Sahara is one of those movies that really holds nothing special in any way. The inspiration from Indiana Jones is quite obvious, both in setting and the awkward predicaments our heroes get in, but where Steven Spielberg’s titular hero was adulterated fun, Breck Eisner’s (yes, that Eisner) characters fall flat and succumb to genre clichés left and right as the movie’s misleading marketing campaign goes into high gear.

Let me start there. From the very first previews I saw of the film it make it look like a companion of National Treasure in which a group of historians get together to solve a major puzzle. With the rise of The da Vinci code to pop-culture status, who knows how many clones we’ll see in the next five years? Hell, we’re finally making our way to the B-list of comic book stars. Yet, Sahara isn’t anything like National Treasure; sure the movie starts off with a quest to find the last iron-clad ship launched during the Civil War, but it ends up becoming a mixture of Temple of Doom and an Environmental Protection Agency video.

We start off with two separate storylines. There is apparently a plague ravaging an African country torn by civil war, but the world’s health organizations don’t want to put themselves in the line of fire to help these sick people, so one doctor, Eva Rojas (Penelope Cruz), takes it upon herself to lead a crusade and save these people. She enlists the help of former-Navy SEALs turned treasure hunters by the names of Dirk Pitt (Matthew McConaughey) and Al Giordino (Steve Zahn) to help her out. It just so happens that the ship their searching for may be somehow linked to the sickness. As mentioned before, these are merely two-dimensional characters who don’t have any real personality, and besides the banter between Dirk and Al during some pivotal moments, you don’t really get any character development at all.

If you can actually believe it, the two main villains in this film are a corrupted African dictator (how original) and a business man looking to make a lot of money (ditto).

Granted, the film is based on a novel, but most novels are lush with character development and feature enriching dialog as the author paints a picture in your mind, the only thing painted in Sahara is McConaughey’s tan. Still, as much as you try to justify and analyze everything happening on the screen, you’ll be fairly entertained through some of the film, especially when Dirk and Al need to use some ingenuity to get out of a sticky situation. The comedic Zahn basically plays a slightly more serious character variation than he usually does, and isn’t the token wimp of the film this time through. Cruz manages to look good through the course of the film, but doesn’t do much else, and McConaughey’s “cool-boy” acting has gotten him this far, so why change it?

Sahara really is a book of failed promises and lowed expectations, even when you don’t expect that much going in. National Treasure surprised me with how good it actually was, even if the writing needed a few more once-overs by someone with talent, but you still got an entertaining film. This sun-soaked film tried too hard to impersonate others in the genre while never really capturing the audiences imagination and full focus. When there’s something funny on the screen, we laugh, but then go right back to the state we were in. Its like a film of mediocrity with sudden jumps into above-average territory.

By all means, if you are a devoted fan of the genre, rent Sahara when it comes out on DVD, just to get your fix until we finally get a fourth installment of Indiana Jones. If you’ve bought into the hype put out by Paramount about lost treasure and all those who seek it biting the big one you might as well throw those ideals away like a piece of garbage, but be careful, you never know when the EPA will strike.

There are times when you sit down to a movie expecting so much and getting so little. I’ve sat through my share of disappointments over the years, with The Ring Two as the latest addition to that category. Then there are times, and they are few and far between, that you sit down to a film and have your expectations blown away as everything you though about movies in general is shattered like a bullet ripping through bone.

Sin City is one those movies.

Truth be told, up until last year, when the original teaser trailer premiered, I couldn’t have told you what Sin City was, let alone name a single character. Based on the graphic novels of the same name, Sin City is the story of a colorful, yet color-less, cast of characters who will do just about everything to survive and fulfill their cause. The film houses a startling cast with big name movie stars all the way down to relatively unknowns but each one brings his or her A-game to the table and the audience is treated to, what very well may be, one of the best films of the year and the decade.

Sin City is broken up into three separate narratives overlapping, ingeniously written parts to tell and overall story (think Pulp Fiction). Co-directors Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller, the graphic novel’s creator, have constructed one of the most fun films to watch, but also one of the most well written in some time. We get things started with Bruce Willis’ Hartigan hot on the trail of a senator’s son who is also a child molester. After discovering him with his latest victim, Nancy, Hartigan blows perverts ear and genitals off but ends up being shot half-a-dozen times by his partner.

The story shifts to, perhaps, the best of the bunch and focuses on Marv (Mickey Rourke) and his quest for revenge on a silent killer (Elijah Wood) who murdered Goldie (Jamie King), whom he had slept with the night before. Marv is a walking tank, and nearly unstoppable as he’s shot, punched, thrown, run over, and electrocuted in his mission. Next, we’re introduced to Dwight (Clive Owen) who gets entangled in the battle for Old Town between the cops and the working girls after a detective (Benicio Del Toro) is killed (in a rather unpleasant way). Finally the story shifts back to Hartigan and his pursuit to rescue a fully grown Nancy (Jessica Alba) from a yellow menace.

The cast itself, although large, boasts incredible performances from the likes of Rourke and Owen, as well as Willis and Rosario Dawson. Standing amount among them all is Rourke with his up-front manner, massive size, and great dialog delivery for the huge Marv. Clive Owen finally gets a chance to shine outside chick-flicks and the outstanding BMW Films. Bruce Willis appears to be back on track after a few missteps like Tears of the Sun and Hostage, and his character of Hartigan is as hard-boiled as Max Payne with the sense of humor of John McClain. Finally, Rosario Dawson shines again as the leader of the working girls in Old Town with her wardrobe and sadistic glee of killing standing out in a pivotal scene of the film. The cast is just too massive to get into individually, but there weren’t any performances that didn’t hit a note with me, as everything gelled and flowed perfectly.

Sin City is not for the faint of heart, much like his friend Quentin Tarantino (who also guest directs a portion of the film) Rodriguez doesn’t shy away from the brutality of violence. The film is as raw as it gets with gun shot wounds spraying bright white blood all over the screen and a penance for dismember or shooting men in the scrotum seems to be the act of the day. Still, it is almost cartoon in nature because of the black & white print with only shades of color thrown in to highlight certain objects, like a red dress or a character’s eye color.

Filmed similar to Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Sin City was shot against a green screen with the backgrounds and other effects added in post-production. Rodriguez is know for his economical filmmaking that produces $100 million dollar work for less than half that. His masterful direction and ideas also come thrown perfectly in the film, something far fewer directors are able to do these days with the hack, cookie-cutter-fare we’re subjected to almost weekly.

Fans of movies and movies that are made for true movie fans don’t need to think twice before seeing Sin City, in fact, anyone who has ever thought a frame from a comic book or graphic novel “looked cool” should see this film for the art form that it is. The way every shot is framed, presented, cut, and highlighted brings the novels to the big screen in picturesque storyboard fashion.

Sin City not only raises the bar for adaptations, it successfully raises the bar on the art of movie making as well. Its been a really long time since I’ve been able to say I was truly impressed with a film, but with Sin City, I’m not only impressed, I’m simply bewildered that no one has had the talent or the finesse to make a movie such as this one before. After sitting in the theater and letting the credits role to the end, no words came to me to describe what I had just seen. I was unprepared for the beauty that was Sin City, and I’m only now beginning to realize that it is definitely one of the finest works of art I’ve ever seen. While I should reserve this statement until after some of my other anticipated films of the year debut, Sin City is, by large, a contender for the best movie of the year, and its only April.

After having to endure White Noise earlier this year, I was definitely looking at The Ring Two to up the ante on the horror genre, much like it did nearly three years ago. After endless sequels of sub-par horror films, and so many rip-offs of the basic premise, Two looked like the film to beat in a flagging genre. Now, here we are, nearly three years after the original, and it seems the sequel we’ve all been waiting for has taken a few pages from its pointless copy-cats. The Ring Two is 2005’s first big disappointment. Not the year’s worst movie by any means (just looking at Naomi Watts solidifies that), but the movie lacks all of the suspense, intrigue, and originality that its predecessor showed us and instead gives us minimal plot and some awkward scenes.

For the previously uninformed, The Ring focuses on a video tape which, when watched by someone, caused their death seven days later. The premise has been spoofed to no end, most recently in Scary Movie 3, but its originality and “villain” held promise. Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts) and her son Aidan have put behind them the horrors they experienced during the first film. They’ve move out of the big city, to the suburbs, in the hope of living a normal live, away from the thought of Samara. Yet, the tape resurfaces (someone must have ignored that copyright warning at the beginning) and Rachel and Aidan are thrown back into the mix once again.

The problem is, you have a hard time figuring out what sort of “mix” they are in. Samara doesn’t find our protagonists until Rachel burns the copy of the tape and when she does, she attempts to take over Aidan in a bid to have a loving mother. Aside from the bizarre imagery, the storyline is so hard to follow and makes such little sense that the entire film becomes a clip-show of scenes that may, or may not, have anything to do with the overall story. The hyped return of Carrie star, Sissy Spacek as Evelyn (Samara’s biological mother) is no more than three or four minutes long and doesn’t serve any real purpose in the film.

The shinning star of the film is Naomi Watts as Rachel and her troubled life dealing with the knowledge that she has of the tape, and the events surrounding it. She is a beautiful actress and plays the part well of the mother-in-peril, but her talent seems wasted on such a generically written movie when compared to her other work. David Dorfman portrays the bizarre Aidan well, although his awkward stare after being taken over by Samara can definitely put a chill down your spine. Although that’s really all the movie can do.

The original film wasn’t about true horror as much as the suspense and thrill. Like White Noise before it, The Ring Two resorts to funhouse scares of quick images, and characters jumping out of other places to give the audience a jolt. Besides the annoying junior high kids in the theater, I didn’t see anyone jump or scream in my general vicinity. I’m almost ashamed to say it, but the generic direction, writing, and acting of most of the films participates really makes we wish they didn’t even bother.

Yet, we know why they did. The name is a marketing tool, and, the all mighty dollar comes before creativity in most cases, so we get a shameless sequel banking on the Ring name and delivering nothing of value to the genre or audience. Even being directed by Ringu director Hideo Nakata couldn’t create anything more than average.

The Ring Two falls into the pit fall of its copy-cats and predecessors by banking and cashing in on the name rather than actually providing something worth the franchises name. Instead of a cleverly written, creatively constructed film, we get a generic, cookie-cutter movie that is devoid of nearly everything that made the first film so special. If an inevitable third installment in the series is planned, here’s hoping DreamWorks has the sense to see the creative side of filmmaking instead of dollar signs.

After the major disappointments that were The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions, you would think Keanu Reeves would want to stay away from the comic book world. While The Matrix sequels weren’t based on comic books per se, their stories were heavily influenced by the graphic novels that occupy so many hardcore fans throughout the world. Still, Warner Bros., and Reeves, teamed up once again, for another foray which has one half of Bill & Ted in the role of an action hero. This time Neo steps into the shoes of John Constantine, a man who can see the demons that influence us, and uses every tool at his disposal to send them back to hell.

Constantine, based on the Vertigo/DC comic Hellblazer, has the title character portrayed as a hard-boiled, cancer-ridden hero who has no desire to do anything but rewrite his fate in the afterlife. He’s destined to go to hell after attempting suicide earlier in his life, and by Catholicism rulings, a mortal sin such as taking your own life can only mean one thing, eternal damnation. For all his demon killing Constantine still hasn’t managed to buy his way into heaven, and with lung cancer about to end his quest, all seems lost. Yet he stumbles upon a young woman, Angela Dodson (Rachel Weisz), who is investigating the apparent suicide of her twin sister, but there’s more to her death than it seems (isn’t there always?).

Constantine is a decidedly dark movie, equally akin to the undertones of the Matrix trilogy, and those with a deep religious background may find some imagery and talk disturbing. There is no sugar coating when describing hell and this certainly isn’t the hell portrayed in The Simpsons where demons simply go bowling with your head. Here, the great below features half-headed demons ripping you to shreds over and over again for eternity. The world is a mirror image of our own, only blasted like a heat furnace with fire raging all around you. It certainly sounds like a great tourist destination, no? One of the movies main criticisms is it devotes the explanation of everything (good and evil) under the rules of the Catholic/Christian principles of religion, completely ignoring the fact that Christianity isn’t even the major religion on the planet. Yet, I find it hard to fault the film based on this simply because of the source material the original writers decided to use.

Reeves, who has been faulted before for not living up to his acting potential, does a good job portraying John Constantine as a re-envisioned character. In the comics the protagonist is a blonde haired Brit, in the film he’s a dark haired American. Surely some of the comic’s die-hard fans will be disappointed by the creative liberties taken by the screenwriters, but that’s to be expected when jumping from the colored pages to the silver screen. Rachel Weisz also puts in another strong performance as the twin sisters Angela and Isabel. She’s definitely the eye candy of the film, but plays the part of a deeply religious detective believably.

Constantine suffers, however, from the weight it puts on itself and the audience. The film, running for a full two hours certainly feels its running length. The first two acts are slow to develop and brooding in the darkness that is Constantine’s fate. The climax, part of it obviously influenced from the open scene in Blade, lacks the overall punch you expect it to have. Yet, maybe it’s our expectations that need to be changed? As the credits rolled, Tom and myself actually applauded the director for sticking with a non-Hollywood ending, even though the character dynamics where there to implement it. It almost feels as though the movie is about to go cookie-cutter when it just throws the dough on the pan and lets it form its own shape. Still, in this day and age, where fancy camera tricks and gunplay make up a great majority of our movies, Constantine just doesn’t have the “wow” factor at the critical moment.

I was genuinely impressed with the film, in that, it managed to keep my attention for two hours, lacked the punch that most films deliver in their climaxes, and still has me smiling at the end. Is it worthy of a re-viewing in the theater? Maybe, but with a packed DVD the film is definitely worth owning. As with most comic book movies, the die-hard fans will find plenty to complain about, but those with no prior knowledge of the series will find something to enjoy in the darkness that is this world.

I’m not usually the type of guy that waits in line for a “romantic comedy” in the hopes it will alleviate all of the darkness in anyone’s life. These movies are cookie-cutter at best, each boasting similar storylines and auxiliary characters to boot. If anything the romantic comedy can be used to gauge a certain stars mass appeal by how much money they are able to drive in. You see, when everything is pretty much the same, only the star-power can drive in the dollar signs.

Hitch succeeds on almost every level in giving the audience something new to enjoy. This film is made by the characters, which is very important since the story is the cliché plot line we have come to expect over the years. Guy meets girl, guy goes out with girl, girl discovers something about guy and blows it out of proportion, guy and girl reconcile, serious banging occurs (or we are left to presume). In Hitch, the two about to bang are Alex Hitchens (Will Smith) and Sara (Eva Mendes) who are the two unlikely folks that wind up together.

Alex is a date doctor, and as we learn in the film’s opening montage and voice over, he gives guys the confidence, and the means to get any girl they want. We know from the start this is a work of fiction, because nothing in life ever works out this well, except in New York, where, apparently, everything under the sun can happen, and you won’t get mugged. Hitch’s latest client is Albert (Kevin James) who is the standard, geeky guy that almost everyone seeing this movie alone can relate to, expect that kid already waiting for Episode III. Albert has his sights set on Allegra Cole (Amber Valletta) after her cheating boyfriend is exposed by a local tabloid. In circumstances that become apparent during the “girl discovers something about guy” stage, Sara realizes that Hitch is the mythical “date doctor” and may have given a guy bad advice, which lead to her friend being hurt. Reconciliation occurs, and we are left to wonder about that serious banging.

The film is strong through the first two acts. Will Smith is his usual charismatic self and it’s nice to see Eva Mendes get out of supporting roles in films like 2 Fast 2 Furious and Stuck on You. She holds up the film well in the lead role and can do comedy. The problems begin in the overtly long third act where the jokes stop (in standard comedy form) and a preachy series of dialog almost begins to grate on you in its sugary, sappy taste. Anything you can think of saying on Valentine’s Day is in the latter half of this movie, and for the better part of it I was just wishing someone would stop, or shoot some one else. Luckily it finally ends with a humorous dancing skit, but you can feel every second of the last 20 minutes.

Easily stealing the movie from everyone is Kevin James as the bumbling Albert. For the unenlightened, The King of Queens, James’ day job on CBS, is one of the funniest comedies on TV, and with Everybody Loves Raymond going off the air this year, only Queens, Two and a Half Men, and Arrested Development remain as the two funny live-action sitcoms on the air. But I digress. James creates the perfect character for every bumbling guy to relate to, and getting the girl manages to give us hope, if only till the credits role.

Not being a huge fan of the genre I can honestly say that Hitch is the best romantic comedy of the year (mainly because I don’t plan on seeing too many of them), still, there are some problems here and there which make it a great movie. While Will Smith plays Will Smith (which is fine) we do get to see some of the talents of James and Mendes who both excel at comedy and provide a more human face to the façade of Hollywood and what appearances should be. If you’re “hitched” up with someone, this is the perfect film to go and see, and even if you’re lacking that extra baggage, give Hitch a chance, and maybe she’ll give you one, if you know what I mean.

White Noise, the latest copy-cat inspired by The Ring, is either really late coming on to the scene or really early. The movie would be late if it was trying to capitalize on the wave of sub par genre flicks tee-ed off by The Ring, or early if it is attempting to ride the wave of The Ring Two hitting theaters in March. Either way the film is a disappointing, disjointed horror movie that tries to make that time between your cable going out, and your time on hold with the company frightening as the static you see…may…just…get…you.

The film finds Jonathon Rivers (Michael “Batman” Keaton) still feeling the effects of his wife’s death after an apparent accident in which she drown changing a tire on her car (no really). After six months Jon is finally getting his life back in order when a mysterious man offers him the ability to speak to his dead wife through EVP. Apparently, the static and “white noise” of modern devices are a portal through which ghosts can use their anytime minutes and call you, even during peak hours, although they prefer nights and weekends. After Jon’s “medium” is brutally killed he is still determined to talk to his wife, so he sets up his own little studio to record the dead and see what the other side is like.

Unfortunately, White Noise is the kind of static you want to turn off after its slow opening and slightly before its limp climax and “trick” ending which leaves you wondering why you spent money to see this. The film suffers the most from the fact that you just don’t care. It isn’t like the slasher films of yester-yore when you weren’t really suppose to care about the canon fodder, this is a man who has been traumatized by the death of his wife and all I can think about is saving up to 15% on my car insurance. Writer Niall Johnson’s script has about 20 minutes worth of story available to use and is padded by montage shots of Michael Keaton starring at static on his TV. I can do this myself and not spend $6.50.

Another major problem, besides the lack of plot, is the cinematography employed by director Geoffrey Sax who has an immense fixation with arching crane shots to the point where you almost feel as though you are some supreme being trying to find out where this movie went wrong (here’s a hint, it was green lit). I also find a problem with the marketing campaign offering this movie as the most disturbing film in years, and while that may be true, it isn’t for the reasons the corporate suits would like you to believe. I’m sure you’ll find more people horrified that they were subjected to this rather than those scared by the content itself.

The film also shows that writers and directors have run out of ideas when they resort to cheap scares such as establishing shots preceded by a quick flash of an image and loud noise on screen. Truth be told, most of the “jump-scenes” can be picked out by astute horror film buffs, who will be this film’s core audience this week, and seen coming minutes away. If anything White Noise resorts to the generic, cookie-cutter stylings of such copy-cats as FearDotCom which tried to build upon the Ring‘s influence when the latter film was released in 2002.

Since the film centers on Michael Keaton’s character you would think the script would open him up a bit more, but throughout the course of the film we see him as a man who can’t let go and becomes fixated on some cause that may very well have lead to many people’s deaths. The movie attempts to explain why he keeps on doing what he’s doing by making him the savior-de-jour in a set of random scenes which have nothing to do with the movie, but eat up running time. Also the laugh-inducing dialog is even harder to handling by overacting and the strange feeling you might be more entertained if he were wearing his black cowl.

I can’t say much about the film’s ending except it reeks of corporate meddling with the underlying fact that you need to have a trick ending or no one will see your movie. Long gone are the days of Matrix-inspired happy-time-rainbow-endings, now you need to have some twisted person pulling the puppet strings or, gasp, people might avoid your poor showing.

White Noise is an easy film to turn off, most people should lose focus after the opening credits, but for those of you brave enough to give it a try, why not wait until The Ring Two opens in two months. This white noise is the kind of static you want to avoid, and I only wish I had.

After hundreds of millions of dollars, years devoted to special effects, and one of the biggest fan bases looking on, The Lord of the Rings trilogy ends with The Return of the King, what some, like myself, consider to be one of the pinnacle moments in cinema. In fact, if The Return of the King doesn’t receive Best Picture of the Year honors at the Oscar’s next year, we will know that the voting is fixed in some way, because nothing released this year even comes close to King, and the only downside to the film is knowing that we won’t be getting another installment next Christmas.

The Return of the King picks up roughly right after the events of The Two Towers, just as The Two Towers picked up right after Fellowship of the Ring. Like the previous two installments we get no opening credits, only the film’s title splashed on the screen, which lead to much applause in the audience. I’m going to take a minute and say that I have never seen a movie with such an obnoxiously stupid audience as I did with The Return of the King. I almost wanted to murder the patrons sitting next to me, and would have done so if I found some sort of weapon other than my Harkin’s Souvenir Cup. Not since Hulk have I seen so many stupid people clapping at inappropriate time, yelling things at the screen, etc. It almost destroyed the whole experience for me.

Regardless of my tangent, The Return of the King is truly a cinematic masterpiece because of the content of the film. Never before will you see such a movie that includes bits and pieces from every genre, molded into one cohesive package that keeps on giving and giving. There is action, fantasy, love, war, insanity, death, life, and so much more. Peter Jackson and his entire staff should be patting themselves on the back for years to come when looking at what they have accomplished here. The Return of the King is comparable to nothing else on the silver screen.

Adding to the element of the film is the amazing special effects by WETA Digital. If you thought the battle sequences in The Two Towers, mainly the battle of Helm’s Deep, were amazing, you haven’t see anything yet. The Return of the King features, quite possibly, one of the best battle sequences ever printed to film. At times it is almost impossible to tell if you are looking at an actual set, matte painting, or computer generated scenery. When your mind starts making you wonder if what you are seeing is actually real, that is the point you commend your special effects house. Sure, not everything is perfect, there are a few moments where you can clearly tell the CGI work is, just that, CGI. But then you see the scenes with Gollum and forget about all your doubts.

One of the greatest, and saddest, aspects of the films is that this is the final part of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings book. We finally get closure on a number of characters, with even more to come in the inevitable Extended Edition DVD. For the better part of three years we have been following the adventures of hobbits, elves, dwarfs, etc. With such a long commitment and such anticipation its nice to know all of the time invested in watching this project paid off, which is more than what we can say about The Matrix trilogy. In fact The Lord of the Rings trilogy seems to be the complete opposite of The Matrix, whereas each movie seems to get even better as they are released.

In order to keep this review as spoiler free as possible for those who haven’t read the books, or haven’t had a chance to see the film must yet, I left out any relevant information relating to the actual plot of the film, but let me just say this, you will not be disappointed. If you thought The Two Towers was awesome, The Return of the King is sure to knock your socks off. The Lord of the Rings trilogy has concluded, but it will live on for generations with children being introduced to the book via the movie, and vise versa, as Tolkien’s legendary series withstands the test of time.

The Blade series has long been felt as the red-headed stepchild of the Marvel catalog. The first film barely made mention of its comic book roots sans for a mentioning in the opening credits. The second film in the series didn’t carry the Marvel logo on the actual prints, but did feature it on the poster. It seems as though everyone is finally able to acknowledge the series for what it is, but, unfortunately, the series’ third (and presumably last) installment is ultimately its weakest. This isn’t to say that Blade Trinity isn’t a good movie, it certainly is, for what it is, but as a die hard fan of the theatrical series the new elements to the film just don’t seem to click as well as the previous two entries in the vampire-slaying series.

Trinity brings the Nightstalkers into the mix with hopes of a spin-off in the future. Heading up this group of hunters is Abigail Whistler (Jessica Biel) and Hannibal King (Ryan Reynolds) who both went through extensive training to bulk up and create two very memorable characters. The story of the film brings the group to the aid of Blade (Wesley Snipes) after he is set up and a captured by the humans (with the Vampire Nation pulling the strings). Yet, while all of this is going on the vampires have also discovered the burial grounds of the first vampire, Dracula (Dominic Purcell). The vamps believe that their eternal leader is the only one who can defeat the day-walker.

The movie itself works very well, for the third installment in an established franchise, but without the Blade logo tying it into Marvel’s series there isn’t much in the way of story to really keep you on the edge of your seat. Still, many will argue that you don’t go to a movie, such as this one, for the story, you go for the fight scenes, violence, and general ass-kicking, all of which Trinity provides in droves. Something else the movie provides may surprise fans of the first and second film where the dark, gothic tone was never a purveyor of humor (besides Blade and Reinhardt’s (Ron Perlman) lovely conversations in Blade II), but Reynolds’ King hits every cue, and every joke right on the mark. Sometimes the film is funnier than certain “comedies” released this year.

In a surprising casting movie, Parker Posey joins the cast as the devious Danica Talos who provides the comic foil to Hannibal King (she is also was his Sire). Furthering the casting gambit a bit was writer/director David S. Goyer’s choice to bring on Paul Michael Levesque (aka Triple H) as a vampire-thug who loves his vampire dog (ominously cross bred with the Reaper strain). Triple H literally steals ever scene he is in, and when coupled with Reynolds, once again, hilarity ensues.

As I said before, the film, as a part of the Blade trilogy, works well, and provides both closure and openness in its conclusion. As a movie standing on its own the film seems almost rushed to a point of getting the series’ main star in cohorts with the new hopefuls and see how the chemistry plays out. Luckily, the chemistry is there, and with the off-the-set rumors of “difficulties” working with Wesley Snipes only ads more enjoyment to see him interact with the “kids.” The inclusion of the Dracula storyline seems like it would be an endgame of sorts for the series, finally giving closure to all the turmoil Blade has had to endure since he was a child, yet, the film’s ending is as open as ever leading many to believe if the series is actually over with (here’s hoping it isn’t).

Speaking of the ending, it will certainly make you groan when you see it. I thought that the character of Drake (aka Dracula) was so severely underdeveloped that it almost handicapped the movie’s story. Goyer seems to have included the character out of an attempt to mass market the series for non-fans. The persistent rumors of a slightly futuristic setting in which the vampires had conquered the humans is almost desired after seeing how this one ends, but we can’t expect Sam “Spider-Man” Raimi quality in every comic book movie that comes up to the plate.

Blade Trinity is the weakest member of the Blade series, but that doesn’t discourage me from wanting to see it a few more times in the theaters and pick up the DVD the day it comes out. Maybe it’s the fact that vampires and related lore seem to be really hot these days, and with all the conflicting movies and canon-violations (Underworld for example), it may just be hard to get as excited about seeing some good-old-fashioned blood sucking without a been-there-done-that aura washing over you.