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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: 5 stars
Summary: Could not tear myself away!
Review: A great flick.
Movies should be entertaining and this one certainly was. Although I like special effects and action, I want an interesting plot, substantial character development, and a strong ending to give a high rating.
This movie had it all.

I don't understand those few people who criticized the movie for lack of authenticity. For example:

"His reinterpretations of these classic beasts are of the lamest, failing at almost every point to use their full potential. Instead of coming out during a full moon, the lycans can change whenever they want. Silver bullets only work if you use about a hundred of them. And the wolves are the more formidable of the two species. The so-called-vampires aren't even really vampires. They have reflections, don't drink blood, and run away like panicked deer at the first sign of danger. Without guns, the lycans tear them apart like wet tissue paper."

Not entirely true. OK, it takes a lot of silver bullets to kill Lycans. But not all Lycans can become wolves when they want... only the most experienced ones can. And wolves are not always the most formidible ones. The only hand-to-hand fight between vampire and Lycan was between this HUGE African-American guy and a normal size vampire in the beginning of the movie. The movie has to establish early on that the wolves were dangerous. And I would expect the big guy to win. The lead vampire, Victor, was much stronger than any of the wolves. Also, vampires do drink blood... that was a bit thick to be wine served. And the safe house had plasma in the refrigerator. And vampire don't run away from fights.. thats why they hunt down the Lycans, remember. Did this guy watch the whole movie or what? Sigh.

Rent it first, as I did. I asked my wife to get it for Valentine's day. Well, it is a love story (hehe).

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Flawed, but a promising debut
Review: Vampires fighting werewolves, and Kate Beckinsale in leather, are the twin promises of "Underworld", and you'll probably be happy if your expectations are no higher than that. To be fair, the lavish digital imagery suggested by the trailer is deployed with impressive restraint, and the film is distinguished from most other effects-intensive offerings by its determination to tell a story. The problem is that the story it chooses to tell is convoluted, unmotivated and, in the end, not a particularly thrilling one. What starts as a promising detective-tale-with-love-interest collapses under the weight of its own backstory and the apparent need to lay the ground work for a sequel. A tale of night-stalking monsters, blood disorders and forbidden love is surely ripe for a psycho-sexual subtext, but Danny McBride's screenplay seems content to make a few passing references to black slavery and leave it at that. He was clearly more concerned with writing chase sequences involving a variety of expensive vehicles and cramming in enough "acting" roles for all his old stuntman buddies. As director, Len Wiseman's adman pedigree is far too obvious. He delivers one or two interesting shots, but generally relies on an aesthetic owing too much to rock videos, computer games and "The Matrix" ever to be truly engaging in its own right. Still, the whole package shows enough promise to keep me interested in what these guys do next. On a budget of $23 million, they've delivered a lot of movie for the money.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: You have to start somewhere!
Review: Well, another comic book movie comes to the screen and falls short of hopes and expectations! The movie has great possibilities, but fails to tell a good story within fairly decent action. Charecters like Lucian were brought to life, while Kraven was done over the top and poorly to say the least by Shane Brolly! All and all I do hope for the next movie and hope for better then the 2.5 stars I would rate this one! NEXT!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Please, no sequel!
Review: I'll admit, I'm a sucker for a movie involving the world of vampires. Maybe it's the exquisite hedonism. Maybe it's my curiosity of that "culture." Maybe it's just the beautiful makeup effects. However, I expected so much more with this movie.
The whole love story that was built up between the two major characters was a major let down in being that for starters, Beckinsale and Speedman didn't come across as having any real chemistry. Also, the love story plot was barely touched upon when I felt they tried to sale the movie on that focal point.
The music/score was tacky and somewhat cliched for this movie and while I'm tempted to say the same for the costuming and setting, I liked the lighting used for the movie.
There was a twist at the end that was interesting, but predictable. My only hope is that a sequel doesn't follow.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Very Surprised at how much I liked this movie.
Review: As far as extras go, this DVD really does not have a whole lot, which is why I only gave it 4 stars. On the merits of the movie itself, I would give it 5.

Kate Beckinsale plays Selene, a Vampire Death Dealer who has the job of hunting down Lycans (Werewolves) and killing them. Apparently there has been a war between the Vampires and Lycans going on for a really long time. At the beginning of the film she learns that the lycans are interested in a certain human, so the rest of the story revolves around her figuring out why the human is so important. There are many twists as you find out that some good guys are actually bad and vice versa....some which I didn't even see comming.

There are some MAJOR loose ends that are left at the end of the movie, partly because I think they were planning on making another one at some point. This movie can stand by itself, don't get me wrong, but it never says what happens to a few key characters at the end.

The characters of the movie made it though. I really like Selene, partly because she was a woman and could kick ass (girl power!). Michael, the human, was interesting. At first I was a little annoyed with his laid-back-deer-in-headlights act, but he got more agressive later on. Plus, yeah, he was a little attractive. What can I say! Lucian, the head Lycan, was my favorite, and when you watch the movie you will see why. If I said anything else about him, I would be giving up too much story. He was just cool!

The style and feel of the movie is much like the Crow and the Matrix (a few of the fight scenes), like other reviewers have mentioned. The city is dark and dirty, and always seems to be bathed in blue light. It rains alot and everyone, even humans, always seem to be wearing black. But this also gives the movie an Any-big-city feel. I had the feeling it was in the USA, but it could just as easily have been across the ocean.

So, as far as style, the movie has great mood.
As far as plot, not the most original, but still pretty creative. Its hard to come up with something completly new.
And the Actors - I believe they were well chosen and did a good job. Not really BIG name actors, so you could look at them and see their characters, and not *who* they are in real life.

If you are still unsure, rent the movie, but more than likely you will end up buying it sooner or later.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: a review that doesn't give away movie, .........be surprised
Review: Unlike most/some I had an idea of the story but never bothered to listen to the details. Given that I believe, as I do with many movies, that it is best not know too much about the story so as not to build up any expectations. Even with that I was pleasantly surprised, it wasn't too much of a love story (thankfully!) and the plot had a few little surprises (but don't look for any big twists). There was just a slight shift in my perception towards the end, which was one of the nice little surprises. I like horror/vampire movies, strong female characters and I won't usually admit this, but I'm beginning to believe that I am a closet goth. I got really excited when I learned that there's a book (I'm sure better detail) but not that it was a movie first, oh well.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The movie deserves 5 stars straight out...
Review: ...unfortunately, the DVD falls short. This is one of the few half decently funded movies where fans were allowed to make the movie instead of studio suck-ups (not that there isn't a time and a place for studio suck-up movies, and by the standards of theatrical releases this movie was under-funded).

The DVD lacks deleted scenes, which having read the novelization I'm well familiar with, but this is excusable because the commentary explained how they weren't allowed the time to do enough shoots, and many scenes were cut simply because they couldn't be made to look right in the editing room.

The other problem was the lack of the documentary "Fang vs. Fiction" which had been made to promote the movie, I can't understand WHY they'd cut it, it showed the basis of this war in real legends. There supposedly WAS a war between vampires and their former werewolf slaves in the 1400s.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: awesome film
Review: Once i saw this film, i thought right away great film because first of all we don't always get these vampire werewolf films especially like this one, the characters were all very believable, and all through the movie it had very interesting and sometimes exciting twists to it. i give this film 5 out of 5 stars

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I liked it.
Review: I'm not sure why people did not like this movie. They must not be scifi fans or into the whole vampire, werewolf thing. Or maybe they just don't have a good sound system. I think one of the reasons I thoroughly enjoyed this movie was the sound and the dark quality of the movie. There was plenty of violence for those who say that there were not enough fight scenes. People were also saying this is just another knock off movie, but who cares if it is entertaining. If you like the whole Blade/Matrix theme I think you will enjoy this movie. I gave it 5 stars not because it has the best acting or writing. I gave it 5 stars because I really enjoyed the movie. And that's what really counts.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: I'm a death dealer...
Review: This is a love story very much in the line of Romeo and Juliet, where the lovers come from two different families who have been feuding for centuries and that no matter how hard their families fight against their love, they belong together. Except, this is also a tale of vampires and werewolves.

Selene (Beckinsale) is a "death dealer", a vampire soldier who dedicates her life to killing the Lycans (the werewolves). On one of her stakeouts, she spots two Lycans following a human, Michael Corvis (Speedman) for reasons unknown to her. After a confrontation with the Lycans, she starts discovering many secrets about the war amongst the two races and about Michael.

Now, how can a movie about vampires *and* werewolves go wrong? I really don't know, but this movie manages to disappoint. Mind you, it's a fine movie. It's fun, it's got good action scenes, it's got good f/x, but there's something missing. Maybe the story or the character development could have been handled somewhat differently (a little more back story, perhaps?). The acting is another thing; Beckinsale is pretty good in this, but the role offers very few moments to shine. Speedman is barely on this side of being a wooden totem, and the rest of the cast tend to over act whatever few lines they have (and what's with the voice of the big, black Lycan?).

The look of the film is quite good. Very dark and moody. The costumes are very Matrix-y (as well as some of the f/x) but their given proper use. The transformation of the Lycans is not as good as it could have been, but it doesn't really take from the film.

In my opinion, this movie could have been made better with a little bit more back story and better character development (we get where Selene is coming from, but the rest? Only Lucian (Sheen), the head Lycan receives a bit of explanation).

The movie's ending lets the door open for a sequel, and talks are supposed to have been going on about not only one but two new movies, one of them being a prequel. This makes sense because eventhough the film *only* made 52MM at the box office, the reported budget was 23MM.


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