List Price: $14.98 Our Price: $13.48YOU SAVE $1.5!
Buy it
DVD Shadow of the Vampire
Clever, engaging, and boosted by the sublime casting of Willem Dafoe as Nosferatu actor Max Schreck, Shadow of the Vampire is a film full of good ideas that are only partially developed. Its premise is ripe with possibilities, but the movie's too slight to register much impact, so you're left to relish its delightful performances and director E. Elias Merhige's affectionately tongue-in-cheek homage to a landmark of German silent cinema. John Malkovich is aptly loony as the eccentric director F.W. Murnau, whose passion in filming the 1922 classic Nosferatu leads to the extreme casting of Schreck as the vampire, a vision of evil who, in this movie's delightfully twisted imagination, actually is a vampire, sucking the blood of cast and crewmembers who've dismissed Schreck as an overzealous method actor.
As these on-set maladies and "accidents" continue, Schreck wields greater control over Murnau, who descends into a kind of obsessive art-for-art's-sake madness until diva costar Greta Schroeder (Catherine McCormack, doing wonderful work) is served up as the actor's ultimate motivation. Merhige and his actors (including Cary Elwes, as intrepid cameraman Fritz Wagner) have great fun with this ghastly escapade, and the humor is kept delicately subtle to balance the movie's artistic aspirations. To that end, Dafoe is just right, his bald pate and gaunt features a perfect match for the mysterious Schreck, his grimace and talon-like fingers suggesting a human vulture on the prowl. Likewise, the re-creation of Nosferatu's expressionist style is both fanciful and brilliantly authentic. Too bad, then, that this movie suffers a mild case of vampiric anemia; if it shared the depth and richness of, say, Ed Wood, this might have been a cult classic for the ages. --Jeff Shannon
Received product on time and in good condition. No problems, just good service and products.
Pale Reflection
This movie was a major disappointment for me. After years of Wes Craven schlock like "Scream", and movies by other directors of the same ilk like, "I Know What You Did Last Summer" I was hoping that there would be a resurgence of intelligent horror films. Shadow of the Vampire wasn't it. Although F W Murneau gave the vampire shadows in the original Nosferatu, which in most legends they don't have, this "tribute" had the core conceit of making the vampire capable of being photographed. So in other words not only did Orlock have shadows but also reflections. The characterizations in this movie were poor and tissue thin, with John Malkovitch trying to channel Colin Clive in his portrayal of F W Murneau--like the director was a mad scientist. Catherine McCormack played a cliched prima donna as Greta Schroder, and worst of all was William DaFoe as the vampire. His makeup was a hollow mockery of Max Schreck, and not nearly as effective as Reggie Nalder, who was made up in the same manner in "Salem's Lot." I dubbed William DaFoe's appearance Bucky the Beaver. The razor sharp fangs of Schreck had become for DaFoe buck teeth, and it looked like this was a vampire who got manicures, with no hanging edges anywhere on his long fingernails. DaFoe was well nigh incomprehensible with his dialogue, with some mystery accent that only Latka, on the TV show Taxi, could understand. Eddie Izzard played Gustav von Wagenheim as if he was a Teutonic Ted Knight in the old Mary Tyler Moore show. Although this character also showed a lack of depth, it was amusing, and one of the main reasons I went to see the movie. I also went to see Udo Kier, Andy Warhol's Dracula. I was especially pleased to see that one of the trains they rode in the movie had the name Persephone mounted on it, since that echoed the name of one of the sailing ships in Dracula, the Demeter.
I was flabbergasted, however, when William DaFoe's performance was nominated for an Oscar, and was glad when he lost.
Awsome Concept
Let me preface by saying that even if the movie sucked, Dafoe's performance alone would make it worth watching. He is brilliant.
Anyhow, the concept of the movie is really great. A crazy director want to make the ultimate realistic vampire film... and does so by having a real vampire play an actor playing the vampire; in return for the right to eat the lead actress after filming is over.
The movie itself is well done, but sometimes feels a little bogged down. The cast is strong however, and its easy to let such problems slide.
As noted critic Pauline Kael observed, "... this first important film of the vampire genre has more spectral atmosphere, more ingenuity, and more imaginative ghoulish ghastliness than any of its successors." Some really good vampire movies have been made since Kael wrote those words, but German director F.W. Murnau's 1922 version remains a definitive adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula. Created when German silent films were at the forefront of visual technique and experimentation, Murnau's classic is remarkable for its creation of mood and setting, and for the unforgettably creepy performance of Max Schreck as Count Orlok, a.k.a. the blood-sucking predator Nosferatu. With his rodent-like features and long, bony-fingered hands, Schreck's vampire is an icon of screen horror, bringing... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Max Schreck - Greta Schröder - Ruth Landshoff Director(s): F.W. Murnau DVD Release Date: Released the 02 January 2001 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $19.99 Your Price: $15.99YOU SAVE $4!
Buy it
Werner Herzog's remake of F.W. Murnau's original vampire classic is at once a generous tribute to the great German director and a distinctly unique vision by one of cinema's most idiosyncratic filmmakers. Though Murnau's Nosferatu was actually an unauthorized adaptation of Bram Stoker's Dracula, Herzog based his film largely on Murnau's conceptions--at times directly quoting Murnau's images--but manages to slip in a few references to Tod Browning's famous version (at one point the vampire comments on the howling wolves: "Listen, the children of the night make their music."). Longtime Herzog star Klaus Kinski is both hideous and melancholy as Nosferatu (renamed Count Dracula in the English language version). As in Murnau's film, he's a veritable gargoyle with his bald pate... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Klaus Kinski - Isabelle Adjani - Bruno Ganz Director(s): Werner Herzog DVD Release Date: Released the 09 July 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $29.98 Your Price: $26.98YOU SAVE $3!
Buy it
When it was announced that Tom Cruise would play the vampire Lestat in this adaptation of Anne Rice's bestselling novel, even Rice chimed in with a highly publicized objection. The author wisely and justifiably recanted her negative opinion when she saw Cruise's excellent performance, which perceptively addresses the pain and chronic melancholy that plagues anyone cursed with immortal bloodlust. Brad Pitt and Kirsten Dunst are equally good at maintaining the dark and brooding tone of Rice's novel. And in this rare mainstream project for a major studio, director Neil Jordan compensates for a lumbering plot by honoring the literate, Romantic qualities of Rice's screenplay. Considered a disappointment while being embraced by Rice's loyal followers, the movie is too slow to be a satisfying... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Neil Jordan DVD Release Date: Released the 06 June 2000 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $19.98 Your Price: $9.97YOU SAVE $10.01!
Buy it
With dizzying cinematic tricks and astonishing performances, Francis Coppola's 1992 version of the oft-filmed Dracula story is one of the most exuberant, extravagant films of the 1990s. Gary Oldman and Winona Ryder, as the Count and Mina Murray, are quite a pair of star-crossed lovers. She's betrothed to another man; he can't kick the habit of feeding off the living. Anthony Hopkins plays Van Helsing, the vampire slayer, with tongue firmly in cheek. Tom Waits is great fun as Renfield, the hapless slave of Dracula who craves the blood of insects and cats. Sadie Frost is a sexy Lucy Westenra. And poor Keanu Reeves, as Jonathan Harker, has the misfortune to be seduced by Dracula's three half-naked wives. There's a little bit of everything in this version of Dracula: gore, high-speed... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Gary Oldman - Winona Ryder - Anthony Hopkins Director(s): Francis Ford Coppola DVD Release Date: Released the 26 December 2000 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $14.94 Your Price: $11.21YOU SAVE $3.73!
Buy it
The Bret Easton Ellis novel American Psycho, a dark, violent satire of the "me" culture of Ronald Reagan's 1980s, is certainly one of the most controversial books of the '90s, and that notoriety fueled its bestseller status. This smart, savvy adaptation by Mary Harron (I Shot Andy Warhol) may be able to ride the crest of the notoriety; prior to the film's release, Harron fought a ratings battle (ironically, for depictions of sex rather than violence), but at the time the director stated, "We're rescuing [the book] from its own bad reputation." Harron and co-screenwriter Guinevere Turner (Go Fish) overcome many of the objections of Ellis's novel by keeping the most extreme violence offscreen (sometimes just barely), suggesting the reign of terror of yuppie killer... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Mary Harron DVD Release Date: Released the 21 June 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
List Price: $14.98 Your Price: $10.99YOU SAVE $3.99!
Buy it
