30 Days of Night

In the words of St. Hubbins: “There’s a very thin line between clever and stupid.” 30 Days of Night exemplifies this by taking a clever idea and immediately screwing it up in the execution. Seems there’s this town up in the northernmost point of Alaska where once a year the sun sets and doesn’t come up for a month, resulting in the eponymous setup. As nightfall looms a stranger wanders into town and steals everyone’s cell phones before the taciturn sheriff throws him in the hoosegow. But on his heels is a pack of vampires that upon sunset immediately wipes out 99 percent of the (curiously whitebread) town and sets about waiting, voguing and making cartoony cat faces at each other for the remaining 29 days. Meanwhile, the sheriff and his estranged wife bicker as they lead the remaining 1 percent from building to building. This admittedly great-looking (but overlit) mess starts stupid and gets stupider every step of the way, ultimately ending up with the stupidest climax you’ll see until I Am Legend hits the screens in a handful of weeks.