Friday, June 10, 2011

Bloodrayne: The Third Reich (2010)

The name Uwe Boll still angers people with no life. Personally I always liked his slightly demented approach to anger the game nerds all over the world, maybe because I feel no connection at all to gaming and everything around it. It just does not matter if he changes everything in a game when he’s turning it into a movie, as long it entertains me. The last couple of years Mr Boll has been doing other movies, not connected to games, and some of them are very impressive: Seed, Tunnel Rats, Stoic, Rampage… and hell yeah, even craziest stuff like the first Bloodrayne and Far Cry is worth watching because of their mindless violence.

While the first sequel to Bloodrayne was a good-looking b-movie (and well-made) it lacked the energy and the massive gore that the first movie had. Thankfully Boll tries to give us fans of the red juice a little bit more of that in the second sequel, Bloodrayne: The Third Reich. The movie, which is mostly about Bloodrayne killing Nazis and Michael Paré turning into a nazi-vampire, feels hurried and a bit sloppy. This is quite natural because Boll shot three movies at the same time! A drama-documentary about Auschwitz and a something that looks like Bloodrayne, but a bit chubbier: Blubberella.

I never really cared of focusing on the bad things in a movie, but I need to say that our beloved Clint Howard feels a bit weak in one of the bigger parts as Doctor Mangler. Now, like all of us, I love him – but he’s never been a great actor and tends to mostly read the lines in a mechanical way. He’s in the movie to much, but I think this is because they needed to fill the story more and more with dialogue to make the movie longer (it’s very short now, 75 minutes). The final action scene is not as spectacular as I wanted it to be, but delivers some fun.

The best thing with Bloodrayne: The Third Reich is Michael Paré who became a regular in Boll’s movies over the years. He’s a good heavy and looks fresh and healthy and wears his fangs and vampire make-up perfectly. Natassia Malthe is back as Rayne and I always felt she’s better suited for the part than Kristanna Loken. She’s handling the fighting and sword-wielding a lot better anyway.

As usual, even with a low budget, Boll handles the action good and there’s a lot more blood than in part two. A ripped belly and one graphic decapitation is the only thing we get when it comes to more classic gore, but it’s better than nothing.

I would love to see more WWII action from Uwe, but with a higher budget. His style feels very European and fits the grey eastern block perfectly. Like part two not a masterpiece, but a fun time-waster with some blood and tits. The ending is open for a part 3 and I think that would be a good idea, because that scene teasing Rayne vs Hitler is something I would like to see.

2 comments:

Ty said...

Uwe Boll has been making decent movies lately, will check this one out.

forestofthedead said...

Loved this movie.
It was everything I hoped it would be.