Vampire's Kiss
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Movie Reviews of Vampire's Kiss
Movie Review: Creative and well-directed
Summary: 3 Stars
This was one of the first five DVDs a friend of mine bought after he got a player, and so I was curious about his choice. The things he chooses may not be perfect, but are invariably very interesting, as it turned out with this one. The only thing I knew about this movie beforehand was that it's supposed to be a 'comedy,' and that Nicholas Cage eats a cockroach in it. So it was hard for me to understand why someone would be so passionate about what seemed like a goofy 80s comedy, but it turns out that this film is much more than that.
Nicholas Cage, back when he was young and adventurous and before he fully committed himself to his strict "Bad Movies Only" policy, plays a socially retarded man with serious issues toward woman and more than a little inadequacy as he slowly descends into utter insanity. Interestingly, the way he conceives of his problem is that really he is turning into a vampire.
The opening photography is wonderful, silhouetted spires and gothic details of Manhattan against a blood red sky, that seem to reveal the city as a place of dark supernatural horrors within the regular city we know, which was a great start.
I was surprised in reading the reviews on the IMDb that no one talks about the place that misogyny plays in Cage's dementia... he's lonely and isolated and sees women as objects, so as he goes insane he thinks he's a vampire, someone who picks up young women, rapes [bites] and kills them... and is cursed by this. In this movie, the main character HATES women, and a lot of the audience's discomfort comes from how horrible he is to them. I thought it was also ingenious how all the women; his therapist, the imaginary vampire woman, the woman he jilts near the beginning, and his secretary all look vaguely alike. The director could easily have thrown in a bit of psychoanalytic depth by having a photo of the character's mother looking similar as well.
There are things in this movie that are vaguely funny on their own, but in the context of the movie are not really funny at all. I mean yeah, people do goofy things as they are mentally breaking apart, but is that funny? All the actors do a great job, but I love the therapist, who seems so engaged and curious. I like how Cage's character assumes the movements of movie vampires, because in his lunacy movie vampires are probably exactly what he is imitating.
There are only two problems I think the film has. The film goes out of its way to show how Alva, the abused secretary, needs her job and is not supported by her family, but Cage's behavior is SO over the top that ANYONE would know that she has a lot of reason to go to the police. That she remains so passive is a little frustrating and unrealistic to the point where it detracts from the film.
The big problem, I think, is that ramping up so quickly to high insanity in the first hour, there's really nowhere for the film to go in it's last 45 minutes. The scenes of Cage humiliating his secretary become repetitive, as do other aspects, tarnishing what started out exceedingly well.
I was shocked to learn that this was the director's first full feature, as it is very assured and well-done. I would love to have a chat with the writer to know HOW this idea came to him and what he thought about it. It's too bad this movie didn't do better, but I expect it's because it is such a difficult concept to get across on a poster. Anyway, worth seeking out.
Movie Review: The Story Has Been Done Before (and better)
Summary: 3 Stars
Most movies can be described as mixes of other movies, as most everything has been done before and it often appears that the only way to appear original is to cross the same elements in different ways. Of course there are a lot of possible outcomes depending largely on who is doing the mixing. "Vampire's Kiss" is one of the less appealing outcomes of mixing Polanski's "Repulsion" and Kubrick's "The Shining".
It was one of the a few perfect roles in Jennifer Beals' career. Beals is physically attractive in a kind of misaligned way, making her perfect for this role, as well as for "Flashdance" and "The Bride". Her features seem at war with each other, they do not quite fit making her a walking-talking prop for dissidence. Which means she is ideal for characters that are not quite right, like a dancer-welder or a man-made woman, or in this case a fabricated vampire. I'm not sure if the directors of her three successful performances instinctively picked up on this feature when she was cast. If so, and if there were more of these perceptive directors out there, she would have been used more and used better.
The "trailer" leads you to believe that this is a horror film/dark comedy, and this deception is one of the reasons for its poor box office showing. There is some humor in Peter Loew's (Nicholas Cage) gradual decent into madness; particularly his rant to his psychiatrist (Elizabeth Ashley) about the misfiling of contracts. And his scenes berating his secretary Alva (a great performance by Maria Conchita Alonso) are excessive enough to be funny; if you laughed at Jack Nicholson's self-parodying performance in "The Shining" you should enjoy Cage's antics here. But it will be a major disappointment for those looking to see a horror film and a minor one for those expecting a lot of comedy.
In its favor, "Vampire's Kiss" looks far better than its less than $2 million budget. Director Robert Bierman did some first-rate directing, got fine performances from everyone in his cast, made creative use of a variety of NYC locations, and kept things in a unifying style. It's very nice work. The problem is the film has no substantial message to convey to its audience and is a little too intellectual to be just a suspense film (remember it is NOT supposed to be a horror film or a dark comedy).
Bierman borrowed a lot from Polanski to set up increasingly discordant images and sounds to help advance the story. While much like "Repulsion", including the ambiguous question of whether madness causes or is caused by hallucinations/nightmares, "Vampire's Kiss" fails to convey any substantive basis for Peter's susceptibility to madness. So Cage's character only manages to convince us that he knows how to act mad-not that he is actually going mad. Although "Repulsion" did not disclose much about the root cause of the madness (at least not until the end), Polanski was able to get a performance out of Catherine Deneuve that convinced you her madness was real.
Bottom line, this is well made film with excellent performances but the story could have been a lot better, could have been told more effectively, and could have been promoted more honestly.
Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.
Movie Review: Vampire's Kiss
Summary: 3 Stars
Although the movie has an interesting concept, not the humor I was led to believe. Although an interesting concept, the dark humor is not near as good as I expected.Movie Review: Not one of Cage's best performances
Summary: 2 Stars
This movie is cheesy, even though it's meant that way. The only person i liked in this movie was Alva (played by Maria Conchita Alonso).
Nicholas Cage has definitely changed his voice because when it was in here and also in Valley Girl and Peggy Sue Got Married it was more higher pitched, now when you see him in a movie it's more deeper. And he does a terrible accent in this movie. His acting has gotten better because in here it's just lousy. He plays crazy well but in here it could have been better.
He is a man named Peter Loew who is a publishing executive and he's bit by a vampire (or so he thinks) one night while he takes this woman Rachel (played by Jennifer Beals) home to his apartment for what he thinks will be casual sex, but while they are making out on his bed she bites him on the neck and then basically through out the film he terrorizes Alva when he's at work and he basically goes nuts. Rachel is not even real, she's a figment of his imagination. He finally gets to the point where he truly believes he's a vampire so he goes to a store and buys cheap fangs. Hmmm, okay. Then he goes in a park and catches a pigeon, takes it back to his apartment and eats it. It doesn't get better from there.
Definitely not something i would want to watch again.
Movie Review: nicholas cage ruins a brilliant film
Summary: 2 Stars
Nicholas Cage is incapable of bringing any reality to this otherwise very dark and serious story of a man becoming psychotically obsessed with thinking he is a vampire. Cage used to make quirky movies good, Raising Arizona, but here his complete acting inability ruins a film.
The audience can see that his interactions with a vampiress and subsequent rampage, is what is called 'pyschotic delusions', but the film is brilliant when it shows that even Cage's conversations with his shrink may be imagined.
He is over the top and out of context. Worst accent imaginable. The concept of a man having an alternate universe, that may in fact be real, is not unique and runs through horror films- The Shining, Them, 12 Monkeys, etc, this film is a near twin of a classic- American Werewolf in London.
This is such a near miss though. The murders and murder of an insane and suicidal man should be a very sad story, but Cage makes it hollow. 'Wolf' is somewhat of a remake, if 'remake' is to take a flawed film and find ways to make it worse.
If this is the journal of a madman, Cage seems to think he is in a comedy.
If it is a comedy, it is not funny.