| Original Score: D+ | May 6, 2011

Tons of fun, but far too childish to be taken seriously.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 13, 2010

The film is a convoluted mess of ideas and mythology, and while all of it is potentially interesting none of it is fleshed out near well enough to make any of it even slightly worthwhile.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Nov 6, 2009

This is one of the worst films of the year.

Full Review | Oct 26, 2009

Unfortunately Weitz can't quite get a handle on what the film should be, despite teaming up with the talented Brian Helgeland on the script.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 23, 2009

A vampire movie in sore need of a transfusion.

Full Review | Oct 23, 2009

We never get under the skin of anyone here. Freaks never become characters. They're objects of derision.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 23, 2009

Harry Potter needn't call time out on his Quidditch game, and Edward Cullen can stick to his beauty rest.

| Original Score: C- | Oct 23, 2009

Mixing horror and comedy while minimizing the gore, writer-director Paul Weitz serves up a witty adventure fantasy with a tasty dollop of schadenfreude.

Full Review | Oct 23, 2009

Tests its viewers' patience even as it strives to build their loyalty.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 23, 2009

There's plenty more going on in this artfully directed and fancifully acted anti-Twilight opening salvo, but suffice it to say that Weitz's film is simply the far more inventive and engrossing teen-vamp flick.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 23, 2009

While it celebrates the creative and the imagined and introduces us to colorful characters, it's bland and dull.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 23, 2009

A talented ensemble helps this pull through despite a leaden lead, but it may still seem too childish for adults and too adult for kids.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 23, 2009

An inept fantasy that wants to be a sort of hip Goth legend...

| Original Score: 0/4 | Oct 23, 2009

Jammed with story threads that don't cohere, Cirque commits the cardinal sin for a vampire movie: It's bloodless.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Oct 23, 2009

Cirque du Freak is disjointed and disorganized, and it meanders when it needs to gallop.

Full Review | Oct 23, 2009

It's clear that the filmmakers had a hard time adapting Darren Shan's books, made the movie way too long and then hacked indiscriminately at the last minute. Some important scenes are cut off abruptly, and others seem to be missing altogether.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Oct 23, 2009

The film can't decide whether it's an earnest fantasy flick or a quirky horror comedy, or whether it's meant for kids or adults -- no wonder it appears to have two titles.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 23, 2009

The biggest shortcoming of Cirque du Freak is the absence of a proper, self-contained story. So convinced is Weitz that his film is going to spawn a dozen sequels that he spends most of his time setting up the characters and their relationships.

| Original Score: 1/5 | Oct 23, 2009

Tod Browning's Freaks were the real thing. These are strictly CGI and the teen-vamp pose is beginning to pall.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 23, 2009