ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER (2012)
The B movie. There are many definitions for this term through the decades. Myself, I feel this is the closest.
B Movie: A film with low to non-existent budget that has grand aspirations, and occasionally finds success with a devoted following.
There are many of these films, a few amazing, some good, and many, many, just bad, and cheap and well... More of a C film really... :) But every once and a while you come across one that you can see the possibility. A film that when you are done watching you think "You know if they just had a bigger budget they might have pulled that off" or "With a few better actors in that film you know it might have been pretty awesome" ... and the list goes on. Money, though not always, often holds a film back from reaching its full potential
Boony sidenote: I love low budget film. You know this. So no hate. Just saying there is more bad then good out there. Think about the horrid horrid films you have subjected yourself to in hopes of the next "Evil Dead", "Night of the Living Dead", or "Black Christmas". Thank you.
If you down with the scene yo, then this folks - is the film you have been waiting for. This is a completely over the top, wonderfully beautiful, well acted, and entirely crazy B movie with a huge budget. Really big budget. And boy was it just swell.
So Abraham Lincoln was an awesome president of the United States, he was also it seems a hunter of vampires (after they kill his Mother he swears revenge). Now here is where the fun is, the film is actually historically accurate. Dates, people, events, all here in eye watering glory, they just you know... add vampires... and Abe's awesome Axe skills. And no folks, we ain't talking rock and roll...
Had to.
Okay so there are some issues here. Um. So if I follow this film, if I get angry, and then learn to focus the rage (in a roughly 19 and a half second lesson) I will then be able to move super fast and destroy trees, and hence vampires, in a single blow. Hmmm... what? Ya, ok, so there's that... and the whole son dying thing... well, maybe that was a little too far over real life presidential grounds, but that's pretty much it. My only beefs.
I like crazy, and cheese, and fun, and for years I have been waiting for a film that had all of that and an insane budget. Blood flying everywhere, limbs, heads. Entirely over the top showdowns, and settings. Great acting, played one hundred percent straight throughout. Really, lets face it, that man's beard came to get some...
This will not be a film for everyone. If even a portion of the above review did not tickle you somewhere deep, and squishy, then pass. If you do not know what a B movie is, or have none that you can point out on your shelf, then pass. For the rest though, strap in and enjoy the ride. With the reception this film received I doubt we will be getting anything else along these lines soon... so get while the getting's good.
Say what you will about the director (same guy behind WANTED) but he can helm an action scene. The slow motion/real time/fast time action scene at the mansion one of my favourites of the year... perhaps another category to find in the year end awards blog. Be pumped.
Movie scale 2.5 out of 5 stars
Horror/B movie scale 3.5 out of five stars.
Charles B-movie Boonsweet is out this piece!
2 comments:
Good review. This one could have definitely been a lot more ridiculous and insane, like the premise seemed like it promised, but I still had fun with it. Surprised this actually did well at all at the box office. Totally thought that people weren't all that interested in the idea of Honest Abe, hacking up vamps.
Ya I'll back that... further lines of cheesy blood spilling glory could have been crossed. Ah it didn't do that well... and with DREDD bombing after... the big budget R rated adventures might become a rarity. Here's hoping the public shows up to give support to the next (possibly last) mainstream effort.
- Charles B Boonsweet.
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