Fresh and Exciting

best movie i've ever seen.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Blistering performances.

I expected a lot more from Kathryn Bigelow and with three of the leads from Aliens, which came out the year before I thought this was gonna deliver.The story is pretty lame and it might have worked better with more experienced actors playing Caleb and Mae.Lance Henriksen, Bill Paxton and Jenett Goldstein were all so much better in Aliens. Lance wasn't psycho enough as Jess. And Michael Biehn would have been a better choice as Paxton's Severen, as he can play psychos much more convincingly. The kid playing Homer, is laughable and doesn't fit in with the others.Jennet Goldstein was only ever really good in Aliens. She's just not a very good actor. The effects were decent for a movie with a budget, smaller than The Terminator, but Kathryn Bigelow is no James Cameron when it comes to directing action and violence.Maybe you're thinking the comparison is unfair and Bigelow has certainly made much better movies after this. But not comparing would be impossible. Because not only were Bigelow and Cameron once married, she also uses half the cast from Aliens and Aliens even plays in a cinema in this movie.Have I seen this movie 20 years ago, I would have loved it. it delivers in violence and effects, except the scene where Homer starts to burn In the sun. This was before cgi and the flames were literally animated and painted on to the film.As far as vampire movies go, I've seen worse than this and much much better. If you enjoy vampire flicks mixed with R-rated action, I suggest you skip this and watch the first Blade and the two first Underworld movies instead.

I watched the trailer for this, saw the poster and wasn't really impressed... But then I read some reviews saying that it's better than 'The Lost Boys (1987)' I thought I'd give it a go still.Now I never expected it to be true that it was better than 'The Lost Boys' as that's one of my favourite horror movies HOWEVER I did expect it not to be a generic bore-fest with a complete lack of humour or interesting characters, at least SOMETHING that would even make it WORTHY of being compared to the classic that is 'The Lost Boys'.But no such luck, perhaps if you saw it in it's hey-day it will have a nostalgia level to it that still makes it likable (which surely is a part of why I like 'The Lost Boys' so much) but as a new watch in 2016 I felt it was frustratingly trite.

The musical question is, with Bigelow behind the camera and big names in front, how can you go wrong? The answer? This is, was, and always will be a B grade film done on the cheap with a small ensemble cast. As such it does offer historical interest for cinephiles especially since the idea of looking at the "human" side of vampires was at least 10 years ahead of the curve and that deserves credit. Ditto for the fact that script -- which is sharp in some places and terrible in others -- does not even use the word "vampire" which, for the era, was a sign of great restraint.However that said, the truth is that this is not really a classic and does not hold up that well over time. There is also an internal imbalance, the first half of the film is much tighter and more coherent than the second, as money ran out during shooting which, given the era and the genre, might have actually happened.

Greetings again from the darkness. It's always fun to take a fresh look at a cult favorite, especially after a quarter century since initial release. Near Dark is best known as Kathryn Bigelow's first solo directorial effort ... yes, the Oscar winning director of The Hurt Locker (plus Point Blank and Zero Dark Thirty). But that's not why this one has a loyal following. It's actually a very stylish vampire/road trip that focuses on family. And it's one of the very few vampire movies where the word "vampire" is never uttered.Ms. Bigelow co-wrote the screenplay with Eric Red, who also wrote The Hitcher. Similarities abound, yet this one stands on its own thanks to the photography and the performances. We can't help but notice three main actors come directly from James Cameron's Aliens ... Bill Paxton, Lance Henrickson, and Jenette Goldstein. Of course, Mr. Cameron and Ms. Bigelow were in a relationship that resulted in marriage (and later ended in divorce). Near Dark lost at the box office to another vampire movie released at the same time, The Lost Boys. Having its production company go out of business provided no marketing help and Near Dark has since experienced a rabid following thanks to cable, DVD and midnight showings.The basic story has a young local (rural Oklahoma) boy (Adrian Pasdar, who is married to one of the Dixie Chicks in real life) meeting a stranger in town (Jenny Wright, who played Rob Lowe's wife in St Elmo's Fire). Their initial sparks lead to necking .. get it? Next thing we know he is being dragged into a runaway Winnebago by Paxton, Henrickson, Goldstein, Wright and Joshua John Miller. We soon enough figure out it's a traveling troupe of vampires and Caleb (the young local boy) is in big trouble.There are a couple of well known/classic scenes: the sequence in the bar where we really get to see the personalities of each of this group, and the bungalow shootout where the bullet holes in the walls allow the deadly rays of sunshine to wreak havoc with the bloodsucking clan. Additionally, you will note some beautiful shots that confirm Ms. Bigelow's background as an artist - the backlit shot of the group in the fog, and Caleb's horse riding scene.For those accustomed to seeing the "cool" Bill Paxton, they will be surprised at his frenetic wild man act. You might also recall his stint in the The Terminator as one of the blue-haired punks that naked Arnold meets on his arrival. Jenny Wright is fun to watch here and it's a reminder of her talent, and a shame that she retired/disappeared from the acting world in 1998. Others in support include Tim Thomerson as Caleb's dad and (a very young) James LeGros as the frightened teenage cowboy playing pool in the bar scene. Caleb's sister is played by Marcie Leeds, who played young Sarah (Barbara Hershey's character) in Beaches.A sure sign of 1980's horror is the electronic score provided by Tangerine Dream. Sure, the score would be much different today, but it's very much a part of the film's fabric and style. In addition to the key actors coming from Cameron's film, you will also note Aliens on the town's theatre marquee.Bram Stoker published "Dracula" in 1897 and since then it's provided source material and inspiration for an amazing number of films. Some of the best known include: Nosferatu in 1922, Bella Lugosi in 1931, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), Frank Langella as Dracula (1979), The Hunger with Catherine Deneuve (1983), Francis Ford Coppola and Gary Oldman (1992), Tom Cruise in Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire (1994), Robert Rodriguez' From Dusk til Dawn (1996 with George Clooney), Blade (1998), and most recently the Twilight franchise, TV's "True Blood", the excellent Let the Right One In (2008) and the animated Hotel Transylvania (2012). Next up is a NBC series with Jonathan Rhys Meyers in the title role. For the undead, it's quite a family tree of entertainment and horror.