RISE: BLOOD HUNTER
Directed by Sebastian Gutierrez
2007 – 122 Minutes/Widescreen
DVD Provided by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Article written by Mark Engle

Lucy Liu made an impression on U.S. audiences back in 1999 with her breakout role as a no-holds barred assassin in Mel Gibson’s PAYBACK. Since then, she’s enjoyed a lot of Hollywood “star” success in the CHARLIE’S ANGELS franchise and Quentin Tarantino’s KILL BILL among others. I carefully use the word “star” rather than actress/actor for a good reason. RISE is definite proof that while one has a lot of success, it doesn’t necessarily mean one carries a film all on one’s own. It takes charisma, talent, a good script and direction. Something that this vampire tale doesn’t have a lot of, but it does have Liu in the buff (a lot) and the casting director was smart enough to surround their star with some solid character actors.

Lucy Liu plays Sadie Blake, a reporter who gets too close to the wrong people in her expose on the Goth underground. Given a clue to something more dangerous than your average poser, she discovers a feeding ground in an abandoned house, where the basement is filled with blood and plastic tarps. When her friend at the office is killed, Liu is kidnapped by the lead vampire. The vampires make her their next meal, but she refuses to die during their ceremony of blood sucking and necrophilia. She wakes up in the morgue with a big slash on her neck, not much of a pulse, and not much clothing either. After an unsuccessful suicide attempt and some help from a fellow vampire, she gets her bearings and it’s time for revenge on those who destroyed her life.

As Liu works her way up the chain by killing one vampire after another, an ex-officer Michael Chiklis (Ben Grimm aka The Thing from FANTASTIC FOUR) gets hot on her trail, looking for vengeance of his own. The same group of bloodsuckers killed his daughter, leaving him an alcoholic mess who was kicked off the force, though he's still receiving help from his friends. He soon catches up with her and joins forces to destroy the bad guys. Sounds very cliché and it is, but despite the fact that his character has been done to death in so many other movies, he’s still more fun to watch than Lucy Liu. Another highlight is Mako, in his last screen appearance as the human servant to our lead baddie. Unfortunately, again, he makes a better bad guy than the vamp he swears to protect. This all leads to a very unsatisfying ending when our lackluster leading lady finally meets up with her nemesis in a boring final death scene.

That’s not to say it is all bad. While I’m not a fan and in no way did this win me over, some genre fans love just about any vampire film. If you can get past the non-traditional set up of the lore in this particular tale, then bloodsucking fans (think Emo/Goth) might have enough to enjoy. They can walk in daylight, they kill with blades, there’s no sharp teeth and, for whatever reason, even though they cannot die in any traditional human manner, they seem to have no problem being knocked unconscious or suffocated (in a fight scene with Mako, he wraps a plastic shower curtain over Liu’s head, almost choking her). On the plus note, there’s lots of blood, a decapitation, nude bodies (either victims hanging upside down or Liu walking around), and one very nasty bite scene involving Liu and a homeless man’s arm. Lucy Liu isn’t terrible. She just can’t carry it off, despite a few good scenes (the morgue, with her mother, etc). Everything is too slowly paced, despite the fact that the whole thing feels like the producers wanted another BLADE franchise. Wesley Snipes she isn’t and RISE just doesn’t fit the bill.

Sony’s DVD presentation is very good, sporting a nice transfer of the uncut version. The R-rated version ran only 94 minutes while this disc runs a too long 122 minutes. I'm not sure what the differences are, but one guess could be the omission of a lot of talking scenes, since there definitely isn’t almost 20 minutes worth of gore and sex to warrant those kinds of cuts. Extras include several trailers and a few featurettes, including behind-the-scenes and storyboards. Overall, despite a few decent scenes, Mako and Chiklis’ performances (and a fun cameo by Robert Forster), there isn’t much reason to recommend RISE: BLOOD HUNTER to anyone but those that feel the need to see and own every vampire film out there, and/or those who find Lucy Liu to be hot. For sexy I recommend VAMPYROS LESBOS, for a good modern vampire story seek out NEAR DARK instead. Dramatic tension, there’s George Romero’s MARTIN. For action and style re-watch BLADE and THE UNDERWORLD movies. I guess what I’m saying is there are better movies out there to suit one’s tastes as opposed to visiting this misfire.