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Monday, 30 January 2006
Sorry I was gone so long...lots to talk about!
Mood:
 lazy
Now Playing: A Few New Buys and A couple of New Flicks in Theaters
Topic: A Few Reviews
I've been a little sick and busy with the new semester and haven't had a chance to update this thing...does anyone actually read this?...but I have a few new things and I just wanted to share them with you.
 I happened upon a lucky find at the local pawn shop, a VHS copy of "Vampire High" for ONE DOLLAR!!! It was well worth the wait, too. Although it was the condensed TV movie based on the series, it was pretty interesting and it went above the normal "90210 in Transylvania" descriptions that I have seen on a lot of ratings systems online.
I found the lead vampire kid, Drew (Jeff Roop), to be a real catch. He dressed a little like a nobleman thrust through time and having to adjust his wardrobe accordingly, but he was a perfect bad boy. (See black and white photo below.)
The dialogue was a little stilted and stagy, but you honestly don't know the ages of the other vampire students except for Karl (Paul Hopkins), who was killed at eighteen and goes back for the "chill" (revisits his grave) on the anniversary of his death. Maybe all but Karl are quite ancient. 
(FYI: Hopkins was a guest star on a couple of episodes of "Big Wolf on Campus," another Canadian supernatural series. He also made appearances on "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" a TV movie about "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and Showtime's series, "The Hunger," so apparently spooky is what Paul Hopkins does.) (See photo at right.)
All in all, it was well worth the nominal price I paid for it.
I also ran across a copy of "Dracula, The Series" on DVD. My first bad omen was when my DVD player flatly refused to play it. The second bad omen was that my fiance's PS2 wouldn't let it off of the menu board. The third strike is when I was finally able to get it to play on the PS2 and I wasn't interested in the content. Back to the pawn shop it went.
Let's see...
Timothy, my fiance, brought me a DVD from a Wal-Mart dollar bin of "American Vampire," the widely reviled, alleged Carmen Electra vehicle. As it turns out, CE barely makes an appearance, except for the cover art, and the rest is some after-school special-type movie that kids in middle school nowadays would probably laugh their asses off at. Still, it was a sweet gesture on his part, the equivalent in most relationships of a man picking wildflowers and giving them to his girlfriend.
I also caught the SciFi Channel's presentation of "Dark Prince: The True Story of Dracula".
Rudolf Martin plays Vlad the Impaler and it is beginning to look as though poor Rudolf is going to get stuck playing vampire games-- getting typecast as bad guys and blood suckers-- he doesn't watch it: he's already played Dracula once on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". (Food for thought: He also played Sarah Michelle Gellar's hubby, Anton, on "All My Children," before La Lucci had her kicked off, post Emmy.) 
For those who haven't seen it, forget the fangs and the tuxedos: it's all about the actual, historical ruler of Romania, not the Bela Lugosi version. The only blood-drinking isn't so much drunk as eaten, when Martin sops up blood from his impaled enemies with bread, as he takes his lunch near their impaled bodies. Jane March plays Dracula's wife, Lidia, with dewy innocence. Another person who may be typecast in vampire movies is supporting player, The Who's Roger Daltrey as King Janos of Hungary. He's also played in "Vampirella", as Vlad or Jamie Blood. It was an interesting flick, and as true as you're going to get to a historical account as you're bound to get from a movie produced for the USA Network (aka, NBC). Watch it for a history lesson and a "Where's Waldo?" spotting of famous people. If you're looking to be spooked, look elsewhere. (Here's a freebie: Michael "Stone Cates" Sutton from "General Hospital" plays Vlad's "punked-out" >[...and I don't mean Ashton Kutcher or a mohawk...] brother, Radu.) But for an actual scare, keep looking.
Let's go to the theater, shall we?
"Underworld: Evolution" came out last week and all I can say about that is: so? I didn't like the first one and I am not all that interested in the sequel. Some people are recommending it to me, but it's been all over AMC and MTV, with specials and "behind the scenes" shows. AMC actually suckered me in with a quite interesting documentary about "real life" vampires and werewolves, "Fang vs. Fiction," only to discover it was a promotional tool for "Underworld: Evolution". The only news about it that seems to separate it from the original is that Selene is now immune to sunlight and that she gets it on with Michael. Add to that the hoopla in the media of Kate Beckinsale's husband--Len Wiseman, the film's director-- being on-set for the big nude scene between Beckinsale and Scott Speedman, and playing Berlin's "Take my Breath Away" from the "Top Gun" soundtrack to crack them up. Whoop-de-doo.
Considering how quickly the star-studded "Bloodrayne" crashed and burned at the box office last month, I'm beginning to get the feeling that a lot of us are waiting for "Blood and Gold," Anne Rice's rumored next filmed novel.
Anything's gotta be better than this.
P.S. I ended up ONCE AGAIN! re-buying "Dracula 2000", as well as picking up a copy of "Modern Vampires. Haven't looked at "Modern Vampires" yet; will review it when the mood strikes to watch it.
Posted by spankavision
at 6:30 PM EST
Updated: Monday, 13 March 2006 8:13 PM EST
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