Reviews

In the midst of yet another winter we get the next installment of the Blade franchise. Trinity, the third and quite possibly the last in the series stumbles and staggers like Whistler trying to win a potato sack race. Oh yes, that last line was corny, forgive me. At least I didn't cast a franchise of great potential into the fiery pits of mediocrity.

I guess I'll start with my "qualms" about the film. The foremost biggest problem this film had was bad casting, namely the Dracula character. I don't know, maybe it's just me but when a movie has a Dracula character it sets a higher standard for big bad villain. Dracula should have a lot of depth, which I thought this Drac lacked. They didn't do enough with his history in this movie, maybe it was due to time issues. Or maybe it was just lack of diligence and imagination. Drake's "beast" form was great though. By far one of the film's shining moments, but it's light eclipsed by Drake's boring brooding Calvin Klein model human form. If they would have had the beast throughout the entire film it would have been much better.

The vampire cronies worked decent enough, I suppose. There wasn't enough room for them to screw up. They just had to flash their fangs in a close-up, snarl and growl then escape. Triple H did an alright job considering he is a wrestler, even though his character was basically the same one he plays in the WWE, he just had fangs. The Nightstalkers weren't focused on enough but that's okay. We pretty much know they won't last the entire movie, no harm no foul. Biel was brilliant, appearance wise, as she always is. She continues to make a career on carrying badly written movies by her looks and nothing more. She isn't one of the greatest actresses of our time but certainly one of best looking. The director believed this and thus we get Abigail Whistler in leather pants the entire movie, one of it's strong points. The "King" character should have had a "Hello, My Name Is Comic Relief" patch on instead, but he helps a bland movie inch it's way to finish so he gets a passing grade. And I hate to say this, but even Snipes seemed like he'd rather be someplace else.

I don't know if any of the films followed the comic story line but in terms of the three movies, I think this would have been better suited as Blade 2 only because of it's lack of innovation, creativity and wide-open ending. I felt more fulfilled after the real Blade 2 in which he loses a girl he started to care about, fought a formidable(and well designed) foe and actually changed his "universe" significantly. That is what we call story advancement.

I've rambled on long enough here. If the above paragraphs meandered and have led you nowhere then you have a good idea of what this movie did for me. Save this one for a rental.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and I think that's what makes IMDb such a great site for reviews. When a movie trailer peaks my interest, one of the first things I do is come to this site to see what others have thought about the film. Usually there are a variety of opinions ranging from "excellent" to "pure crap" for any movie, no matter how ridiculous it may seem to me and I respect that. It's very disappointing however, to check the reviews and see that virtually no one appreciated a movie that I had high hopes for but have yet to watch. It happened with AvP, in which complaints of bad lighting, bad angles on combat scenes and a general absent-mindedness for logic in the plot ruined any anticipation that built up when watching the trailer over and over. But as I have said, everyone has an opinion and that's what makes sites like this worth checking out. I have benefited from fair reviews in which the critic still disapproves of a movie, but lists it's merits as well as it's faults.

I hope to give a fair review for Resident Evil: Apocalypse. First off, I liked this movie, a little better than the first actually. Apocalypse had a sense of urgency that I thought kept the plot rolling at a nice pace. The actor's performances were alright, I mean really, there was nothing too challenging about their roles. They just had to be convincing at looking scared, angry and eventually dead. The story was laid out decently enough, nothing too innovative or complex, but then again there was nothing innovative or complex about the games in which this movie was based from. I was a fan of the games, for the action and the sheer expasiveness of the settings where the game was played. And that's what I think made this sequel so enjoyable. There were more references and subtle details thrown into this movie making it a more complete game to movie conversion. The action scenes were okay, entertaining and not dragged out. The special effect scenes involving the lickers, explosions, etc were par for the course really, but it was nice to see the slow-mo bullet sequence appear here as it has become a staple of any movie in which a gun is used since the success of the first Matrix and whatever movie the Wachowski Bros ripped it from. The overall location and set of this movie are fantastic, which is it's real claim to fame here. Eerie atmosphere, labyrinthine city, danger around every corner gave the movie the edge that the first didn't quite nail. And finally, the costumes were passable. I liked the Nemesis design, very true to the game and brought to the movie with the same intensity as it had in RE 3. And finally, what everyone thought sent the movie overboard was the Uber-Alice. Did it ruin the movie? Not really. Could the movie have ended the same way if ALice didn't have these powers, I think so. But it would have taken some thought. They destroyed the mutated licker in RE1 okay enough without super powers. Why not just steal Nemesis' bazooka?

The review is getting long here, so I'll wrap it up quickly. Resident Evil Apocalypse is a good movie if measured in terms of action, explosions and atmosphere. It's not going to win any awards for acting at the Oscars, and it's certainly not getting any attention in the horror genre for new and innovative ways to kill people. It's just a flat-out good flick worth a matinée price.

Crime Spree is yet another movie in the growing genre of foreign crime capers. Considering the fact that Guy Ritchie achieved international success with Snatch as well as amassed a cult following of fans that would rival that of Tarantino's fan base, it's easy to understand why distributors are so quick to slap the stamp of approval on any foreign film that has to do with crime and humor.

This film has a cast full of good actors and the characters they potray are entertaining, regardless if they are speaking French or English. Harvey Keitel is the only actor in this movie that seemed a little out of place in my opinion but only because I was used to seeing him in Tarantino flicks. His character wasn't that much of a stretch from what he usually plays in domestic films anyway. Gerard DePardieu(spelling?), a very versatile actor, gets to be the star and does a fine job as the lead role. Nice to see him in his own element in this movie, rather than a bumbling foreigner or an ancient colonial soldier.

I wouldn't be writing this review if I didn't have anything negative to say about it. I felt the film was good, but the story tended to drag in certain places, the subtitles either moved too fast or were un-readable and it was a bit too long. It does contain some spots of humor and the crime element of the story is not eclipsed by the development of the characters. It's a good movie to watch once, just to see how the frenchies get things done. Gerard DePardieu let's us all know that not all French people sit around eating cheese and drinking wine. And if you ever run into a dude that calls himself Zero and talks in the third person, don't mess with him or he will shoot you.