More about this DVD  •  DVD Info  •  Movie Main Page  •  Message Board

Nicolas Cage plays Peter Loew, a womanizing literature dealer who loses his mind when he thinks he's been bitten by a vampire. Is he schizophrenic or merely developing a bizarre coping mechanism to deal with bad relationship after bad relationship? The answer may be stranger than you think.

Vampire's Kiss was Nic Cage's eleventh film (after such huge hits as Peggy Sue Got Married, Moonstruck and Raising Arizona) and he's probably still kicking himself over it despite the fact he did get to be pretty naked with Jennifer Beals. For everyone else involved, perhaps they just needed the work? Maria Conchita Alonso, forever banished to Schwarzenegger leftovers and television scraps, stars as one of Cage's secretaries, while Flashdance casualty Beals stars as the vampire who started it all. Director Robert Bierman has gone on to further bad television while writer Joseph Minion started off with a great Scorsese bang with After Hours but has since all but disappeared.

This film takes about an hour of its 90 minute runtime just to warm up. It gets mildly funny then severely depressing, and was never at all what I had been expecting. On the positive side the score and cinematography are fantastic. This was only the third feature film for director of photography Stefan Czapsky (Edward Scissorhands, Batman Returns) and is a great example of what was to come. Here he captures very groovy footage of New York City. Composer Colin Towns also put together some fun scores for such flicks as The Puppetmasters and Space Truckers. Towns and Czapsky are the real stars of this show. Cage fans will catch a glimpse of his future brilliance, but otherwise this film is best left forgotten

Video: How Does The Disc Look?

MGM presents Vampire's Kiss in both 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen and 4:3 open matte, each on one side of this double-sided disc. For a film that is now 13 years old, it doesn't look so bad, although most of this transfer's deficiencies can be attributed to the poor source material. The print is full of blemishes at the beginning, but thankfully stabilizes a few scenes in. The film looks subdued, with colors fairly drab to begin with but growing more vibrant by the climax. Blacks are definitely on the murky side, however contrast is well reproduced here. Fleshtones are mediocre but never washed out. There are some scenes with distracting chroma noise, and edge enhancement is present throughout. This transfer is average at best.

Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

There is only one soundtrack included on this disc in English Dolby Digital 2.0 surround. Recorded at 192 kbps, it comes across rather plainly. Surrounds are limited to ambient noise and minor score extension and sound fairly artificial. There are hardly any pans to speak of, with the front soundstage flattened out and dull. Dialogue is always clear, but that is really the high point of this soundtrack. Not very exciting, but serviceable enough.

Also included are English, French and Spanish subtitles and English Closed Captions.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

There are two extras on this disc, the star of the show undoubtedly being the new screen-specific audio commentary with director Robert Bierman and Nicolas Cage. Alas, this track is one of the worst I have ever heard. It starts out extraordinarily pathetic as Cage hardly remembers making this movie and the director seems desperate to have Cage praise his terrible film. It's surprising, as Cage has publicly professed his love for the film on numerous occasions in the past. But yet neither have anything mildly interesting to say and it's a wonder they even managed to finish the recording.

Rounding it out is the film's theatrical trailer in non-anamorphic widescreen and mono.

DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc in your PC?

No ROM extras have been included.

Parting Thoughts