Vampires

Rating:
Summary: Unflatering to the original concept
Review: The movie takes the concept of a vampire hunting team from John Steakley's Vampires. The manner in which it is adapted to the screen is appaling bad. The characters of Crow and Cat are more masculine and assertive. Guns are not used till the very end of the book and then the Character of Felix is the only one to really use guns. He is also blackmailed into taking the position with the team.
The hooker in the movie is a bad play in that the book's character is a debutant which throws on a more interesting twist to the story. I mean hooker vampire is a cliched idea to start. Then the sunlight thing.
I mean give me a break so many people have played on that idea. The original idea was to have vampires controling areas through finacial power and influence once they got to a higher levels in the chain of power. Then they deal with money enough to buy senators.
The preist in the book is more of a kick ass take names type of person and is directly from the vatican but the vatican is not mentioned right away. That way they can keep the level of mystery going.
So for everything there is in the book, the movie fails to delivery and the original release of the movie actually mentioned Steakley's novel but believe the author wanted his name taken off after it show because of how badly they translated into a movie

Rating:
Summary: How wrong i was
Review: I recently reviewed this film, the title was "Did Michael Myers Kill Carpenter?", and the review was not very good. but, after watching it a second time, and thinking about it a bit, i realise i was quite wrong.

First, this is not the grandiose vampire action of, say, the Blade movies. this is a B-movie, a dry and dusty piece of low grade cinema that was made for watching at home. and no-one does low grade like John Carpenter.

Don't get me wrong, the acting is less than fantastic, and the inclusion of a Baldwin other than Alec is a dangerous percipice to walk along, but the inclusion of Lord of Straight-to-video Thomas Ian Griffith as the antithesis of James Woods's hero and Woods' super funny pairing with the priest guy whose name i can't remember do raise this out of the coffin and into the "Just above average virgins" area, if not quite the megastore it could have wallowed in.

The action is pretty good (the opening scene is fantastic)and the Mexican setting gives the chance for some nice (if admittedly orange) art direction. plus plenty of cursing from James Woods (i can't stress enough how important he is to the rating this movie is receiving) make it well worth watching.

In short, not the best vampire movie, not the best John Carpenter movie, but the best B-vampire-John-Carpenter-straight-to-video movie around.

PS check out the sequel if you liked this, or Jon Bon Jovi.

Rating:
Summary: Vampires from the mind of John Carpenter
Review: Who're you going to call when vampires are harrassing your town? Nope, it's not the Ghostbusters. Why, you need to get in touch with your local anti-vampire commando unit of course! Yup, this is a vampire movie told in a Ramboesque style, with plenty of guns blazing & lots of attitude.

James Woods has never been very high on my list, but he does a decent job as a crusading vampire hunter who is out to settle an old score. The rest of the cast is capable & the end product is pretty well acted for a horror flick.

The movie has everything a vampire movie should: a background on the plot (i.e.: where did the vampires come from?), some sensual moments, a little gratuitous nudity and an obnoxious amount of gore. Pretty much your standard ingredients for vampire flicks!

One note for lovers of "traditional" horror flicks. As of late vampire movies have tended to have more & more guns blazing than the old mysterious vampire movies (such as the classic Frank Langella DRACULA). This movie is no exception. If you're looking for the type of V movie they used to make, this one may not be for you.

While HALLOWEEN will forever be John Carpenter's magnum-opus masterpiece, he's had some other fine horror movies to his credit as well. Complete with the usual freaky music (also courtesy of Carpenter) this ranks as one of them.

Rating:
Summary: James Woods Kicks!
Review: It's easy to see why many people didn't like this movie. It was NOT Interview With the Vampire, it did NOT make the vampires seem beautiful and graceful and romantic. Instead the story focuses on the Vampire hunters for a change. Portraying the Vampires as blood sucking monsters and not lace wearing romantics was a much needed breath of fresh air to this genre.

Simply put, if Le Stat is your dream date, you will probably not like this movie. If you want to see a good action movie with attitude, some funny lines, and Vampires in it, then you will like this movie.

Rating:
Summary: lighten up, clownies...
Review: i love all the reviews from the pseudo-intellectual film school wannabes whining about plot, etc...HEY! NEWSFLASH: THIS IS A VAMPIRE MOVIE. it's entertaining, it's amusing, it's brash and it's fun. james woods does a fine job of playing his usual hard-arsed tough guy character and he's fun to watch...and the hooker, if i do say so myself, is rather fine. if you're looking for plot and character development and all that rot, go rent casablanca or something...this is a vampire movie and it's a good one. all you artsy-fartsy ninnies who complain about its flaws ought to don your euro-trash black suits and head to town for an art opening...leave the rest of us in peace to watch vampires get "blowed up real good"...

Rating:
Summary: Possibly the worst movie ever made
Review: Any film with the remotest pretention of success should at least attempt to allow the viewer to begin to suspend disbelief. This abortion of a cinematic debacle failed to make even the shadow of an attempt. Don't buy. Don't rent. Don't let anyone give you this monstrosity as a present. Don't waste your time or your money.

Rating:
Summary: Ladies & gentlemen & vampires, Let's get ready to rumble!!!
Review: John Carpenter proves he hasn't lost his mojo with this darkly intriguing film featuring two of the most frightful creatures on Earth: vampires and one of the Baldwin brothers. I love traditional vampire stories with suave and debonair Dracula types, but sometimes you just want to get down and dirty with the creatures of darkness and bring an edgier type of horror to the banquet. Jack Crow (James Woods) and his crew of modern-day vampire slayers don't mess around, a fact which is made clear in the most vivid of ways in the opening scenes of the film. We join the fun at an old abandoned house somewhere in the Southwest U.S., a location that has been identified as a probable nest of bloodsuckers. The guys load up, move in, and find themselves in a personal war as these vampires tend to subscribe to the old "the best defense is a good offense" strategy. While the gore is not excessive by any means, there's blood enough to somewhat sate the avaricious desires of the horror-loving viewer, and I could have watched vampires being hauled out into the sun to spontaneously combust all day long. Crow is a little bothered by the fact that the "master" he expected to find in the nest was a no-show, but he doesn't let that stop the party the boys throw back at the hotel. Cheap booze and cheap women are the main attractions, and even the team's priest (none other than Julio from Sanford and Son) ties one on. Crow himself is on the verge of a little excitement with a hot little number named Katrina (Sheryl Lee) when the master he was looking for earlier decides to crash the party.

Crow escapes with his right-hand man Montoya (Daniel Baldwin) and Katrina, a vampire in the making. Crow hopes to use the psychic link that will develop between Katrina and her creator in order to pinpoint the powerful vampire's location. A consultation with the Catholic priests overseeing the whole secretive vampire-slaying business provides him with an unwanted new helper in the form of Father Adam Guiteau (Tim Guinee) and the knowledge that he is not dealing with just any old vampire - he is dealing with the legendary Jan Valek (Thomas Ian Griffith), a renegade priest who became the first recorded vampire in history back in the 1300s. Throw the rules out of the window because this thing is personal now, and Crow will stop at nothing to destroy this most powerful of enemies. An interesting subplot involving Montoya and Katrina makes for a more human link between audience and film, but the deadly battle between the forces of good and evil and the mayhem and destruction it brings remain the real focus of John Carpenter's Vampires throughout. Maximilian Schell makes a wonderful contribution to the film, Sheryl Lee is outstanding in my opinion, and even Daniel Baldwin pulls off an impressive performance. In the end, though, it is Woods and Griffith who steal the show.

John Carpenter's Vampires is a bold and refreshing vision of vampirism in an age when good vampire movies are quite rare. Woods really seems to relish his role as vampire slayer, evoking the type of obsession that was required of his character. How often are you going to see a priest roughed up and slapped around in the interest of good vs. evil? The opening twenty minutes of this movie are just fantastic, yet Carpenter manages to carry most of that same passion and energy throughout the remainder of the film, closing out with an ending that truly satisfies and takes nothing away from what has come before. Frankly, I had only recently heard of this movie, but in my opinion it deserves a lot of attention. It numbers among the best vampire movies I have ever seen.

Rating:
Summary: The Best Horror I've ever seen!!!
Review: The best horror movie i have ever seen so far. Truly brings out the best from James Woods

Rating:
Summary: Winches and Vampires...
Review: Where could you go wrong? ANY movie involving shooting a vampire with a crossbow and winching it by jeep into open daylight is woth a watching. It isn't particularly scary, nor the storyline very... complex, but it is an excellent movie for watching on a guys night. Yes, it does fall short of Carpenter's other work, and it is a damn sight far off from the best Vampire movie I've seen... but it's a fun movie to see nevertheless.

Rating:
Summary: Not my thing
Review: I guess I'm really romantically corny about my vampires. This is no Anne Rice. If you want a good flick, check out Bram Stoker's Dracula with Gary Oldman, Anthony Hopkins. Watch Interview with the Vampire. I imagine this movie has it's fans, but it's gross voilence geared to a differnt horror audience than I. I am pretty sure my husband liked it, so maybe this is a guy thing !