Innocent Blood

This is not something I would typically enjoy, but it was recommended to me by someone I trust, so I watched it and was happily surprised. Citizen Kane it isn't, but we already have one of those and not everything has to be Great Cinema anyway. This is a very bloody (not my cup of tea, so to speak), very funny take on vampires and criminals. Good script, good performances, particularly from Parrilaud, Loggia and Don Rickles (!), playing a lawyers that even other lawyers would give a wide berth to in distaste. What happens to him is hilarious and proof that there can be justice, at least in films! Watch for the scene with the ambulance attendant and for the blonde nurse in the hospital. Check out the credits for some familiar names. Don't expect Art here, just sit back and have some fun. Recommended.

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.

See this movie just for the performances. Anne Parillaud gives one of the most sensual performances I've ever seen, no kidding, and her script is a work of genius. No red-blooded male will regret watching the movie for that alone. The gangsters are caricatures of course, but really good ones, Robert Loggia is pure entertainment, very similar to the main baddie from Spartacus: Gods of the Arena (for a recent comparison). Always classic Don Rickles is outstanding. In fact all the baddies here are brilliant. Also see Rocco Sisto from the Sopranos, among others. Angela Bassett from Gotham I think. I loved Elaine Kagan as well. The whole thing reminded me, of all things, the first Ghostbusters. I'm beginning to notice the style of big movies is often similar in the period 1980 to 1995. The whacky plot is straight out of a junior high school notebook pad, and kudos to Warner Bros for being brave enough to produce it. There is one scene that features effects as the lead is making love. Wow. That was classic. Brilliant ending. The whole thing is a corny, cringe-worthy, smiling, ridiculous, over-the-top, Bat-crazy jumble of silly effects, stunts, revolvers, comedy one-liners and absurd horror, and has my undying congratulations!

The story, actors and the limited special effect use all combine to make a great movie. Anne Parillard was perfect in her role as the French Vampire, Anthony LaPaglia is a great foil for Parillard. Robert Loggia as the Mafia Don almost stole the whole movie but the best character honors went to Don Rickles who played Loggia's legal mouth piece. The cinematography is first rate, the blending of the score and action is very smooth. Setting the time of the movie during Chrismas adds to the mix. I watch An American Werewolf in London then Innocent Blood followed by An American Werewolf in Paris every Holloween Eve. Holloween day I watch Dawn of the Dead and Day of Trifids. What can I say, I love horror movies.

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 ****