(2001)

review by:

4-2-03

Written by: Christos N. Gage and Ruth C. Fletcher Directed by: Michael Oblowitz Starring: Adrian Paul, Bokeem Woodbine, Bai Ling

In the not-too-distant future, humans and vampires have formed a relatively peaceful co-existence, but not everyone believes humans and vampires make good bed fellows (literally). When a renegade vampire seeks to destroy this alliance, things are left in the hands of a dysfunctional human/vampire crime-fighting duo to save humanity from nasty, big pointy teeth. Let me start off by saying that Bai Ling is by far THE hottest vampire I have ever seen. Unfortunately, that is one of the few things this movie has going for it. As is usually the case, the acting leaves much to be desired, but only in the cases of two of the characters: West (Zen Gesner) who severly overacts, and Grant (Bokeem Woodbine) who can't act at all. These two are more than enough to ruin the movie for everyone else. The real culprit however is the poorly directed action sequences, which are very disappointing for a post-Matrix movie. The overly abused and misused slow-motion and wire-suspension effects would make even Ang Lee cringe. Seeing a guy in a trench coat spinning in place in mid-air, a gun in each hand, blasting guys left and right looks nowhere near as cool as it sounds. And can anyone tell me why Adrian Paul does not have a sword in a movie for once? On its surface this movie is a melancholy, buddy-cop murder mystery, but it doesn't take long to notice the Holocaust allegory in the background, a plot device that even X-Men used more effectively. And speaking of borrowed plot devices, did anyone else recognize the Aragorn/Arwen parallels from The Lord of the Rings in the dialogue between Steve and Lucy at the end? Oh well, I guess it's true what they say about there being no original ideas anymore. There was a lot of wasted potential here, but in the end, I still found this to be a somewhat enjoyable film, provided one only concentrates on the excellent set design and, of course, Bai Ling.

AKA: Dracula's List          Adrian Get Your Sword

Rating