Near Dark

How do you guys feel about Kathryn Bigelow?  Yeah Point Break is classic and The Hurt Locker was pretty good but what about her other shit?  Strange Days was…well… strange.  I dig the whole future of the 90’s thing but the plot seemed half baked.  The preachiness at the end didn’t bother me but not using Michael Wincott (The Crow, Metro) to his full extent did.  I’ve heard K-19 was awful but haven’t seen it myself.  She’s kind of a tough one to figure out.  And the problem is Near Dark doesn’t make things that much clearer.

A young Oklahoma cowboy gets bit by a female vampire and joins her band of miscreants.  But he’s conflicted with what’s happened to him and doesn’t know how to react or what to do.

A bunch of people out there call this the adult Twilight and I would say that that’s a fair description of it.  There are a number of differences but I think if you’re going to describe any movie by saying that it’s just like Twilight then people have already made up their minds if they’re interested or not.

But let me just say that the bar scene in the middle of the picture is the best part and almost makes this film worth watching.  It’s mostly due to Bill Paxton (Weird Science, Twister) because he hams it up like he usually did back then.  Lance Henriksen (Aliens, Stone Cold) is also really good in this but he’s good in everything.  He lends a legitimate and alluring quality to this picture that’s sorely needed.

With the exception of the bar scene the action and some of the plot points are handled clumsily.  Shit isn’t explained well or not at all, devices are introduced just so they can obviously be brought back in later, it’s hard to get a handle on the time of day or night as it seems to change whenever it’s convenient and etc.  But this was only Bigelow’s second feature so I guess I can cut her some slack.  She does mood quite well though and that’s what this is, a mood piece.  The soundtrack is by Tangerine Dream and they use a lot of droning synth as the driving force behind the emotions in the film. 

So all in all I would say don’t bother with this one.  You’re not missing much.  It could’ve been an awesome vampire action movie but the filmmakers decided to go for more of a romantic approach.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that but the combination of Lance Henriksen and Bill Paxton, the dark atmosphere, knowing what Bigelow would eventually do with action on Point Break and the few badass moments that actually are in here makes me want this to be so much better and action oriented than it is. 

As for Kathryn Bigelow herself it’s still up in the air.  If The Hurt Locker sucked then I would call her a one hit wonder but it didn’t.  I guess her stuff is hit or miss.  It’s also sporadic so it might be a long time before we get another good one from her.  Here’s hoping that “Untitled International Thriller” that’s supposed to be coming out next year is loaded with badass shit.