Plot - I won't get too much into the plot of this movie, because it's really just a flimsy skeleton-of-a-story to bring together a handful of hip and gorgeous actors and actresses. Really, the story is about a couple young fellas in the desert who end up becoming involved in a plot to kill a gang of outlaw marauding vampires. That's the sum of it, and I won't tell ya how it ends up.
Impressions/observations - What I will discuss is the "meat" of the movie and why this movie falls extremely short of a good solid vampire movie. First off, I was very disappointed in the way the vampires are portrayed in this movie. There is absolutely nothing supernatural about them - they don't have superhuman strength, don't fly, don't really have anything about them that makes me believe that they are supernatural predators. They are about as ordinary as a gang of unruly youths, except that they have to be killed only under certain conditions. But I don't recall ever seeing them do anything in the movie that would suggest that they are, in fact, vampires. Not only do they carry guns to kill people with, they need cars to get around. I mean, this movie really gave the vampires a very "mortal" feel to them. They got lots of attitude and desire for blood-letting, but then again so do the thugs in a Charles Bronson movie. If you want supernatural thrills and chills - this movie falls flat on its face. It's just a reason to get a couple young hunks and an attractive girl together in a plot to kill some rather boring vampires.
Gore - Not nearly enough to satisfy horror movie die-hards. The gore really comes down to maybe a few buckets of fake blood, but nothing to pop your eyes out or lose a kidney over. The killings are very non-traditional killings for a vampire movie - relatively tame with minimal blood. Too many scenes that cut away to another scene just as you'd expect so see some guts flying out. Again, compared to vampire movies like the very bloody and gruesome Underworld trilogy, this movie is very very tame.
Nudity - A few scenes involving the attractive lead actress. I particularly found these scenes rather annoying - nonsensical nudity tossed into a movie, and from a girl who's entire character is nearly comatose and sickly. Although she is pretty to look at, the lead actress's character is so paper-thin and shallow that all she really is in the movie is a silent and underdeveloped persona that, through some odd and contrived arrangement of the plot details, needs to be in the movie. I don't mind actresses baring their skin when the role calls for it, but please folks, put it into context of a movie that makes sense. The first images of the movie showing her in the shower washing off the blood from her body was, in all honesty, nearly the point I wanted to throw the remote at the television and give the movie no further viewing. But I held back my inclination and decided to give the movie an entire watch.
Action - Lots of it. Car chases, explosions, all the stuff of low-budget movies. There is nothing in this movie we haven't seen on a single episode of McGuiver. Again, the action is plenty but nothing remarkable. All pretty standard here.
Overall - I gave this movie 2 points out of ten, and primarily because, for a vampire movie, it is a step backwards. This movie adds absolutely nothing to the vampire genre and actually "mortalizes" the vampires. For most of the movie, I was thinking OK this is a joke - we're all going to be told at the end of the movie that they really weren't vampires all along. But they were vampires in the end, just extremely boring vampires that were way to human for my tastes. No fangs, no special powers, nothing supernatural about them. And please, hip does not equal scary.
Impressions/observations - What I will discuss is the "meat" of the movie and why this movie falls extremely short of a good solid vampire movie. First off, I was very disappointed in the way the vampires are portrayed in this movie. There is absolutely nothing supernatural about them - they don't have superhuman strength, don't fly, don't really have anything about them that makes me believe that they are supernatural predators. They are about as ordinary as a gang of unruly youths, except that they have to be killed only under certain conditions. But I don't recall ever seeing them do anything in the movie that would suggest that they are, in fact, vampires. Not only do they carry guns to kill people with, they need cars to get around. I mean, this movie really gave the vampires a very "mortal" feel to them. They got lots of attitude and desire for blood-letting, but then again so do the thugs in a Charles Bronson movie. If you want supernatural thrills and chills - this movie falls flat on its face. It's just a reason to get a couple young hunks and an attractive girl together in a plot to kill some rather boring vampires.
Gore - Not nearly enough to satisfy horror movie die-hards. The gore really comes down to maybe a few buckets of fake blood, but nothing to pop your eyes out or lose a kidney over. The killings are very non-traditional killings for a vampire movie - relatively tame with minimal blood. Too many scenes that cut away to another scene just as you'd expect so see some guts flying out. Again, compared to vampire movies like the very bloody and gruesome Underworld trilogy, this movie is very very tame.
Nudity - A few scenes involving the attractive lead actress. I particularly found these scenes rather annoying - nonsensical nudity tossed into a movie, and from a girl who's entire character is nearly comatose and sickly. Although she is pretty to look at, the lead actress's character is so paper-thin and shallow that all she really is in the movie is a silent and underdeveloped persona that, through some odd and contrived arrangement of the plot details, needs to be in the movie. I don't mind actresses baring their skin when the role calls for it, but please folks, put it into context of a movie that makes sense. The first images of the movie showing her in the shower washing off the blood from her body was, in all honesty, nearly the point I wanted to throw the remote at the television and give the movie no further viewing. But I held back my inclination and decided to give the movie an entire watch.
Action - Lots of it. Car chases, explosions, all the stuff of low-budget movies. There is nothing in this movie we haven't seen on a single episode of McGuiver. Again, the action is plenty but nothing remarkable. All pretty standard here.
Overall - I gave this movie 2 points out of ten, and primarily because, for a vampire movie, it is a step backwards. This movie adds absolutely nothing to the vampire genre and actually "mortalizes" the vampires. For most of the movie, I was thinking OK this is a joke - we're all going to be told at the end of the movie that they really weren't vampires all along. But they were vampires in the end, just extremely boring vampires that were way to human for my tastes. No fangs, no special powers, nothing supernatural about them. And please, hip does not equal scary.