Vampiras

Plot

Two female vampires in modern-day New York City are faced with daunting romantic possibilities.

Cast

Alicia Silverstone and Kristen Ritter lead while Sigourney Weaver, Wallace Shawn, Malcolm McDowell and Dan Stevens support.

Verdict

I'd not heard of this at all which I was surprised about considering the cast. Did it bomb? It truly came out of nowhere for me and yes truly unconditionally isn't exactly my genre. For all intent and purpose this is Clueless, with vampires.

Camping it up to 11 Silverstone and Ritter are saved to a degree by a surprisingly decent supporting cast but doesn't take away from what it is and that's pure nonsense.

It tries to be a comedy but it's just not funny, later in the film it tries to be deep but rushes it badly and by this point with the dramatic tone shift I just couldn't find it in myself to care.

Not a bad film, just a fruitless silly one.

Rants

Am I the only one weirded out when Malcolm McDowell doesn't play a bad guy, I mean yes he was Vlad the Impaler here but he was presented as a good guy, a nice guy despite this unlikely fact. He's a bad guy, he looks positively evil and has been typecast ever since. Whenever he's a good guy it makes me uncomfortable, like I'm being gaslit and any second he's going to do something positively ghastly.

Breakdown

Solid cast Just not funny Attempts at being deep and emotional fail hard.

If your in the mood for something frothy, let me recommend this flick. Amy Heckerling tells a nice story, with sharp direction, candy colored set design, and some enviable fashions. It is a vampire movie with heart, but has some welcome nods to movies of horror's past. Alica Silverstone, is back! She is as cute and sweet, as ever, and has the air of timelessness, the role needed. Richard Lewis, does an amazing job, his best role in years. I kind of fell in love with his character. In interviews he seems like a scattered mess, but he was perfect in this role of an ACLU lawyer, who was the Silverstone character's love interest, many years ago. Krysten Ritter, just proves she is the girl to watch, I have yet to see her do any wrong. Matthew Crawley from Downton Abbey, is her love interest, a Van Helsing. And it makes for fun bit with his fam, headed by the wonderful, Wallace Shawn, wish this guy was in every movie. Great music. The sweet nerd from Revolution, plays a hipster Renfield, and Justin Kirk, plays a Russian vampire, sire (funny stuff). Perfect popcorn flick for girls of all ages.

Not a bad movie, some very witty and funny commentary on vampire lore. For me the best parts were the constant use of classic black and white movie and news footage and references to people and events of the past as I'm a huge fan of history and old movies. Also some very old songs from the first half of the 20th century. Great use of fashion with the contrasting styles of the 2 main characters as well. Some relevant rants, even more so now, about the due falls of progress and technology in particular. Not as funny or as dark as "What we do in the shadows". Mostly light hearted fun with a bit of heart , especially the ending.

Starting with the end, I felt refreshed and positive after watching this. Movies like that score at least 8/10.

This movie stands apart since most of the "Vamps" are unanimously endearing. I can think of a lot of movies that aren't like that.

Funny to say the least. Great laughs when I wasn't expecting it.

Almost extraterrestrial in some surprising ways, with a sustaining image reminiscent of a few sci-fi flicks.

Pokes fun at groups that could stand a few pokes.

Might be a harder sell for some in the "under 20" crowd.

Certainly under-rated at the time I wrote this when the IMDb was only 4.7. A solid 8/10 overall and consider the occasional "comic" budgeted CGI a positive.

I must say that "Vamps" was actually better than I had expected it to be. Sure, this is a chick flick, but still it was actually enjoyable.

Why? Well because of the cheesy and campy story, but also because it actually boasted some pretty impressive names to the cast list! And for a chick flick vampire romantic comedy it actually had some adequate special effects as well.

The story is about two ladies, Goody (played by Alicia Silverstone) and Stacy (played by Krysten Ritter) who are roommates and vampires! (Wouldn't a better term be coffinmates, then?) Living in New York, the two vampires have to deal with modern life and dating in the modern age. But something is threatening the vampire community, and can vampire find love in the Big Apple?

For a movie of this caliber, the story was actually fun and entertaining, despite being as campy and cheesy as it actually is. But what really made the movie work was the list of people credited to the cast; Alicia Silverstone, Krysten Ritter, Sigourney Weaver, Marilu Henner, Richard Lewis, Wallace Shawn and Malcolm McDowell.

Something did strike me kind of odd though. Why would Vlad Tepes be living in New York, that was just a bit too far fetched. And also since they stayed fairly true to vampire lore and mythology, how come the vampires cast shadows? How come when they cast no reflection, you could clearly see the reflections of Goody and Stacy in the restaurant window when they carried out the Chinese guy? Or how come Goody's gloves were off in one scene, then magically appeared on her hands in the next, only to be off again moments after during the dancing scene? And finally, during the hilarious nosebleed scene, how come the blood was down to almost touching the upper lip in one scene, then magically retraced and just under the nostril in the next?

Despite these visual mistakes, "Vamps" is actually a fair enough movie. But hand on heart, then I am sure that you'd enjoy this movie a whole lot more if you are a woman.