Rating: Summary: Not quite what Stoker had in mind Review: Quirky and original, this flick is a hoot. Imagine if John Waters had written "Dracula" rather than Bram Stoker. It's not so much a vampire movie, as it is the study of a mans descent into madness. Cage's performance is completely unrestrained, so non Cage fans should beware.
Rating: Summary: FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Review: THE POWERS THAT BE HEARD THE MASSES DEMANDING THIS BE RELEASED ONTO DVD!!!not many extras are included though which i guess makes sense,1 cant expect too much!)its great to hear the commentary.i wrote a more definitive review for the VHS format so i wont repeat myself.BUT HEAVEN FOREBID THE STUDIO BIGHEADS RE-RELEASE THIS AS A 2DISC SPECIAL DIRECTORS/RIP CUSTOMER OFF UNCUT VERSION NEXT MONTH!by the way,why''the incident'',that multi award winning tour de force made back in 1960's with martin sheen? ive asked amazon to no avail.side note...now if only 3O'CLOCK HIGH,AFTER HOURS,WIERD SCIENCE,DEAD AND BURIED,LAST EXIT TO BROOKLYN,i know im forgetting many others,WILL BE ON DVD SOON!side note2-the wanderers also finally made it to DVD.ill leave you on this note...A!B!C!D!E!F!G!H!.................you know the rest.
Rating: Summary: only Cage would eat a cockroach Review: this is a great 80's vampire flick, like you've never seen before thanks to Cage's brilliant and always crazy on screen performance as the man who was bit by Beals and then goes on a crazy time eatting roaches and tormenting Alonso. surely for fans of vampires or Cage. Cage knows how to get into his role and he does it with perfection
Rating: Summary: "It Never Goes Away" Review: This is probably one of the most hilarious and satirical black comedies I own. Even though it is from the late eighties, it's a timeless gem, and when I need a good laugh, it's there. Just like New Yorker character yuppie literary genius, Peter says, "It never goes away".
Mind you, this is not a vampire movie, but a satirical view on a lonely young man that has "everything" falling apart. It all begins when he's getting ready to go to work and cuts himself shaving, and somehow he distortedly begins to think sex vixen Jennifer Beals who's supposedly a vampire bit him. From that point on it's a steady downward spiral of peculiar and weird scenarios to come; his personality becomes more erratic and his actions unpredictable and bizarre to say the least. He begins showing up to work in a suit, but no socks, becomes photophobic, and begins picking on his Cuban secretary played by Maria Conchita Alonso.
One of my favorite scenes is when he is at the psychiatrist office and he is standing on the ledge of the high-rise window holding a wooden stick, and he tells her he's going to go out there and find real love. The infamous scene when he eats the cockroach is a little disturbing, but you know they paid him good money to do so, but that's a good one too. I don't want to give the movie away since you must see it.
At times while watching the movie, or at least the first time, you wonder what's real and what isn't, and it's a pit perturbing however at the end you can figure it out.
Vampire's kiss is a satire about psychosis, and as you see, it doesn't care if you have a prestigious job or if you're a genius.
Every time I see a N. Cage movie I think of Peter, because there has to be just a little bit of him in there somewhere.
Rating: Summary: Nicolas Cage had fun doing this movie. Review: This is the most fun I have ever had with a movie of the vampire genre. Cage obviously enjoyed playing the most interesting character that he has been given to this point in his career. Cage's depiction of the lead is at the same time, humorous and poignant. Well worth the viewing, I searched for some time before finding this movie listed here.
Rating: Summary: I Love this Movie!! Review: This movie cracks me up everytime I watch it...It's hilariously over the top and Cage should have gotten an award for whatever it was he was doing (I don't know if I would call it acting). You have to go into this movie with the right frame of mind and just look to be entertained...You should also see it so you can see Cage eat a live cockroach.
Rating: Summary: a lover of lines Review: this movie is 2nd to none in its genre.completely over the top performance by mr.cage.he IS the movie.first off,what i mean by ''lover of lines''is that is what i am.the only other movie with more reciteable lines is ''mean streets''an early rob denero,harv keitel movie.back to vamp kiss.i would catagorize this as being a black comedy/horror.cage plays peter lowe,literary agent bored with his life.until that is he meets seductive jennifer beals.this meeting changes his life forever.after his night of passion with beals ,he is convinced he has been changed into a vampire.much chaos and mayhem ensues with maria conchita alonso getting the brunt of it.watching nic cages tranformation is pure magic.i dont think this movie got the kudos it deserved however,siskle and/or ebert gave it thumbs up.I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS.im not sure what happened to the director,he did an amazing job.i could have sworn he would have made more off the wall movies.this is in the vein of 5 corners,heathers,something wild,after hours,et al funny movies NOT listed as comedy.once again,I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS MOVIE!!!!
Rating: Summary: classic cage Review: this movie is a must for die-hard nick cage fans. i have owned this vhs for years and have watched this film at least a 100 times. this movie is one of my all-time favs. to my great pleasure...the dvd includes a cage commentary track. i have heard nick discuss this movie before in interviews but never in great detail...so its awesome to have him there to offer his thoughts throughout the entire movie. in his commentary he claims to not have seen the film since he made it over 11 years ago. both the directory and cage cite the huge impact that nyc plays in the film and in the life of peter loew. the commentary is pre-9.11 and it would be interesting to see how much more nyc discussion would occur if the cage commentary would have been post-9.11. there are scenes of the now missing wtc towers throughout the film which add even more 'chill' to the movie. you have to admire cages efforts as a young actor exploring his craft. he sets no limits on himself or his vocation in a quest to define his art. this is particularly evident with the cage commentary on the dvd [ by an older...wiser cage...perhaps a little tainted by the hollywood machine ] his reactions to some of his more 'out-there' and perhaps forgotten [by cage]scenes result in astonishment even by cage himself. he is often unable to explain what he was trying to accomplish or what motivated him to do something or say something in particular. but this is even more reason to admire this film and the effort put forth by cage. its experimental work. its ahead of its time. its pure film at its best. acting for the sake of the art. no hollywood lines. no hollywood budgets. all those involved in the film are there for the love of the art. the biggest thing that the dvd commentary communicates to me is that this movie is a classic. its a classic because the cage that you see as 'peter loew' no longer exists. cage is still a great actor. probably even a better actor than when vk was made. but the cage that created 'loew' is gone. "am i getting through to you alva!?!" buy it. watch it. treasure it.
Rating: Summary: A classic, and Cage's best performance Review: This movie is a must-see for those who appreciate black comedy done well, and superbly acted.Cage carries the entire movie on his shoulders, and it's one of the rare times you'll see someone do that comedically with 100% success. His portrayal of Peter Loew, one of the weirdest characters in movie history, is truly a tour-de-force. There's a scene near the end that knocks me out every time: he carries on a delusional conversation with a wall, hallucinating other people and their reactions. The scene uses surrealism perfectly. Reminds me somewhat of Lindsay Anderson's classic films, like "If..." or "O Lucky Man", in which bizarre surrealism would often be injected into otherwise normal scenes - and it always worked because there were never any clear explanations for it written into the script. Viewers have to figure it out for themselves. (Although, as DVD commentary often reveals, usually the directors have no idea what it means either!) That's why I like well-done allegories - they require thought. Anyway, the part where Cage talks to the wall is a masterpiece. It's sidesplittingly funny as he mumbles his crazy responses to his own ghosts, yet sad and frightful at the same time, considering he's just killed a person and has blood all over his face and clothes. It works equally as well as he thereafter walks down the streets of New York with a wooden stake in his hand, screaming at his nonexistent girlfriend, while real sidewalkers (not extras) walk by, not even paying attention this babbling, insane man who is in fact Nicholas Cage performing what was perhaps the best scene of his career! This, as well as many of his other scenes in the film (such as his crazed recitation of the alphabet), were Oscar material in my opinion. It just doesn't get any better than that. His performance runs circles around Jack Nicholson's similar man-going-insane role in "The Shining". Jack, too, went over the top, but the difference is, he went way overboard, and too quickly, so it doesn't work. Compare Jack's phony-sounding "Here's Johnny!" remark at the height of his insanity to Nick's realistic rantings in the latter part of the film. Unfortunately, too many people saw it as hammy overacting, and criticized this film. To them I say, "How good could YOU have done in this role?!" They missed the point. It IS overacting, but it was done intentionally and successfully, and to pull that off requires tremendous talent. To run down a street shouting "I'm a vampire!" over and over may not seem like Oscar material, but it's the hammy way he does it that actually makes it work. It, and the many scenes like it in which Cage goes WAY over the top, are signs of true comedic genius, which, sadly, seems to have remained unexplored as his career has gone on. Forget the infamous cockroach-eating scene, that's just incidental and not worthy of all the bad press it got. There are far too many treasures in the film to focus on that brief scene. This movie was done when black comedies were not in fashion, and way too many people never 'got it'. This film won't work for people who demand the typical mainstream fodder. It works as both a comedy and an allegory (the allegory being vampirism for loneliness and alienation). There's barely a scene when Cage is not doing something very funny, especially in the scenes where he improvised totally nonscripted quirks for Peter Loew. But because there are some harsher scenes of murder, violence, mental torture, psychic sadism, and rape, viewers feel afraid to laugh - even though those darker parts are pretty tame. Primarily, this movie is a comedy. It's okay to laugh, because that's why Cage was jumping on desks, smashing furniture, and talking in a very affected accent - to make us laugh! That same weird accent that grates on some people's nerves just cracks me up. There's not too many movies you'll see where it's actually hilarious when a guy puts a gun in his mouth and pulls the trigger. That's just not funny, but Cage somehow made it humorous. (His strange cry of "boohoo" there is my favorite line in the movie). The supporting cast is also superb; dedicated actors who gave spot-on performances, like Kasi Lemmons and Maria Conchita Alonso. When you see a quirky, unusual, well-made film like this, it's easy to realize just how bad the mainstream movies. It's not tired cliches and hackneyed jokes that are funny, it's the *delivery* of lines that aren't normally considered funny. Nick doesn't have a single 'joke' per se in this movie, yet he's hilarious every second. This DVD is a real treat. It contains a few scenes that were not in the final cut, so although it's not advertised as being a 'director's cut', it really is. The commentary with Cage and the director is consistently funny and interesting. They noth chuckle frequently at Cage's antics. Cage reveals that most of what he was doing was either improvised before the cameras, or thought up in his hotel room the night before. The director imparts various tidbits about the filming. The one negative thing about the commentary is that the director talks nonstop throughout, rudely interrupting Cage constantly in mid sentence. I'd rather hear what Nick has to say, but he can barely get a word in as the director rambles on as each scene unfolds. Fortunately, Nick is a patient, polite person and the crosstalk is little. I hope someday, perhaps with this release, and considering the commercial direction Cage's career has gone, the film will get the recognition it deserves.
Rating: Summary: One of Cage's greatest and most overlooked masterpiece Review: To true cinephiles,if Nicolas Cage ranks today alongside De Niro and Pacino as one of America's finest actors, he owes it to movies like "Vampire's Kiss". He delivers here one of his GREATEST and most elaborated performances already seen in "Birdy" and later to be seen again in "Leaving Las Vegas" "8MM" "Bringing out the dead" etc. Cage is not only a Hollywood super-star. He's an acting genius. This movie proves it all the way. Don't listen to the ignorant, discover a true masterpiece and an acting performance rarely equaled.
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