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Directed by: Len Wiseman Starring: Kate Beckinsale, Scott Speedman Plot synopsis: An ages-old war between werewolves (Lycans) and vampires continues into modern-day Europe. Selene (Kate Beckinsale), a vampire Death Dealer, discovers that the Lycans are following and trying to capture a human named Michael (Scott Speedman), and starts to investigate the reasons why the Lycans would want anything at all to do with a normal human. Lots of fighting (both hand-to-hand and with guns) ensues. Review: This is a really really cool movie with excellent cinematography and direction. You can tell that the people who wrote it wanted a much bigger budget for special effects, and got less than they hoped for. This is not to say the effects suck or that there aren't any. The producers used their money wisely, and the few scenes with expensive effects are very well done and pay off nicely. The acting is above average by most of the cast, with the exception of Kate Beckinsale. She is now my new favorite actress. This is the first movie I have ever seen her in, but she totally nailed this role and I was blown away by her performance. She totally makes this movie. Most notably, during the gunplay scenes that she's involved in, she doesn't wear sunglasses, and doesn't blink at all while firing her guns (something I personally find irritating in most gunplay movies). She plays the most completely believable professional killer I've seen since Bruce Willis in Last Man Standing. The first time I saw it, I laughed at the performances by the lead vampire and the lead Lycan. I thought they were both terrible. After having seen this movie several more times, I can honestly say that I was looking at their characters all wrong, and that those actors did a much better job than I orignally gave them credit for. I also like the fact that even though Selene and Michael end up as a couple at the end, there is no unneccesary cheesiness at all in their relationship. They kiss exactly once, and the scene is brief and awkward. This is by no means a love story, and the very minor love story aspect of this movie is heavily downplayed, which I totally respect since the typical Hollywood formula involves making action movies into male-oriented violence-fests with a corny, barely believable love story so the girlfriend/wife who gets dragged along to see it won't fall asleep. It takes balls to break Hollywood conventions, and this movie did that very well. I didn't go to see a love story, I went to see vampires and werewolves killing each other mercilessly. The action scenes are all pretty good, although there are a few instances where you'll be saying "why did she do that instead of just doing this thing which would've been easier?" There's also a major plot twist that I totally never saw coming, and it's a pretty drat good one. There's only one part of the movie that is total bullshit (you'll jknow it when you see it), which is why this movie gets 4/5 from me. If it had a bigger budget, it probably would've gotten a 4.5 from me. The sequel starts filming this fall, and I'm sure it will have a bigger budget than the this one since at one point it was the #1 movie in the country. I also want to say that Kate Beckinsale is totally hot and I love the way she emulated the goth-but-gorgeous look of Toni Halliday from the band Curve. Normally I don't go for sad girls that wear all black, but Selene really was sexy. 4/5 RATING: 4/5 PROS: Highly stylish, great cinematography, Kate Beckinsale CONS: The script was written for a bigger budget, which they did not get ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0320691/ Chief Rebel Angel fucked around with this message at 07:01 on Jun 20, 2004 |
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May 22, 2004 03:28
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Just a comment but there is an unrated edition of this movie that supposedly improves on it.
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May 22, 2004 03:34
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I thought the movie was awful. Uninteresting characters, too many things that don't make sense (explain to me how an ancient vampire that's been in hibernation for a thousand years can manage to have a deep Southern drawl), boring action sequences, and just a generally uninteresting plot. Voted 1, solely because Kate Beckinsale is hot.
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May 22, 2004 04:46
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I saw it with a friend and we both didn't like it. The action scenes (which seemed to be entirely composed of Beckinsale with arms straight out firing guns akimbo in slo mo did absolutely nothing for me. There wasn't nearly enough action anyway. Kate Beckinsale was completely unbelievable as the greatest vampire warrior. She's a god drat vampire but she gets shot in the arm and loving passes out. Wow. The kid has to give her mouth to mouth to revive her for gently caress's sake. That little thing made me wonder what the hell I was there for. I'm there to see two imortal races fight eachother, and here's our damsel in distress female protagonist getting winged by a bullet and she faints like "oh my, I've got the vapors! Catch me before I fall!" This movie continues a stupid trend of vampire movies where the vampire mythos is incredibly vague and though you've grown up your whole life since you were six years old knowing there's only like 3 ways you can hurt or kill a vampire, the movie doesn't give any indication that vampires are more immune to death or injury than your average human.
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May 22, 2004 05:11
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Horrible, disgustingly bad movie. Bad acting, bad overdone special effects, laughable story, and Kate Beckinsale isn't even that hot. It gets an extra 0.5 for the soundtrack though. 1/5
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May 22, 2004 05:18
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quote:Mr. Stingly came out of the closet to say: I can't emphasise this enough. It wanted to be The Matrix for vampires so badly, but it really falls flat on it's face. Every fight scene until the end is, indeed, just people with two handguns firing repeatedly at one another. Early in the movie, two people are stood 10 feet away from each other, emptying several clips at one another and hitting nothing, like it's an episode of Police Squad. Only 2 minutes later, the same person is unloading more rounds at someone else in the exact same manner, and every single shot in the clip hits precisely in the chest. In slow-motion, of course. And that's about it, for most of the movie. There's another "action" scene which consists of Beckinsale doing exactly what you've seen a million times on the trailer, shooting up the floor around her, and nothing more. There's a chase sequence later on. And up until the last 15 minutes, that's it for action. The rest is filled with "vampire politics", which means lots of high-class people arguing about who's opinion is right. Then when the BIG PLOT TWIST comes, it comes from nowhere. I mean literally, it comes from some events that we're never even given the slightest hint had ever happened. The effects are pretty horrid too. When werewolves run along walls looking horribly CG (makes Van Helsing's wolfmen look like still-life photography), they glide along it with no feet actually touching the walls at some points. There's even one guy who's supposed to look creepy because he has some really, really obvious contact lenses in. I don't know what the hell was going on, but for a big blockbuster movie, this felt pretty low-budget. But one single moment does almost make up for all of this. A fight between an extremely old vampire and a werewolf, which lasts around 3 seconds, and is completely awesome. And a guy with some neat whips, but then you've seen him on the trailer too. Really, the trailer makes it out to be some high-octane supernatural action horror. Instead, it's Kate Beckinsale in tight pants, complaining about one guy not believing her while she tries to track somebody down. It's a pretty awful movie, and that's coming from somebody who really likes stylish action, vampires, and werewolves. Watch the trailer and you've seen almost every worthwhile moment in the movie. 1.5/5 Note to future filmmakers: If you're going to make out that vampires are dead things that don't live or breathe, THEN THEY CAN'T loving DROWN YOU IMBECILES.
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May 22, 2004 16:58
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Here I go again with my generous review. I will start off by saying that I am a big fan of any movie with vampires, and in saying that I do tend to compare each one with the last one I saw. In this case, I enjoyed Underworld but it wasn't the best one I've seen. This is only the second movie I can recall seeing Kate Beckinsale in (the first being Pearl Harbor which I couldn't stand). I do agree that there are some scenes which make me question how tough these vampires are (for those of you that have seen this movie, you know what I'm talking about). Surprisingly enough I actually enjoyed the fact that the action sequences were all (or mostly) guns. I would've been more entertained if I saw some "vampire/werewolf" fight sequences, but oh well there's always a sequel. Considering that the last vampire movie I saw was Dracula 2000 (I've seen others, but I recently watched this one), I gave this movie a 3.5. Pros: Kate Beckinsale and the gunplay Cons: Vampires were too "human"
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May 23, 2004 08:35
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Saw this a while back and I didn't really like it. For one, the plot is quite simply uninteresting and I felt that every character was two-dimensional. Kate Beckinsale is quite a hottie, and she can somewhat act, but her character was quite simply tired. I thought that the action scenes were also quite lame. Needless to say, I expected much more from it. 2/5
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May 23, 2004 20:33
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1.5/5 There was FAR too much prancing around and walking through rooms filled with cool vampire guys/gals in high heels. You can probably see someone walking into a room smashing both of the double doors open in a cool manner 124 times in this movie. The movie isn't 124 minutes long. I felt this was supposed to be an action movie, and while the CGI was good, the action itself was poorly directed. The first action scene was a lovely matrix copy, and the rest just did not flow very well. The epitome of MAKE-COOL was the scene of Selene shooting the floor off with werewolves closing in (the lycantrophes are depicted as very fast and powerful, but they are extremely slow in every scene. First off, we have seen it so many times it should not be in slo-mo, second, even if we hadn't, its not worth it. Also everyone in Hollywood, get rid of akimbo pistols. This movie by far didn't have the most of akimbo poo poo, it was still enough. Most of the gun fights are reminescent of 80s Hollywood movies in terms of electrifying action guys are walking towards each other slowly spraying a shitload of bullets and nothing happening except the random guy going AAAGH and falling down, extremely unrealistic firefights, so much so it will BOTHER you even if this a fantasy movie, only with year 2003 CGI effects. And even they were not used very well. End fight was pretty ok, like much of the movie towards the end, if you feel like shooting yourself in the head during the first 50 minutes know this: you have survived the worse and it gets better. Not good but it isn't as horrible. As to the plot, I might have suffered massive brain injury as of late, but I couldn't make any sense of anything during the first 15 minutes. I almost started wondering if this would be a movie where you have to think for yourself and figure it out (how you want to) made in a lovely way, but then I remembered where this production is from doubted it immediately. Fast forward another 15 minutes and I understood the plot was just so crappy you can't basically try to get into it, just watch it out and shut your brains off because otherwise they will fry or collapse into a black hole. All will be revealed, explained word to word, at some point. Before that it will make no sense whatsoever. But of course, how could Vampires vs Lycantrophes make sense? Sure it can't but no need to make it worse then it has to be. Jesus. One of the bright spots in the movie was Bill Nighy as Viktor, your archetypal ancient grand vampire ruler. No but really, he didn't overact and kept it very simple, I think it worked very well. As for the other actors, they seemed quite lost between the prancing around with cool clothes/muscles and actually trying to talk scenes. Most of the "feelings" were very forced or simply not believable. Dialogue was minimal and poor. Did I mention a lot of the movie is spent walking around looking cool or maybe jumping/falling from a high place instead of something that contributes to the movie as a whole? Ooo, I did. This kinda had potential but... Ugh. I'm sure the director and writer weren't looking for the movie they got, you can only guess what has happened inbetween dreaming this all up and the finished product. edit: Kate Beckinsale for sure can act, however this movie and director left no room. She has to force a distant sorrow all through the movie. Aaaagh.
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Jun 17, 2004 07:51
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Horribly paced with poorly choreographed fight/gun sequences and flashback scenes that involved the motion blur filter and jackhammer noises. Overall, I saw this as an enormous waste of potentially awesome plot setup. The movie could've just been humans vs. werewolves, since all the vampires really did was just use guns. Kate Beckinsale in leather wasn't enough to save this movie, though when she was onscreen I did forget about its shortcomings. 1.5/5 Mr. Sleep fucked around with this message at 05:06 on Jun 28, 2004 |
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Jun 17, 2004 08:16
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Great plot and interesting characters. What took this film down from being perfect is the obsession with 'cool' matrix like fight sequences, which are just plain ridiculous and take away from what could have been a classic movie. Never the less i score it 5/5 because i think it's one of the best movies of the last few years.
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Jun 17, 2004 16:24
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Beckinsale was hot and for me it was as enjoyable as the Blade movies, which are about the only other vampire-related movies I enjoyed, so 4.5/5 for what it is. I'll probably pick up the director's cut version on DVD. I have the regular version on DVD now along with both Blade movies. I'd do 5/5 but it's not "One of the best movies ever". Sometimes I think the text next to the rating numbers is misguided. Often a movie is 5/5 for what it is but that doesn't make it one of the best movies ever.
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Jun 26, 2004 20:00
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The best gun fight in the whole loving movie mad absolutly no sense. And it was the first thing you see. 2/5 Because Kate Beckingsale is hot, and I like guns.
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Jun 26, 2004 22:32
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Fun and well shot. Can be enjoyable for those who really like vampires or werewolves. Definately not the best thing ever made, but far from the worst. Aknowledges that its "love story" is simplistic at best and spends little time on it. I like it. 3.5/5
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Jun 26, 2004 23:00
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quote:Mr. Stingly came out of the closet to say: The lycan bullets had "sunlight" in them, they were prototype military tracers.
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Jun 28, 2004 02:29
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This movie was pretty awful, mainly because it was boring, but one thing really pissed me off. You've got werewolves, and you've got vampires. So how do they fight each other? With loving guns all the time. What a waste. The gunplay got very tedious very fast. No imagination at all. 1.5/5
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Jul 2, 2004 12:04
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quote:Almost 1337 came out of the closet to say: I kept saying "Sunshine bullets!" while I was watching it with sme friends. At least I thought it was funny  .On to the movie though, it wasn't that bad, but it also wasn't anything revolutionary or special, besides having a pretty cool soundtrack. It was fun to watch, with the fancy action scenes and amusing portrayal of vampires as sissyfag goths and werewolfs as big angry berserk fighters. It is not however, by my standards a must-own or anything. Definately a rental, maybe buy it if you really like it for some reason. I'd say 3/5 for sunshine bullets, halfway decent action and Kate Beckinsale in leather with guns.
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Jul 3, 2004 15:16
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i'm giving it a 4 because this is what hollywood is all about. good and moody lighting, dark dingy settings, badass soundtrack. and it doesn't take itself seriously, unlike the matrix. it does well for what it's trying to do. some on the action scenes were silly though. but on the whole it was fairly stylish (for hollywood, anyway)
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Jun 25, 2005 04:27
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Stylish action picture that had the potential to be good, but made some unwise choices in the script and editing departments and ended up mediocre. The plot is pretty advanced and it tries desperately to avoid the pitfalls of a usual vampire setup, but it ends up lovely anyway. A big minus goes to Underworld for including the dream of every fat "Vampire: the Masquerade" player; having a dominant vampire female fall in love with you for absolutely no reason at all. Also, I'm not kidding you when I say that approximately 20% of this movie is characters opening doors. I've only seen the extended version, which I think made a few story-devices a little clearer, though I still found it difficult to keep track of while I was watching. Everyone in the movie acts extremely seriously and there isn't a joke or a smile in sight for miles. Worth watching if you're into vampires and bullet ballets. 2.5/5
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Jul 31, 2005 18:27
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| # ? Apr 20, 2024 03:17 |
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Derivative crap. It's the World of Darkness meets The Matrix, with the worst parts of both. Although the Olde Timey Vampire was loving badass, the rest of the movie lagged. 110 pound Kate Beckinsale is about as intimidating as my last bowel movement and about as believable as an action protagonist, too. 2/5
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Aug 1, 2005 04:41
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