INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1995 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): *
INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE is the screen version of Anne Rice's extremely popular book by the same name. Since she wrote the screenplay, I would assume the movie is close to the book which I have never read.
INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE starts in the present in Market Street in San Francisco with Christian Slater interviewing a vampire played by Brad Pitt. It seems a couple of hundred years ago, Pitt was willing made into a vampire by another vampire (Tom Cruise). We then switch to the past and watch Pitt's start as a vampire with Cruise teaching him the ropes.
So what is it like being a vampire you ask? Well, you get to drink gallons and gallons of blood. I can handle that so long as there is something else that makes me want to watch the screen other than the drinking of blood. I got bored silly and totally disgusted. I am not easily turned off; Pulp Fiction is one of my favorite movies this year.
INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE was way off of any scale I can imagine. You had one long scene after another where they would pierce someone's vein, pour the gushing blood into a glass, and then pass the glass around to share. They killed rats with their teeth and got their mouths dripping with the blood of the rats. Ditto for pet dogs and for hundreds of birds. This movie is the grossest one I have ever seen in my entire life. Where are the animal rights people when you need them?
On the good side, the filming is beautiful. The colors in the movie all have a warm glow to them. The art decoration of the old plantation was well done. I applaud Cruise for taking so much risk as an actor, and I was amazed how much he was able to hide his pretty boy self.
The movie runs a painfully long 2:00. It is incorrectly rated R--this is clearly an NC-17 show full of extremely violent images. It could give anyone nightmares for a week. I recommend this show to no one and award it * only for the previously mentioned technical merit. Were it not so well crafted, I would have given this despicable show no stars at all. I hated this show and found it painful in the extreme to point my eyes to the screen. You could not pay me to sit through it again. Yes, I have many friends that I respect who loved it, but I honestly do not understand why. At any rate, my pain is over since I do not have to watch any more of it.
**** = One of the top few films of this or any year. A must see film. *** = Excellent show. Look for it. ** = Average movie. Kind of enjoyable. * = Poor show. Don't waste your money. 0 = One of the worst films of this or any year. Totally unbearable.
REVIEWED WRITTEN ON: December 9, 1994
Opinions expressed are mine and not meant to reflect my employer's.
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