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List Price: $9.98 | | Label: 20th Century Fox
Salesrank: 3690
Released: September 4, 2001 |
| Our Price: $4.22 |
| Used Price: $2.97 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Blonde, bouncy Buffy (Kristy Swanson) is your typical high school cheerleader-- her goal is to "marry Christian Slater and die" and nothing gets in her way when it's time to shop. But all that changes when a strange man (Donald Sutherland) informs her she's been chosen by fate to kill vampires. With the help of a romantic rebel (Luke Perry), Buffy is soon spending school nights protecting L.A. from Lothos, the Vampire King (Rutger Hauer), his sidekick. Lefty (Paul Ruebens) and their determined gang of bloodsuckers. It's everything you'd expect from a teen queen in the Valley.
Description of Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
Fran Rubel Kuzui's 1992 tongue-in-cheek vampire comedy is sugarcoated horror, an unusual mix of the cute and scary, with a splash of postmodern pop nonsense to give culture critics something to think about. Kristy Swanson plays a Valley Girl who learns she belongs to a line of ancient vampire killers. After training under the watchful eye of a mentor (Donald Sutherland), she becomes a spandex-wearing, kung-fu kicking, stake-stabbing babe and the mortal enemy of a narcissistic master vampire (Rutger Hauer). The accent is all on cheery attitude, though the action can be as authentically unnerving as any other halfway decent monster movie. Paul Reubens, formerly Pee-wee Herman, has a small role as Hauer's fanged familiar. --Tom Keogh
Buffy the Vampire Slayer Reviews:
A little Cheesy, but still a fun movie 
2008-08-25 - If you're a fan of the tv show, you might be really disappointed in this one if you're looking for more of the same thing. The tone, pacing, and overall feel are very different.
The original movie is much more of a comedy and a bit of a silly one at that. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's much more for a fan of fun 80s movies thatn for the BTVS series. Some of the lines are very cheesy and haven't aged well, but the fun of the movie is still there. It's entertaining and can keep you in good spirits for nearly 2 hours.
Fun for fans of light comedy, not for the horror fanatic or diehard BTVS fan.
Cheesy, comedic fun. 
2008-07-30 - This is a great movie for the lighthearted, cheesy, comedic angle. I prefer this type of thing to the TV series, which takes itself WAY to seriously. This movie is a great lighthearted laugh or two.
Slay Me
2008-05-25 - Really... what can you say about this movie? It is cheesy, not well acted, and not well scripted... but indeed, it is a load of fangs and fun (be sure to notice Ben Affleck's small part on the basketball court).
so-so 
2008-02-15 - I've always enjoyed vampire movies and as a kid this one was my favorite. Though its cheesy, i still like it.
This film opened the door to the Buffy Universe.
2008-02-06 - "I had written this scary film about an empowered woman, and they turned it into a broad comedy. It was crushing."--Joss Whedon.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer film led to the darker and much more popular Buffy The Vampire Slayer TV series. The movie (a barely-watchable parody of clichéd horror films) falters in all the ways the TV series kicks ass. Joss Whedon wrote the screenplay for the 1992 film, and was the creator, executive producer, and screenwriter for the 1997-2003 TV series. He has always stated that the TV series was closer to his vision of Buffy than the movie. I have given the movie a two-star rating when measured against the five-star TV series. The film is arguably little more than a minor chapter in the "Buffyverse canon," and the best thing I can say about it is that it opened the door to the Buffy Universe.
By now the film's plot is probably familiar to everyone. The film introduces the world to Buffy Summers (Kristy Swanson), a spunky "valley girl" cheerleader at Hemery High School in Los Angeles. She is approached by a mystery man in a trenchcoat named Merrick Jamison-Smythe (Donald Sutherland), who informs her that she is a "Slayer," a young woman destined to fearlessly fight vampires. Because she has dreamt of slaying vampires, she accepts her role as The Slayer, and completes a brief training before fighting the neighborhood bloodsuckers, including Lothos (Rutger Hauer), who has earned a reputation for killing Slayers. After Lothos kills Merrick, Buffy fights him at the senior dance, which sets the stage for Whedon's television series ("High school as a horror movie") starring Sarah Michelle Gellar. The film, though predictable, made me laugh a few times. As Buffy, Kristy Swanson is no Sarah Michelle Gellar. Paul Reubens, Luke Perry, Hilary Swank, David Arquette, Ben Affleck, and Ricki Lake all play supporting characters in the film. Overall, Buffy the film is mostly horrible.
G. Merritt
