Stars:
Jon Bon Jovi, Cristian De La Fuente, Arly Jover, Darius McCrary, and Natasha
Wagner
Writer:
Tommy Lee Wallace
Director:
Tommy Lee Wallace
Feature
length: 94 minutes
Extras:
Feature Length Audio Commentary With Writer And Director Tommy Lee Wallace and
Theatrical Trailers
Languages:
English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Subtitles:
English Captions and Closed Captions and French, Chinese, Thai, and Korean
Language Subtitles
Packaging:
Keep Case
Chapter
Stops: 28
Sound:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Year
of DVD Release: 2002
Theatrical
Distributor: Destination Films
Home
Video Distributor: Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment
MPAA
Rating: R
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
Four
years after “John Carpenter’s Vampires,” Columbia TriStar Home
Entertainment has released a sequel straight to DVD-Video in America entitled
“John Carpenter Presents Vampires: Los Muertos.” There is a new master south
of the border seeking to walk in the daylight by performing the same act that
the previous master vampire in the first film was prevented from completing. We
never learn or know what has happened to Jack Crow (James Woods) because this is
a sequel in concept only so his character is never even mentioned. All we know
is that novice Vampire Hunter Derek Bliss (Jon Bon Jovi) has been hired by an
anonymous client to build a small team of hunters and kill the master. This new
master is a woman who can move in the blink of an eye and is taunting and toying
with Bliss’ team, who includes a woman who was bitten, but has been taking a
form of medication that was discovered accidentally through HIV research that
prevents a victim from turning into a vampire for a delayed amount of time (we
never learn how long) and has also become a subject of attraction for the
master, who is just as willing to trust science over religion if it can make her
a day walker.
Released
theatrically abroad and executive produced by John Carpenter and his wife Sandy
King while long time Carpenter collaborator Tommy Lee Wallace (Halloween III:
Season Of The Witch and Stephen King’s It) wrote the screenplay and directed
the film. Composer Brian Tyler does a decent job of imitating Carpenter’s
music while giving the film a style of it’s own. As a straight to video in
America sequel, “John Carpenter Presents Vampires: Los Muertos” is not bad.
It is not as good as the first film, but compared to many straight to video
sequels, “John Carpenter Presents Vampires: Los Muertos” is vastly superior.
Maybe I wasn’t expecting too much, but the film is mildly entertaining though
just a tad bit too slowly at times. The story structure follows the first film
closely while shifting a few elements around to give it some new twists. Jon Bon
Jovi doesn’t have to act too much so while he is the star of the film, the
reality is that this is more of an ensemble so he is able to work well onscreen
with the other actors and collectively they come off okay. Granted Jovi can’t
hold a candle to James Woods’ performance in the first film, but he’s fine
for this one.
Columbia
TriStar Home Entertainment presents “John Carpenter Presents Vampires: Los
Muertos” with an anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) transfer on one side and a
(1.33:1) full screen version on the other side of the disc. Both transfers are
clear with no color bleeding, artifacts, or compression grain. A good English
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack is provided and while it is not an
aggressive presentation, it is well rounded and free of background noise.
English Captions and Closed Captions for the hearing impaired and French,
Chinese, Thai, and Korean Language Subtitles are encoded onto both sides of the
DVD for both versions.
Also
available for both presentations is a nice down to earth and screen specific
feature length audio commentary track with Writer and Director Tommy Lee
Wallace, who is articulate and very informative with a soft tonality to his
speaking voice as if he is just speaking from his living room couch instead of
the recording studio. He is very open and very humble too. Nice job. Widescreen
trailers for “John Carpenter Presents Vampires: Los Muertos,” “John
Carpenter’s Ghosts Of Mars,” and “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” wrap up the
extra features on this DVD.
The
menus are standard interactive still frames that are easy to navigate.
Definitely worth a rental, “John Carpenter Presents Vampires: Los Muertos”
will debut on DVD-Video on Tuesday, September 24, 2002 from Columbia TriStar
Home Entertainment.
©
Copyright 2002 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.