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List Price: $14.94 | | Label: Sony Pictures
Salesrank: 3301
Released: January 6, 2004 |
| Our Price: $2.50 |
| Used Price: $1.98 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Underneath the city streets, amid the labyrinth of subway tunnels and gothic ruins, the two most notorious creatures of the night are embroiled in an all-out war that has been going on for centuries. It is the culmination of a blood-thirsty battle between the vampires and their mortal enemies, the werewolves. Stars: Kate Beckinsale (Pearl Harbor, My Life Without Me), Scott Speedman (My Life Without Me, TV's "Felicity").
Description of Underworld (Widescreen Special Edition):
Blade meets The Crow and The Matrix in Underworld, a hybrid thriller that rewrites the rulebook on werewolves and vampires. It's a "cuisinart" movie (blend a lot of familiar ideas and hope something interesting happens) in which immortal vampire "death dealers" wage an ancient war against "Lycans" (werewolves), who've got centuries of revenge--and some rather ambitious genetic experiments--on their lycanthropic agenda. Given his preoccupation with gloomy architecture (mostly filmed in Budapest, Hungary), frenetic mayhem and gothic costuming, it's no surprise that first-time director Len Wiseman gained experience in TV commercials and the art departments of Godzilla, Men in Black, and Independence Day. His work is all surface, no substance, filled with derivative, grand-scale action as conflicted vampire Selene (Kate Beckinsale, who later became engaged to Wiseman) struggles to rescue an ill-fated human (Scott Speedman) from Lycan transformation. It's great looking all the way, and a guaranteed treat for horror buffs, who will eagerly dissect its many strengths and weaknesses. --Jeff Shannon
Underworld (Widescreen Special Edition) Reviews:
A real pleasure. 
2009-12-10 - Kate Beckinsale in leather. Kick-ass AQ. Vampires vs. Werewolfs. Turn up the surround sound on this one.
Very relaxing. 
2009-12-05 - I'm a stressed-out college student and Underworld really helps me unwind. I don't know why--it's violent, cliched and slightly stupid--but there's something about watching vampires and werewolves running around shooting each other that just lets me relax.
Seriously, though, it's a great movie. Action-packed, and with some good acting. I like the story: just straight-up action!
Surprisingly dull and unoriginal 
2009-12-03 - Underworld is a film that continues to water down vampires as most of us know them. This process began with Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles, but these stories still retained the horrific true nature of vampires even with a more relatable, human face. Now we come to this day where between Buffy the Vampire Slayer (which I did enjoy) and Twilight (hate with burning passion) we have films in the middle of this watered down vampire genre that many have grown used to. There's the good humanized vampires (Anne Rice), the bad (Twilight), and then there's the ones that just fall right dab in the middle and that would be where I'd place Underworld.
The movie itself starts off with our heroine Selene doing her best to try and look like The Crow or an extra from The Matrix while she gives us a monologue on how the vampires and werewolves (which for some reason this movie has titled "Lycans"). She explains that she's a "Death Dealer" meaning that she hunts down the remaining Lycans. Instantly we have her and another guy (we'll guess that in their exchange of head nodding he's also a Death Dealer) jumping down from the top of buildings and landing without harm on the concrete below...how convenient it is that no one saw them.
We then somehow get this character of Michael Corvin involved as some...truly boring individual. So when the vampires discover the Lycans have been following him so they soon send Selene to investigate it. Selene and Corvin of course end up being together and escape the Lycans. Does this mean we finally get a Vampire+Human buddy action film? Of course not! As awesome as that could have been Corvin has been bitten by a Lycan and monster 101 dictates he shall soon become one. Now we realize the true plot intent of this movie is to be some strange, leather clad Romeo & Juliet.
The rest of the plot...quite frankly bored me to tears. Nothing in this movie ever paused itself to try and make sense! They kept twisting subjects around and around, showed weird aspects of vampire society that may seem cool to eyes but they never really got any elaboration other than "here's this cool thing, now let's try for something completely different." It just wasn't a coherent storyline.
Vampirism just isn't shown well in this movie. Remember the days of Dracula, or even the adaptation of Interview with the Vampire some years back? That should remind you vampires, and their bite are more sexual than anything else. In Underworld there is zero sensuality in this act and it pretty much is only shown for the blood.
Kate Beckinsale is really attractive, but looks just can't save this film. There is no chemistry between the leads and most of the cast seems bored. No one really gets my attention in this film because they are all so very bland. When the plot gets chugging along it has far too many characters to keep track of and when we finally discover the true villain of the film we are greeted to the most anti-climactic final confrontation I have seen in recent cinema.
Now I will grant it the film does have some really good sets that obviously had quality work put into them, but that can't save the fact that the plot is a mess and the characters are unremarkable. The director is essentially trying to knock-off Blade, The Matrix, and The Crow off all while in the same movie and it clearly shows in his awkward style as he tries desperately to replicate techniques that worked well in previous films of the genre. So if you want a somewhat fun action movie this show is for you, but don't be expecting anything new, or for that matter even anything all that entertaining.
Great film. Mediocre DVD. 
2009-12-02 - I'm not going to review the film itself here because I think the Underworld trilogy is ace. However this particular DVD version did not impress me much. The picture seems murky and so does the audio. It looks like a bad DVD rip, to be honest. In addition the subtitles are big and blocky; not very pleasing to the eye on a larger HD screen.
I guess I couldn't expect more at that price.
Underworld: The saga begins
2009-11-16 - 5 of 5 stars for the vampire and werewolf movie Underworld. I've seen this movie several times and continue to be amazed and the plot and visual look of the movie. Wow. I keep finding new subtle things in the movie overlooked in my first viewing. This movie is the starter for a 3 movie collection. Telling some of the history and moving forward with this story. Underworld and Underworld Evolution move the story further in time while the third movie tells the history of how we got here.
The story is about two races of beings, the upper class Vampires and the worker class Werewolves. In the old times, the races lived together in harmony, now they are at war. This story focuses on "a human" who we later learn has characteristics of both races and his blood is valuable to both races. Of course, our lead character (Kate Beckinsale) needs the help of a sleeping vampire lord. A very impressive movie with stunning visual look. Once you finish Underworld, keep on going with Evolution and Rise of the Lycans. Highly recommended and added to my list of favorite movies.
