Karl's Opinion Page

Vampires

Written 11/2/98

Rating: 8 out of 10

Well, it's certainly not an horror film. It's an action film. Given that, it's really good; the plot moves along well, people avoid doing stupid things, and there's lots of action. Admittedly, you don't really care about the characters much, but then, you didn't in Predator, either.

Now, I have to confess my weakness for vampire films in general; I really groove on them. This film, though, I can honestly recommend as a good film of the action genre, putting aside my personal predilections.

For Those Who Have Seen It

For not being able to afford the non-chubby Baldwin, this is a remarkably good film. It has the usual Carpenter flaw of overdosing on testosterone (Remember that fight scene from They Live?), but not to distraction. All the characters are well cast, and no one does anything dumb. Now, at first I was thinking "okay, were I a master vampire, I'd hole up in some more permanent location, and have booby traps and such like you would not believe - and sleep in a place you have to be able to fly to get to." However, the fact that he's moving around and searching precludes this nicely.

I was annoyed that the team got wiped out so quickly; it was good to drive the plot, but more than two of them should have survived. Personally, I was rooting for the guy who played Shang Tsung in Mortal Kombat (and so many other kick-ass asian martial arts roles), Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa. Anyways. The shoot 'em and yank 'em into the sunlight was good, though frankly I would think the crossbow bolt would pull from the vampire before the steel cable would rupture. And those spears were pretty plastic-looking. However, these are minor nits to pick, and certainly did not detract from the film.