Lost Boys: The Thirst

The cash grab that was The Lost Boys: The Tribe (2008) was never likely to set the world on fire but managed to deliver a watchable if a tad contrived bit of entertainment.

The Thirst follows on from the previous movie but this time Edgar Frog is our lead and we get the see the reuniting of the Frog Brothers for the first time since the original movie back in 1987.

This time our hero is recruited to save a woman's brother from the clutches of the vampire alpha who is peddling vamp blood as a new designer drug.

Much alike the previous film you'll find no surprises as this is justifiably straight to DVD stuff but it's a harmless enough vampire fix.

There was supposed to be a fourth movie featuring Corey Haim but after his passing in 2010 it brought into question its likelihood. Were now almost 8yrs later with no sign so this is likely Mr Frogs final outing.

The Good:

Corey Feldman

Great soundtrack

The Bad:

Hardly mind blowing stuff

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

They absolutely have to fit Cry Little Sister into these films wherever possible

Who's the boss? Well the Frogs are back in town ... or something like that. This ups the ante on the "humor". Which also makes it move farther away from the classic that was the first movie! Frog brothers .. are they funny or not? Depending on your view on that, you will like or hate the movie.

The twist at the end is as predictable as most if not all of the jokes. Humor is in the eye of the beholder though, so as said, this is up to you. Don't expect amazing though and don't compare this to the original either

In an interview after The Tribe Feldman said he had taken the criticism on board, and as producer he would address all of it. well, it seems he actually DID. Don't get me wrong, this is still a low budget badly acted DVD movie, but this time they've done a lot of stuff right. It is much better than The Tribe, but it does have some vital ingredients missing causing it to end up being similar in style to John carpenters vampires.

Many people will be pleased to know that there's no "XTREAM" "with it" "youtube generation" surfing vampires. The vampires here are properly updated for today, but unfortunately you don't get to see much of them, even in THE TRIBE we had a chance to meet some of the gang and they came across as mildly threatening, in this movie they pretty much keep to themselves.

Most of the plot revolves around Edgar Frog, his warped childlike obsession with vampire hunting, it occasionally brushes up on the emotional losses of Edgar's friends and there is also a bit of time used to unravel the twisted mess The Tribe left the series in. While the storyline has much more substance than the predecessor it still leaves a lot to be desired, many of the new additions are under written and could have been flesh out a bit more. They did at least try this time, there's a plot twist, which, due to casting was a bit disappointing and one which you can see coming as soon as we're given the pieces to put it together, I was happy to take any kind of plot twist over what the tribe gave us.

The highlight is Jamieson Newlander's extended Cameo as Alan frog, he has a small part but manages to steal the show and left me wanting much more. Don't expect this movie to be the reunion of the frog brothers; they don't go raiding the vampires den together or anything, all Newlander gets is three present day scenes, one newly filmed flashback and some flashbacks to the original movie.

Feldman seems to have slightly toned down his over the top performance, he still hams it up as Edgar, but this time the whole cast seem to be having fun, something lacking from The Tribe. Missing from both the lost boys sequels is any younger kids or teens, In the original movie the kids were written for comic relief, acting like brave men, being the accidental heroes and brave in the face of danger, here because there's no kids, a lot of the comedy is missing. It seems Lost kids don't become vampires anymore.

The movie manages to not take itself too seriously and does get a very small glimmer of an 80's campy movie feel in a few places, though not enough to compare with anything from the original. If you have sat through other Straight to DVD action / Horror movies, you pretty much know what to expect with the acting and pacing (or rather lack of).

To sum things up, The Thirst genuinely attempted to be a follow up rather than a low budget retelling, it's nothing spectacular but it's worth at least one watch.

If you go into this movie expecting something that directly compares to the original then you will be disappointed. It's not The Lost Boys as you remember and if you are looking for something comparable to the original in terms of story, atmosphere or style then you're unlikely to find what you're looking for in this film.

What we have instead is something that feels more like a spin-off rather than a direct sequel. Following the now grown up vampire hunter Edgar Frog (who you may remember from the first film as the young head band wearing vampire expert and comic store dweller that befriended and aided Sam and his family in the original Lost Boys) the film takes on a tone and style to match the lead character's somewhat over dramatic personality rather than attempting to directly imitate that of the original. It's cheesy, the acting is oh-so hammy and more often than not so over the top you're really not sure if it's intentional or not, but it fits the character of Edgar Frog and is about what I would have expected from a film with a comedic supporting character promoted to the lead.

Feldman plays the character of Edgar Frog as a more exaggerated version of the character we met in the original film, complete with a comical gruff voice and over-the-top tough guy persona - it's silly, but it fits and the scripting often plays to the inept hero quality of the character. The vamps are back and retain the characteristics and appearance of those in the original, but they lack the character, personality and depth of Sutherlands gang and instead simply serve as somewhat two dimensional bad guys - perhaps one of the biggest failings and disappointments of the film. The supporting characters are likewise cheesy and ham up their roles accordingly, some of the acting is downright terrible (Tanit Phoenix), but it's passable and even borders on amusingly bad at times.

On the whole, it's not a bad film (or perhaps it is.. but in the right way) nevertheless, it's bound to leave a bad taste in the mouth of anyone hoping for or expecting more of the original. As a sequel it's pretty poor, as a spin off it's really not too bad.

'LOST BOYS: THE THIRST': Two and a Half Stars (Out of Five)

Corey Feldman takes the lead for the first time in a 'LOST BOYS' film returning once again as Edgar Frog. Jamison Newlander reprises his role of Alan Frog for the first time in this third installment. It's not the 'Frog Brothers' reunion fans were hoping for though as Newlander's scenes are extremely limited. It is nice to see them back together in action again, for what little time they are on screen together though and that's the highlight of the movie. As far as the rest of the film goes it's definitely disappointing. I prefer the second film to this one, although it's not much better.

The film opens with a flashback of Alan Frog being turned into a vampire. If you saw the second film you know this, as well as the fact that Sam (the late Corey Haim) was turned as well and Edgar was forced to kill him. Edgar is now haunted by these painful losses as we see through several flashbacks, using clips from the classic original. He's also broke and being evicted from his trailer. So when a beautiful woman ( the gorgeous Tanit Phoenix) shows up at his door offering him a job to rescue her brother from a gang of ruthless vampires he eagerly takes it. He recruits the help of a comic book clerk (Casey B. Dolan) and reluctantly teams up with a reality TV star and his cameraman (Joe Vaz) and the group raids the vampires' den where they attempt to convert a rave party full of unsuspecting victims into vampires.

The movie is about what you'd expect from a direct to video sequel. The acting, dialog, and over all production values are a little weak. I'm a huge fan of the original film and I think it's still popular enough, and developed a big enough cult following, that they could have made a decent theatrical sequel. So it's extremely disappointing for me to see one sequel after another turned out (so far only two but they're could very well be more) in depreciating value. I guess you might say it's better than nothing and like I said seeing the 'Frog Brothers' reunite is pretty cool. This franchise could have been so much more though.

Watch our review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-KU7aWFnDI