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26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Bad to the Bone, October 5, 2002
Good action vampire stories, whether written, drawn or on film are just plain hard to find. For a while now the 'not quite bad' vampire and even the 'good' vampire have been fashionable. Not that I have anything against Angel or Henry Fitzroy and their ilk, but sometimes you want a story with a clear division between good and evil and a lot of knock them down and stake them action. Enter Blade. Blade is a half vampire with a very nasty attitude toward his relatives on the dark side. Played by Wesley Snipes, he has all the moves and attitude you could ever want. His partner in his war against the things that did in his mother is Abraham Whistler (Kris Kristofferson). Later, Karen (N'Bushe Wright) a forensic hematologist who has the bad luck to find a vampire on her table, joins them. Opposing this team is Frost (Steven Dorff), a vampire rebel who thinks it is time for the un-people with pointy teeth to come out of the closet. His plan is simple. Take over the vampire council, capture Blade and resurrect La Magra - the blood god. Then there will be nothing but vampires and bloodsicles. 'Blade' is an extremely violent film. Almost everyone is a martial arts expert, has access to what the US Congress would consider weapons of mass destruction, or is a victim. Sometimes, they are all three. Toss in a sufficiency of special effects, great settings, and good acting and you have the film. What makes 'Blade' work is its intense focus. It works hard at being exactly what it is - an action film with a strong 'wow' factor. Sometimes that is exactly what you need. Steven Norrington, a director considerable experience in the horror/science fiction genre, has a great sense of what it takes to make comic book characters come to life on the screen. He manages to retain the strong visual impact of the original Marvel Comics series. David Goyer's script manages to capture the essence of comic book dialogue - sparse, but not stilted. The overall effect is a film that builds smoothly from start to ending, with very few slow moments. The extras on the DVD are surprisingly good. Good sized features on the concepts and effects that went into the film, the story of the Blade comic, and an interesting survey of the vampire in human imagination. In addition, there is an extensive running commentary for the film. All of these are intelligently done. I think 'Blade,' despite its violence, will appeal a wide range of viewers as something more than just another Hong Kong fight film wannabe.
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18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
disappointing Blu-Ray transfer, November 17, 2009
I'm giving this Two Stars not because of the film itself but for the following three complaints I have with this disc (I'm a huge fan of the movies, I have all three and have watched them dozens of times):
1. Price: $25.49 is awfully expensive for a movie that's been out for 11 years. Especially considering that much newer movies (e.g. "Watchmen: The Director's Cut", loaded with extras, btw) are going for lower. The aforementioned "Watchmen" is nearly $10 cheaper.
Surely a $35 or $40 boxed set of all three Blade films could have been issued.
2. Quality of Transfer
The transfer is hardly stunning and hardly worth the aforementioned price. Both my Blu-Ray player (a 120GB PS3, the very latest version of Sony's flagship console) and my HD-DVD player (a Toshiba A-30) upscale/up-res standard DVDs and I cannot tell the difference between THIS Blu-Ray transfer and the upscaled SD-DVD. Thus I'm feeling more than a little taken advantage of. Unfortunately, Amazon's policy limits me to a 50% refund, if they give me one at all. This film is still part of the best Vampire franchise out there (so far), in my opinion, but stick to the standard DVD versions. Not only do you get the extras, but since there's no discernible difference in picture quality, you'll also save yourself a good bit of cash.
3. No extras
Unfortunately, I missed the notice, which is just a single line of print, that no extras were included which scotches my reason for returning the disc. Surely this notification should have been bolded or rendered in a different color, something that would catch the eye better.
Although, in general, I am not a big fan of extras (with certain exceptions, they are rarely worth watching), I think a Blu-Ray release should at least contain everything on the original DVD release. After all, there's more than enough room on a BR disc to accommodate everything on a Standard DVD release since all BR videos are 50GB discs. And "Blade" will fit on a 4.7GB DVD (i.e. a single layer disc) WITHOUT the extras. Therefore, there's no reason NOT to include the extras given the huge amount of space the BR gives the studio for extra content.
Thus, if Blade requires 4.7GB of space for its 2 hours in Standard Definition, multiplying it by 6 (since we are constantly reminded that "Blu-Ray has SIX TIMES--!!!--the definition of DVD!"), that still leaves 26GB for extras, more than enough if these are left in standard def (as the majority of extras are).
Finally, as for the difference in aspect ratios: this is not an issue for me. Both Blu-Ray and HD-DVD normally use a 2.40:1 ratio (resulting in slightly smaller black bars bordering the film) and, strictly, speaking, I suppose, the original aspect ratio should have been preserved. However, the increase (?) in aspect ratio does NOT result in a distorted picture so I don't feel this is a drawback.
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25 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
This is why you buy DVD, April 20, 2000
This was a great action/horror film, packed with some excellent special effects, an entertaining storyline, and at least a couple of reasonably talented actors (Snipes, Dorff). Kristofferson is terrible as always (a hint to you casting people... Sam Elliott would have been MUCH better as the tough and gritty Whistler). But you're not really reading this review to hear about the movie -- you can get that kind of info anywhere. What you want to know is "Is the DVD worth buying instead of a VHS tape?" Weeeellll... This movie is undoubtedly THE showcase movie for DVD (the Mummy is another very good choice). The picture quality is fantastic, and the sound is incredible (you gotta listen to it in Dolby Digital 5.1 on a nice home theater system to fully appreciate the sound). But what really sets this format apart from anything else are the SPECIAL FEATURES. A ton of things like information about the different Vampire houses, commentary from the director on the making of the film, and an alternative ending, really show how the DVD format can add to your viewing experience. Many DVDs (too many, in fact) are simply direct transfers from another format to DVD. No extras, limited enhancements on picture and sound... A perfect example of a BAD DVD is Highlander! The DVD versions of the Bond movies have also shown the industry a thing or two about how to make a truly interesting and worthwhile DVD movie. DVDs like Blade make me happy I purchased a DVD player!
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