Blade (1998)

With 2 years ahead of us that will be jam packed with Comic Book movie adaptations, 2011 and 2012 are set to apitomise what the sub-genre is about, huge special effect driven blockbusters, manditory origin tales and plenty of "I will use these powers for good" moments... Director Stephen Norrington brought us a dark, brooding, action packed martial arts Vampire flick in the form of Blade, Starring Wesley Snipes as the titular Badass.

We hear about Blades beginnings through the perspective of Dr Karen Jenson (N'Bushe Wright), why he does what he does, acting as a lone wolf killing of these vamps as he is part human, and part vampire himself. Dubbed the "Daywalker" by the vampire community he and his comrade and mentor Whistler (Kris Kristofferson)create weapons and vehicles finding new ways to wipe this plague off the face of the earth.

While opening the film in an energetic night club, the film doesn't take the "tech-noir" aproach to cinema a lot of late 90's films (The Matrix) did, instead it was just a set peice to wipe out doezens of blood sucking creepos with the baddest black dude around. The film goes about its 2 hour run time finding a good balance between lead character developement and villainous scheming. While not your typical villain vamp, Stephen Doriff manages to contemporise vampires while maintaining that elegance and restrain they have been known for, while also managing to be menacing when he needs to be.

The balance in this film was just right. The rebellious nature of the younger vampires, I felt was a great metaphor for our teenage years, the "Pure blood's" (those born vampires, not bitten) Look down upon them, and rule how they should live their lives, I even understand that need to rebel, Deacon Frost (Doriff) just decides to do that by raising a blood/vampire god thingy. not cool.

Overall, the story and action were well handled and every fight scene, weapon and item of clothing added just the flare, and rang true with the character of Blade they had set up, proving that divulging from the Comic book source material can be a good thing (in the books he was a human who was immune to vampire bites) it set the bar for comic book movies of the 21st century, making the character your own and creating a great story, characters and memorising action. Hollywood, and Marvel it would seem, didn't get the message.8/10

Bride Of Frankenstein (1935)

The sequel to the Universal Studios 1931 breakout hit Frankenstein see's their greatest and most sympathetic character return... but not alone.

One of the scarce examples of a sequel surpassing the original in every sense, the budget was bigger and Director James Whale was given complete creative freedom (only hitting a few bumps when he came to the censorship board). The story see's Dr Frankenstein and his creation (Colin Clive and Boris Karloff respectively) return, picking up moments after the events of the original.

Yes the monster goes on another rampage of sorts, but it's well handled. He grows as a character, he even learns to speak a little, uttering a line I found confoundedly epic "Smoke..GOOD! drink....GOOD!".

While the creature matures and becomes more human, the Doctor and his former mentor Doctor Pretorius (played by the masterfully camp Ernest Thesiger)work on creating "another", this time in the form of mans greatest enemy.... woman.

Yes friends, same as any 70+ year old film you have to forgive the odd hokey line and cheesy special effects and watch it in context or that age of cinema. If you can you'll be treated to one of cinemas greatest accomplishments. Moving cameras, surprisingly decent believable performances (almost all round) and some stunningly nigtmarish visuals all build to something way ahead of it's time.

Friends, take the time to show some cinematic history some love, you'll be glad you did.9/10

Raging Bull (1980)

While The Fighter got a heft of critical praise and an Oscar win for Christian Bale this just-gone award season, it's worthwhile remembering there was once another almost-never-made-boxer-and-his-brother under-dog story of a very different kind. Back in the 70's and 80's the Martin Scorsase/Robert De Niro duo struck gold time after time. Crazed loner Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver or their co-op in Mean Streets, the pair seemed golden. So putting their brains and passion together to form a story based upon real life boxer Jake Lamotta's life story could have only ended one way. Cinematic perfection (or close to it).

Shot entirely in black and white the film takes us from a young(ish) Jake taking on bouts with Sugar Ray Robinson, as well as slowly drip feeding us his darker side, how Jake easily switches from "best buddy" and loving, playful brother to dark, uncaring and downright violent. The movie takes us all the way through his success, and unfortunately, his brutally honest downfall. While the character remains pretty much unsympathetic throughout, one can't help feeling he never meant to be the person he was, he just didn't know any other way. While that doesnt excuse lashing out at his brother (subtle yet memorable Joe Pesci) and wife (Cathy Moriarty in her film début) for little or no reason, it goes a small way to at least explaining it.

The end result of golden boys De Niro and Scorsase is this black and white gem, seemingly a stylistic choice it was apparently also to disguise small historical inacuracies like cars and the colour of the boxing gloves from the 40's, and it works besutifully. The fights are both stylistically shot while also making you feel every punch. A lot of love went into this film, and it showed on screen, De Niro gained 60 pounds to play the older and out-of-shape Lamotta and it's little touches like that (taking months out from filming to put on the weight) that sell you the character more than what would have been done these days, a fast suit and a balding wig.

While the test of time well tell weather or not The Fighter has the same staying power as this brooding masterpiece, Raging Bull has rightfully taken it's crown as possibly the greatest boxing film of all time (yes, better than Rocky). Small draw backs like the occasional sound flunk was something I could forgive given how much stress Scorsase was under during the editing process, and didn't hinder my enjoyment one bit.

Stunning, honest, violent, tear inducing with no real "feel good" resolution to the tale, this film will break your heart, but you'll love it. 9/10