VAMPIRE HUNTER D- BLOODLUST is the sequel to the interesting anime about a vampire hunter who is part human/part vampire. He must always fight against his vampire side while he hunts down every single vampire he can find. He is hired to find a daughter of a rich family, but the twist is the daughter is in love with the vampire who has taken her away from her family. D also has rival vampire hunters to contend with that have the same job to bring the daughter back one way or another.

The video on the 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer is good, but the audio leaves a little to be desired.

The audio mix has the dialogue mixed too low and the music mixed too loud. The too loud music even invades the menu as one navigates it.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

There is a twenty minute Behind the Scenes featurette called Making Vampired Hunter D Bloodlust which features interviews with the Japanese and American crew members, you see some of the American voice actors recording their dialogue, and some footage from the recording of the music score.

Storyboard to Feature Comparsion allows you to flip back and forth between the finished scenes and the storyboard.

Theater trailers for the US, Japan, and Korea are included with the TV spots (for the US and Japan). Trailers for 13 other features available from Urban Vision Entertainment are also included on the DVD. Rounding out the special features is Fan's Favorite Picks which shows the 10 favorite scenes from the movie according to fans who voted on the internet, merchandise available for the movie, and weblinks.

DVD Screener Review: DEAD LIKE ME series premiere.

by David Blackwell

I had the fortuen to watch the pilot of this Showtime series, but it had left me with mixed feelings. The cocept of the show is great, but I hate the main character. The other cast members are more likeable than she is. She has this cold attitude about life until she decides she can't claima kid's life evn though it is the kid's time to die. george recently died due to a fragment of Mir falling on her and killing her. She has been offered the job to be a Grim Reaper. She works with other Grim Reapers to collect people's souls when they die. I would be interested in other episodes of the series if it gets better than the pilot which does drag in too many places.

The 73 minute pilot is presnted in 1.78:1 widescreen. The video is clean and crisp. the colors are good. The black levels are OK. The audio mix isn't that bad.  The music doesn't drown out the dialogue. The music isn't mixed too loud.

DEAD LIKE ME has me curious to see if the other episodes are better because the pilot doesn't have me convinced.

DVD quick review: SCORCHER

by David Blackwell

Skip this movie. Avoid at all costs!!! It is bad. There are even effects shots taken from two other movies (DANTE'S PEAK for example) and the CGI effects created for this movie are way below the quality of CGI seen on Babylon 5 for instance. The music is too loud on the audio track where the dialogue is too low sounding.

SCORCHER is about a crack miltary team sent to Los Angeles to blow up a nuclear bomb to prevent the sesmic plates from causing the world to burn to a cinder. You have John Rhys Davies as a scientist and Rutger Hauer as President of the United States. No way could they evacuate L.A. in 24 hours!

This movie is only for people who want to see L.A. destroyed by a nuclear explosion, but I don't know if anyone can sit through all of this bad movie.

DVD quick review: BEYOND RE-ANIMATOR.

by David Blackwell

This is the third film in the Re-Animator series. This time the sequel is filmed in Spain. Also it looks like the two American leads were the only ones who spoke their lines in English while the Spanish actors were dubbed later into English when the movie was in post-production.

The sequel starts with a kid's sister being killed by a re-animated corpse. The kid grows up to be a doctor interested in Dr. Herbert West's work. He becomes the new doctor for the prison where West has been imprisoned for the last 16 years. He requests theat West works with him in the prison infirmary, and soon both of them are continuing West's work. Things start to go wrong when they re-animate one of the dead inmates and when a female news reporter gets too interested in the inmate (and Dr.West). Things go wrong half way into the movie after the Doctor falls for the reporter and a prison riot happens among other things.

BEYOND RE-ANIMATOR is an enjoyable sequel, but it isn't as good as the first two movies. The ending leaves it open for a sequel. The movie relies more on humor than horror, and there is a funny bit during the end credits where a re-animated rat fights witha re-animated penis that has been bit off a re-animated body. the concept of extracting a certain type of enrgy to control the rage in re-animated bodies is a fascinating twist for the series.

The Making of Re-Animator is in English and Spanish, so remember to turn on the English subtitles. It is interesting to watch. There is also a commentary track for the movie by the director.

these reviews are (c)2004 David Blackwell and they can't be reprinted without prior permision.  Send all comments to lord_pragmagtic@hotmail.com   

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