Vegas Vampires (2003)

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

The first must-see film of the year.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Working on the Las Vegas beat, police officers assigned to a missing person's investigation run into several others all inadvertently crossing paths with a group of vampires using the strip as a hideout and decide to band together to defeat the common enemy.This one was a lot better than expected. One of the better points is that this one decides to really throw the seriousness out the window and just have fun with the topic, and there's so many random scenes in here that are included just for that reason. Among the best at this is the opening in the night-club, from the stumbling-across-the-ceremony section that features some really freaky images to the alleyway confrontation and the finale with the flying vampire being really great, and the all-out fun of the motel-confrontation in the middle of the desert all provide a lot more disturbing images than expected and really put some fine action scenes in here as well. Even the opening to the limo attack is really fun, with the build-up to the attack even though the inevitable is about to occur, and the sheer fun of the battle with the vampires in front of the casino is one of the best scenes due to the sheer outrageousness of it all to mix it up with a couple of really nice chases inner-cut alongside a pretty decent fight. There's also the films' last half-hour, which is just an all-out action-packed assault which has a lot to like. Starting with the confrontation in the police headquarters, which has several great parts including the interrogation room sequence, a tense and creepy scene where an officer investigates a strange mist in a hallway leading to a bullet-laced frenzy, a pretty new spin on the reveal-the-creatures-as-vampires conversation and the big gunfight-laden finale, all the way to the escape and eventual showdown later on with all the good guys in here going into a room full of creatures with guns blazing and just mowing the vampires down in a hail of bullets and wooden arrows as well as the exposure of some to sunlight, manages to stay exciting the whole time. The last big plus is the blood and gore, which is really nice and messy which works for the film against the mildly irritating flaw as the only thing wrong with it. The fact that the film goes almost out of its way to include a headache- inducing plot is the real problem here, as this one has about five different stories going on in here. First off is the investigation of the missing person's case that leads to the discovery of the vampires requiring outside forces coming in, then switches to the friends coming back for some fun and then the honeymooning couple all thrown in together just manages to be nearly all-out confusing at times, especially when it builds something up with one of the stories and then it cuts away to something else in order to focus on that one. It's great that it manages to throw all the elements together, but way too many characters are here resulting in a start-stop feel to the film that is very irritating because of the requirements needed for the stories and it just didn't need to. Fixing this one flaw would pretty much make this one a lot better, and is really the only thing sticking out as wrong about the film.Rated R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence, Nudity and a mild sex scene.

Overall, a rather bad movie with a few redeeming qualities. Vampires in Las Vegas run amok and are hunted by a variety of police officers, who eventually defeat the vampires with the help of a sexy nun. Naturally. There are a number of flaws in the movies: day turns to night and night to day in the middle of scenes; characters' appearances change between cut away scenes, only two vampires combusted when exposed to daylight while many others walked around during the day without problems. The number of gaffes in the film provide the viewer ample opportunity to play "find the error." The main premise of the movie seems adequate (hunting down a 300 year old vampire who has returned to seek a new wife), but there are too many sub-plots floating around that provide tenuous links to the main premise.Three characters stand out for their contributions to this film. Eric Etenari does an excellent job as the main vampire's henchman, a smooth talking, lady's man who provides the boss with his victims. Comic relief is provided by two legendary stars of the 1970s, Fred Williamson (who also directed the movie) and Richard Roundtree (best known for his role as Shaft). In some sense, Vegas Vampires seemed to be an effort, though largely deficient, to remember the days of the blaxploitation films in which Roundtree and Williamson starred in the 1970s.

This film appears to be scraps from an editing room floor that were very, very poorly spliced together into a completely incoherent and ridiculous mess. I can enjoy a really bad horror film, but this one is so bad, there isn't even one redeeming quality to be found. I rented this because Tommy Lister is in it and the premise looked amusing. Unfortunately Tommy's part was dull and one dimensional, and not even one of the scattered plots managed to be redeeming. The fact that I rented this is proof that there is far too little to do in the town I live in, and that I will, in fact, rent absolutely anything. I have to say "hats off" to anyone that got paid for any portion of this film. Hopefully it was some kid's film school project, and said kid has subsequently decided to find a more suitable career.

Officer Johnson (Tommy "Tiny"Lister) is tracking down a string of murders in Las Vegas and his son-in-law just happens to attract the attention of the local vampire ring. When his partner is murdered and a vampire is caught, Will he finally believe? Or does it take a super sexy nun to show him the vampire fighting way? Well, it is obviously the second option.To start off, this is a great cast featuring "Tiny" (Friday), Richard Roundtree (Shaft), Daniel Baldwin (Vampires), Glenn Plummer (Saw II), and Kurupt (rap group, Tha Dogg Pound). There is also an appearance by K-ci & Jojo. And I did a bit of snooping around here and noticed an A. Demetrius Brown listed as Writer/ Executive Producer. Now that means he is either the guy serving time in prison or the kid from the band B2K that broke up.Combining hip hop, vampires, Las Vegas, cop melodrama, and blaxploitation, this could have easily have been a failure. But it wasn't. Surprising, the production values were very high with great locations, fantastic musical backdrops, and an amusing cast.There are some scenes and dialogue that are obviously corny. For instance, why would the vampires feed in public where they can, and do, get caught? And they break a rule that vampires cannot enter a residence unless invited. And that Black nun sure was sassy for a follower of the lord. But the silly scenes are overshadowed by some funny moments, like when a girl is running to her truck to get away and drops her keys right as she gets in. But before I could roll my eyes, she swung the door knocking the vampire over and took the keys from him. There is also a scene where Roundtree karate kicks a vampires head right off! There is a brief topless vampire orgy scene for anyone interested in that. Gore includes a decapitation, vampires burning in the sun, neck suckage, and bullet wounds. I just wished there was more of it and they focused less on the young kids. The "flying vampire" effects were simple, but effective too. Instead of hooking someone up on a wire and swinging them around, they added some effect afterwards to blur out the image and make it appear as though he is moving extremely fast.IMDb will have this listed as Vegas Vamps (2003), but the actual DVD release is Feb. 27th 2007 under Vegas Vampires by Code Black Entertainment and runs at 89 minutes. The film quality is good and if it was shot on video, I couldn't tell. The SFX was good when it occurred, which wasn't enough.DVD Extras: N/A. It was a screener and I cannot find any info from other sites.Favorite Quote: Girl accidentally runs over her boyfriend in truck and asks him, "Oh my god! Are you okay?" Boyfriend replies, "No, you just hit me with a truck dumbass." Bottom Line: Pretty tame blaxploitation vampire flick with some fun to be had though.Rating: 7/10 by Molly Celaschi