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Friday, November 23, 2007

"Rise: Blood Hunter" review

Rise: Blood Hunter (2007)

Director: Sebastian Gutierrez
Writer: Sebastian Gutierrez

Lucy Liu... Sadie Blake
James D'Arcy... Bishop
Carla Gugino... Eve
Michael Chiklis... Clyde Rawlins
Cameron Richardson... Colette

Any movie that starts off with one of the hot girls from “Entourage” being hung naked upside down has got to be worth a little something. At the beginning of the movie, we’re introduced to Colette, (Cameron Richardson – or the girl in the coatroom with Vince), as she is getting picked up by Lucy Liu. Lucy takes her back to her pad and asks her to strip. Cameron takes off her bra and states that, “They’re real”. Then they segue into a kissing scene which inevitably ends in Cameron being hung naked by her ankles in the shower. Now this is how you start a B-movie.

Lucy Liu is the intrepid reporter out to do a story on Goth culture and why they’re so screwed up. This allows her to stumble into a B-movie story of murder, vampires and other blood sucking freaks. The vampires attack and Lucy is initiated against her will into the army of the undead. The rest of the movie has Lucy seeking revenge against her vampire masters with her trusty silver crossbow.

“Rise: Blood Hunter” has an interesting cast for such an obvious B-flick. Many familiar faces pop up in this one which only leads to one question: Why in the world are they in this movie? “Rise: Blood Hunter” may have had aspirations to be a theatrical release but the end product gets pretty garbled as scenes pop up out of nowhere and time shifts as the movie lurches back and forth. One minute Lucy Liu is dead in the morgue and the next she’s killing vampires with wild abandon.

Well, actually she doesn’t embrace her inner vampire and that’s the problem with this flick. Liu has mastered the art of being stoic but showing other emotions continues to elude her. “Rise: Blood Hunter” is lacking in spontaneous blood spilling fun. Liu should have gone over the edge with her new abilities but instead takes the morose, somber path to vampire slaughter. If she was a vampire already, why did she need a crossbow? Couldn’t she have easily ripped off their heads? The crossbow bloodshed was nonexistent and a big letdown.

But “Rise: Blood Hunter” does have some pleasing B-movie elements that may make it worth checking out. There are some good gore scenes along with a naked hanging “Entourage” girl. Actually there are two hot “Entourage” girls in this one but the girl who played Eric’s girlfriend, (Samaire Armstrong), does not get naked. She does shed some blood so it’s not a total loss. So if you’re in desperate need of another vampire hunter movie, it’s worth a look.

SCORE: 2.5 out of 4 Lucy vamps "Entourage" has all the best women. Rise: Entourage girl

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

lucy liu still drives me wild even though she`s pushing 40, when she was 18 she must`ve been incredible, (and yes, of course i`d like to bugger her, that goes without saying obviously), with regards to "Rise: blood hunter" its not one of the best vampire movies, but i still think it was eminently watchable, and lucy oh lucy i wish i could find a picture of her bending over naked pulling her arse open, i could spend the rest of my life jerking off to that !!!.

Dr. Gore said...

"Rise: Blood Hunter" certainly has its points. Actually I had to read my review to remind myself what they were. But Lucy Liu is always a pleasant sight to see. Not sure what the best Lucy Liu movie is but I always liked her in the "Charlie Angels" movies where her stoic sex appeal is on full display. There was a scene where they're dancing in a bar in "Full Throttle" that hit all the right buttons.

Anonymous said...

There is a June 1, 2008-dated IMDb comment by "rwdrex" (entitled, "Much Better Than Expected--Nice ‘Graphic Novel’ Type Genre Film") that was usefully perceptive in the film's aim to go beyond traditional cinematic vampirism: "The vampires are never referred to as vampires, it's simply called a 'condition'. Typical mythology like mirrors, immortality, drinking human blood, arrow through the heart, and 'daylight problems' still exist. But these creatures are not super human, their only true gift is immortality." This is being mentioned to address Dr. Gore's review's statement, "If she was a vampire already, why did she need a crossbow? Couldn’t she have easily ripped off their heads?" (The very mortal fight scene between the film's villain, "Bishop," and Chiklis' "Officer Rawlins" additionally illustrated that Bishop was not Dracula.)

Dr. Gore said...

Thanks for writing. And I take your point. However it is still a letdown when vampires (or humans with vampiric conditions) , use crossbows. I suppose I can see logically why she used them. But logic is not an element that is crucial to enjoying a B-movie.