Long Story Short:
They call him the Daywalker. He’s half man, half vampire. He’s dedicated his life to hunting the latter. Unfortunately for Blade (Wesley Snipes), his job is about to get a lot harder. Unfortunately for the vampires, Blade has a really cool sword.
Alan Says:
For the past four years, people have been telling me that (New Line Cinema) is one of the best action flicks ever. I take recommendations seriously, but the idea of Wesley Snipes battling swarms of killer vampires just didn’t seem that great. I was pleasantly surprised.
Blade is not a normal horror film. In reality, it is a fast-paced action movie that happens to center around vampires.
Blade is full of intense action sequences that are a perfect blend of gunplay, sword fighting and vampires. Snipes never fails to slice and dice the vampires in spectacular fashion.
The battles are enhanced with unbelievable special effects. One of the best aspects of the movie is seeing what Snipes will use next – will it be the customized automatic pistol or the titanium sword that attacks any evildoer who picks it up? Blade is a truly worthy action movie well worth your time.
Jeff Says:
This movie, in a word, is hardcore. It’s dark, violent and mesmerizing. Director Stephen Norrington has taken the conventionally horrific darkness of vampire flicks, the cold, steel blue of action films and cloaked them under a haunting techno music score. In doing so, he sets the stage for an epic battle between the mysteriously isolated superhero and hordes of demonic creatures.
Just for kicks, though, he gives the hero really big guns, a long kitana sword and a serum that makes infected vampire blood cells explode. Yeah, it’s that cool.
Another thing that helped this movie succeed was its relatively low-profile cast. Snipes makes a great Blade, due in part to his proclivity toward martial arts. He plays the role without a hint of sympathy (which is good because vampires don’t deserve any), but also with traces of humor in what is otherwise a character dead to the world.
It is nice that someone put in a call to the ’80s and pulled up Stephen Dorff for the role of Deacon Frost, a rogue vampire hell-bent on releasing La Magra, a vampire god. Kris Kristofferson is also delightfully grizzled as Whistler, Blade’s whiskey-swilling, CCR-loving weapons man.
Despite its occasionally cheesy dialogue, Blade, for me, tops the list of horror action flicks.
*We chose to do Blade since its upcoming sequel, Blade II, had the coolest Super Bowl spot (E*Trade monkey in a green suit excluded). It comes out March 22.
