BLOODRAYNE 2: DELIVERANCE

BLOODRAYNE 2: DELIVERANCE

Pyles (Chris Coppola) arrives in the sleepy town of Deliverance looking for a Wild West story to write for the Chicago Chronicle. The mayor apologises to Pyles, explaining that other than the work being conducted on the local rail track, there's very little to write about.

That quickly changes when Billy the Kid (Zack Ward) and his gang of unkempt vampire cowboys saunter into town and begin abducting the local children. When the town's sheriff (John Novak) confronts Billy in the street, even he is powerless to save the kids - he ends up being transformed into a vampire himself.

So as Billy and his crew hole up in the mayor's office with the town's children, it is up to one lone woman on horseback to save the day …

Rayne (Natassia Malthe) travels into Deliverance to visit her friends Vince and Bernadette, only to be informed by Pat Garrett (Michael Pare) that they were the first to be killed by the bloodsuckers - and that their kids are among those being held.

Having rode into the town centre at dusk, Rayne proves her credentials by kicking the crap out of old vampire foe Hogan (Mike Dopud) in the local bar. Then she settles down for a game of poker with a group of regulars. But things turn ugly again when Rayne wins, and Hogan challenges her to a stand-off in the street. She ends up shooting Hogan dead - bullets blessed with holy water, you see.

The now-vampiric sheriff orders his henchmen to throw Rayne into jail, pending her execution scheduled for midnight. But, following an interview with Pyles that unfortunately recalls Packer being quizzed through bars in CANNIBAL! THE MUSICAL, Rayne befriends mysterious drifter Muller (Brendan Fletcher). He's a fellow vampire hunter who's been tracking Billy the Kid for years.

Now all Rayne has to do is escape her own execution, kick some serious vampire arse and save the town's kids … But don't worry, there's plenty of time before all that for her to chew on matchsticks, the director to zoom in on shifty cowboy's eyes and Jessica de Roojj's score to pilfer from every Western film and TV show imaginable.

Proof positive that Big Al wants me dead - he sends me an Uwe Boll film to review!

Having not seen the original BLOODRAYNE and being relatively new to the much-maligned cinema of Boll, I didn't know what to expect from this film. Apparently this is based on a computer game character?

Well that didn't bode well for me. I've never had much interest in gaming and by-and-large films based on games don't seem to translate well to the screen. But I was willing to approach this with an open mind. After all, the only other Boll films I'd seen previously were ALONE IN THE DARK and SEED. And, without a doubt, SEED showed that the director had improved significantly since the earlier Christian Slater debacle …

BLOODRAYNE 2 unfortunately lacks the consistency in atmosphere that permeated through SEED. Of course, it's origins dictate that it was never going to as bleak and oppressive as SEED - thank Goodness - but it simply lacked a consistent tone. In fact it's true to say that for the most part the film lacked an atmosphere of any sort.

Elsewhere the cast clearly struggle with the knowingly cheesy material (co-writers Christopher Donaldson and Neil Every unashamedly race through every Western cliché known to man) and consequently ruin BLOODRAYNE 2's chances of being an enjoyably hammy homage. Instead they transform it into a muted cowboy-horror hybrid that never seems quite sure whether it wants to be dumb or mean.

Boll is ultimately responsible for the numerous flaws BLOODRAYNE 2 suffers from, the greatest one being its total lack of pacing - there's no tension, no suspense, no build-up.

But then, Boll must also take credit for the things that do work.

Malthe seems at ease in her role, presumably benefiting from previous experience of working with Boll. She's sexy enough to make her cheesy dialogue pleasurable to watch, and kicks butt in a manner that's sure to entertain male teenage audiences everywhere.

The cinematography is frequently striking, compositions making deft use of exterior locales and stylish lighting.

Even the sepia-tinted opening credits sequence, while resembling the opening to an episode of "The Sullivans", works in an amusing way.

Then there's the genuinely disturbing scene in which Billy the Kid feasts on a helpless child as the other kids cower in a corner, weeping. It's not a pleasant scene, but it's undeniably effective.

BLOODRAYNE 2 isn't an unmitigated disaster and is clearly not meant to be taken too seriously. Were it not for it's severe lack of pacing, I'd happily recommend it as a cheesily enjoyable popcorn film.

Presented in anamorphic 1.78:1, the transfer is at times a sharp and well-contrasted proposition. Colours are strong, as are detail and background information. However, there's quite a bit of edge enhancement evident, and it is distracting.

The English audio comes in three optional mixes - 2.0, 5.1 and DTS. All are evenly balanced affairs that play without undue concerns.

An eye-catching main menu page leads to a static scene-selection menu allowing access to the film via 12 chapters.

The most notable extra on the disc is a commentary track from Boll and the director of photography. Both are German and speak in pretty good English, although at times the DP does unintentionally sound a bit like a character from "Allo Allo". The track is fairly fluent in terms of anecdotes and information, although towards the end there are more gaps as the pair obviously run out of things to say. Bizarrely, Boll's dogs are also present for the track - something he claims to insist upon.

14 minutes of cast and crew interviews follow. Boll naturally holds centre-stage, citing Sergio Leone and John Ford as his influences for the film. More interesting are the reactions of Donaldson and Every who admit to being initially apprehensive about working with Boll, having heard he was a "crazy bastard" (and no doubt having read reviews for his previous films). The cast are interviewed separately, clearly at the time of the film's shoot as they all - even Malthe - appear in full costume.

3 minutes of rather redundant deleted scenes round things off, including alternate takes of some scenes that made the final cut. These are presented in non-anamorphic 1.78:1.

The disc is defaulted to open with trailers for IN THE NAME OF THE KING, NO MAN'S LAND: THE RISE OF REEKER and ASSEMBLY.

Undeniably nice to look at on frequent occasions and not without its moments, but my enduring memory of BLOODRAYNE 2 us that it's corny and - worse - has no sense of pace whatsoever. I did learn though, on the interviews featurette, that Uwe is pronounced "Oov-eh". So at least I know how to say "Uwe, please no!" when the man's battering me senseless …

Review by Stuart Willis


 
Released by Metrodome Video
Region 2 - PAL
Rated 18
Extras :
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