Very disappointing...

Good concept, poorly executed.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

There's something to be said about a vampire flick that dispenses with the usual lore and goes for something new and creative. You won't find garlic or the fear of crosses in Jack Crow's (James Woods) arsenal, he's dealing with a Master Vampire who's determined to crack the taboo of bursting into flames with the first hint of sunlight. The entire scenario is placed under the auspices of the Roman Catholic Church, with a crooked Cardinal Alba (Maximilian Schell) forsaking his vows to team up with the indomitable Jan Valek (Thomas Ian Griffith). Since I don't know any better, it appeared to me that Montoya's (Daniel Baldwin) emphasis on reciting Rules for Hunting Vampires might have been the inspiration for a similar treatment in "Zombieland" a decade later. That one was done for kicks, however Montoya was pretty straight up and serious about the whole thing. My favorite would have been 'You can't kill a Master at night'. Considering their camaraderie throughout the picture, it made sense that Crow would catch Montoya a break at the end of the story. Until they met again of course, and then he'd have to get the wooden stake ready for his buddy. I'm sure there was some kind of unstated rule on that too.

John Carpenter's fondness of Westerns is well established, all the way back to his first prominent flick "Assault on Precinct 13" being a modern re-working of "Rio Bravo" with John Wayne. I think Carpenter is one of the best American directors, up on a level with Scorsese and a few others (and usually working with a much lower budget) but for some reason he doesn't get critical respect in this country, probably due to the genre he works in (I suspect that's also why Stephen King is not generally regarded as one of the best American novelists). I've also been a huge fan of James Woods since "The Onion Field," so to have them working together is a dream for me. "Vampires" had me right from the get go with Woods and his crew planning their raid on the "nest" ---I don't think there's anyone better than Carpenter at setting up scenes and building suspense, he's not afraid to give it the running time it needs—unlike a lot of younger directors who came from music videos and want everything fast and choppy. After most of the characters are killed off early on, the survivors track down the bad guy like in "The Searchers" also with John Wayne---in this case the "sheriff" and his "deputy" and the "floozy." Carpenter gets the best career performances out of two actors who are not my favorites—Daniel Baldwin and Sheryl Lee—although those two have the best scene in the film, i.e. the first one in the hotel room. I have mixed feelings about Thomas Ian Griffith as the "master"---I'd only ever seen him once before, in "Excessive Force," and liked him, but I thought he came a little too close to the "stereotyped European bloodsucker" that the Woods character himself had derided, but I imagine Griffith played it the way Carpenter wanted it. I loved having the devious Cardinal turn out to be a "bad guy," but that's just me and my issues with Catholicism in general. The plot with tracking down the "black cross" got just a bit unwieldy at times, but Carpenter keeps things humming along until the climax, after which in classic Western tradition the Woods character lets the two new vampires go their way for "old time's sake" but warns he'll have to kill them if they cross paths in future, then Woods and his new sidekick ride off (without horses) into the sunset (or sunrise, rather) for more adventures. …So after multiple viewings I really can't see why anyone wouldn't enjoy this flick unless they were just pre-determined not to; reportedly this was the project that led Carpenter to decide to stay in the business, and I'm sure glad he did…. Woods' line to the young priest in one scene---"Did you get a little wood just now, Padre?" ---should be in a collection of classic movie bon mots, along with "You gotta be f---in' kidding" from Carpenter's version "The Thing"--maybe someone should do a short film of just clips from Carpenter's oeuvre.....

Good movie, great author. Sad he started writing so late and with such potential.Vampire$ is a really good book made into a decent Carpenter movie.It's just ... not ... Armor.And vampire effects are cheaper to produce than CGI space battles to tell a story.If someone ever manages to turn Armor into a movie ... well, we will probably already have 8 of The Sten Chronicles to view while anticipating an Armor movie.Until then, reading will always > watching.

Following a master's release, a squad of expert vampire hunters sets out to prevent his flock from attaining the single artifact needed to allow vampires to walk in daylight before they succumb to his devious plans.This is easily one of the more enjoyable and overlooked entries in the genre. One of the main elements responsible for this is the rather original and innovative approach it takes in regards to vampires. Not only is this one openly deviant about the proper tools and what doesn't work alone makes for quite a good telling here by including the storyline about the search for the special artifact. Not only is the concept of that particular object rather creative and original but it also allows for the film to turn into a road movie that includes all the trappings devoted to hunting and tracking a vampire clan. This includes the one main method of accomplishing that in the psychic connection between the un-turned victim and the master, again a rather novel touch that produces a lot of fun. That doesn't include the main reasons why this one works so well in the actual hunting down of the vampires, which there's plenty of within this. This one manages to really make the hunters quite impressive by utilizing special tactics and maneuvers that clearly showcase some experience in their field which is what really impresses since it routinely works rather than the stereotypical method of having experts continuously fail at their profession simply to drive the movie along. That alone makes this one enjoyable along with the frantic action on display and highly-enjoyable gore scenes which features some rather bloody times throughout this in how both sides have plenty of bloodshed ravaged toward them. These are enough to help this overcome its one true flaw. The final showdown really could've been done more effectively, and really should've had one to begin with. The climactic fight lasts all of about a minute, with a couple stabbings, some minor throwing around and then the big hit. It's really nothing much of a fight and should've been one for such a journey like this to take route. Still there's not a whole lot here that really gets this down.Rated R: Extreme Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and Nudity.