UNDERWORLD: AWAKENING (2012) AWAKENING YOUR WORLD!

"Overall, Underworld: Awakening achieves what it set out to do, which is build on the story and world of the previous Underworld movies, while still creating an exciting and visually stimulating supernatural spectacle!"

Action, Horror and Fantasy

Starring – Kate Bekinsale/Selene, Steven Rea/Doctor Jacob Lane, Michael Ealy/Detective Sebastian, Theo James/David, India Eisley/Eve, Charles Dance, Kris Holden-Ried/Quint

Directors – Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein

Writers – Len Wiseman, John Hlavin, J. Michael Straczynski and Allison Burnett

Rated R – for strong violence, gore and language

1 hr., 28 min.

Thanks to a New England snowstorm last weekend, I had to wait a week before seeing Underworld: Awakening. For reasons I can’t fathom, my local theater did not have the film showing on any of its ten screens, so I was forced to trek to a slightly more distant cinema to see it. Worst of all, this theater has no stadium seating and they were only showing Underworld: Awakening in 3-D! I don’t hate 3-D, but of the four films I have now seen in 3-D, I can honestly say that the process added little to nothing to any of these films. Fortunately, despite all these seemingly opposing events, I still enjoyed Underworld: Awakening immensely – with one caveat, which I’ll get to at the end of this review.

Underworld: Awakening is a sequel to Underworld: Evolution (2006) and takes place twelve years after “The Purge”. A prologue to the movie tells us that six months after Selene gained the powers of the Vampire-Corvinus strain and she and her lover Michael Corvin killed the remaining elder vampires, the human race discovered the existence of Vampires and Lycans, which began a worldwide purge of their species. Selene and Michael are captured by a medical corporation Antigen and frozen in a cryogenic state for study.

Twelve years later, Selene escapes the medical facility, but soon after begins having visions, which lead her to a vampire David, the son of Thomas, a Vampire Elder who leads one of the few remaining vampire covens that remain hidden from humans. David helps Selene rescue a young girl from Antigen, who Selene sees in another vision. Selene and David fight a group of Lycans, who are also after the girl, but she is injured in the fight. The girl, who is another hybrid, is not healing, so David takes her and Selene back to his coven to be looked at by a vampire physician.

Thomas blames Selene for the human’s discovery and extermination of vampires, so he is anxious for her to leave his coven, but David wants Selene to train his coven to defend themselves against both the humans and the increasingly violent Lycan race. Dr. Jacob Lane, the director of Antigen, was using the hybrid girl to develop an "antidote" to make Lycans immune to the deadly effects of silver and enhance their physical abilities. The girl, dubbed by Lane “Subject 2”, needs the hybrid genetic code to achieve this, so Lane sends a super-Lycan Quint with other Lycans to the vampire coven to recapture her. A battle ensues and many of the vampires and werewolves are killed, but Quint dispatches and nearly kills David before leaving with the hybrid girl. Selene heals David with her “immortal” blood and they depart to confront Lanne, Quint and the minions of Antigen.

To start, Underworld: Awakening is even more reliant on action and violence to carry its plot than any of the other three films. I assume that the filmmakers knew that anyone going to see a forth film in a series is going to be familiar enough with the Underworld mythology to not need lengthy bits of narrative to understand the whos, whats and wheres of the story. Even after having just watched the previous three films a few months ago, I was still a bit dazed by how briskly the plot points of Underworld: Awakening are gone over. I was able to keep up with the basic reasons for why Selene was motivated to rescue “Subject 2”, but I would have liked a bit more space between the action sequences to add some depth to the motivations of Selene and the other characters in the film.

Still, the action sequences are the main draw of the Underworld films and Underworld: Awakening does not disappoint in this regard. The opening sequence of Selene’s escape from the high-rise medical center is amazing. Selene demonstrates her uber-vamp powers on numerous occasions, where she seems almost to defy the laws of gravity. The Lycans in this film are very impressive, but the super-Lycan Quint – who is easily nine feet tall – is an amazing creature to behold. If I have any complaints about the special effects at all is that at times they are moving so quickly that you have little time to admire their detailed effectiveness.

Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein, who previously directed the supernatural thriller Shelter (2010), do a fine job recreating the dark-monochromatic look and feel of the previous Underworld movies. Len Wiseman, who previously directed the first two movies – Underworld and Underworld: Evolution – as well as having a hand in the story for all three Underworld films, wrote the initial screenplay for Underworld: Awakening. The three other writers, most notably J. Michael Straczynski of Babylon 5 fame, stepped in for rewrites, but there is so little narrative that is carried by dialogue, that I have to wonder what, if any contributions he or the others made to the script.

Kate Beckinsale steps back into the role of Selene after six years effortlessly. Her cool, hard, but still quiet deadly passion fills the screen for most the film’s short 88 minute run time. I do miss her interaction with her Lycan lover Michael – who only makes a brief appearance at the beginning of the film – and the leading male role of the vampire David played by Theo James is little more than male eye-candy. Veteran actor Charles Dance as the Vampire Elder Thomas adds a nice bit of gravitas to the film and Stephen Rea as Dr. Jacob Lane is quietly sinister as the head of the medical corporation Antigen. If Kris Holden-Ried, who plays the super-Lycan Quint, looks familiar, it is because he plays a similar supernatural creature on the TV Series Lost Girl. Holden-Ried’s facial features and physicality certainly add weight to his role as the ferocious uber-Lycan, but I wonder if he is in danger of being typecast in a way similar to that of actor Ron Perlman.

Overall, Underworld: Awakening achieves what it set out to do, which is build on the story and world of the previous Underworld movies, while still creating an exciting and visually stimulating supernatural spectacle! The one caveat with the film that I hinted at at the outset of this review, is that the film has a tenuous conclusion that leaves me wondering if the writers had planned on a longer movie, but didn’t have the budget to film it. Underworld: Awakening is in definite need of a sequel to finish the many plot-threads that were left dangling at the end of the movie. While I’m glad that the film should be financially successful enough to warrant a sequel and I’m sure I’ll be attending it as well, it might have been nice if Underworld: Awakening could have had a stronger finish that would not necessarily required one.

Underworld: Awakening is a wild ride and a worthy addition to one of my favorite supernatural fantasy series! See it now or later, but don’t miss it.

TECHNICAL: Acting – 9 Directing – 9 Cinematography – 10 Script – 7 Special effects – 10

VISCERAL: Visual – 10 Auditory – 9 Intellectual – 7 Emotional – 9 Involvement – 10

TOTAL RATING: 87

FRIGHT NIGHT - 2011 - A FRIGHTFULLY FUN REMAKE!

“Fright Night strikes just the right balance between horror and comedy, which I think even fans of the original film will appreciate.”

Horror and Comedy

Starring – Anton Yelchin/Charley Brewster, Colin Farrell/Jerry Danridge, Toni Collette/Jane Brewster, David Tennant/Peter Vincent, Imogen Poots/Amy and Christopher Mintz-Plasse/”Evil” Ed Thompson

Director – Craig Gillespie   Writer- Marti Noxon

Rated R – for bloody horror violence and language

1 hr, 46 min.

There have been a slew of genre movie remakes in the past ten years and more often than not, the original is superior to the remake. The few exceptions that spring to mind are: Death Race (2008), the Paul W. S. Anderson remake of the 1975 Death Race 2000 and Dawn of the Dead (2004) directed by Zach Snyder which is a remake of the 1978 Romero classic of the same name. Now another film can be added to this rare list of respectful remakes: Fright Night (2011).

While I enjoyed the 1985 film at the time, more recent rewatchings have not been as much fun; although I must admit I still like Roddy McDowall’s portrayal of Peter Vincent as a horror host. Because I’m not an uber-fan of the original, it probably allowed me to be more open to enjoying the remake.

The 2011 Fright Night follows the same basic plot of the original, with a few minor character, plot and mythology changes. One of the major changes from the original film is that Charley’s friend Ed is the one who discovers that Charley’s neighbor is a vampire and not Charley himself. The other slightly less important change is that Peter Vincent in the remake is a Los Vegas magician and not a TV horror host as in the original. I didn’t think either of these changes affected the overall tone of the film, which is still like the original a blend of horror and comedy.

Charley Brewster is a reformed nerd, who now has a girlfriend and has begun hanging out with the cool kids in High School. Charley’s former nerdy friend “Evil” Ed Lee tells Charley that their old friend has gone missing and they check in on the his house only to find it abandoned. Ed tries to convince Charley that his next-door neighbor Jerry is a vampire and that he is the one responsible for the recent rash of disappearing students. Charley is convinced only that Ed is delusional and is just desperately trying to get his attention.

Ed continues his surveillance of Jerry, until Jerry catches Ed and seemingly kills him. Charley now notices Ed missing and eventually begins to believe that Ed may have been right about Jerry being a vampire. Charley sneaks into Jerry’s house, where he finds that Jerry is storing victims in rooms hidden upstairs to feed on. After narrowly escaping Jerry’s house, Charley goes to Ed’s house to look for Ed’s research on vampires. It is there that Charley sees Peter Vincent’s web site on Ed’s computer, which claims that Vincent is an expert vampire hunter. Charley goes to Vegas and attempts to gain the aid of the flamboyant magician, but Vincent pretends not to believe Charley’s story and sends him on his way.

 

Charley attempts to barricade his home from Jerry the vampire, but Jerry attacks Charley, his girlfriend Amy and his mother Jane in his home, which they flee from in their mother’s car. Jerry chases after them and they survive, but Jane is injured in the fight. Charley once again pleads with Vincent for help and this time Vincent joins Charley to hunt down the vampire and stake him.

There is a lot to like about Fright Night. The direction by Craig Gillespie, who previously directed Lars and the Real Girl (2007) and Mr. Woodcock (2007), shows off a real talent for comedic pacing those other films did not. There are some scenes that stretch out to create tension and then speed up for the inevitable violent confrontation, which are then punctuated by well-timed humor. Some of this clever plotting and humor should be attributed to screenplay writer Marti Noxon, who wrote dozens of scripts for the similarly themed Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV program.

Anton Yelchin, who plays the teenage Charley and is best known to genre fans for playing Chekov in the 2009 Star Trek film, does a fine job playing a former nerd and growing teen, trying to fit into his new social situation. Colin Farrell plays the part of the vampire Jerry with a quite cool air in his human form. But as a vampire, his vicious and malicious ferocity is truly frightening. I also liked Toni Collette as Charley’s understanding Mother Jane and Imogen Poots as Charley’s sweet and strong girlfriend Amy. The standout performance for genre fans is David Tennant, who is best known for playing the Doctor on Doctor Who for three-plus seasons. Tennant as Peter Vincent the Goth Vegas magician is fantastic; playing both the drama-queen stage magician and the slightly cowardly vampire hunter!

Fright Night strikes just the right balance between horror and comedy, which I think even fans of the original film will apreaciate. While this version of Fright Night is definitely more adult in its language and levels of violence than its predecessor, I never felt that any of it was gratuitous or unnecessary. If you’d like a break from the dark and dismal horror films of late, you should give Fright Night a try.

TECHNICAL: Acting – 9 Directing – 9 Cinematography – 8 Script – 10 Special effects – 9

VISCERAL: Visual – 9 Auditory – 9 Intellectual – 7 Emotional – 9 Involvement – 9

TOTAL RATING: 88

TRAILER TUESDAY! UNDERWORLD: AWAKENING THIS WEEK!

Underworld: Awakening is being released this Friday on January 20, 2012 and I will be the first in line! Okay. Maybe the first in line for the Saturday afternoon show, but still... FIRST IN LINE! Enjoy the latest trailer!

TRAILER TUESDAY! DEATH VALLEY: HORROR AND COMEDY MEET ON MTV!

Death Valley is a new half-hour scripted horror-comedy show on MTV. It follows the nightly routine of police officers in California’s San Fernando Valley filmed in the documentary style of "Cops"; only instead of bad boys these cops deal with vampires, zombies and werewolves. Two episodes have aired so far and the violence is as hard-core as any R-rated horror film, so this show is not for the squeamish. Being a fan of Zombieland, Death Valley shares some of that film's satiric elements, if with somewhat less subtly. If you like your horror-comedy loud and low-brow, with lots of gore, then Death Valley is for you and I qualify it as a definite “guilty pleasure”!

Death Valley's characters are:

Captain Frank Dashell is as crazy as he is dim-witted and spouts nonsense passing as instruction to his officers.

Officer Joe Stubeck  is a family man who tries to keep his younger partner Billy in line and often tries too hard to do the right thing.

Officer Billy Pierce is  a tough young cop who enjoys killing zombies a little too much and is as likely to have his mind on food and sex as he is the job at hand.

Officer Kirsten Landry is the rookie of the staff and is a little leery of the Captain who has taken her under his wing. She is tough and capable and seems slightly out of place among the rest of the somewhat crazy officers.

Officer Carla Rinaldi is a streetwise beat cop, who takes her job protecting the innocent from monsters as seriously as she would from ordinary criminals.

Officer John "John-John" Johnson is the young-tuff of the crew and has is partner Rinaldi's back.

Here is the press release for the show from MTV:

                                                                                                             

Viewers will be taken to a place they’ve never been before, with MTV’s new horror-comedy “Death Valley.” The scripted series follows the ‘Undead Task Force’ (UTF), a newly formed division of the LAPD, documentary-style, as they capture the monsters that roam the streets of California’s San Fernando Valley. In a world where vampires, werewolves and zombies live freely, “Death Valley” is a fun, comedic non-stop thrill ride featuring chases, hardcore kills and bizarre encounters.

“Death Valley” stars Tania Raymonde (“Lost”), Bryan Callen (“The Hangover”), Caity Lotz (“Mad Men”), Bryce Johnson (‘Sleeping Dogs Lie”), Texas Battle (“Final Destination 3”, “Dragonball,” “Coach Carter”) and Charlie Sanders (Funny or Die’s “The Big Dog”). “Death Valley” is executive produced by Eric Weinberg, Austin Reading, Julie Kellman Reading and Tim Healy. Spider One is co-executive producer of the series. Tony DiBari is Executive Producer, MTV and Matthew Parillo is MTV executive in charge of production.

Take a look at the trailer for Death Valley!

TRAILER TUESDAY! UNDERWORLD: AWAKENING!

Underworld: Awakening is the fourth film in the series about a war between the vampire and werewolf races.  Rise of the Lycans, the previous film, was a prequel to the first film Underworld and Underworld: Evolution. Underworld Awakening appears to be a direct sequel to Underworld: Evolution.

Kate Beckinsale, the star of the first two films, returns in her lead role as the vampire Selene, who escapes imprisonment to find herself in a world where humans have discovered the existence of both Vampire and Lycan clans, and are conducting an all-out war to eradicate both immortal species.

Although I enjoyed Underworld: Rise of the Lycans and thought Rhona Mitra was fine in the lead role as Sonja, I much prefer the modern setting and Kate Beckinsale as Selene from the previous two films. The trailer tells us that Selene has been held captive (presumably by humans) for twelve years. Selene escapes and is caught in the war between Humans, Vampires and Lycans. The trailer also hints that the half-breed child of Selene and Michael is alive and mixed up in the war – but on whose side? Underworld: Awakening is set for release on January 20, 2012 and I for one can hardly wait! Enjoy the trailer!

I SELL THE DEAD - 2008

I plead guilty. A few months ago, I started watching I Sell the Dead when it first aired on the premium channels… and I just couldn’t get into it. I think the story framing devise is what frustrated me with this film initially. The film opens with Arthur Blake being led into a small room in a (late-19th century?) prison. He sits at a table and is interviewed by a priest, who wants his testimony on how he came to be a grave robber. This leads to his first story of his youth and how he becomes an apprentice grave robber to his soon-to-be partner and mentor Willie Grimes. This set up takes about a half hour of film time and that is where I initially became bored with it. For weeks, I Sell the Dead kept festering in the back of my mind. How could a film with such a great cast star in a dull film. So, this Saturday night, I sat though it again and stuck though I Sell the Dead to the end. I’m glad I did, because this horror comedy is delightful blend of a period piece, a character drama and a truly unique and darkly funny horror film. As Arthur continues to tell more stories of his business with Willie, we are treated to their run-ins with many different denizens of the undead. They eventually start selling vampires, which become a hot commodity on the corpse market. Eventually, they dig up all sorts of supernatural (with one very funny and surprising exception) corpses that eventually end up with them being arrested for killing rival grave robbers. You’ll have to take my word for it that if you stick with I Sell the Dead through to the end, you'll be rewarded with one bizarre and hilarious climax.

ANGELS, ALIENS AND VAMPIRES! A TRIPLE FEATURE OF LEGION, OUTLANDER AND DAYBREAKERS!

My bangin' buddy Phileas Photon zapped into my lab yesterday with a trio of wicked cool blu-ray discs for us to watch. I say "zapped" because even though we contact each other through space and time via email to set up our monthly movie marathons (you'll have to ask Phileas how that works - I flunked out of Introductory Physics in High School), Phileas has the bad habit of just appearing at my crib out of thin air, which is always accompanied by this loud electrical zapping noise!  I brewed up a pot of his favorite caffeinated beverage and served it to him black and strong - not the way he likes his women - but that's a topic for another blog.

Our first feature of the day was Legion, a film released to theaters earlier this year to almost universal suck ass reviews. If you aren't familiar with the concept of Legion, it purports to be about God losing his faith in humanity and sending a legion of his angels to destroy his children. His once favorite angel Michael disobeys orders and stands with a group of humans at a desert diner to protect a women who is pregnant with a child that has some sort of hidden destiny. Legion is best enjoyed if you turn off your brain and just groove on the the tasty visuals and kick-ass action sequences. Unfortunately, this freak often can't let sleeping dogs lie (Legion doesn't quite qualify as a dog -- maybe a lost puppy though) and although I enjoyed the mostly snappy dialogue, attractive actors and well choreographed action scenes, I kept wondering two things: Who was the father of the child and why was he so damned important to cause Micheal to side against God? Unless I slept through the answers to these questions they are never given a satisfactory explanation by the writers of Legion. I can only recommend Legion to those who don't care about biblical accuracy and like their ultraviolence without any meaningful reasoning behind it. I liked Legion, but only as a quick bite to eat at a fast food joint, where you're thankful afterwards that you didn't suffer heartburn.

Our second flick was Outlander, which had a very limited release here in the USA early last year. Outlander is a classic example of a film that - in the case of this country at least - the film company didn't know how to promote it. As a result, I don't tink it was given a fair chance to find an audience. Outlander is an odd blend of science fiction and historical fantasy. The plot concerns a human-looking pilot of spaceship crashing on Earth in Norway in year 709AD. He had a deadly monstrous passenger on board that also escaped the crash. Kainan befriends a local tribe and helps them to hunt down the alien creature that is attacking their village and feeding on its people. In the course of killing the creature, Kainan finds friendship, love and more with the tribe and decides to stay with them. This is a well told tale, with adventure, action, and drama galore! It has a wonderful cast that includes John Hurt, Sophia Myles, Ron Perlman and Jim Caviezel as Kanin, who recently starred in AMC's remake of The Prisoner. I urge anyone who likes science fiction, fantasy, historical drama or just a wicked good action drama to give Outlander at try. It won't leave you hungry, but very full indeed!

Our final feature for the day was Daybreakers, which coincidentally was released to theaters just two weeks prior to our first feature Legion. Daybreakers is similar to Outlander in that it combines two distinctly different genres: In this case horror creatures in a science fictional setting, the near future. I had become interested in Daybreakers when I found out that it was directed and written by the Spierig brothers, who had directed and self-financed their first feature, 2003's unheralded zombie film, Undead. I missed Daybreakers at its limited run at the theater, so I wanted to see the blu-ray release as soon as possible. The basic premise of Daybreakers is that in the year 2019, most of the human population has been transformed into vampires, which results in a shortage of human blood for the vampires to feed on. A mega-corporation is secretly harvesting human blood to sell to the rapidly growing demand and in the meantime looking to create a synthetic blood substitute to reap even more profits for the company. The head researcher for the synth-blood substitute becomes involved with a small group of free human rebels and helps them to bring down the vampire run population. This outrageous plot, once excepted, opens the door for many interesting ethical questions, which Daybreakers spends an adequate amount of time delving into. Much like The Matrix, Daybreakers uses the format of an action-science fiction film to help drive the plot and the message. As a fan of both the horror and sf genres, I recommend Daybreakers highly. Unlike the many mainstream critics, I don't think that this film sucks the lifeblood out of your need for intelligent storytelling or exciting action adventure!

With another zap and an additional pop, Phileas left through another time wormhole, taking his blu-ray films and leaving this film freak to await another time for watching more wicked cool genre movies in his multimedia laboratory. Until my next movie mélange, this is "Doc" Freak signing off.