Too much of everything

The greatest movie ever made..!

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

I have to admit that although I've had the DVD forever, simply based on the laurels of the beauty/acting accomplishments of David Bowie and Catherine Deneuve, and that nothing I had ever watched by Tony Scott, with the exception of 'Crimson Tide', really gripped me as being cinephilically exceptional. And no, this really isn't either. But I threw it on anyway, and especially considering it was Scott's debut, this wasn't so bad as to make Bram Stoker roll over in his grave. In fact, although perhaps a tad on the paper-thin plot side, it was quite enjoyable, an elegant and sad elegy of the pros and cons of immortality. Yes, it was more style than substance, yet that doesn't always have to be a bad thing. Here, at least, it wasn't, and I for one simply adored the ending.

The vampires in this directorial debut by the late Tony Scott are the kind of creatures to fear; relentless, fierce bloodsuckers who won't spare your life if you cross their path. There's a punk vibe to the characters and the environment surrounding them (thanks in no small part to the electronic sound effects used throughout the film).Leading the deadly duo is the lovey French beauty and actress Catherine Deneuve as the seductively manipulative Miriam Blaylock. Deneuve uses silence to her advantage as her character utters little dialogue, instead relying on subtle body language like menacing glares. When Miriam does speak, her voice is laced with silky smoothness thanks heavily to Deneuve's natural French accent. Her behavior is almost callous when she learns how quickly her companion, John Blaylock, is dying; even to refusing to save his life by claiming "I can't". However during the film's shocking finale, Miriam's actions from the past do come back to give her retribution for refusing to help all her former lovers.Playing the second female lead is the talented Susan Sarandon as scientist Sarah Roberts. She plays Sarah's naivety well as she is a rational woman, but when confronted with the rapidly dying John Blaylock her logic is soon thrown for a loop when she realizes John's tale of his fate comes true. There is a vulnerability always present in Sarandon throughout the film as her portrayal remains human to her final scene. The chemistry between her and Deneuve is electric as Miriam lures Sarah into her dangerous web.The final member of the triangle though he exits nearly halfway through the film is the charismatic late singer David Bowie as John Blaylock. Bowie makes the most of his limited screen-time in the only way Bowie could. He is silent, brooding, charming, yet lethal. The late singer-actor even learned to play cello for the music scenes and the haunting melody pulls you in and keeps you entranced. The makeup to age Bowie's John is remarkable as the actor is barely recognizable under the layers; even Bowie's trademark British accent is barely recognizable when he speaks an aged vampire (According to Bowie himself, he would go out onto the George Washington Bridge and scream out punk rock songs to make his voice hoarse for his later movie scenes). Sadly John Blaylock was a character who was underused and given little to do before he is quickly gone before the viewer's eyes, but he does leave an impression.The narrative is straightforward, but does little to develop the element of trying to save David Bowie's John Blaylock and seemed to rush forward to the relationship between Catherine Deneuve's Miriam and Susan Sarandon's Sarah. The atmosphere of the film is dark and brooding with a touch of the 1980s punk rock vibe in the background. The score is subtle and consists mostly of classical music (played by actors Catherine Deneuve (on piano) and David Bowie (on cello)) and electronic vibrations tossed in the background throughout the film's run time.This is worth a watch for any vampire movie fan.

Egyptian vampire lady Miriam Blaylock (Catherine Deneuve) is about to rid herself of her present lover John (David Bowie) like so many others before him. He is rapidly aging and falling apart. In desperation, he seeks the help of famous Dr. Sarah Roberts (Susan Sarandon) and her boyfriend Tom (Cliff De Young) who are researching rapid aging in primates.This movie is filled with good moody atmosphere and interesting style. However the story moves so slowly with Bowie trudging along as an old man. One could really fall asleep watching this. It is truly shocking that action director Tony Scott made this. Maybe he learned what not to do from this movie. But it does look good.

After developing a special formula, a scientist is invited by secretive vampires to help them with their plans and when their encounters make others curious, they eventually stumbles across their true and tries to save her before she becomes fully integrated into the society.There wasn't much right to this one. The main part to this one was the lesbian relationship having a lot to it. Besides being exposed to a lot of great nudity, there's also the really great scene it happens in. Taking place behind a big veil, it's a much classier and inevitably more romantic scene than the high-end sleaze it easily could've gone to. The strange part of that veil is that it comes into play on another really great scene, the funeral of the other vampire as the veil obscures it enough to tell what's going on but makes it still really impressive when combined with the unique lighting on display. Also among the best parts of the movie was the vampire's resurrection scene, which here is just really cool-looking. Along with its kills, these are the film's positives as this one had a couple problems to it that really hurt this one. The biggest issue with this is the nearly large portion of the film that doesn't have anything exciting happen. Frankly, nearly all of the beginning of the film is just incredibly dull, with almost nothing happening at all as it's mostly just a series of scenes depicting them doing nothing but talking back and forth over whether or not the drug even works at all or how they're going to get closer to her. This really loses its appeal after the first couple times witnessing these scenes over and over, which pretty much make up all of the first half of the film. The whole of these scenes are just ungodly dull due to the repetition of these scenes and it makes them all quite painful to get through. This is pretty much a slow-paced film to being with, taking a fairly long time doing nothing of real importance since the lethargic pace really takes a long toll. This is mostly prevalent for the film's last half when it deals with the relationship between the two as this is long, drawn-out and quite useless. The last part to lower this is the lack of blood and gore with this one is very dry and doesn't have very much that would give it more of a chance to bring in more since the opportunity is hardly ever there anyway. These here are what lower the film.Rated R: Nudity, Graphic Violence, several sex scenes and Language.