Tag line: The power of an immortal. The soul of a human. The heart of a hero

Not your typical vampire film, Blade stars Wesley Snipes as a "funky" kung-fu fighting vampire hunter who goes around wiping out modern day vampires with an array of super high tech weaponry.

Aided by his weapons expert, an old hillbilly named Whistler (played by 70's actor and country singer Kris Kristopherson), and a young nurse named Karen Jensen (N'Bushe Wright), who he previously rescued from a vampire attack, they find themselves doing battle with a power hungry vampire named Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff) who's planning some kind of vampire apocalypse.

Frost is trying to overthrow the purebloods that govern the vampire world, so that he can enslave humanity by unleashing the blood god La Magra. Of course Blade, who himself is part vampire after his mother was bitten during childbirth, isn't about to let that happen.

So the scene is set for a series of blood filled action packed battle scenes involving martial arts, medieval swords and high-tech machine guns, which should keep your average horror or action movie fan entertained for the full 115mins of the films duration. Also stars horror veteran Udo Keir and former "adult" movie star Traci Lords, vampire fans will have a blast!!!!

Overall Marks : 7/10.

Other Information.

• Alternate tag lines: "Against an army of immortals, one warrior must draw first blood.", "Vampire Hunter", "Sometimes it takes one to kill one.", "Have you given blood lately?", "Part Man. Part Vampire. All Hero".

• The films budget was $42million.

• Rapper LL Cool J was originally considered for the role of "Blade".

• The vampires at Frost's party are watching Mortal Kombat (1995).

• The Vampire bible "The Book of Erebus" derived it's name from Erebus the Greek god of darkness.

• The vampire biting the young girls neck at the roadside during the chase with officer Krieger was played by the films director Steven Norrington.

• Udo Keir also played Count Dracula in "Andy Warhol's Dracula" . He also appeared in the horror films "Bloodbath of Dr Jeckll"," Andy Warhols Frankenstein", "Suspiria", "Expose", "End of Days", "Shadow of the Vampire" and "Fear Dot Com" as well as the notorious exploitation pic "The Story of 'O' ".

• Director Stephen Norrington also directed the low budget hit "Death Machine" starring Brad Douriff.

• Traci Lords started out as an "adult" (porn) movie star during the 1980's, and has almost 100 of these films to her credit. This changed in the early 90's when she fell on her feet after landing a role in the US TV show "Melrose Place".

• The UK video/DVD version is reportedly trimmed slightly by the distributors, which removed part of scene where one of the vampire henchmen's hands was cut off by Blade's sword booby trap. Apparently the theatrical release showed him licking his bloodied stump, but the video release cuts just as he sticks his tongue out.

• The German video release was cut by a staggering 14 minutes to receive a "Not under 16" rating. The uncut version was available with a "Not under 18" rating, but owing to German censorship laws means that it can not be advertised and only sold "under-the-counter".

• The films original ending, which is included as an extra on the US and UK DVD's, showed Frost (Stephen Dorff) turning into a swirling mass of blood after he is taken over by La Magra, rather than keeping his form.

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