Year:
1998
Studio:
Columbia Pictures/Storm King Productions
Movie:
2/5
DVD:
3/5
Teaser
Jack Crow (James Woods) and his best friend Montoya (Daniel Baldwin)
are slayers -- vampire hunters. With their special hit squad they go
from place to place rooting out the evil bloodsuckers and sending them
to hell, all for the Catholic Church. But Jack and Montoya have come up
against Master Vampire Jan Valek (Thomas Ian Griffith) who kills the
rest of the team and is bent on gaining the secret of Sun Immunity.
Jack and Montoya only have Katrina (Sheryl Lee), a prostitute infected
by Valek and therefore has a mystic link to Vale, to lead them to their
undead foe. Meanwhile the Church has saddled the duo with Father Adam
Guiteau (Tim Guinee), a well-meaning padre who perhaps is not best
suited for fighting the hemogoblin-impaired folk.
Movie
"Vampires" is more of an action movie than a horror movie. I was never
really scared, mostly because the first part of the movie is all about
vampire killing and from the looks of it vampires aren't so tough. The
"backed by the Catholic Church" angle was interesting as is the
character of Jack Crow. But in the end it really looks and plays like
the low-budget horror film that it is.
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Actors
Hey, James Woods gets to star in something. From the commentary track
it sounds like quite a few improv lines made it into the movie. I'm not
too sure if that's a good thing because some of the lines are kind of
hokey, although others are ok. In any case, Woods came up with some of
his own original lines and got to say whatever he wanted in a dialogue
scene or two.
Daniel Baldwin looks like a doughier version of Alec. Sheryl Lee got to
do more acting than Daniel, what with the visions and turning into a
vampire. Thomas Ian Griffith and Maximilian Schell (who plays Cardinal
Alba) don't have much screen time (really, the "Master Vampire steps
inside and kills lots of people" scenes I don't really count as screen
time). Tim Guinee was actually quite all right. All in all not a
sterling example of great acting.
DVD
There's a wide screen format of the movie, plus the theatrical trailer.
Commentary by John Carpenter rounds out the extra features. Although
Carpenter has a fair amount to tell, he does tend to dwell on specific
shots and he has an easy speaking style that doesn't grab your
attention. It was hard for me to stay interested in what Carpenter was
saying.
Recommendations
I can't recommend this movie unless you're a fan of John Carpenter
and/or James Woods. Considering all the other movies out there this one
is probably a waste of time. |