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Overall Rating : 5.5/10
Directed By : Sebastian Gutierrez
Lucy Liu (Lucky Number Slevin)
Robert Forster (Alligator)
Cameron Richardson National Lampoon's (Dorm Daze)
Michael Chiklis (Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer)
Supplied By : Sony Pictures
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : October. 23, 2007
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| PLOT A female reporter wakes up in a morgue to find herself a member of the undead. Trying desperately to fight off her thirst, Sadie prowls the dark city streets, armed with a crossbow and hell-bent on slaying the twisted vampires that made her this way. Detective Rawlins crosses paths with Sadie in his investigation, and the two join forces, stopping at nothing until they've exacted their revenge. |
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| THE REVIEW Magazine Reporter, Sadie Blake has recently ran a story in her publication, about the goth society that surrounds her city, and after it is released, it appears that the people in which are subjected in the article are not too happy. When Tricia, the girl that supplied Blake with the most information for her story supposedly ends up dead, Sadie goes to investigate on of the girl's last known appearances. But as Sadie would find out, she has stepped in a little to far in which she criticized, and is later abducted and killed by the goth cult leader, Bishop and his mistress Eve, in a vampiric fashion. Sadie later wakes up in a morgue still alive with no reason as to why, but it seems as if she is "now one of them", as she as picked up their traits. One of them being the thirst for blood and the inability not to control it. Sadie has no choice to give into those urges at the cost of a few innocents, no matter how much it disgusts her. Many times she would try to end her life, but difficulty to die happens to be another unwanted trait. Since she can't defeat herself she decides that in order to prevent what happened to her from happening to others, she must kill the ones who turned her. Armed with a crossbow, Sadie takes to the street for a killing spree, and later joining her, is Detective Clyde Rawlins, who happens to be Tricia's Father. Whenever I see a film, whether it is that I am going to review it or not, I always hope to find at least a decent story attached to it. And while some films are bound to be better than others, if a point is made, and if the film is reasonable, i'll be happy. When looking up RISE : BLOOD HUNTER, the first thing I noticed is it's relatively great cast which includes the likes of veterans Lucy Liu and Michael Chiklis, as well as possibly lesser known stars like Cameron Richardson, Carla Gugino and Samaire Armstrong, I just couldn't understand why this film got such a limited release, and following my first viewing of the film's trailer, I wondered even more. But whatever that reason maybe it was, it's now on DVD, and prior to viewing all I hoped for was a rather entertaining film. Writer/Director Sebastian Gutierrez whose previous scripts were both GOTHIKA and the the surprise hit, SNAKES ON A PLANE - and while he wrote both, he did not Direct. Here with his latest release, RISE : BLOOD HUNTER, he takes on both duties. Honestly, I particularly thought GOTHIKA was awful in all aspects, while with SNAKES ON A PLANE, I loved it. - so would I end up liking RISE, as much as I enjoyed SNAKES? Well, the answer is that yes I liked it for the most part, but the film is flawed and a little less enjoyable. From the very beginning, one should be able to tell that this film was indeed shot for a theatrical release. The film has a look that is slick and gloomy, giving the film the dark overtones needed to properly accompany the film's gothic subject matter. I did like that this film plays out much like a comic book saga and has a familiar feel to it that we have grown to know from films like THE CROW and BLADE series. The film though moves at a slow pace and initially it works really well for the film as we get to know our main character, Sadie Blake's story in great detail. Yet something that works in the beginning, eventually begins to work against it as while watching it, I began to grow tired of the long drawn out story, that clocks in just over the 2 hour mark. Although I like the plot plot itself, to me it didn't feel like it's own individual story. While watching, I couldn't help but think of this film as a set up for a franchise of "BLOOD HUNTER" films, I don't know why but it just gave off that feeling, whether my notion be at all valid or not. I am unsure. I didn't have any problems with the acting(even with minor characters that consisted of Marilyn Manson as a Bartender and R and B Singer Nick Lachey as one of Bishop's thugs...to people you probably would've guessed to be in this film - although Marilyn Manson would be more likely. The star of the film Lucy Liu, delivers a rather strong and convincing performance as Sadie Blake our main character. I haven't seem her is such a role as this, where she has to play the "tough girl", but she does a convincing job of it. Michael Chiklis, perhaps best known for his role on the TV series THE SHIELD, and more recently as Ben "The Thing" Grimm in THE FANTASTIC 4 films, offers a decent counterpart to Liu's character, whom has problems of his own that, in the end relate and tie into the story of Sadie Blake. Overall, the acting by all is surprisingly good - making the film's over-long runtime a little less frustrating. To sum it up, to me, RISE : BLOOD HUNTER is a decent film with a great premise, but maybe tries a little to hard to be a film the magnitude of THE CROW or UNDERWORLD. Instead of feeling like a fast paced action thriller, it's 2 hour time frame feels more like a mini-series, and there is just not enough action to justify it. Would I be opposed to more films being made in this series?...Absolutely not, but I feel changes should be made.....My main complaint I have for this film, is that it ran a little too long for being a story that is not too complex from the start. |
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| GORE
METER 4/10 Not too gory, a few bloody attacks are found, some gunshots as well ass shots involving arrows.... that's about it. |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 4.5/10 The score is ok, it was of a gothic and atmospheric feel, it complemented the film, but nothing that really stood out. |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM Overall, RISE : BLOOD HUNTER has a great premise and story, and is enjoyable, but doesn't have enough of it's own originality, and unfortunately it drags on a little longer than we should welcome it. I recommend taking at least a look at it, however. |
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