Blade (UK)

Wesley Snipes plays a double `ard b*****d in this violent and fluid action film. His martial art skills are shown to their full extent by slick camera work and special effects. Stephen Dorff comes accross well as the vicous Deacon Frost, if lacking in physical presence compared to Snipes.
The disc itself has many extra features, although the `deleted scenes` are measly in comparison to other discs, and there is an irritating blue fuzz that inhabits the lower screen during the behind the scenes featurette.
Also, the menu system, which is enjoyable at first, begins to get annoying when you have to wait for the poorly animated blood to follow your selection.
All in all though, a brilliant film with some added bits and bobs that any fan of the film will be interested to see, if only once.

A great film starring one of my fave actors, Wesley Snipes. Wesley Snipes plays an unusual vampire who can walk by day and fight by night. The documentaries and featurettes are brilliant interesting ones so if you`re going to rent a dvd this ought to be a serious contender.

very entertainting and you should buy it now

A masterpiece, simply gripping. a must if you like vampire films!

blade is a very good movie ruined by pathetic fx.the ending is so lame.

Blade tells the story of a human-vampire hybrid possessed of superhuman strength, reflexes and healing abilities. Blade isn’t your average bloodsucker however; firstly, he doesn’t kill innocent people to satisfy his craving for blood. Secondly, sunlight doesn’t kill him. Together with his mentor, Whistler, he hunts down and kills vampires, all the while trying to fight his ever-increasing blood lust. Vampire overlord Deacon Frost is preparing for the coming of La Magra, the Blood God who will spell certain doom for the human race. Blade must face the ultimate test as he fights for his life, and the souls of mortals everywhere.

Blade is presented in anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen, and as you’d expect from a relatively new film the transfer is good. Colours are vibrant and the contrast between night and day is excellent. A lot of the action takes place at night, but the darker scenes never lose detail. There are a few minor problems, but certainly nothing to write home about.

The film features a fantastic soundtrack. This is particularly noticeable in the club scene at the beginning of the film, as Blade terminates vampires with extreme prejudice, all to the tune of the track ‘Confusion’ by New Order. The surrounds are also well used, with gunfire seemingly ricocheting from all angles during the frequent shootouts, and a neat 360-degree surround effect when Blade uses a lethal boomerang weapon.

Blade has a few extra features worthy of mention, the most interesting of which is probably the unadvertised commentary track. There are also behind the scenes featurettes, including the unfinished La Magra ending, deleted scenes, plus the usual bios etc.

I have to admit to being skeptical about this film when I first saw the preview trailer. It looked like another very bad adaptation of a Marvel comic book character. After watching Blade, my opinion has been radically changed. It is a very stylish, entertaining film, with great special effects and an excellent performance from Wesley Snipes. With brilliantly choreographed fight sequences, a banging techno soundtrack, and a dry wit, Blade comes highly recommended as the best Marvel superhero tie-in yet (in my opinion it’s better than the overrated X-Men, but hopefully the upcoming Spiderman with surpass it).

FILM: Blade; The power of an immortal, the soul of a human, the heart of a hero. And what a great film Blade turned out to be! Anyone who enjoys any kind of action flick will love this highly entertaining piece of cinema. Blade is a movie about vampires (like you didn`t know!) starring Wesley Snipes and rising star Stephen Dorff. Snipes is the hero, half human and half vampire, who believes it is his mission to wipe out all trace of the vampire cults of America. His trusty `chapperone`, Abraham Whistler (played by Kris Kristoffersen), is also out to achieve the same goal. Unfortunately, he is getting a little past it, and so he makes the weapons and Blade uses them. As a gun-ho action movie, Blade is brilliant and will not fail to impress. The storyline is pretty good too, making Blade more than your typical Armageddon type. Look out for a show-stealing performance by the young vampire leader, Deacon Frost (Dorff).
PICTURE: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1.
The transfer available is very good. Colours are extremely vibrant and natural, contrast is solid and the overall sharpness is spot on. This is the kind of outstanding picture we have come to expect from New Line Cinema DVDs. The only flaw I found with the picture was with the opening credits; perhaps its just my player/TV, but the deep red text looks a bit fuzzy and tends to bleed a little. Never mind though, the negative points end there.
SOUND: Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Surround 2.0.
Both tracks here deliver the goods, sounding bassy, rich and extremely dynamic. The opening techno club scene and subsequent shoot out set the movie off to a flying start, with the screams of vampires and whizzing bullets emerging from every speaker. Dialogue is also handled very well, coming across audibly over the opening mayhem in particular-"whats wrong baby?".
Whichever track you choose, you will not be disappointed.
EXTRAS: Considering that my copy is the standard region 2 version and not the Platinum Edition region 1, extras are pretty good, but not great. We have an interesting but brief look behind-the-scenes, a section on the alternative ending, early designs for the blade character and weapons and some cast and crew interviews/biogs. These seemed a lot better at the time of release, but unfortunately the extras on Blade are a bit dated next to nowadays two disc special editions.
OVERALL: Blade is a very good, although slightly flawed, package that is well worth buying/renting just for pure and simple enterainment value. No element of this DVD should disappoint. Enjoy!

Just got my brand spanking new DVD player, along with a few high quality titles to add to my collection, one of them is this movie, Blade. Now before I get started with the review, let me just lay down the facts, I don`t know squat about all the video & audio gibberish you guys rant on about constantly, it really is greek to me. Yeah, I guess you could call me a certified newbie when it comes to DVD`s. But anyhow, that`s not to say I don`t know a good disc when I see one, and believe me, Blade is exactly that. Along with a great action packed movie, there really is some awesome additional material here, 51 minutes worth to be precise. Included is a great insight into the making of blade, from the conversion of the Marvel comic book hero all the way to the big screen, the whole process is explained here. Did you know that LL Cool J was a runner for the role of Blade? Just one of many interesting facts revealed on this disc, not to mention the inclusion of the unseen alternate ending (which I kind of prefered over the one that made the cut). Won`t say much about the movie itself, because chances are, if you`re reading this, you`ve already seen it. But I just have to make a crack at some of the horrible dialouge in this film, here`s my personal favourite.

Blade: Frost, you`re nothing to me, but another dead vampire
Frost: You`re an idiot, you know that?

Hah, maybe it`s just my poor sense of humor, but that cracks me up every single time. But in any event, with just the odd shoddy one liner, this is great fun and is well worth the purchase.

The idea of Blade is based upon the character from the Marvel Comics of the same name. Blade, a vampire hunter who is only half human. His mother was bitten by a vampire before giving birth which is shown in the open credits of the movie. Blade has all the characteristics of a Vampire but is nicknamed the Day Walker because he is able to exist in day light.
Blade`s main aim is to rid the world of vampires. He is helped by Whistler, a hippy-like handy man, who supplies Blade with the equipment to fight the vampires.
Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorf) is the main obstacle against Blade`s clearance of Vampires. Frost is a new breed of Vampire, who is sick of hiding from the Human race, and wants to lead a new army of vampires. He disagrees with the Vampire Lords' idea of living harmoniously with the human race, and aims to dominate Earth, and make Vampires the ultimate species.

The opening scene is probably one of the best action intro sequences. It involves a late night party which turns into a vampire bloodbath. One unfortunate reveller gets caught up in the entertainment but for the wrong reasons! Things turn bad and he is grateful to see Blade when he realises that he is the only human at the party.
What ensures is a 5 minute special effects extravaganza with Blade taking on Vampires with the use of a gun, a sword and the good old fashioned fist!
Blade is unusually long for a action movie. It runs for 115 minutes but manages to keep the fast pace action of the first 10 minutes running for the the whole length of the movie.Blade is certainly not like your average Vampire movies (Interview with a Vampire). It is not going to win any awards for acting and story line but what is does well is entertain throughout.

Fantastic stuff... if you enjoyed this film, then buy this on DVD immediately. Picture & audio are both excellent, and we get a nice splattering of extras as well. This includes a commentary from cast & crew that is not mentioned on the case.

Currently (Sept 02) available from Play.com for £6.49, this is an absolute bargain, and a "must own" DVD. Buy it, and buy it now. In fact if you already own this disc, it's worth buying again, as a backup copy just in case anything happens to the original!!

It`s an enjoyable and stylish piece of trash. Loaded with atmosphere, perhaps a bit too graphic in places, but you never hear of anyone complaining these days. What happened to Stephen Dorff?

Intro- Blade is a movie which is something of a guilty pleasure. Based on the Marvel Comics of the same name, Blade is about a half-human half-vampire protagonist with the abilities and strengths of a vampire and at the same time having none of their weaknessess except for one: "The thirst" or simply the need to suck blood. Our vampire fighting hero uses a serum which keeps his "thirst" at bay.

In the first a trilogy, he must fight against an omnipotent vampire overlord Deacon Frost (who looks like some young goth looking for trouble :)) whose intention is to conquer humankind with his legion of vampires. As states earlier, this is something of a guilty pleasure. The fight scenes are very stylised well choreographed but the downside is that the editing is remininscent of a music video plus the plot is somewhat paper thin.

Video- Presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, the transfer is suprising very goods despite being released in 1999, 6 years ago! It`s better than some of the transfers I`ve seen today which is filled with edge enhancements, softness and interlacing. The video quality is quite faultless, clear and sharp. As with many DVDs, this suffers from compression artefacts which can be seen in some of the scenes. Overall, a satisfactory transfer.

Sound- Blade has 2 options, DD 5.1 and DD 5.1 music only. The sound quality is a clear as a whistle. Dialogue is crystal clear. The movie is accompanied by a rock soundtrack which fits well into the action sequences. An atmospheric soundtrack. The music only soundtrack speaks for itself.

Extras- Blade is packaged in an amaray keep-case clone (the button which release the DVD will break it) with a booklet with Blade/Snipes on one side and a chapter stop on the other. The first extra is an "audio commentary". In reality, it isn`t what you expect it to be, it is actually a compilation of interviews from Actors Stephen Dorff and Wesley Snipes, Writer David S. Goyer, Cinematographer Theo Van De Sande, Production Designer Kirk M. Petruccelli and Producer Peter Frankfurt. Much of the input from the commentary doesn`t corresponds to what we are watching. It is disappointing. After that, there are 3 small featurettes: "Designing Blade" featurette "Special Effects" documentary and "Behind The Scenes" featurette. All the featurettes clock in around 50 minutes.

Overall- There are movies which I avoid and there are movies which are a must see. This is one movie which I consider a guilty pleasure. I can only summarise this in two words: watch it.