Underworld
(Columbia Tri Star Region 1 DVD)
(2003)
review by Billion$Baby

Especially if you're a heterosexual man or lesbian. Ya see, it features the very attractive Kate Beckinsale in tight and shiny black clothing throughout. Yum. In fact, her costume is so tight, I'm amazed that she can walk around!

The plot is apparently stolen from role playing games but since I have always hated role playing games (and those sad little geeks who'd play them for hours in the back rooms of comics shops), I wouldn't have noticed if it hadn't actually been pointed out to me. Beckinsale plays a "death-dealer" vampire engaging in a violent war with the werewolves known as "lycans." It's a bit hard to imagine Beckinsale as a tough character but since she's a vampire, I suppose her slim bod has hidden powers.

What makes this film so much fun is just the sheer spectacle of the whole thing, the film is massively watchable and more likely to recieve repeated viewings than many of my more serious films. It's almost non-stop action all the way here, and it looks great. Len Wiseman's gothic actioner has beautiful sets, nice muted grey and blue colours and some very nice looking photography indeed. Filmed in Hungary to get as much bang for his buck as possible, Wiseman's film uses it's 23 million dollar budget to the full. And the Hungarian locations add greatly to the gothic look and feel.

Remember how Cat from Red Dwarf turned up in Blade II? Amusingly, here we also have another British comedy actor appearance - the con-man from Desmonds! Funto see him though, as it also was to see a pleasing mix of American and British actors. The film also stars Bill Nighy as a vampire overlord (yes, reputed
possible 9th Doctor Who for 2005 Bill Nighy) who appears in various guises as his dried up husk of a body is resurrected and regenerates into a normal "healthy" vampire.

The make-up effects are very good! In fact, if you're a werewolf fan, this movie is probably an essential buy for ya. Pleasingly Wiseman uses his computer effects very wisely, only utilising them to enhance the stunts and effects rather than naively letting Hal 9000 take over the entire proceedings. Vampire fans might feel a bit let down though. Other than in the case of Beckinsale and Nighy, the vampires don't seem too far removed from us. Albeit very pale versions of us!

There's not much more you can say about a style over substance film like this, other than leave your pretensions at the door and have a blast whilst watching. Don't forget that whilst art in cinema is all very well, the main purpose of a film is to entertain the viewer. And this no-brainer entertains in spades,i t is never boring!

I was surprised to hear that two sequels had been confirmed off the back of this feature but having enjoyed this film on dvd a great deal more than on the bootleg I saw a while back, I'll be very interested to see what Wiseman can provide with further possibly more generously budgeted outings of this comic book action world.

Quite rightly, Underworld recieves a fab looking anamorphic print for it's full widescreen ratio and a very enjoyable 5.1 surround track. This special edition offers over 45 mins of entertaining and amusing featurettes which offer fascinating insights on the werewolf effects and stunts in particular. Together with two commentary tracks (writers and director, and technical), a music video, trailers, and storyboard comparisons for folks who find that sort of thing interesting.

So if you fancy watching almost two hours of fun attractive vampires versus werewolves gunplay and physical fighting action, give this one a chance. Roger Ebert and Barry Norman probably didn't like it but I sure did!