Movie Review: The Brave One

Long ago and what may seem far away to some, NYC was a very dangerous place. During the late 70’s and early 80’s New York City subways, streets, and neighborhoods during the day or at night, could get you robbed, raped or killed just as easily as not. Times have changed and the city is a bit safer, but if you don’t watch yourself, it still can happen.

The days of such dangers being just a walk into the subway away, are 0ver, but they spawned a whole revolution in urban crime fighting. The likes of the “Guardian Angels” and of course the case of “Bernie Goetz” showed just how fed up the populace had become to the crime rate and the poor police showing in resolving, never mind preventing these crimes. They were the times when the word “Vigilante” came to mean more to the common man.

I have lived in Manhattan and admit, there were a couple times when I thought “this is it, gonna get shot or stabbed” but, luckily for me it did not happen. Now post 9/11, New York seems, at least to me, to be a bit more friendly a place and certainly safer from the prospective of regular crime. Terrorism, well, that still is a heightened threat.

So it was that this film started and I thought, really, I just haven’t felt that unsafe in New York for a while. As the film progressed though, it became clear that Erica Bain had become the next generation to take on the mantle of “vigilante”, like that of Bernie Goetz or even Batman. She inadvertently became a statistic to some, but for her it was her life. A life that was shattered more than just body, but also psyche.

She simply became the personification of what everyone wronged in this way wishes they might be. Able to clear those demons by removing them from society when the police and the law could not.

The film plays on this feeling that we all cam empathize with and Jodi Foster plays it so tightly that you can genuinely feel the anguish over everything that has happened to her as well as what she has gone on to do to those, and those like them, that destroyed her life.

I hadn’t gone into this film thinking I would like it as much as I did. Of course now I am going to go to Manhattan again and feel that old edgy feeling that it gave me back in the 80’s…

If you get a chance, see the film.

CoB

Movie Review: Blood The Last Vampire

Not too often does an anime film transfer to live action well. In the case of “Blood The Last Vampire” they did a great job at carrying on the story as well as the action on film and I was pleasantly surprised.

The story follows Saya, a centuries old vampire hunter who wields a katana and slices vampire demons deftly. The story takes place in Japan during  the 70’s, an odd choice of time, but, I rather liked it.  In this time the vampires are gathering because the head demon has come to end the war and destroy Saya per a prophecy.

I won’t go into the story more for fear of giving too much away, but I will tell you this. This movie had some of the best katana fight scenes, even with CG, they did a fantastic job. The film even managed to get down with a whole Ninja vampire fight scene. While the CG also was at times, kind of cheap where the demons and blood were concerned, they still serviced the film well. Nothing in the CG will turn you off as much as some of those horrid Syfy films that they have been churning out.

If you are able, see the unedited copy, not the one from Chiller or Syfy. Its much better to have the original language in there instead of “darn” as well as some of the scenes are uncut as to gore and blood.

All in all, a nice take on the vampire mythos with a Japanese twist.

Check it out…

CoB