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Underworld (Widescreen Edition)

Underworld (Widescreen Edition)

List Price: $19.94
Your Price: $14.96
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Terror and heart-breaking beauty
Review: Long-time fans of vampire movies will recognize, in Underworld, not so much a new development to the genre as a sleek elaboration of modern themes already familiar from Batman, The Matrix, Blade and the Anne Rice novels. Combining supernatural with high tech, fang teeth with martial arts, 17th century elegance with rock music, and ancient evil with sexy Goth costumes, these films are as modern as modern can be, and thus succeed in transporting us to a supernatural dream setting that is nonetheless intriguingly familiar.

Add to this the mix of terror and heart-breaking beauty, as patented by Anne Rice. The film's center of gravity is undoubtedly the character of Selene, played superbly by Kate Beckinsale. No longer the doll-like persona of Pearl Harbor and Serendipity, Kate as the vampire princess is a deadly hunter tracking the Lycans (werewolves) in the subways and labyrinths of London. Her skill with handguns is obvious, as is her determination and reckless courage, yet throughout she retains the unaffected, vulnerable little-girl appeal that is accentuated rather than diminished by the sexy leather outfit. In the very few times she uses her hands (as in the final scene where she disables Lucien's bodyguards), she shows a kind of understated grace that is very much a Kate Beckinsale trademark.

While I am obviously a Kate fan, her Selene persona was so darkly serious that putting in a wily charmer like Erika (Sophia Myles) to share a few scenes with her was, I think, a neat counterpoint. Likewise, against an overall plot depicting vicious killers caught in a maelstrom of revenge, you have one or two remarkably restrained scenes wherein Selene discovers conflicting new feelings. As in Romeo and Juliet, the viewer starts to worry about how Selene and her new-found love are going to survive. A worthy addition to the body of vampire lore!

I suppose the well-deserved popularity of Underworld invites its share of negative reviews by people who want to tell us more about their "high" standard of cinematic taste than about the movie itself. A pity. If you insist on comparing every wine to Petrus or Haut-Brion, you miss out on the simple joy of a cool Beaujolais on a summer's eve. And never for you the thrill of following Selene on a hunt through the bowels of the night!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: only a Vampire would bring fangs to a gun fight
Review: They took all the cool things about vampyres and werwolves and agresivly left them out. The funniest seen is when a group of vamps is peering into a dark corner trying to see if there is a wolf in their. Gee can't vampyres see in dim light? cant they fly or change forms (rats, wolves mist etc.)? arn't they wise and minipulative due to their long lives and experience? arn't they cruel, evil, almost demonic? I know that every vampyre movie has the right to rework the lore (dracula, blade, lost boys) but this movie never seems to get around to telling us exactly what these vampyres are or what powers they have. they seem completely non-supernatural and too lame matrix-y. I'm only metioning the vamps because the wolves were complete non-entities. I never understood what the point in being a wolf was because they never DID anything. They didn't seem tourtured, out of control, drunk with power, NOTHING! and their transformations were rediculuse: they took about fifteen minutes and always accured in dark corners (presumably so the vampyres couldn't see them). The biggest surprise was that a movie about vampyres and werewolves fighting would consists totaly of them driving around in cars shooting at each other. Can you imagine Dracula vs Francenstien, and all their doing is some lame matrix jump-kicks and shooting at each other?

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Awesome movie
Review: Nobody really does a vampire movie these days with a well written plot and good acting until now. It had good twists and people who enjoy vampire and werewolf fiction will enjoy this film.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: 90-something minutes I will never get back.
Review: Ever since "Serendipity", I admit to having harbored an unrequited love of Kate Beckinsdale (loved her, hated the film). "Underworld" cured me of my unrequited love, despite her latex/leather/lace outfits. I mean, geez Kate, did you lose a bet here or what?
I admit I didn't expect much of this, just a fun way to kill an evening, but this film is god-awful. EVERY SINGLE ACTOR in this movie is at best uninteresting and at worst incompetent. Scott Speedman should be bagging groceries somewhere. The writing is a hopeless melange of ideas and concepts that trip all over each other. Even the few ideas that are intriguing are just glanced at and set aside. Even the final fight between the (get this...) head vampire and the vamp/werewolf hybrid is dull, and ends anticlamactically. The only thing good about this movie is the end, not because the end saves the film, but it means the film is OVER. And the denoument is shameless in its obvious set-up for the inevitable bad sequel.

A final note to the fanboys out there who give this travesty 4 and 5 stars... PEOPLE LIKE YOU ARE THE REASON STUDIOS KEEP PUTTING OUT THIS GARBAGE! IF YOU DEMAND BETTER MOVIES, THEY WILL MAKE BETTER MOVIES.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: werewolfs and vampires collide in an epic battle to be #1
Review: action packed from beginning to end with great werewolf transformations and set pieces that deliver the goods. Kate Beckinsale(Serendipity, The Last Days Of Disco) is sexy and nicely deadly as Seline the vampire who falls in love with human turned werewolf/layken Michael, played superbly by Scott Speedman(Dark Blue, Duets). other supportees include the evil vampire Craven, a vampire elder(fogot his name but hes the dude whos head slip at the end), Erica(the blonde vamp chick), the black vampire(forgot his name too but he shouldnt of died), Lucien who rocked the space time continum and his effects and makeup work were outstanding and theres that big black dude werewolf(who at the end where he finds Lucien, who od'ed on silver bullets, seems so emotional and caring). all in all it was a great time in the theaters and it was loud with great rock music blended in. good atmosphere too.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: GREAT FILM!!!
Review: IT IS NOT AN OSCAR WINNING MOVIE, BUT WE ALL KNEW THAT BEFORE SEEING IT. SO I DO NOT KNOW WHAT THE OTHERS TALKING ABOUT WHEN THEY RATE THIS FILM WITH 2 OR 3 STARS ONLY.
IT IS A GREAT VAMPIRE MOVIE, ONE OF THE BEST IN MANY YEARS, WITH AN ORIGINAL STORY. KATE BECKINSALE DID A BEAUTIFUL JOB, AND THIS ROLE REALLY FITS HER!
I CAN NOT WAIT UNTILL THEY MAKE A SECOND PART (AND I CAN ONLY HOPE IT WILL BE AS GOOD AS THIS ONE).
AND WHEN THE DVD IS OUT, I WILL BE THERE THE VERY FIRST DAY TO ADD IT TO MY COLLECTION.
SASHA.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: I liked it !!!
Review: Great movie. Superb action. Nice character !! If you like the Matrix or Blade then watch this movie. THe story is about lycans (werewolf) and vampires. The only thing that I dont like is the 3 bodyguards of the elder vampire at the ending, they really look stupid.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Monotony anyone?
Review: Exciting. Romantic. Gothic. The previous words describe everything Underworld is not. It seems the director and costume designer spent alot of time renting last year's action movies from Blockbuster.If i had wanted to watch the Matrix or Blade i would have. A note to all of you: BEEN THERE. DONE THAT. I unfortunately watched this movie in theatres. Twice. At first, i admit i wasn't totally bored out of my mind. It was still better than The Matrix Reloaded. On the second viewing, a few things caught my attention. The sheer number of times the vampires stalked about their mansion against the *exact* same background music, and the incessant shots of Kate Beckinsale's face looking sad and misunderstood provoked two responses:
a) rolling on the floor laughter at the lameness, hurling popcorn in every direction, and b) a growing rampant desire to start a picket line in front of the tickebooth.
If this hasn't convinced you not to see the movie, then i've failed. Here's to hoping you have enough sense to stay the heck away from it...
Cheers!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Classy Vampire Blood Opera...
Review: UNDERWORLD looks great. Director Len Wiseman has crafted a fine looking film which...at this point...is Soap Opera. It comprises riffs from ROMEO&JULIET; DARK SHADOWS;"THE DEAD & THE RESTLESS"; a HOWLING or two, and maybe even Christopher Walken's PROPHECY trilogy. Since "handsome is as handsome does" what the film lacks in substance it tries very hard to make-up in PM style, but doesn't quite succeed.

The VAMPIRE is Post-Modernist era anti-hero. He(here: She)is amoral; power-driven and desperately fearless with emphasis on desperate. DRACULA was fiendish, bloody incarnation of the Anti-Christ. The Vampire decadents in UNDERWORLD have more in common with New York demi-monde Yuppsters than sons and daughters of Vlad Tepes. Hence the flacid "poser" elegance of vampire citoyens lolling in drug-stupor ambience. "Thug" enemies, WEREWOLVES/LYCANs at least seem to have moxie driving their war of vengeance/survival. But who cares?

Kate Beckinsale is excellent as Wonder Woman of Vampires, SELENE. The plot(and film) depends on her "sang-froid"; and viewer sympathy for puzzle regarding her origin as Killer-Warrior.By end of the film(which is 20 minutes too...fashion-show...long)this puzzle provides intriguing questions and gripping, very violent climax. UNDERWORLD, standing solo...despite explosively energetic battles and Batman/Gotham City-like backgound and art design is merely bloody eye candy. BUT: if it's Part I of a Trilogy(of the ilk of mentioned PROPHECY series which comprised a Second War of the Heavenly Host)something may be cooking:A WAR OF LUCIFER'S FALLEN LEGIONS. Who knows? In the case of this classy Vampire Blood Opera, stay tuned...(3 & 1/2 stars)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I loved it...
Review: Excellent movie. This film kept me on the edge of my seat till the very end, and I wanted it to last longer. I walked out of the theatre with a big smile on my face. Sure it was kinda silly or stupid, but who cares. Some people claimed it was "trashy" or "cheesey". But that was part of the appeal. Get a DVD for myself on this one. It reminded me of Blade, The Matrix, The Crow, Queen of the Damned, and a few other movies I can't remember right now. If the dialoge was lame, so what! And Kate Beckinsale was so hot in this film, she was absolutely perfect!! This was a fun movie, I hope they make a sequel, and I hope this one makes some money to justify it.


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