TRESSA'S BLADE II REVIEW

Blade II (2002)

Daywalker and Vampires unite to fight a mutual threat.

Directed by Guillermo Del Toro.

Starring: Daz Crawford, Tony Curran, Luke Goss, Danny John-Jules, Marit Velle Kile, Thomas Kretschmann, Kris Kristofferson, Ron Perlman, Norman Reedus, Karel Roden, Matt Schulze, Wesley Snipes, Leonor Varela, Donnie Yen.

Ron Perlman as Reinhardt

A new strain of stronger, more virulant vampirism has developed and its carrier doesn't differentiate between human and vampire victims. The Vampire Nation offer Blade a truce and ask him to lead their Blood Pack (a group originally in training to hunt him) in a search and destroy mission.

This film is dark, comedic, stylized (based on the comic book of the same name) action, and has some nice character moments, especially as the line between enemy and friend becomes blurred between Blade and Nyssa (Leonor Varela), the leader of the Blood Pack and daughter of the Vampire overlord and Blade and his newly rescued/vampire detoxed mentor Whistler (Kris Kristofferson). Wesley Snipes, as Blade, has cool down to a science. Watching his fight scenes is like watching music in motion. Luke Goss, who plays the threat and new strain of vampirism, a Reaper, although looked and dressed like hell, carried himself with elegance, definitely an aristocratic heir/son (which his character is, hint, hint).

Ron Perlman "sucks" in the best possible way as the vampire Reinhardt. He's a nice mix of blood stopping toughness, undead cool and black humor (a vampire who chews gum? And blows bubbles during an autopsy? Thankfully it wasn't his own).

Availability: VHS, DVD (single disc), DVD (2 disc, New Line Platinum Series), suggest: Amazon http://www.amazon.com, I have bought from Amazon for years, new and used items, and have had no problems. Please make sure to check that the VHS/DVD is compatible with your country/region.

Definitely a buy. The Region 1 DVD has some great in depth behind the scenes footage and commentaries (Guillermo Del Toro should get a special Academy Award for Best Movie Commentaries).

The first audio commentary on the Region 1 DVD 2 disc set is with director Guillermo Del Toro and producer Peter Frankfurt and this is what they had to say about working with Ron Perlman:

PF: "Well, also it was just such a genius stroke to cast Perlman."

GDT: "Which was not easy to convince everybody about that."

PF: "No, not at all. You were very resolute."

GDT: "I was, I am Ron Perlman's agent in the world and I keep trying to find him the best jobs I can. Originally, this was, there was a lot of insistence of casting a German actor."

PF: "Well, because, the way David had written it, he was really this kind of white supremist."

GDT: "The first German, the first Nazi played by a very large Jewish man from LA in many years."

PF: "This was a Wesley, he constructed the logic of this scene." (The House of Pain "have each other/line of site" moment)

GDT: "Yeah, he said I would like, he asked Goyer and I if we could come up with something between Blade and the Blood Pack, where they think they have him and he has them before they even realize, and Goyer came up with this idea, and Wesley came up with that smile and Ron Perlman came up with that 'F*ck you' which I love."

PF: "But we managed to appropriate 'Godfather' dialogue for that scene." (at the end of the "suiting up" scene)

GDT: "Oh yeah, but you know, this 'Godfather' dialogue that Blade quotes, I hate the f*ck out of them. I didn't want them in the movie. I fought with Goyer and I fought with Frankfurt saying 'this is bullsh*t, I hate them,' and then they said, 'let's call five people in the room, and if they know they come from the 'Godfather' we'll take them out'. I said f*ck yeah, everybody knows.

PF: "So we called five Czechs."

GDT: "They called five Czech people that didn't know sh*t about the 'Godfather' and they said 'no we've never heard it.'"

PF: "It's amazing. I mean we asked Patrick"

GDT: "Patrick didn't know."

PF: "We asked Ian."

GDT: "Ian didn't know."

PF: "I think we asked Ron Perlman."

GDT: "And Ron Perlman, God bless his ignorance, didn't know, and every review, every review of the movie says, 'and they have the cheek to quote the 'Godfather'' and I go 'See! See! You B*st*rds!'" (laughing)

The second audio commentary on the Region 1 DVD 2 disc set is with writer David Goyer and actor Wesley Snipes and this is what they had to say about working with Ron Perlman:

DG: "What was it like working with Ron Perlman?"

WS: "I had a blast man."

DG: "He's a funny guy."

WS: "I had an absolute blast."

DG: "He's always singing show tunes. I remember, there's a scene..."

WS: "He does some dramatic work in this, some serious dramatic work."

DG: "He's a good guy. I remember in the scene later on, when he gets half his face burned off, he had all that prosthetic make up on, and he was singing all these Sinatra tunes, walking around the set with half of his face chewed away. It was just such a weird thing to see." (laughter)

DG: "And this is Ron Perlman doing Lee Marvin." (the House of Pain "crucifixion/explosion" moment) He was just, I remember in his hotel room he just had every Lee Marvin movie."

WS: (giving the silent scene dialogue) "So what do you think?"

DG: "Mr. Bad *ss."

WS: (still giving the silent scene dialogue) "One stake or two?"

On a side note, this is another one, like "Alien Resurrection," where Ron Perlman really went all out with the physical look for the character (and what was he, 51 when he made this film? most people half that age don't look that good). His wife must have fainted when he came home with that hairstyle (and I use the term loosely) for the first time though ("why did I marry an actor? why? why?")!

By Tressa Lee Breen.