\/em><\/strong>, a vampire horror-drama based off of a book and Swedish movie entitled Let the Right One In<\/em>. That version received universal praise which sometimes leads to disaster when a remake is done (see: The Vanishing<\/em>), and yet this version \u2013 from someone who has not<\/span> seen the original AND has a slight intolerance for the vampire subgenre \u2013 was pretty damn good.<\/p>\n

The story primarily centers on a weird\/loner kid named Owen (KODI SMITH-MCPHEE). He lives in small town New Mexico where his parents are going through a bitter divorce and he\u2019s bullied virtually every day at school. Things get real interesting for the boy when in the middle of the night what looks like a father and his young daughter move in next door to Owen and his mother. The girl, Abby (CHLOE GRACE MORETZ), seems to be just as strange as he when he first meets her in the apartment courtyard as she walks around in the snow with her bare feet and although seems like she wants to be left alone stating she and Owen can never be friends, begins to hang out with him more and more. When Owen asks her how old she is, she replies: \u201c12, more or less.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Abby\u2019s side, we see that things are a bit strange between her and her father (RICHARD JENKINS). Our introduction to him (he\u2019s only credited as \u201cThe Father\u201d) is him hiding in the backseat of a car with a mask made out of a garbage bag over his head waiting. When the gal gets in and stops at a railroad crossing, he strikes knocking her unconscious and takes her into the woods, string her upside down, slits her throat and captures the draining blood into a container. We can all see where this is going, yes? Not sure how this differentiates from the original, but Matt Reeves (who also served as the writer) doesn\u2019t waste much time in letting the audience know what Abby\u2019s secret is… yeah, she\u2019s a vampire.<\/p>\n

Much like Twilight<\/em> before it (although the novel for \u201cLet the Right One In\u201d actually came out a year before in 2004), Let Me In<\/em> has an unusual romance that buds between two characters with vastly different lineages. In this case, it\u2019s a little more innocent and thanks to how Matt Reeves directed these scenes providing a bit of Hitchockian suspense that takes the film far above any vampire movie I\u2019ve seen in a long time.<\/p>\n

As for the cast, I was really impressed with the two child\/young teen actors who take on the majority of the film. Most often I can become quite annoyed with child actors as they either are terrible actors who look like they\u2019re merely reading off of cue cards or trying to get their lines out before they forget them. With Kodi Smit-McPhee and Chloe Grace Moretz, however, they come off as believable (a great feat for Moretz) and have good on-screen chemistry with just enough background to make the audience care about what happens to them and their circumstances.<\/p>\n

The supporting cast fills in their roles well enough, though nothing outstanding. Elias Koteas plays your typical detective knocking on doors and finding witnesses to the grisly murders trying to find that missing puzzle piece of catch the culprit, so you\u2019re not going to get much background from him. Meanwhile, Richard Jenkins deserves some kudos with a role that starts out as menacing before turning into something else halfway through. He doesn\u2019t have a whole lot to do but as a veteran actor he manages to do just enough to further the characters along on their own paths.<\/p>\n

As I mentioned before, Matt Reeves was impressive with his direction here right from the get-go. After the main title, the scene opens with some heavy bass beats and an overhead shot of two police cars escorting an ambulance down a winding road through mountains before going inside the ambulance to see a heavily scarred man as paramedics\u2019 frantically work to save him. It\u2019s not a terribly frightening scene per se but it grabs your attention and is important to the plot rather than something thrown in to scare the audience.<\/p>\n

Reeves\u2019 previous effort, the much hyped Cloverfield<\/em>, was a fantastic piece of work mainly for the amount of special and visual effects done on a fairly limited budget and with Let Me In<\/em><\/strong>, there\u2019s the same kind of efficiency with the shots that not only moves the plot along but keeps a consistent level of suspense and intrigue throughout.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

SPECIAL FEATURES \u2013 3.5\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Audio Commentary<\/span><\/strong> \u2013 Writer\/Director Matt Reeves provides an informative track laying out how the remake came to be, various shots and the story overall. It\u2019s a subdued commentary and maybe adding another person in the booth would\u2019ve helped things, but Reeves manages to keep going with minimal amount of quiet spots.<\/p>\n

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Dissecting Let Me In<\/em><\/span><\/strong> is a picture-in-picture feature that offers up behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with filmmakers and cast members while the film plays, some of which was used in the \u201cFrom the Inside\u201d featurette. ** Blu-ray Exclusive **<\/strong><\/p>\n

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From the Inside: A Look at the Making of Let Me In<\/em> (17:04; HD)<\/span><\/strong> \u2013 This is a featurette covering the origins of the remake with comments from members of the cast and crew talking about the story, characters and other various aspects of the film. Although it is better than the typical EPK featurettes I tend to see, it\u2019s also more of a primer than a comprehensive \u2018making-of\u2019.<\/p>\n

The Art of Special Effects (6:29; HD)<\/span><\/strong> \u2013 This is a breakdown of the effects used from the animation, sim, FX, lighting to the final composition. It\u2019s pretty cool to watch though having a commentary with someone in the VFX department would\u2019ve been nice.<\/p>\n

Car Crash Sequence Step-by-Step (5:34; HD)<\/span><\/strong> examines one of the film\u2019s marquee scenes in which it looks like one shot in which the car flips over and over but mixing live action shots with visual effects. This is accompanied with comments by Matt Reeves (over the phone it sounds like).<\/p>\n

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Deleted Scenes (5:05; SD\/HD)<\/span><\/strong> \u2013 There are 3 scenes here with only one of value that shows how Abby became a vampire. It does come with an optional commentary with Matt Reeves.<\/p>\n

Under Trailer Gallery<\/strong> we get the Greenband Trailer (2:22; HD)<\/span><\/strong> and the Redband Trailer (2:27; HD)<\/span><\/strong>. There\u2019s also a Poster and Still Gallery<\/span><\/strong> for you to peruse.<\/p>\n

There are also previews<\/strong> for Stone<\/em> and Jack Goes Boating<\/em> as well as a second disc with the digital copy<\/span><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

VIDEO \u2013 4\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Let Me In<\/em><\/strong> comes to Blu-ray with a 2.40 aspect ratio and 1080p high-definition. The picture isn\u2019t mind-blowing but still detail levels looks good and the video is smooth and free of particles. As you can imagine this is a dark movie (even during the daylight scenes) but the colors still look about right without being too faded or too bright.<\/p>\n

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AUDIO \u2013 4.25\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The disc comes with a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track which is effective especially early on during the opening and the aforementioned subwoofer thumps as well as Michael Giacchino\u2019s (upcoming Captain America<\/em> and Mission Impossible \u2013 Ghost Protocol<\/em>) haunting but beautiful score which utilizes each channel while dialogue comes from the center channel crystal clear without having to adjust the volume.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

OVERALL \u2013 4\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Overall, Let Me In<\/em><\/strong> is a great film with solid performances all around and a story that, for someone not so enamored with the vampire subgenre, really worked. Matt Reeves as a director was also impressive establishing truly scary and creepy shots without going overboard (it reminded me of what Gore Verbinski did with The Ring<\/em> remake). It\u2019s kind of a shame the film didn\u2019t do better here but now on DVD and Blu-ray it\u2019s well worth at least checking out.<\/p>\n

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The Movieman<\/em>
\nPublished: <\/strong>02\/01\/2011<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Let Me In is a great film with solid performances all around and a story that, for someone not so enamored with the vampire subgenre, really worked. Matt Reeves as a director was also impressive establishing truly scary and creepy shots without going overboard.  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[644,646,643,642,645],"class_list":["post-1805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blurayreviews","tag-chloe-grace-moretz","tag-elias-koteas","tag-kodi-smit-mcphee","tag-let-me-in","tag-richard-jenkins"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1805"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1805\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25778,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1805\/revisions\/25778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}