The Lost Boys

In honor of the recent release of the 3rd movie in The Lost Boys franchise, I decided that it would be a good idea to sit down and watch all 3 movies in a row.

I have insanely fond memories of the Lost Boys and can easily say that it’s one of my all time favorites that just doesn’t get old. My buddies and I snuck into the drive-in as kids when it was playing there and watched it and then asked one of our parents to take us to see it from the beginning, which, they did (the world wasn’t as anal back then). My friends and I loved every second of the movie. We even reserved it when it came out on VHS and all had a sleepover and watched it over and over.

The movie is about a boy named Sam (Corey Haim) and his family move to Santa Carla California. Sam is just your average 14 or 15yr old guy. He collects comics, he likes girls(though, there is a strange pinup poster of Rob Lowe in his bedroom), he misses MTV and is bored so 1 day while walking on the boardwalk, he meets the Edgar(Corey Feldman) and Alan (Jamison Newlander), The Frog Brothers. They tell Sam that Santa Carla is the “Murder Capital of the World” and that the reason for it …Vampires. Sam promptly expresses his disbelief but he takes the comic they give him called “Destroy all Vampires” knowing that their number is on the back. Shortly after arriving, his older brother Michael (Jason Patric) falls in with a crowd of rough bikers led by a blonde haired bad boy by the name of David (Keifer Sutherland)and that’s when the movie really gets going.

The movie really catapulted the careers of Corey Haim and Feldman and they became known as “The 2 Coreys”. They would go on to become best friends and work together in a variety of different movies. I really can’t say anything bad about this movie and I don’t know anyone who can and honestly mean it. The movie was smart, funny and extremely hip. The vampires were shown to be vicious killers who hunt their prey in packs and party hard because hey, as the movie tag line goes “Sleep all day. Party all night. Never grow old. Never Die.” DAMN it must be good to be a Vampire!!! Haim’s comedic timing in this movie was awesome. You just can’t help but laugh and love his character. Even Feldman who’s overacting in this movie is fun to watch.

EVERYONE MUST WATCH THIS!!!

The Lost Boys 2: The Tribe

More than 20yrs after the release of The Lost Boys, news finally came that there would be a sequel to the highly popular series. I was more than a little elated at the news of this, then word came that it would be a direct to video release – which cooled my enthusiasm a little but I stayed optimistic that it would be ok. Then the bomb was dropped – Corey Feldman was cast to reprise the role of Edgar Frog but…No Corey Haim….WTF?!? Really? How the hell can you have a proper Lost Boys sequel without Sam? Now my heels were really cool to the project.

The Tribe is about a guy Chris and his sister, Nicole Emerson (the same Emerson family as Sam) who have to move to live with their aunt when they become orphaned only she’s not handing out charity, she wants the siblings to pay rent. While out looking for a job, an old friend tells him about a party they should attend. At said party, Nicole meets a mysteriously alluring guy with long blonde hair named Shane (Angus Sutherland). While at the party Shane offers up some booze to Nicole which happens to be his own blood thereby turning her into a half-vamp. Chris must enlist the help of the reclusive Edgar Frog to stop Nicole from making her first kill becoming a full fledged vampire.

I can say that some of the scenes with the vampires were pretty well done. I loved two scenes in particular that was really just part of the directors cut and another scene that was at the end of the credits. The problem with this movie is it tries too hard to be like the original and that’s kind of where it fails. What they should have done is brought more of the original actors back and done something more original instead of rehashing major points of the original movie with genders changed around. They even could have followed a story line closer to the comics or even the story that was introduced at the end of the movie.

Unless you’re a real fan of the series, you should pass on this one…Even if you are a fan, you might want to pass. The sequel does things much better.

The Lost Boys: The Thirst

Truthfully, I never heard about this movie until a week before it’s direct to video release. So I really never had a chance to formulate any thoughts or see any news about it. I checked out the trailer and must admit that I was pleasantly surprised by it. When”Cry Little Sister” started playing during the trailer – it nearly choked me up. I then wondered what and how they would pay respects to Corey Haim and hoped they would do something for him as opposed to pretending nothing happened. I’m happy to say that this movie feels as though it has as much heart as the original.

Edgar Frog, still a recluse is even more jaded than before. He wallows in self guilt over the loss of friends and family to the undead. One day after a foreclosure notice, a good looking girl comes calling asking for his help n finding her brother who fell in with who she believes to be a crew of Vampires who hold raves and give away vials of a designer drug that just so happens to be Vampire Blood. Edgar decides to help the girl with the assistance of some new friends.

RIP Haimster: Dec 23 1971 - March 10, 2010

This is what part 2 should have been. The vampires aren’t the castrated douchebags made popular by the Twilight series (something they make fun f in a tongue in cheek kind of way), the acting is a little less crappy and over the top (I’m looking at you Feldman) and the cast seems to be having fun much like the original. They paid great respect to the memory of Corey Haims character Sam Emmerson through flashbacks and Edgars refusal to part with a certain Batman comic as mentioned in the original movie. There’s one scene in particular that deals with this that was a very heart-felt good-bye to Canadas favorite Lost Boy. RIP Corey.

Jamieson Newlander (Alan Frog) has some great scenes in this although they were short, I think it sets the pace for another sequel.  The ending was a good finish to the trilogy and could even usher in a new direction in the series.

This was a good movie that was worthy of the series – I strongly recommend you check it out.