Reviews

Review: Blood: The Last Vampire

An interesting experiment

By BRETT MICHEL | July 8, 2009

2.5 Stars

Despite inserting a jumble of backstory into his live-action take on an action experiment from Japanese animation studio Production I.G (best known for contributing an animated sequence to Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill Volume 1), in order to stretch it from 48 minutes to feature length, director Chris Nahon (Kiss of the Dragon) captures some of the visceral thrills of the nine-year-old anime. Credit Corey Yuen's gravity-defying fight choreography and some cut-rate CGI. The latter lends a charmingly jerky, Harryhausen-like quality to the shapeshifting hordes that half-human, half-vampire, schoolgirl-outfit-wearing samurai Saya (Gianna Jun) slashes through effortlessly in her centuries-long showdown with "the oldest, vilest of all demons," Onigen (The Last Samurai's Koyuki, whose badly dubbed voice is a nice touch). Now if only Saya's new American sidekick, Alice (Allison Miller), could have been cut from the film so readily . . .

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[ART] Juxtaposition

ARTICLES BY BRETT MICHEL

FIRST LOOK AT JAMES CAMERON'S AVATAR | August 26, 2009
James Cameron captained the biggest box-office smash of all time, his Titanic having grossed nearly $2 billion worldwide. But that was 12 years ago, long before the recession appeared on anyone's radar.

REVIEW: LORNA'S SILENCE | August 13, 2009
Are there many better young actors currently working in film than Jérémie Renier?

BOTTLE ROCKET | August 07, 2009
Who exactly is Charlyne Yi? Two years ago, she appeared — seemingly from out of nowhere — in a brief but memorable turn in Judd Apatow's Knocked Up. A closer look at Apatow's new Funny People , however, might provide a clue as to where he discovered her.

LOVE, TRUTH AND VIDEOTAPE | August 10, 2009
Is there anything more heartwarming than watching a little girl officiating at the marriage of two of her favorite dolls? Is there a purer form of love than the kind that a pre-pubescent might project onto the union of a plush Miss Piggy and a put-upon Kermit the Frog?

REVIEW: ORPHAN | July 28, 2009
John (Peter Sarsgaard) and Kate (Vera Farmiga) don't have eight children to contend with, but after the miscarriage of their daughter, they adopt, bringing their brood to three. Perhaps they should have cut their losses.

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