Wordiezett So much average

Nonureva Really Surprised!

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Leofwine_draca THE GODFATHER meets Dracula! This film from director John Landis starts off promisingly: the first half of this film is great, with lots of in-jokes and overacting from Robert Loggia, playing a leading Mafioso. The idea of vampire mobsters is interesting, and played for laughs for the most part with strong effect. I didn't care much for the lead, Anne Parillaud, who begins the film naked and removes her clothes numerous times during the long running length, perhaps this is a desperate attention grabber.There's some kinky sex involving handcuffs and lots of references to over movies for horror fans, such as the films Dracula and THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS playing on TVs. It's entertaining, but doesn't go beyond face value. With this and AN American WEREWOLF IN London, it seems like Landis loves making easy viewing horror films for horror fans. Watch out for a hilarious scene where Loggia begins to dissolve in the sunlight, without realising what's happening. There's also a lot of swearing in this film which may be off-putting to some although it ties in with the gangster genre well enough.One thing this film really does have going for it are the special effects. The main ones are the glowing eyes, which are effectively shocking the first few times we see them. The best effect in the film is the disintegration of one of the vampires in the sunlight. His flesh burns apart, his arm comes off, and finally his neck bursts open spraying blood and his head dissolves. Quite shocking really, I was surprised this film got a 15 certificate rating here in Britain. Overall, the film feels a lot like a pre-runner to FROM DUSK TILL DAWN, and I'm surprised that nobody seems to remember it these days as it's one of the most fun vampire films of the 1990s.

Michael_Elliott Innocent Blood (1992) ** (out of 4) Director John Landis once again mixes comedy and horror and the end result is Marie (Anne Parillaud), a female vampire who just happens to have a craving for Italian men, which might work well for her since there's a Mafia battle going on. As more and more made men turn up drained of blood, a detective (Anthony LaPaglia) begins to think that it might be the work of the supernatural. INNOCENT BLOOD can only been seen in one way and that's a major disappointment. Those hoping to see another classic like AN American Werewolf IN London are going to be especially disappointed because we know that the director is capable of doing something special with this type material but the material itself is the real killer here. As you watch this movie you really can't help but get frustrated because there are so many interesting ideas that could have worked into a good movie but it seems like they were working off a first draft screenplay and one that needed a lot of re-writes. The stuff dealing with the Mafia men turning into vampires could have been interesting but nothing is done with it. The entire erotic side of Marie would have made for a much better movie than what we ended up getting. There are so many scenes in this film that just seem flat but with a little work they could have been something better. Landis perfectly nails the erotic side of things but a lot of this is due to the beautiful Parillaud constantly taking her clothes off. The horror elements aren't all that memorable, although the death scenes deserve some credit for how much blood there is. Everything with the mob is just downright silly. The film at least offers up a wide range of familiar faces including Robert Loggia, Chazz Palminteri, Marshall Bell, Angela Bassett, Luis Guzman, Don Rickles, Tom Savini as well as some directors like Sam Raimi, Dario Argento and Frank Oz. And yeah, Forrest J. Ackerman is also on hand. INNOCENT BLOOD should have been so much more entertaining but sadly it's just a forgettable waste of time.

MARIO GAUCI As some of you may know, I not only consider Landis' AN American WEREWOLF IN London (1981) the finest "Wolf Man" flick ever but it is also, hands down, the greatest horror film to emerge during the last 3 decades. Still, while I have always been aware of this one – which deals with vampires – I somehow never got around to watching it until now! I did catch Landis' two good entries in the "Masters Of Horror" series, though, not to mention the debacle that was his episode from TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE (1983).Anyway, this is typical of the era in keeping nudity (right from the start, and some of which is surprisingly kinky!) and gore (as expected from a vampire movie, we get plenty of the red stuff) at the forefront. The film attempts to give a novel spin to the well-worn theme by making the heroine something of a femme fatale (a well-cast Anne Parillaud) – complete with first-person narration, where she rather uninspiringly refers to other humans as "food" – and throwing her amidst a modern-day world of 'cops and robbers' (thus continuing the noir analogy but which does not really lead anywhere!). The latter seems to emanate from a Martin Scorsese picture, what with the first such scene involving a man being beaten in the face with a toaster, but then it leans towards the heavy-handed when the mobster (Robert Loggia), vampirized by Parillaud when he takes her home for a fling, begins to infect his gang left, right and center! The hero (Anthony LaPaglia) is an undercover cop and he instantly catches the eye of the leading lady in that she does not want to convert him to her nature, even if his pursuit of her for presumably killing Loggia (which he had been meticulously planning to personally bring down) is relentless – she even glides over him in a POV shot inside a church! Once he realizes what she is (though, apparently, the word "vampire" is never actually used!), he naturally has a hard time convincing his colleagues...that is, until corpses start coming back to life with uncomfortable regularity. Herein, however, lies the film's main problem: the vampires here hardly act like your typical bloodsucker (which, by the way, they do not simply bite the jugular but rather tear right into the neck like an animal!). When aroused, their eyes glow and they give out feral sounds (which again resemble more a werewolf or, at least a panther, as this reminded me quite a bit of CAT PEOPLE {1982}!). Besides, the deathly make-up makes them look more like zombies than anything else! Other minuses, while we are on the subject, and especially in comparison with American WEREWOLF, is that the script (not written by the director himself in this case) shows little of the earlier film's knack in blending together the narrative's two styles, to the point that the comedy and horror here seem to belong in different movies but, also, the accompanying soundtrack pales beside that of the 1981 lycanthrope masterpiece (though one appreciates the in-joke of the mob being particularly fond of Frank Sinatra, given the singer/actor's notorious lifelong association with real-life underworld figures)! That said, a number of scenes are well done (notably Don Rickles' literal hospital 'meltdown'), Parillaud and Loggia (amusingly, he does not know what he has become at first and goes apeshit when he starts disintegrating in the sunlight) are terrific and, as usual, Landis incorporates his usual touches of the fabled "See You Next Wednesday" marquee and a handful of 'star' cameos, including genre authority Forrest J. Ackerman, directors Frank Oz and Michael Ritchie, and even fellow horror-meisters Dario Argento (then filming TRAUMA {1993} in the U.S.), Sam Raimi and Tom Savini!

markpeterjones this had it all lol...maria decides to take on the mob with her teeth, and vampiric charms i.e. getting naked lots, it made me laugh, yet the vampire scenes were very realistic too, i felt the special effects were the necks are ripped out to be very realistic...although i don't like gore it is not excessive so it still made me believe it was for real, which is how one should feel in a good movie...the actors are quality actors for once in these cheap flicks so again that was a huge aid to the film..maria is sophisticated, yet violent, enticing yet very dangerous, and the mafia lads are of the model variety so she's after all she can get. i watch so many dire films on the 'horror' channel so its good to finally not have to forward through a film through boredom...I really sat down and wanted to watch it ... a real plus!!