Blade II (2002)

Rating: 3 Stars (out of 4)

Creatures of the Night

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Blade II on DVD.

Wesley Snipes returns as the daywalker, the half-vampire vampire slayer with the Clint Eastwood-like murmur. As in all sequels, we must up the stakes, so Blade teams up with his vampire enemies to fight off a new strain of mutant vampires with jaws that come unhinged (a la Alien). As directed by Guillermo Del Toro (Mimic and The Devil's Backbone) the action jumps back and forth between liquid, lickety-split kung fu to the industry standard quick-cut shaky cam, and it's all lifted from other movies (Dawn of the Dead, mostly). But it's so much adrenaline-pumped B-movie fun, it's nearly worth full price.

DVD Details: New Line's two-disc edition is one of the finest DVDs yet produced. Extras include two commentary tracks: one by director Guillermo Del Toro and producer Peter Frankfurt, and the other by writer David Goyer and Wesley Snipes. Another track contains the isolated score. Other extras include deleted/alternate scenes with director commentary, interactive documentaries, the director's notebook, an art gallery, a music video (Cypress Hill and Roni Size's "Child of the Wild West"), a guide to the Blade 2 video game and DVD-Rom features.

Starring: Wesley Snipes, Kris Kristofferson, Ron Perlman, Leonor Varela, Norman Reedus, Thomas Kretschmann, Luke Goss, Matt Schulze, Donnie Yen
Written by: David S. Goyer
Directed by: Guillermo del Toro
MPAA Rating: R for strong pervasive violence, language, some drug use and sexual content
Running Time: 117 minutes
Date: March 22, 2002