30 Days of Night spends plenty of time setting the scene. We get to feel how remote the town is, how cut-off from the rest of the world. There's an attempt at character development. The friend I saw it with thought it was slow paced. I thought it was awesome. The blood against the snow was very striking. There were jump scares and tension. The vampires freaked me out. I liked the camera work, it seemed sort of hand held, but not so I'm-going-to-be-sick-shaky. Josh Hartnett ("Resurrecting the Champ") is well suited for his role as the sheriff of this small town who suddenly has to deal with all manner of horrors. He's not a bad-ass. But he gets things done. Ben Foster ("3:10 to Yuma") turns in another excellent character this year as a wanna be vamp who does their dirty work. This movie also gave me nightmares. And that hasn't happened since 28 Days Later. Highly recommended.
Gone Baby Gone is just further proof that the real actor in the family is Casey Affleck ("The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"). Little Affleck gives an excellent performance as a private investigator hired to help search for a missing girl. Then the plot twists and turns. All sorts of weird characters show up, including Morgan Freeman ("Feast of Love")'s police chief and Ed Harris ("Touching Home")'s angry detective. And it's sad and wonderful. Big brother Ben Affleck ("Smokin' Aces") directs his first feature film and pulls it off pretty well. A few scenes were a little heavy handed (the part where little Affleck is putting it all together), but mostly well done. Please stay behind the camera Ben. Please.