THE
BLOOD REICH - BLOODRAYNE 3
DVD region 2. Metrodome.
Mad
German director Uwe Boll seems to have been on something of a
Nazi kick recently, what with his controversial Auschwitz movie
and this third, unnecessary film in the Bloodrayne series –
based, like so many of boll’s films, on a video game. The
first Bloodrayne was so excrutiatingly bad that
I had to give up after twenty minutes, and bearing that in mind,
I avoided the first sequel. But this looked potentially more interesting,
and although no masterpiece, it did prove fairly watchable.
Half-vampire, half-human Goth chick Rayne (Natassia Malthe) crops
up (without much explanation) in 1943, joining a band of resistance
fighters as they mount a raid on a Nazi train. She kills the Commandant
(Michael Paré), but can’t resist feeding on his blood,
and before you know it, he’s returned to life as a day-walking,
superhuman vampire, intent on raising an army of vampires and,
assisted by a Mad Doctor (Boll regular Clint Howard), making Hitler
immortal.
Named
in the opening titles as Bloodrayne: The Third Reich,
this is a fairly disposable but harmless mix of lightweight nazisploitation,
action and horror. Boll keeps things moving along, and fills the
tight 70 minutes running time with cheesy gore, action scenes
and gratuitous nudity (exploitation fans will appreciate the entirely
unnecessary nude lesbian scene!). Malthe looks entirely out of
place in WW2, and the dialogue is far too modern, but if these
points bother you, it’s unlikely that you’ll be watching
thus anyway. There’s a ridiculously melodramatic voice-over,
cheesy blood spilling (CGI rendered, natch) and a mix of heavy
accents and clumsy acting. In other words, pretty much what you’d
expect from Boll’s work.
But I’m not here to rubbish the prolific and eccentric director
– I doubt very much he makes this stuff under any illusions
about its quality. His films are more entertaining than a lot
of ‘serious’ directors work, and while I couldn’t
seriously recommend this film as a Must See, it’s amusing,
throwaway fun.
The DVD comes with a making-of featurette and a commentary track,
neither of which I’ve had a chance to check out. .
Mad
German director Uwe Boll seems to have been on something of a
Nazi kick recently, what with his controversial Auschwitz movie
and this third, unnecessary film in the Bloodrayne series –
based, like so many of boll’s films, on a video game. The
first Bloodrayne was so excrutiatingly bad that
I had to give up after twenty minutes, and bearing that in mind,
I avoided the first sequel. But this looked potentially more interesting,
and although no masterpiece, it did prove fairly watchable.
Named
in the opening titles as Bloodrayne: The Third Reich,
this is a fairly disposable but harmless mix of lightweight nazisploitation,
action and horror. Boll keeps things moving along, and fills the
tight 70 minutes running time with cheesy gore, action scenes
and gratuitous nudity (exploitation fans will appreciate the entirely
unnecessary nude lesbian scene!). Malthe looks entirely out of
place in WW2, and the dialogue is far too modern, but if these
points bother you, it’s unlikely that you’ll be watching
thus anyway. There’s a ridiculously melodramatic voice-over,
cheesy blood spilling (CGI rendered, natch) and a mix of heavy
accents and clumsy acting. In other words, pretty much what you’d
expect from Boll’s work.