One of my avorite movies is the James Cameron movie
ALIENS, sequel to Ridley Scott's
Alien. It was not only a wild sci-fi romp, but the characters were somewhat likable to the extreme, namely most of the characters who didn't die in the initial Xenomorph attack--I'm talking Hudson, Vazquez and Bishop. It is a testament to the actors' craft that Bill Paxton, Jenette Goldstein, and the great Lance Henriksen are still widely remembered for their performance even in light of that totally sweet battle at the end of the movie. However, I did not know if they all had been in another movie together since that film. Behold, I have watched
Near Dark, and sure enough...there they all are. This time, Paxton wore the makeup and it ended up being plastered all over the cover because it was that good...but was not nominated for an award in the Special Effects category--anywhere. It's a shame, but it was a stepping stone for smaller things into bigger things.
Our story opens up with a shot of a mosquito feeding on a handsome hillbilly named Caleb Colton (Adrian Pasar, the future President Nathan Petrelli from
HEROES) as he wakes up to a sunset. He heads into town and meets his friends, only to be distracted by a very beautiful young country ingenue. He finds out her name is May (Jenny Wright) and she's in town with "friends". He tries to woo her and convinces her to come with him out of town in his truck. They go to his dad's farm and he attempts to show her a horse--which promptly runs from the petite young woman. Figuring nothing's up with her, Caleb tries to put the moves on May but she stops him and wants to know what time it is. Caleb reminds her it's near to dawn and she demands to be taken home. He wants to know why and May suddenly persists to be taken home, as if something bad will happen. He agrees, but before he takes her any further he begs just one last kiss. May gives him one heckuva steaming kiss...and slips in a small nip to his neck, just before she flees into the morning twilight.
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Vampires from LV-426 (l-r): Jesse Hooker (Henriksen),
Diamondback (Goldstein), and Severen (Paxton)
(not pictured: Homer [Joshua John Miller]). |
Caleb shrugs off that rather odd foreplay and tries to start the truck, but the engine fails to turn over and start. He decides to walk across the town fields as the sun rises, but finds his energy sapped every minute he's out there and can't figure out why his skin is burning and smoking. Suddenly, he is kidnapped into a runaway RV and confronted by a pack of five filthy, murderous drifters--one of which turns out to be May (who is not so filthy or murderous). On top of being a kidnapping victim, Caleb gets the worst news he could possibly get (thus far): he has been bitten and transformed into a vampire.
From this point forward,
things get interesting. With the previous statement, I present to you my Understatement of the Year for 2013.
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Above: May (Wright) and Caleb (Pasar) share a tender
embrace. This might be a case of beating a dead horse, but...
STILL A BETTER LOVE STORY THAN TWILIGHT |
This movie was one that a few friends had recommended to me, namely those from US states with rural backgrounds. It was entertaining, and a fun experience pointing out all the actors who have marched across the silver screen (namely Tim "Dollman" Thomerson and a young Theresa Randle). I also found it interesting to note that this is the first mainstream film for director Kathryn Bigelow, who would go on to direct hits like the movie that got her name in lights, the 2008 military drama
The Hurt Locker (starring
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters' male lead, Jeremy Renner) and the 2012 critical darling
Zero Dark Thirty. If this is the kind of movie she would direct in the future, she should have been a big name in Hollywood well before The Hurt Locker. I suppose the accusations of a Hollywood Boys' Club preventing her from making movies are true: HER MOVIES ARE A LOT BETTER THAN WHAT MOST MALE DIRECTORS MAKE.
To think, if Ms. Bigelow kept making movies like this, we might not deride the movie industry as mush as we do and we might've actually paid for the films we watch. Sadly, we are too far gone and more people know of a world where you always have an option on how you watch your movies. They will never know the feeling of sitting in a filthy non-IMAX/non-HD sound movie theater with a bunch of strangers (some of whom are smoking) over and over again to watch the same movie (because viewers in theater seats can't rewind or pause). To know such a world of inconvenience no longer exists and has cost the movie industry brings a tear to my eye...but not as much as the ending for
Near Dark. It was sooooooooo bad, it's gonna cost the ratings score.
RATING: 7/10
