FILM REVIEW OF ''GHOST RIDER: SPIRIT OF VENGEANCE" (2012)

 Nicolas Cage reprises his role as the incendiary Marvel Comics character Johnny Blaze, an Evel Knievel-type motorcycle stunt rider who sold his soul to the Devil, in "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance." This impudent, 95-minute, PG-13 opus is a reboot of the franchise rather than a sequel. The original "Ghost Rider" (2007) was a standard issue supernatural hero origins epic. Alternately adventurous, amorous, and absurd, this lightweight, middle-of-the-road, action mash-up was as tame as it was tedious. When the Rider wasn't tangling with either Mephistopheles or his rebellious son Blackheart, director Mark Steven Johnson pitted the him against the local constabulary conducting a homicide investigation. The protagonist’s outlandish motorcycle stunts amounted to cheesy hokum. Further, "Ghost Rider" imitated at least two scenes from the infinitely superior "Terminator 2: Judgment Day": Blackheart's assault on a biker bar and the Rider's encounter with the cops. Nevertheless, fans wallowed in this conventional nonsense, and "Ghost Rider" coined a fortune. Peter Fonda made a momentary but memorable impression as a sartorially elegant Mephistopheles, but the Rider's face-off against Blackheart (Wes Bentley made-up like a 19th century minstrel singer) to rescue his girlfriend Roxanne Simpson yielded no surprises. "Crank" co-directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor along with “Blade” scenarist David S. Goyer have drastically altered the franchise. Gone is Johnny Blaze's girlfriend. Gone are Johnny’s two guilty pleasures: eating jelly beans and listening to the Carpenters. Gone is Johnny's playful paranoia about his supernatural alter-ego. "Ghost Rider" qualified as a Disney superhero movie without any grit. If the two movies were compared to motorcycles, “Ghost Rider” would be a quiet, graceful Honda Gold Wing and “Spirit of Vengeance” would be a noisy, skeletal Yamaha dirt bike. Moreover, the color of Ghost Rider’s skull depicts the tonal differences. In the original, the skull is white, but in the reboot black.

"Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance" (**1/2 out of ****) dispenses with Johnny's earlier ‘fear no evil’ credo. He dreads his lack of control over his combustible alter-ego. Indeed, he has fled in fear to Eastern Europe to lay low until he can come to grips with his condition. This doesn't discourage a wine-guzzling, motorcycle-riding, French monk, Moreau (Idris Elba of "Thor"), from tracking Johnny down and approaching him with a proposition. If Blaze will protect a helpless child from his malevolent father, Moreau assures him that his renegade order of monks will help him remove his curse. Moreau and his cassock-clad compatriots have Danny (Fergus Riordan of "Fragile") along with his attractive Gypsy mom, Nadya (Violante Placido of "The American"), hidden in their remote monastery. Basically, Danny is the spawn of the Devil. Moreau warns his father superior, Benedict (Anthony Head of “Scoop”), that Satan will stop at nothing to possess Danny. Basically, the Devil has taken the form of a human, Roarke (Ciarán Hinds of "Excalibur"), while he treads the Earth. Unfortunately, Satan’s power is waning because Roarke’s body is deteriorating. Satan needs Danny’s body for a ritual enacted at dawn before the Winter Solstice so he can rejuvenate his dominance. Interestingly, this child in jeopardy plot resembles a similar storyline in an earlier Cage movie “Drive Angry.”

Satan dispatches a thoroughly obnoxious hooligan, Ray Carrigan (leering Johnny Whitworth of "Limitless"), to get Nadya and Danny after they escape from the monastery. Meanwhile, Johnny discovers he has a psychic connection with Danny and sets off in hot pursuit. The Ghost Rider uses his deadly Penance Stare on some of Carrigan's men. When he isn’t looking, Carrigan blasts him with enough firepower to land an unconscious Johnny in a hospital. Predictably, not only does Johnny recover, but he also befriends Nadya, and the two elude the authorities. Eventually, Johnny and Nadya free Danny from Carrigan's clutches in a larger-than-life confrontation at a construction site. The Ghost Rider converts a gigantic crane into a blazing juggernaut to combat his enemies. Johnny kills Carrigan, but Satan refuses to let his lieutenant lay down on the job. Instead, Satan revives Carrigan and provides him with the diabolical power to rot anything he touches. The best joke shows Carrigan destroying everything for a snack but a Twinkie! Carrigan emerges with a mop of long white hair that makes him look like bluesman Johnny Winter. Indeed, Satan and Carrigan take Johnny Blaze to the mat before our hero receives help in the last quarter hour from the lad he is supposed to save.

Basically, "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance" qualifies as a darker, more sarcastic saga. Unlike the original, the reboot emphasizes Johnny's contagious ability to incinerate everything he handles. At one point, Danny asks Johnny what would occur he had to pee as the Rider, and we are treated to glimpse of the Rider performing figure eights with his urine. As clever as this visual gag is, it doesn’t match the Twinkie joke. Everything about the "Ghost Rider" reboot has fringe written on it rather than mainstream. Unlike the original, every character experiences a radical change. Johnny Blaze suffers like the Hulk. Carrigan changes from an ordinary hood to a supernatural ruffian. Even the Devil admits the pact he struck with Johnny was his worst. Neveldine and Taylor with their penchant for making R-rated movies were probably not the ideal directors for this PG-13 outing. Aside from emphasizing anarchy, Neveldine and Taylor streamline the action, eliminating superfluous love interests and law enforcement intrusions. They ramp up the violence with their guerrilla filmmaking style that makes everything look harrowing. The special effects are staggering. You can feel the heat of the Ghost Rider. Cage gives a better performance with a greater expressive range since his character evolves rather than remains static. Idris Elba is charismatic, while Johnny Whitworth is audaciously villainous. Christopher Lambert makes little impression as a tattooed monk, but it’s great to see him again. The post-production 3-D effect rarely enhances "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance" since nothing comes flying out at you during the fracas. Ultimately, this above-average reboot will aggravate anybody who wanted something more conventional along the lines of the original.

FILM REVIEW OF ''SAFE HOUSE" (2012)

Swedish director Daniel Espinosa’s predictable spy versus spy saga “Safe House” (**1/2 out of ****) resembles “The Bourne Identity” in several respects. The chief difference is Denzel Washington doesn’t play an amnesiac “Bourne” again hero. Instead, he is a rogue CIA agent at large who tops Langley’s most wanted list who remembers everything rotten about the Agency. Like the superb“Bourne” thrillers, this nimble actioneer concerns corrupt CIA superiors who want Denzel dead because he has damaging information about them. Mind you, this isn’t the first time the CIA has been depicted as crooked. Watergate era thrillers such as “Three Days of the Condor” and “Scorpio” deployed that plot back in the early 1970s. Of course, the Agency isn’t entirely corrupt, only some powerful individuals at the top. When freshman scribe David Guggenheim isn’t muddling up things with multiple layers of mystery, Espinosa does his best to captivate us with brief, brutal, and breathless combat scenes that rival the “Bourne” franchise. Lenser Oliver Wood enhances this violence with the same jittery camerawork that he used in the three “Bourne” movies. Three-fourths of “Safehouse” bristles with miscreants either shooting to kill or wielding their fists like cudgels. If you get in the way of these dastards, you die! Any movie where Denzel snaps a guy’s neck like celery and abandons his corpse in a toilet stall isn’t designed to market action hero figures. Indeed, nothing about either Denzel or the tenacious thugs blasting away at his heels is frivolous. “The Green Lantern’s” Ryan Reynolds co-stars as a character roughly similar to the one that actor Ethan Hawke played opposite Denzel in “Training Day.” “Safe House” emerges as one of those male mentoring melodramas where an older guy grooms a younger guy for the grimy world of espionage and corruption.

The Central Intelligence Agency has been trying to nab the elusive Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington of “American Gangster”) for nine years since he quit their ranks. When he shows up at a rendezvous with a shifty British Intelligence agent, Frost’s enemies miss him, but obliterate the MI6 man’s skull. A desperate Frost scrambles for the sanctuary of the American Consulate where the authorities immediately take him into custody. Meanwhile, Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds) is a naive, straight-arrow CIA operative itching for the opportunity to prove his mettle. Instead, Langley has relegated Matt to serve as a glorified custodian for one of their safe houses. Twelve months later Matt is still waiting impatiently for a posting as a field agent. Trouble is he lacks the experience that would make him eligible. Life in Cape Town, South Africa, where Matt is stationed as a ‘housekeeper’ bores him to tears. Despite friendly reassurances from his immediate superior David Barlow (Brendan Gleeson of “The General”), Matt feels like he is stuck in a dead-end assignment. When he isn’t supervising the CIA safe house, Matt cavorts with a gorgeous French gal, Ana (Nora Arnezeder of “Paris 36”), and fills her ears with lies about his work.

After CIA Deputy Director Harlan Whitford (Sam Sheppard of “Black Hawk Down”) learns about Frost’s capture, he transfers the treasonous Frost to Cape Town for safekeeping. Frost’s unexpected arrival at Matt’s safe house catches our hero by surprise. He watches with obvious misgivings as a group of ruthless CIA agents, led by Daniel Kiefer (Robert Patrick of “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”), subject Frost to some grueling water-board torture. As it turns out, Washington didn’t use a stand-in for the torture scenes. Anyway, Kiefer’s men get nowhere with Frost. Suddenly, another gang of gunmen burst in with guns blazing. They aren't in the mood to take prisoners. Things don’t look promising for Matt who is supposed to shield Frost. Frost reminds Matt that the killers want him alive, but they won’t display any charity toward Matt. Impulsively, Matt ushers Front at gun point from the safe house. The two men form an uneasy alliance as they struggle to stay one step ahead of adamant adversaries. Gradually, Matt learns what a CIA agent has to look forward to in his line of work. Frost plays along with Matt as they hide out from the gunmen. Gradually, the renegade agent lulls the rookie into a false sense of security before he catches him off guard. When they venture out into public, Frost alerts the police that Matt is armed and dangerous. The Cape Town cops seize Matt while Frost vanishes into thin air. Not surprisingly, Matt’s superiors in Washington react with rage. Not only does Whitford put Matt’s boss Barlow on a plane to South Africa, but he also has a snooty, suspicious associate, Catherine Linklater (Vera Farmiga of “The Departed”), accompany him. Catherine strongly suspects that Frost has turned Matt. When Matt calls Whitford to explain what happened, Whitford orders him to stand down. Nevertheless, Matt sets out to recapture Frost. Our hero isn’t prepared for what he learns about either Frost or his CIA honchos.

“Safe House” benefits from on-location lensing in Cape Town. Everything appears genuinely gritty and none of it looks familiar. This isn’t the kind of spy thriller that boasts exotic locations, desirable dames, and cool gadgets. Espinosa, Guggenheim, and Washington—who doubles as one of the executive producers—are gunning for realism, and they achieve it. The close quarters combat scenes will have you searching for bruises on yourself. Sadly, the surprises that occur throughout “Safe House” aren’t revelations, and the ending seems straight out of “Three Days of the Condor.” If you’ve seen "Hanna," "Red," "Salt,” "Knight and Day" or “Haywire,” you know what comes next at every turn. “Safe House” isn’t as good as some of Denzel’s earlier films, and he generates little sympathy with his martyred shades-of-gray character. Poor Vera Farmiga plays the most thankless role in the action, while Brendan Gleeson and Sam Sheppard turn in sturdy performances. On the other hand, Ryan Reynolds delivers the strongest performance and emerges as a contender. “Safe House” is best watched as a rental.

FILM REVIEW OF "NOSFERATU THE VAMPYRE" (GERMAN 1979)

“Fitzcarraldo” director Werner Herzog “Nosferatu the Vampyre” (**** out of ****) pays tribute to F.W. Murnau’s classic chiller, but this 107-minute, color masterpiece departs from the original in many respects. Essentially, the narrative doesn’t deviate drastically until the second half after Count Dracula bids the ruins of his castle farewell and travels by ship to Varna. Of course, the names have been changed since Herzog didn’t have to worry about the issue of copyright infringement. Although “Nosferatu the Vampyre” ranks as a brilliant film and a reverential remake, this German production creeps along at a gradual pace but the sets are for the most part genuine. Produced for under a million dollars, this atmospheric chiller doesn’t generate the degree of horror that the Hammer “Dracula” franchise or even the Universal franchise boasted. You are not going to lose any sleep watching this painstakingly recreated film. Marginal amounts of blood appear. Unlike the traditional Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee Dracula, the eponymous villain here is a hideous Dracula. He is bald, cadaverous, with long fingernails and two fangs at the front of his mouth. Mind you, Klaus Kinski delivers a spellbinding performance, but he doesn’t eclipse the portrait of evil the Max Schreck forged for the unforgettable 1922 silent film. Nevertheless, Kinski’s Dracula differs in more respects from the Schreck incarnation. Schreck epitomized unadulterated evil, while Kinski evokes a measure of sympathy. The Kinski vampire qualifies as a post-modern vampire because he emerges as a tragic figure. At one point in the subtitles of the German language version, the Kinski Dracula confides in the heroine that “Cruel is when you can’t die even if you want to die.” Like the Murnau original, vampires are susceptible to the damning rays of sunlight. Unlike the Schreck vampire, Kinski’s vampire doesn’t dissolve when the sunlight strikes him. He goes into convulsions and wallows around on the floor until Dr. Van Helsing takes a stake to him. Reminiscent of “Dracula’s Daughter, Van Helsing is arrested at fadeout for the murder of Dracula. The irony is that the plague that has infested Wismar in the form of rats has killed off all the police as well as prison officials so Van Helsing’s arrest is purely a matter of form instead of substance.

The major departures “Nosferatu the Vampyre” makes occur after Dracula leaves his castle. The scenes aboard the ship remain intact with the crew dying, but you don’t see anybody diving off the ship. Whereas Murnau showed several rats in his film, Herzog displays no restrain. He bought eleven-thousand white rats from a laboratory and painted them gray. According to Herzog on the Anchor Bay commentary track, the production company didn’t lose a single rodent, but the sight of the rats made a customs official faint. Furthermore, Herzog took elaborate precautions on the set to ensure that none of the rodents escaped. The co-commentator observed that Herzog also neutered the rats so that they couldn’t reproduce. Not since either version of “Willard” have so many rats appeared on camera. One striking scene involving the rodents occurs toward the end of the story. A group of plague-infected friends attempt to prolong their happiness by dining on one final meal before they die. They are surrounded by literally hundreds of rats. Murnau’s film cannot compete with the vast horde of rats that Herzog used. If the sight of rats is terrifying, you might have a problem with this film.

Bruno Ganz doesn’t play Jonathan Harker with the gusto that Gustav von Wangenheim imbued Hutter in the silent epic. Harker travels to the remote mountains of Transylvania on a mission similar to Hutter’s. Indeed, Renfield (Roland Topor) dispatches him with the same promise that he might lose some blood. Harker slices his thumb up while carving bread during his dinner and Count Dracula attacks him. Far away, Lucy Harker (Isabelle Adjani of “The Story of Adele H”) reacts to the vampire’s attack on her husband. Later, Harker watches as Dracula loads up coffins (more than Schreck loaded) and departs from the castle by a horse-drawn wagon. Interestingly enough, Ganz’s Harker has to walk on foot from the inn, where he rode by horse, to reach the rendezvous point with Count Dracula’s carriage. More importantly, Harker is bitten by Dracula, escapes from the castle, spends time in a church hospital but returns to Wismar. Unlike Hutter, Harker is slowly turning into a vampire.

At this point, the character of Lucy assumes greater significance than her counterpart in the Murnau film. Isabelle Adjani’s Lucy is a real combatant. She has a scene in her bedroom where she confronts Dracula and spurns him. Of course, she is wearing a crucifix, but she makes it blatantly clear that she wants nothing to do with him. She claims that she is prepared to spurn the Lord, too. After Harker returns but fails to recognize her, Lucy dredges up the book of vampires from his belongings and reads about the fiends. She approaches Dr. Van Helsing, but he dismisses her warnings about the real plague in the town. When Mina (Martje Grohmann) dies, the town officials say that she died from the plague. Herzog doesn’t have a drum-beating official reading a warning to the town. Instead, he shows black-clad, top-hatted officials carrying coffins on their shoulders by the dozens. Anyway, Lucy exemplifies female empowerment. She crumbles up sacred crackers to keep her husband at bay and seduces the unwitting Dracula so that he will sup from her neck and forget the dawn that destroys him.

Herzog doesn’t rely on any special effects in his version of “Dracula.” All the effects were produced in camera. The scene when Dracula entered Lucy’s bedroom while she stared in the mirror and watched the door swing open and a shadow appear is an example. Indeed, Herzog made the most of his budget. This period piece is steeped in atmosphere. “Nosferatu the Vampyre” isn’t a scary movie. It amounts to more of a literary exercise. The environment creates a genuine sense of dread as does Herzog’s use of the original music by Popol Vuh. Herzog does some amazing things with his camera and he doesn’t rely on the usual snap editing so that “Nosferatu the Vampyre” is a film of remarkable cohesion.

FILM REVIEW OF "RED TAILS" (2012)

Anybody who has seen enough World War II movies knows that Hollywood has to resort to elaborate artifice to conjure up equipment which no longer exists in vast quantities. Each year attrition depletes the number of Allied planes, tanks, and war ships used in combat. Worse, most of the Axis equipment has been destroyed. The Spanish Air Force furnished the filmmakers of “Battle of Britain” (1969) with scores of vintage Nazi-era aircraft. Most moviemakers aren’t that fortunate. Now, every time that you see a World War II relic fly, you wonder if they haven’t matted in additional models, or relied entirely on miniatures. Virtually no World War II movie since the 1950s has used a Sherman tank. They rely on either the Pentagon for Cold War era equipment or mock up something that resembles a Sherman.

Freshman director Anthony Hemingway’s aerial epic “Red Tails” (** out of ****) qualifies more as a showcase for the digital computer generated imagery which can forge greater authenticity than a salute to the famous Tuskegee Airmen of the 332nd Fighter Group. This is the kind of movie that gives history a bad name. Clocking in at a torturous 125 minutes, “Red Tails” shows flair when it’s in the air but crashes and burns on the ground. The biggest stars in its gallery—Terence Howard and Cuba Gooding, Jr.,--ride desks, while a flock of relative newcomers wing it. Of course, any movie that involves historical racism in our enlightened era has to fly in circles. For the record, “Three Kings” scenarist John Ridley and “The Boondocks” scribe Aaron McGruder deploy the dreaded N-word once and then fall back on clichés as creaky as a period World War II combat actioneer. Worse, they make the Tuskegee Airmen behave like stock characters. Occasionally, Hemingway and his writers go off on tangents which weren’t necessary, such as a “Great Escape” subplot. Indeed, most of what happens here is a predictable as any second-rate war film. Essentially, “Red Tails” is “Gettysburg” with wings. Nevertheless, whenever they show the aircraft and the settings, you have to admire the extraordinary CGI that producer George Lucas’ special effects outfit, Industrial Light and Magic, has wrought. Now, if they’d only made the melodrama look as genuine as the aircraft and other equipment. Mind you, the train that gets blown up looks terrific!

“Red Tails” opens in Italy in 1944 as the black aviators, who prefer to be called ‘Negros’ rather than ‘coloreds,’ are flying antiquated P-40 Tomahawks on behind the lines missions. The Pentagon doesn’t believe that African-Americans are courageous enough for the task at hand. In fact, the film quotes a racist excerpt from 1925 Army War College study that said blacks were not brainy enough, ambitious enough, or audacious enough to survive in combat. Consequently, our heroes fly custodial missions, literally mopping up what the Army has bypassed on the way to the front. If these guys are lucky, they get to shoot up a Nazi truck, and these fellows are itching to see some real action. Indeed, one of the pilots, reckless Lieutenant Joe 'Lightning' Little (David Oyelowo of “The Help”), disobeys his squadron leader, Captain Marty 'Easy' Julian (Nate Parker of “Pride”), when they strafe a Nazi transport train. Everybody else swoops in from the rear and riddles the train while the Germans gunners unleash a barrage of flak. Miraculously, nobody is wounded. Lightning decides to attack the train from the front, however, before it can enter the safety of a tunnel, and he blasts it to hell and gone. Watching the locomotive and freight cars buckle and explode makes you think that “Red Tails” is going to be a fiery ride.

Unfortunately, nothing really happens until the second hour when the Tuskegee Airmen join the fighting over Northern Europe. Interestingly enough, it seems that the white American fighter pilots who fly escort for the B-17 bombers on raids have a tendency to abandon them when they spot German fighters. What the American fighter pilots fail to recognize is the wily Germans are luring them off when the bulk of their fighters shoot the bombers to ribbons. USAAF Major General Luntz (Gerald McRaney of CBS-TV’s “Simon & Simon”) asks Colonel A.J. Bullard (Terence Howard of “Iron Man”) about using his men to fly escort. Primarily, Luntz wants them to protect his heavy bombers rather than leave them in an aerial lurch. When Luntz promises that he will put the Tuskegee Airmen into brand, spanking-new P-51 Mustangs, Bullard takes him up on it. Initially, the white American bomber pilots don’t have much faith when they see their first black pilot fly alongside them. Things change drastically when the Tuskegee guys stick to them and thwart the Germans.

Sadly, “Red Tails” seems designed for kids rather than armchair historians who have cut their teeth on History Channel documentaries. The subplots about an African-American pilot who wines and dines an Italian babe, while another struggles with his alcoholism are the embarrassing fluff of a soap opera. Mind you, these are dullest bunch of guys in uniform that you’ve ever seen. Not one single character stands out, and the Tuskegee Airmen were pretty outstanding individuals. Despite its glossy $58 million budget, “Red Tails” doesn’t muster the dramatic clout of the Golden Globe-nominated HBO made-for-cable movie “The Tuskegee Airman” (1995) with Laurence Fishburne and Cuba Gooding, Jr. Moreover, Terence Blanchard’s orchestral theme music keeps everything in snooze control for the duration. Not only the Tuskegee Airmen but also the audiences deserve best than “Red Tails” delivers.

FILM REVIEW OF ''BLADE" (1998)

Actor-producer Wesley Snipes may have finally found himself an action movie franchise that he can sink his teeth into with British director Stephen Norrington's "Blade," (***1/2 out of ****)a well-made, imaginative, adrenaline-laced vampire chiller based on the Marvel Comics' super hero. Snipes heads a first-rate cast that includes Kris Kristofferson, Stephen Dorff, N' Bushe Wright, Udo Kier, and Traci Lords. "Blade" synthesizes the exotic swordplay of the "Highlander" epics, the double-digit body count of a John Woo thriller, and the martial arts pandemonium of a Jackie Chan opus to spawn a horror movie several cuts above your ordinary vampire fare.

If the sight of blood, especially torrents of bogus blood, turns your stomach, avoid "Blade." "Blade" takes its cues from renegade vampire sags like Robert Rodriguez's "From Dusk Till Dawn" (1996) and Kathryn Bigelow's "Near Dark" (1987) rather than those venerable classics such as either Tod Browning's "Dracula" (1931) with Bela Lugosi or Neil Jordan's "Interview with a Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles" with Tom Cruise (1994). The Snipes hero must have chose the same guy who tailored "Mad Max" and "The Terminator" in what essentially constitutes an apocalyptic version of Fran Rubel Kuzui's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (1992). "Blade" qualifies as a tour-de-fang chiller with darker humor than "Buffy," top drawer special effects, and an infectious techno-pop soundtrack. Lowbrow escapism that it ranks as, "Blade" benefits chiefly from scenarist David S. Goyer's solid, seasoned writing skills and atmospheric, innovative helming by sophomore director Stephen Norrington.

Scenarist David S. Goyer provides an invigorating screenplay. "Blade" bristles not only with lively action and adventure, but also an intelligible plot that the characters go to extreme lengths of describe and discuss. When you consider that Goyer has penned scripts for "Dark City," "The Crow 2: City of Angels," "Robert Heinlein's The Puppet Masters," "Demonic Toys," and "Kickboxer 2," then you know he qualified as the ideal choice to pen the script. Goyer's revenge fantasy script never leaves you in the dark about a bloody new world where its embattled but immortal hero Blade wages a perennial war against vampires. Goyer shows impressive flexibility in co-opting vampire mythology. At one point, a half-blooded vampire smears on sun screen lotion to shield himself from the sun. Jealous vampires put one of their vampire enemies to death by gradually exposing him to sunlight at dawn. Meanwhile, our hero uses an ultra-violet light to singe unruly fangsters. About the only vampire trait neglected by Goyer is the ability to shape-shift into a bat.

A vampire infected our protagonist's pregnant mom, Vanessa Brooke (Sanaa Lathan of "Love & Basketball") with its venomous blood while she was carrying Blade in her womb. Delivered by Caesarean section from his dying mother, Blade emerges as neither totally human nor truly vampire. He can walk in sunlight without risk, and neither silver nor garlic can faze him. One villainous vampire admires Blade when he observes that Blade has "all of our strengths and none of our weaknesses." The filmmakers milk dramatic tension from Blade's growing tolerance to Whistler's (Kris Kristofferson of "Convoy") anti-venom serum. The chance that Blade may not revert to his vampire origins not only lurks in the background but also enhances the suspense. This element of uncertainty generates anxiety and endows the protagonist with an Achilles' heel that makes him seem more believable and charismatic. Blade cruises around in a 1968 Dodge Charger that looks very cool despite its late model make.

Legendary vampire hunter Abraham Whistler (a grouchy Kris Kristofferson with a gimpy leg) found Blade as a juvenile roaming the streets and living off the blood of derelicts. Transforming Blade into a super hero with injections of a blood substitute, he serves as Blade's stepfather and ordnance maker. Surprisingly, Whistler lasts longer than most sacrificial characters. Loosely modeled on the Roman god Vulcan who forged weapons for the deities, Whistler trains Blade to slay vampires with extreme prejudice. Blade approaches his crusade with the enthusiasm that Charles Bronson mustered for killing muggers in the quintet of "Death Wish" movies. Not surprisingly, more than enough vampires survive from other parts of the world for Blade to combat in the sequels. Wow, does "Blade" ever leave itself wide open in its wrap-up in Russia for a sequel! Anyhow, the vampires in "Blade" are not tooth fairies. Organized into a powerful, global underground syndicate, Dragonetti (Udo Kier) presides over them as a Corleonesque godfather. The scene in the shadowy conference room with vampires dressed in suits is effectively creepy. Kier's Dragonetti is a pure-blooded fangster in a world of full and half-blooded vampires.

In "Blade," the cities of the world have been practically undermined by vampires. Vampires have gained leverage in the business and politician arenas. These vampires own the police so they control the law. As the snotty, upstart Deacon Frost, actor Stephen Dorff plays the half-breed vampire who Dragonetti turned. Frost harbors greater ambitions than Dragonetti. The elder vampire prefers to co-exist with mortals and abide by their treaties. Frost demands that the vampires dominate humanity. Secretly, Frost has been translating the ancient vampire text, The Book of Erebus, which will enable him to resurrect vampire blood god La Magra. Frost wants to revive this demon, but he needs the missing link: Blade's blood. Frost calls Blade "day-walker," because the vampire bible has prophesied Blade's unique genetic make-up. If he can revive this blood god, Frost can control the House of Erebus that rules the undead, and vampires can emerge as the dominant force in the world. The splashy finale in a phantasmagoric vampire temple with skeletons bursting out of the mouths of vampires in a storm of jagged lightning bolts owes a little to "The Fifth Element" as well as "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad" (1958), but this scene is fully and logically integrated in Goyer's script.

Sure, "Blade" amounts to nothing more than bloody pulp fiction. Nevertheless, Goyer and Norrington have reinvented vampire thrillers. "Blade" is entertaining, somewhat cheesy, but technically proficient hokum done with considerable technical prowess. Congratulations Stan Lee!

FILM REVIEW OF ''THE DEVIL INSIDE" (2012)

The horror chiller "The Devil Inside" (O out of ****) gives movies about exorcism a bad name. Face it, William Friedkin's "The Exorcist" (1973) still ranks as the best exorcist movie of all time. Nothing made since then can match the impact of this landmark movie, least of all its lackluster sequels. Nevertheless, Hollywood continues to crank out new movies about exorcism as if time had eroded the demonic fury of "The Exorcist.” Warner Brothers did the next best thing; in 2000, they re-released Friedkin's frightening film in a revamped version that performed startlingly well at the box office. Lately, the studios have conjured up three exorcism movies. Sir Anthony Hopkins starred in the respectable hair-raiser "The Rite" back in the spring of 2011. Sadly, "The Rite" bore a PG-13 rating so it possessed little bite. The low-budget, Louisiana-set, yell-bent yarn "The Last Exorcism" preceded "The Rite" by several months, but it furnished more irony than chills. Now, Paramount Pictures has released writer & director William Brent Bell's micro-budget "The Devil Inside," another misguided entry in the pseudo-documentary, ‘found footage’ genre. Like “The Blair Witch Project,” “Cloverfield,” and the “Paranormal Activity” trilogy, "The Devil Inside" sets out to enhance its simulated verisimilitude by featuring a character who documents the action on video. Neither “The Blair Witch Project” nor “Cloverfield” exploited this approach with any success. Moreover, none of the subtlety and artistry which exemplified the "Paranormal Activity" epics augments this abrupt 87-minute gobbledygook. Worse, "The Devil Inside" regales us with lukewarm exorcism scenes and lackluster performances. You know an exorcism movie is in trouble when a barking dog provides its scariest moment.

Attractive Isabella Rossi (Brazilian-born actress Fernanda Andrade of "Why Am I Doing This?") is the daughter of Maria Rossi (Suzan Crowley of "Wild about Harry”) who went berserk back in 1989. "The Devil Inside" opens with Maria's cryptic phone conversation with a 911 operator and her confession that she killed two priests and a nun during an exorcism at her house. Afterward, we're treated to a behind-the-scenes peep at the gory crime scene; detectives wander through the blood-splattered residence in confidential footage mocked up to resemble grainy, decades old VHS tape. Ultimately, the court rules Maria is guilty by reason of insanity when she slew the three people. Eventually, Maria winds up heavily sedated in Rome, Italy, at the Centrino Hospital for the Criminally Insane. Director William Brent Bell fast-forwards to December 2009. A grown-up Isabella, who was only a child when her mother slaughtered the Catholics, hires documentary filmmaker Michael Schaefer (Ionut Grama of "The Whistleblower") to chronicle her mom's case. Basically, she wants to learn whether her mom is possessed by a demon or is mentally ill. Furthermore, she wants to convince herself that whatever happened to mom won’t happen to her. In other words, does demon possession or mental illness run in her family?

Isabella and Michael fly to Rome to visit Maria. While she is in the Eternal City, Isabella sits in on an exorcism lecture at a Catholic school. Afterward, she meets a couple of clerics, Father Ben Rawlings (Simon Quarterman of "The Scorpion King: Rise of a Warrior") and Father David Keane (Evan Helmuth of "Fever Pitch"), who are pretty liberal minded about exorcisms. If the Church refuses to countenance an exorcism, then this dynamic duo deliver the demons on the sly without the church’s blessing. Isabella wants to know more about exorcisms, and she is prepared to get a Ph.D. in demon possession. However, Rawlings advises Isabella to forgo any more exorcist classes. Instead, he invites her to witness an exorcist with David and him. Isabella's first exorcism occurs in the basement of a house in Rome. Rawlings and Keane use modern-day gadgets to support them. They outfit their patients with a heart monitor and photograph the size of the patient’s pupils to determine their actual condition. The young Italian girl, Rosa (Bonnie Morgan of “Piranha”), who they exorcise spews some profanity and has her period. At one point, she breaks her bonds and scuttles up a wall like a roach, but the priests cast out her demon. Isabella is now prepared to meet her mom.

Maria surprises Isabella when she reminds her daughter that an abortion she consented to years before won't put her in God's good graces. Naturally, Isabella is appalled by this revelation from somebody who hasn't seen her in twenty years. Later, the Fathers attach Maria to their gadgets, and she surprises them. Not only does she utter epithets in several tongues, but she also clobbers Father Rawlings and sends him flying across the room. Nothing that either Isabella or the Fathers discover about Maria convinces the Vatican to review Maria's case. As it turns out, the Vatican has long since washed its hands of Maria. This surprises our protagonists despite the fact that Maria killed three ordained exorcists back in 1989. Meantime, Father Keane experiences feelings of paranoia, and he has good reason. The devil inside Maria has taken residence up in him! Keane almost drowns an infant during a baptism. Later, he relieves a Roman cop of his firearm and finishes himself off. Of course, Michael is speechless. Unfortunately, this all this creates chaos of another kind which is more calculated to make you cackle rather than cringe.

"The Devil Inside" isn’t as scary as “The Exorcist.” The closest Bell's film comes to scary is creepy. Ultimately, however, creepy degenerates into campy. Nothing in this pedestrian horror movie will make you sleep with the lights on all night. The disclaimer at the outset that "the Vatican does not endorse this movie” shouldn’t surprise anybody. Worse, Bell and co-producer Michael Peterman wrap up everything far too quickly with an abrupt ending that sabotages any sense of closure. The last shot contains a website address (www.TheRossiFiles.com.)where all the answers are presumably available. Mind you, this is a terrible way to conclude a movie, but then “The Devil Inside” isn’t worth a Hail Mary.

FILM REVIEW OF ''THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO" (2011)

If you saw both versions of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” side by side, you could spot the differences between the 2009 Swedish original and the 2011 American remake. Nevertheless, the revelations in the other won’t be as surprising. “Fight Club” director David Fincher brings his obsession with serial killers with him to this top-drawer adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s international bestseller. Fincher scored his first major cinematic success with the Brad Pitt & Morgan Freeman crime mystery “Se7en” (1995) about a cunning serial killer, and he explored similar subject matter in “Zodiac” (2007) a film about the real-life murders in San Francisco which spawned Clint Eastwood’s “Dirty Harry” franchise. Considering that the gritty subject matter of Larsson’s novel concerns a man who rapes and then murders women, the pairing of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” (**** out of ****) and Fincher seems ideal. Oscar winning “Schindler's List” scenarist Steven Zaillian, who received Oscar nods for “Awakenings” as well as “Gangs of New York,” brings his formidable skills to bear as the sole scribe. Indeed, little is amiss in the Fincher & Zaillian retread, except cat lovers probably won’t appreciate the headless feline that winds up on our hero’s door step. The cat was conspicuous by its absence in the Swedish version. Perhaps the biggest difference between the two films is the casting of Lisbeth Salander. Noomi Rapace registered brilliantly as the eponymous heroine in the original, but newcomer Rooney Mara is no slouch. Mara wears insanity as persuasively as her black, boot-polish Goth make-up and her punk rock coiffures. Any preference you have may boil down to your choice between either Ms. Rapace or Ms. Mara. Each deliver chilling performances, and the Lisbeth Salander character qualifies as a biggest milestone in the depiction of women in film since the female assassin in the 1990 French action yarn “La Femme Nikita.”

Aging Swedish business magnate Henrik Vanger (Christopher Plummer of “The Sound of Music”) fears that he has few years left. The mysterious disappearance of his niece Harriet is the one thing which has haunted him for 4o years. She vanished without a trace one day at a family reunion. Neither the authorities nor Henrik were ever able to find her. To add insult to injury, Henrik has received a framed picture of a flower annually on each birthday. Harriet gave him the first flower, but lately Henrik suspects that all subsequent flowers since she disappeared have been sent by Harriet’s killer. Henrik feels like he is being ridiculed and he has suffered from this torment long enough. He hires an illustrious Swedish political journalist who writes for the magazine “Millennium.” A reluctant Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig of “Casino Royale”) accepts Vanger’s job offer since he has just lost a highly publicized libel suit against a notorious Swedish billionaire investment banker, Hans-Erik Wennerström (Ulf Friberg of “Exit”), and the court settlement has wiped out his savings.

Henrik commissions Blomkvist to write his memoirs in part because he abhors the corrupt Wennerström. Moreover, he possesses files on Wennerström which will damage the billionaire’s reputation and he promises to give them to Blomkvist after he completes his assignment. What Blomkvist doesn’t know is that Henrik’s attorney, Dirch Frode (Steven Berkoff of “Octopussy”), has employed Milton Security to conduct a background check on Blomkvist. The individual who does the background check is a 23-year old girl, Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara of “Youth in Revolt”), and she leaves no stone unturned in her thorough investigation. Once Henrik hires Blomkvist, he explains that his family is pretty hideous bunch. Two of his brothers joined the Nazi Party in Sweden during World War II. Some don’t talk to each other even though they live in houses on an island linked to the mainland by a single bridge. Furthermore, Henrik suspects that one of them may have murdered poor Harriet. Henrik installs Blomkvist in a nearby cottage and provides him with every shred of evidence that the police relied on during their investigation of Harriet’s disappearance.

Later, things go awry when Henrik suffers a heart attack, and everybody but Frode expects him to die. At the hospital, some of Henrik’s relatives demand that Blomkvist be dismissed, but Martin Vanger (Stellan Skarsgård of “Thor”) convinces the family to allow Blomkvist to complete Henrik’s chronicle. Meantime, Lisbeth encounters her own woes when her guardian suffers a stroke, and the state replaces him. Lisbeth, it seems, has a life filled with tragedy. We learn that she burned her abusive father over eighty per cent of his body because he beat her mother without mercy. Since her assault on her father, Lisbeth has been in trouble and is now a ward of the state. The state transfers Lisbeth over to the villainous Bjurman (Yorick van Wageningen of “Soul Assassin”)who shows little sympathy to Lisbeth. He humiliates her with questions about her private life. Basically, they get off on the wrong foot, but Lisbeth manages to bring the evil Bjurman around to her way of thinking as suffering abuse at his hands. These scenes are the reason that "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" carries an R-rating for explicit sexuality.

Eventually, Blomkvist finds the mystery so overwhelming that he asks Frode for an assistant and Frode recommends Lisbeth. Together, they struggle to not only find clues but also to interpret those clues correctly. While Blomkvist interviews the Vanger family, Lisbeth performs the leg work. She turns out to be a genuis with computers, brazenly hacking into anybody's account to obtain information.

If anything differentiates the two films, the casting disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist does. Stockholm born actor Michael Nyqvist appears more believable in the original, but English born actor Daniel Craig holds his own in the remake. Actually, were it not for radical, off-beat character of Lisbeth, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” would amount to little more than a complex European whodunit set in a scenic, snow-swept wonderland. In fact, it is Lisbeth who gives the film its lurid but gripping quality. She assumes a role of greater significance in the Swedish sequels and probably will in the American sequels. She emerges as a female Rambo with a no-nonsense attitude. If she were a cat, she would claw more often than purr. Although “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” clocks in at a lengthy 158 minutes, director David Fincher doesn’t squander a second. He knows the right moment to cut away from one scene to another to heighten suspense. Furthermore, despite the graphic crime scene photos and the misogyny, Fincher is careful enough to never rub our noses in it.