Quick Takes: Machete, Easy A, Let Me In

Catching up on recent rentals...

Robert Rodriguez's revenge dish, Machete (2010), is a tasty morsel of fun. It's way over-the-top, usually to hilarious effect. After a while, though, it grew tiresome (this appears to be a flaw with most Rodriguez films). The films suffers from villainy overkill. Everyone's a bad guy. I know, we get it. Still, for most of its running time, it's entertaining. 3/5

Emma Stone is winsome and fetching in Easy A (2010), and she anchors the film very well. She gets terrific help from Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson (how awesome are they? They are the coolest parents in the history of movies!). Lisa Kudrow and Thomas Haden Church have good moments as well, but it's the plucky script and Stone's charm that makes this one a breeze to watch. 3.5/5

I enjoyed the Swedish film Let the Right One In when it came out a few years back. The Hollywood remake, Let Me In (2010), is an honorable rehash of the same story. They are both slow-moving films about a lonely boy who befriends a young girl in his building complex. It just so happens that she's a blood-thirsty vampire. Oh, minor flaw, really. Their friendship is the heart of this story and is what makes the films so fascinating to watch. Really, both films are more or less exactly the same. But they are both done quite well. 3.5/5