Transilvania, mi amor

The movie had some little funny quips early on. It only got better. It was the humor that made this move. It also had some interesting twists on the usual vampire story.

What a nice surprise it was seeing this horror-comedy by director John Landis. Landis tells the story of a French female vampire, who does really not enjoy killing for food but must, rely on mobsters for her blood(making the killings look like mob hits afterwards). The story takes place in Pittsburgh, and the city never looked better on film. In fact, Landis has many marvelous shots of the city at night with snow falling in the background. It is a very stylish looking film. The primary story deals with the vampire(played with sex appeal by Anne Parrilaud) bite the throat of mob boss Robert Loggia only to be interrupted, escape, and find out that Loggia has turned into one of the undead on his way to create a legion of vampire mobsters. The premise is handled with care and works thanks to the direction of Landis, the good special effects, and the character acting in the film. Robert Logia, ever the versatile actor, does a wonderful job as this mob boss. Amongst his henchmen is lawyer Don Rickles in a well-played straight role. Anthony LaPaglia is the male lead and he is not a household name for a reason. He can't act! You have to love Landis for his love of the horror genre. In many scenes he has famous horror films playing on televisions in the background(Beast of 20,000 Fathoms and Dracula are two) as well as populates this film with genre cameos like Forry Ackerman, directors Sam Raimi and Dario Argento, Linea Quigley, muppet maestro Frank Oz, and Tom Savini. A well-made comedy horror film.

This underrated and under-appreciated horror comedy from John (AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN London) Landis has everything you could possibly want in a 90's vampire movie...good special effects, stylish direction, a top-notch cast, action, comedy, explosions, sight-gags, freefalls off of rooftops, shootouts, blood, gore, dismemberment, clever film references, gangsters, spoofy dialog, car crashes, sex, nudity and a slew of cameos (a trademark of the director). Seldom has a filmmaker gone all out to please genre fans, but Landis has done just that with this fun and entertaining film.

Slinky French beauty Anne Parillaud (of LA FEMME NIKITA fame) is Marie, a sexy vampire prowling the snowy streets of Pittsburgh. She only kills the scum of the city and controls vampire overpopulation by blowing the heads off her victims with a shotgun after feeding! When she becomes involved with a local gang of mobsters and accidentally turns mob moss Sal 'The Shark' Macelli (Robert Loggia, who's terrific) into a vampire, things get a bit out of hand. When Sal is bitten and escapes, he realizes the extent of his newly-acquired vampiric traits and sinks his teeth into his crime family members, creating a whole slew of nearly-unstoppable bloodsucking gangsters intent on taking over the entire city! It's up to Marie and cop Joe Gennaro (Anthony LaPaglia) to stop them.

Aside from the three appealing leads, Don Rickles contributes a great supporting performance as Sal's sleazy lawyer and there's fun to be had in playing spot-the-horror-celebrity. Look for Forry Ackerman, Dario Argento, Steve Johnson (who also did the make-up effects), Frank Oz, Linnea Quigley, Sam Raimi and Tom Savini. Plus, you can spot Peter Cushing, Alfred Hitchcock, Christopher Lee, Bela Lugosi and others on TV sets throughout the film.

This is a film made by horror fans FOR horror fans. Enjoy!

John Landis is not the type of director who goes for any deeper meaning in his films outside of the occasional well-staged car chase in heavy traffic; however, this time, working with Michael Wolk's first-rate screenplay, he excels in narrative as well as in visual form. An undercover cop in Pittsburgh, posing as a thief for the Mob, becomes attracted to the scintillating French woman who is hellbent on killing kingpin Robert Loggia (seems she's a bloodsucker by night--and forgot to "finish the food" the evening she put the bite on Loggia's Sal the Shark!). Not terribly bright, but full of puckish black humor and one exciting, masterfully staged sequence after another. And when things calm down a bit, as with the motel sequence between hot twosome Anne Parillaud and Anthony LaPaglia, Landis is adept at smoothly changing the movie's rhythm. It's an impressive, gory, foul-mouthed, yet adrenalized and satirical piece of work, Landis' best. *** from ****

Glossy horror / comedy about sexy vampire Marie (Anne Parillaud) who only kills those that should be dead. While feeding on a local mobster (Robert Loggia) she is disrupted and forced to leave before she can finish him off. He returns to life and sets up shop turning the members of his criminal family into vampires. Adding to Marie's problems is her relationship with a police officer (Anthony La Paglia) out to nab Loggia. Loggia is terrific in a dynamic performance. He steals the whole show. Parillaud has some rather sexy moments. And the film does a good job of balancing the comedy and horror.

Rated R; Nudity, Sexual Situations, Graphic Violence and Profanity.