Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Sequels: Howling III: Marsupials

Howdydoodlydoo!!!! So that was some fun-filled sequels we have been through, huh? Oh wait, no they weren't. Still they could have been worse. Many have complained about Howling II: Sister is a Werewolf given its plot holes, inconsistencies and Sybil Danning's copious topless and nude scenes. But c'mon...Reb Brown was 1970's Captain America and Sir Christopher Lee was Dracula back-to-back smoking werewolves that...looked really cheesy and nothing of Rick Baker's amazing SFX. This is Howling III a.k.a. Marsupials: The Howling III.

Dress me in a coat will ya??!!

Back with director Phillippe Mora (The Beast Within, A Breed Apart, Communion, Art Deco Detective, Richard III, Mercenary II: Thick & Thin and Strange Matters) and ONCE AGAIN sadly I start recognizing people because I have seen some serious piles of monkey squirt. Well let's dive right into this tour de force. Deep within the Australian Outback, werewolves have evolved divergent from any other lupine and morphed into marsupials...yup I didn't just mess with you all, female werewolves developing pouches for holding the young. 

Anthropologist Harry Beckmeyer (Barry Otto of Benny Hill Down Under, Case for the Defence, Tickled Pink, Norman Loves Rose, Undercover,The Punisher and The Paper Man) managed to score grainy footage filmed in "1905" of Aborigines burning and stabbing a wolf creature and shows his classroom. Kinda surreal except it is clearly shot with a higher def VHS used for broadcasting at the time.

No sooner is the class dismissed plot convenience number two appears in the form of a series of reports of werewolf attacks in Russia giving Beckmeyer the belief of a widespread of Commie Lycanthropes hell bent on taking over the world and attempts to get hold of the President. Yeah that goes over well as he explains to the President about werewolves and points out that strange things exist all over the world. The President vows to send Beckmeyer back to Sydney, Australia but he needs to keep the commander-in-chief clued in on the werewolf phenomenon.

I'm far too excited!!!

A doofy American name of Donny (Lee Biolos of Les Patterson Saves the World, The Year My Voice Broke, Dark City and Candy Regentag) is on location to scout filming regions and local talent for a Werewolf film Shapeshifters Part 8 bumps into a striking girl Jerboa (Playing Beatie Bow, Vietnam, Future Past, Crossbow, Strapless, Candy Regentag, Flair and Queen of the Damned) bumps into Donny and he tells her she would be perfect to play a werewolf (wink wink) so they are off to the director to get her spotlight a goin'.

Plans to move on the impeding werewolf infestation is allowing paramilitary and military divisions to join up with financial aid from the Vatican blessing silver for rounds and start mounting preemptive strikes after the few they have captured and interrogated to get the location they live in.

Will Beckmeyer allow the werewolves to be destroyed?? Will the military succeed??

Okay the effects are really less than. Gore effects were fair but the werewolf appliances are pretty hokey and even the giant werewolf head looked like a giant boar or pig. Turns out the head prop was from the 1984 flick Razorback so yup fuzzy pig. Using a polarizing filter, all the background colors looked amazing in spite of this film was a bit on the silly. Basing the werewolves of Australia is on the extinct Tasmanian Wolf as it was lupine and marsupial. Other than that, I was a tad bored.  The only of the Howling series that fell under PG-13.

These fellows stabbed a cosplayer. Savages.

300th Blog!!!!! Tom Clancy Week: Patriot Games

Hello you wild and wacky kids to Day 2 of Tom Clancy Week and my 300^th blog!!!!  Yeah I am shocked too but there it is.  So let’s make this a good one for the late great Clancy and your reading attention span.  What say we follow the Ryan clan as for as England for a vacation…or is it?  Who would have predicted an assassination attempt on one of the Royals via a splinter radical group of the IRA?  Well about anyone that has read some Clancy knows that actions and consequences are always going down around the world so grab your fish and chips, mind the traffic and dodge some submachine gun fire.  This is Patriot Games.

 

O' Paddy Wagon. hehe.

Paddy O’Neil: The day that I sell out my countrymen, will be the day that I put a bullet through my own spoiler.

Now a professor of Naval Academy tactics and military history Doctor Jack Ryan (Harrison Ford of American Graffiti, Star Wars, Force 10 from Navarone, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Blade Runner and Witness), his surgeon wife Doctor Cathy Ryan (Anne Archer of Falcon Crest, Fatal Attraction, Narrow Margin, Body of Evidence and The Art of War) and daughter Sally (Thora Birch of Parenthood, Hocus Pocus, Now and Then, American Beauty, Dungeons & Dragons and Ghost World) have made their way to Buckingham Palace to see the sights when a cadre of armed men shoot at the cousin of the Queen, Lord Holmes.  Moving his wife and daughter to safety; Jack then takes on the armed gunmen with guts and determination ending up killing one of the gunmen a boy of 15.  Jack is wounded and the local authorities come in to secure the scene.  

Football disagreement English and Irish.

Jack after released from the hospital testifies to what he saw and did in court seeing the man was hosing a car down with lead, Sean Miller (Sean Bean of Black Beauty, GoldenEye, Ronin, Don’t Say a Word, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The Hitcher and Silent Hill) sentenced to rot on Albany Prison when his prison convoy is ambushed by his team, springing him.  His commanding officer Kevin O’Donnell (Patrick Bergin of Robin Hood, Highway to Hell, Love Crimes, The Island on Bird Street and One Man’s Hero) tells them they are off to hide out in North Africa to plot the next attack on Lord Holmes. 

Soon after arriving at home Cathy and Sally are attacked on the way back after school in Maryland.  With his wife and daughter surviving the assault Jack takes back his old office with the CIA under his mentor Admiral Greer (James Earl Jones of Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Star Wars, Conan the Barbarian, The Flight of Dragons and Clear and Present Danger) O’ Donnell’s crew gets wind of this schedule change and they plan to wipe them all out.  Miller consumed by grief wants Ryan and his family dead for the life of his brother and O’ Donnell gives him his blessing to get him back in the game afterwards.   Jack is knighted on behalf of the realm and saving Lord Holmes is treated to dinner with him and the Ryan family invites him to visit their home and enjoy dinner with them.  

Thinking coming to work in a fedora and a whip, fellas.

What will happen next???   Well go watch the film already. ;)  Thank you all for giving this blog a look over and as always I appreciate the comments, compliments and suggestions!

Tom Clancy Week: The Hunt for Red October

Welcome you wild and zany kids to Tom Clancy Week as we look at the various films adapted from his novels and I thought we best showcase one of the most successful if not a few liberties taken with it. Enjoyable yes but a bit over the top given it is an A-list Hollywood production with of all things an action adventures director.  Will the suspense stay intact or will it blast all the windows in the Nakatomi Plaza?  Grab some popcorn and a soda and don’t miss a single cel on the screen.  This is The Hunt for Red October.

 

In Russia, submarine stalks you.

Captain Ramius: We will pass through the American patrols, past their sonar nets, and lay off their largest spoiler, and listen to their rock and roll…while we conduct missile drills.

In 1984, Tom Clancy wrote The Hunt for Red October, a story interlacing a Soviet submarine captain Marko Ramius and a CIA analyst Jack Ryan.  The behemoth Typhoon-class submarine weighing in at 32 tons can with a water displacement rendering sonar capture completely inert.  What does that mean for us civvies?  Well folks, that means you have a missile platform lobbing nuclear warheads at all your major cities before we have even a heads up to it.    Captain Raimius (Sean Connery of Dr. No, Marnie, The Anderson Tapes, Outland and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) is entrusted with a floating death machine that makes very little to no noise in the waters which is one giant missile battery.  Make no mistake about this folks; this is a death dealer plain and simple.  Little does the Soviet Navy realize that Raimius plans to defect and bring the Red October in as a peace offering to the States giving him and his ranking officers a bit of freedom.  

Boy with the success of this movie, The Shadow will be marvelous.

CIA analyst Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin of Knots Landing, Beetlejuice, Miami Blues, The Edge, Clerks Animated Series and The Cooler) briefs (then pants) the government brass on the departure of this killer, quiet submarine and with great detail explains the unbridled threat it poses as the Soviet Navy deploys it.  The chatter is the Soviet Navy fears Raimius plays a pre-emptive nuclear strike on the US.  Ryan pitches the idea that Raimius plans to defect. And as he is the cubicle nerd he is scoffed at by a high ranking Admiral and Ryan retaliates with meeting this Soviet Commander before and knows how the man thinks and that he is well to listen to his worries.

 Ambassador Pelt (Richard Jordan of Logan’s Run, Dune, The Mean Season and Gettysburg) sits in on this meeting giving Ryan the leverage to seek out Raimius before the US Navy sinks them.  With that the clock is ticking on which armada will sink the Red October or will total annihilation occurs.

 

I'm in a sub! In a sub! In a mother f*&%ing sub!

I have just a few comments about this film now.  Director John McTiernan (Predator, Die Hard, Medicine Man, Last Action Hero and The 13^th Warrior) managed to pull off a thriller with his rough and tumble action adventures background, from decent crane shots, to low angle zooms the film captivates the audience with energy but also keeps the intensity of the suspense as well.  

Tom Clancy Week

Howdy folks.  As most of you are already aware that on October 1st of this year Best-Selling author Tom Clancy passed away.  Being an avid fan of his work and enjoying several of his novels as well as the video game adaptations of his novels I thought it only fair to honor a man that has entertained many of us with clever characters and bizarre scenarios.

 Hey I love Jack Ryan but an analyst should not be getting a fraction of the trouble that he did. A desk jockey should not be right in the middle of firefights and international incidents.  Sam Fisher on the other hand, total hard ass.  I love the idea of a man in his 50's in peak physical condition that was battered over the years still doing counter intelligence and field work taking out men 20 to 30 years younger than him.

Look I don't care wither Greedo shot first or not!

So this week we observe several film adaptations of his novels and hope you all enjoy the action packed adventures.

Zombies...again??!!!

Well gentle readers I have returned and decided I am reminiscent of my review roots and therefore you guessed it!!!   A zombie movie!!! Well you didn’t think I reviewed every single last zombie film in two years did you?   So grab a chair, prop it in front of the door and be still until they walk by.   This is Zone of the Dead.

Spoilers are the end of days, my friend.  Make no mistake about it.

Director Milan Konjevic tackles his first film debut as the head man.  From Second Unit director to a creator of comic series called Generation Tesla, Dusk Fighters and Romero, Knovjevic takes the plunge into directing his own written works.  Shot in Serbia this zombie flick moves at a fast pace, drags its feet a bit and then fast pace reasserts itself again.  The story line is a simple one and should be commended for that.  Military training exercises are going on in the immediate area so satellite frequencies are re-routed.  Cell phones would be unoperatable so lane lines are about all that can be used.  Even CB or walkie talkie if you prefer is clouded.    A prisoner (Emilio Roso of Baby’s Momma Drama, Freedom’s Gate, Border Lost, Mad Men and Corrado) is being transferred from Belgrade to London via Interpol and Serbia police force.  Agent Mina Milius (Kristina Klebe of The Other Shoe, She Hate Me, Delirious, Halloween and The Accidental Husband) is placed in charge of security, transportation and route to make it smooth sailing.  Retiring Agent Mortimer Reyes (TV and Movie character actor legend Ken Foree of Dawn of the Dead, Terror Among Us Knightriders, T.J. Hooker, Remington Steele, The A-Team and Babylon 5) is on his way back to the states leaving Interpol.  Just twelve more hours `til retirement, Riggs.   He and his partner Dragon Belic (Miodrag Krstovic  of Savior, The Professional , The Reject and The Fourth Man) are there purely for supervisory standing so what could possibly go wrong?  

Two towns over an ecological disaster occurs at the train yard, with north winds whipping a gaseous liquid of unknown origin it kills everything in the immediate area and re-animates it in minutes.  With this entire story occurs within the 18 minute mark so it is made room for lofty exterior shots, zooms and long crane shots.  Mostly this film is hand held and Dolly track shooting. The cinematography is impressive but the dialogue what you came to expect.  Buddy cop routine, sprinkled with classified information and a dash of paranoia.   There also seems to be a Romero influence as several of the death scenes are throwbacks to Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead. The gore is mildly pronounced in those scenes that require more of a terror factor has such.

Oh yes I always have a bit of nitpicking.  Now keep in mind that several of the dialogue is dubbed over so the voice over work sounds a bit rushed, confused or otherwise lacking in the proper inflection the scene shows us. Several of the sound effects such as: automated doors sound like something of the PC game X-Com, the zombie cries are very similar to those heard in the Doom games and several of the gun shot sound effects run parallel to a first person shooter game in 1995 Rise of the Triad.

Certainly not the worst of the genre I have seen but it is also nothing new here.  I was hoping for a regional spin on the zombies but it feels more like Return of the Living Dead with less humor and less nudity.  Not all that impressed but hey not too shabby first time running.

Painkiller Jane: Heroine or Menace?

I've noticed more than a few valid complaints about how there are no really decent superheroine movies and I agreed.    Most are given skimpy outfits, one liners that would make Spidey groan and a love interest that is not merely farfetched but over exaggerated.   No real depth into a backstory or explanation on how they came to be.  Several characters have been overlooked.   Vampirella for example is a powerful, capable woman that happens to be a vampire with a great mental capacity and physical strength.  Granted her outfit looks like dental floss but nevertheless badass gal.   Dynamite Comics however has a character that essence was more or less captured on a Syfy Channel TV Movie. 

So make a munchie run, grab me a Mexi-Coke and let’s sit in.   This is Painkiller Jane.

Spoilers hurt so good…

The crux of the character is sound but her background and profession was altered.  So from being a hard hitting cop we alter Jane (Emmanuelle Vaugier of Saw II, House of the Dead 2, 40 Days and 40 Nights, Unearthed and Far Cry) into a Spec Ops Captain in charge of her unit: Painkiller.   What would be a major heroine processing and distribution center on intel turns out to be some sort of biological lab, patients are infected and soon Jane and her men too receive side-effects.  Desperate to vacate the Captain and men haul ass out only to run into about 20 men armed with Ak-47s and Hazmat suits.  Jane and her boys valiantly fight them but are cut to ribbons and left bleeding on the alley street.  The End…or is it?

5 days later Jane awakes in a military hospital, her wound dramatically healed leaving faint tissue scarring that should be the result of weeks of healing not days.   Her commanding officer Colonel Watts (Richard Roundtree of Shaft, Outlaws, Seven, Vegas Vampires, Desperate Housewives and Heroes) feels they need to do more testing for the fact she was the only one in her unit to come out alive.  Doctor Graham Knight (Tate Donovan of Love Potion No. 9, Partners, Hercules, Friends, The O.C. and Damages) establishes a rapport with Jane and gains her trust with his promise to fix whatever occurred.   Jane notices other aspects of herself beyond her healing such as: heighten state of awareness to her surroundings, dexterity, speed, strength, to process information at an accelerated level and analytical thinking on a scale that rivals gifted intelligence.    

While slightly reveling in her new found abilities, Jane also knows the military will use her as a weapon, escapes during a military transport to a safer location and without killing or even injuring her captors.  Doctor Knight may be the only man to help her but can anything be made to assist her?  Will she want to give up this new abilities and what of Timmy trapped in the well?

TV director Sanford Bookstaver (The Chronicle, Fastlane, The O.C., Bones, and House M.D.) tackles a comic book character devised by Joe Quesada (The Ray, Batman: Sword of Azrael, Daredevil and Ash) and Jimmy Palmiotti (Punisher, Ghost Rider, The Nam, Daredevil and Ash) and frankly as a fan of the comic itself I though Vaugier’s portrayal was spot on.   Tough as nails when the bullets start flying but emotional when the danger has subsided, trying to figure out her next move or if she in fact even has a next move.  Okay a lot of TV movies are hammier than Shatner’s  $h%* My Dad Says but overall my only complaint is the story moved too fast and didn’t allow for some real development but hell it was two hours so guessing a mini-series arc was the way to go.   Say now, isn’t there a Painkiller Jane series starring Kristanna Loken?   Hmm…I wonder.

Burn Notice Season 3...Boom.

With events of Season 2 almost wrapped up and his handlers meeting an untimely demise, is Michael finally clear from all the point and counterpoint of his mysterious higher ups???   Well...grab a seat, maybe some popcorn and a tasty beverage and try to not wince.   This is Burn Notice Season 3

Spoilers can be very disconcerning

Michael just finished a five mile swim to shore after leaping about 300 feet from a moving helicopter.  Seriously this man is in too good of shape.  Damn near exhausted he looks about the beach trying to get his bearings when he notices that local law enforcement is a might too keen on his person and proceed to apprehend him.   A daring foot chase comes to an end when at the end of the day; it would be easier to dodge questions rather than bullets.  

Sam visits him in the clink to offer a standing on his current situation.  Laymen’s terms he is now on the radar for anyone or any organization to find.  Management true to his word leaves him truly out in the cold.  Michael, Fiona and Sam rack their collective heads together to see how to clear Michael of impeding police issues, assist in rebuilding a rapport with his mom Madelyn as well as get Michael in good with the CIA.      As always should he or any of his team members get shot up in the crossfire of espionage, well the Alphabet companies won’t care about a burnt spy, a boozehound former Navy SEAL or a former IRA terrorist.

Fiona and Michael are attempting to formulate something of a normal life but Michael is hell bent to solve the mystery of his former CIA contact’s murder.  A nasty piece of work by the name of Gilroy (Chris Vance of Prison Break, Mental, Dexter, Rizzoli & Isles and Transporter), a blood thirsty hooligan with a penchant for explosives, high velocity sniper rifles and being a prig decides Michael may not be the boy scout his reputation made him and wants to go into business together for a gig.   Naturally Gilroy is cautious and paranoid, so he keeps the details close to the vest.   Michael realizes as bad news as Gilroy is, that he will pull this job off with someone else if Michael refuses.   Michael goes into business with Gilroy if only to sabotage his efforts, inform the authorities and take him down.  Sam and Fi’s constant pleading for Michael to walk away from Gilroy and dump it in the laps of the people paid to stop psychos like this is being ignored.  Without any true hard evidence Michael knows officials won’t listen to him and it is all up to him to see that Gilroy’s contract of devastation is null and void.   Sheesh, bit corny there for a second folks.  Sorry about that. 

 Local police force and FBI are convinced Michael may have gone rogue and is actually the threat his burn notice claims him to be.   Can Michael and crew win the day, save the country and still get the trip to Maui?  Tune in and find out!

Burn Notice Season 2: Electric Boogaloo

Well folks you know how when a show is created and feel nothing will come as close to the same level of writing the first season offered you?  The same jam packed action or suspense clearly cannot be topped.  Pin your ears back, open your eyes and prepared to be wowed.  This is Burn Notice Season 2.

This message will contain spoilers and self-destruct if you dislike it.

Well we last left Michael Weston (Jeffery Donovan of Burn Notice, Hitch, Another World and Book of Shadows: Blair Witch 2) he was getting his buddy, former SEAL and likable alcoholic Sam Axe (Bruce Campbell of The Evil Dead, Army of Darkness, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. and Spider-Man) and former IRA girlfriend Fiona Glennanne (Gabrielle Anwar of For Love or Money, Body Snatchers, Scent of a Woman and Three Musketeers) out of a tight spot with some heroin dealers, then he was loaded up to meet his mystery date/keeper of his leash regarding his burn notice.   Hours pass and Michael is aching for some action when his mild dozing is interrupted with explosions, assault rifle fire and a bit of odd screaming.  His cell phone goes off and man his reception is amazing in my opinion; a female voice informs Michael her name is Carla and she wants to know if he is up for a few errands

From this rather impressive build-up it really sets the tone for the season.   Fiona and Sam are slowly and against their collective will start to like one another.   The insanity and repercussions of last season is taking a toll on Michael’s family as well and Michael has that series of issues to contend with.

From layman’s eye this show takes another leap into very technical camera maneuvering, high speed car chases, mixed martial art hand to hand and more gun fights than a Segal movie.  Creator Matt Nix sets the bar and tries to push this show to the letter Director of Photography William Wage ( Love Potion No. 9, Purgatory, Down in the Delta and Surface) combines crane shots, on-board cameras ,dolly tracks and just about anything needed to get the shot.  Hell I am just shocked to not find cameras mounted on the actors for some bizarre POV shot.  Familiar faces ranging from science fiction, comedy and drama emerge this season and you will be stunned when you see them.   If you made it through Season 1 and were blown away by this series with complex characters leading complicated lives and odds are against them, you will thoroughly enjoy season 2 , but don’t tell anyone were you got this information or we are all in the soup.

Blood Wars: A High School Production

Blood Wars

SPOILERS A PLENTY

Well I am back and with yet another vampire movie with Jason Connery, son of Sir Sean Connery.  I bet if they crank out a third vampire film with this yahoo we can create our own subgenre in vampire films.  Connery Fangs!!!   Well this brilliant piece of tripe is called The Thirst: Blood War a.k.a. The Thirst a.k.a. Blood Wars.   Hey distribution!  Pick a title and stick with it!    OooOoO POV shots on a scale model and into our feature.  Can’t tell if it is that or CGI.   Handheld HD DVD mini-cam strikes again.  Brotherhood of Blood flashback!   Good God does no one shoot on 35MM anymore?  Hell even 35MM HD would be fine as well but I guess it wasn’t in the budget.   Next complaint is under cranking the footage so it flies around like a crazed vampire bat of yesteryear and killing epileptics left and right.  Great dizzy and annoyed I start this flick off on the wrong foot.

Our film revolves around a hippy college student named Will (A.J. Draven of Spec Ops) who simply bumbles with the female student body because he is a doofus. His roommate/buddy Rico not so Suave (Owiso Odera of Dirt and Three Rivers) proceed to chat up a couple of girls Jayne and Ashley (Allison Lange of Gacy and Christina’s House and Rini Bell of Gilmore Girls and Bring It On)  all the while illuming to the lost of several collegiate members over the past few days.   I mean it’s not even mid terms so the atypical fleeing and suicides shouldn’t be happening just yet.

  The coven meeting between the witches and vampires is amusing for the fact that Tony Todd (Hatchet and Hatchet 2) is miked but his lackey Claudius (Jason Connery of Brotherhood of Blood) isn’t and he sounds like he is projecting for a high school play.  He struts and rants a few moments before he is put in his place by Todd then he just plops down amongst three or four undead hunnies.  Hmm maybe he is a chip off the old block after all.  Get this man some roles of caliber dammit.     Apparently there exists in this universe a type of Warlock.  No not Julian Sands.  A warlock called a sentry and they can defeat vampires.   A slight distraction from this episodic masterpiece is two rednecks with beer and a shotgun.  Shenanigans away!   C.Thomas Howell (Kindred, Outsiders and the Hitcher) and Mark Holton (Leprechaun and Pee Wee’s Big Adventure) are two Billy Bob’s short of a KKK rally head into the woods looking to shoot a cougar only to get snacked on by a couple of rookie vamps.  ENTER THE SENTRIES!!!  Our “Warlocks” slay the vampires in their stylish gunny sack robes.   First off let’s just take a look at the word Warlock.  Last I recall they are practitioners of black magic. Perhaps sorcerer would have worked or say wizard.  Apparently the Sentries and Vampires have a long standing rivalry so yeah no real heroes in this.  We have more back story about how the Sentries and Vampires have been going at it I felt like I was attending a history lecture.  Who can say offhand?   Our writer may have just done a handful of horse tranquilizers and slaved away at the keyboard.   Oh sorry I forgot.  Our creative muse inspired bringer of pain is Ramesh Thandani.  This was his first script followed by Operation Midnight Climax.   With this insight you can see what a treat you are in for.    Back to our wacky sophomores Rico and Will are playing what looks like Left4Dead 2 and Rico fades out after his victory dance.   Will stumbles through his explanation that he is cool with Jayne and likes her boobies.  Okay maybe not that bad but my God this boy needs some lessons in dealing with the opposite sex.   The two are back at his dorm for some action but low and behold a fade so no sex scene for you kids.    So our wacky young lad encounters some weird eroticism vampire dreamscape after he is bitten.  

Let’s give you all, the abridged version.   Ahem.   The fight scenes could have benefited from a stunt coordinator.   I mean it looks like a pre-teen schoolyard squabble in most.   Tony Todd has a very commanding performance that is simply wasted on this film.  Jason Connery was excellent as the impatient vampire to ascend to the throne if you will.  America Olivo, who I felt was seductive but the performance seemed hasty and her lines felt forced.   A.J. Draven and let us spare his feelings appeared to be out of his depth in playing a complex character such as a newly turned vampire struggling to keep his humanity and not give into the dark pleasures of the night.   Hell Denzel Washington would have had some issues with that and that cat is dynamite on the screen.  Also would have been a trifle bit difficult to envision Denzel Washington as a college student now.   Bottom line is this film tried to push where their time constraints and lack of budget and frankly just did not cut the mustard.   You have a potentially decent flick if more time was taken with it.  Maybe with new edits or re-shoots with A.J. and tell him to emote dammit.    Suffice to say this vampire film sucked after many fashions.