Comic Book Cinema
Blade 1998 Review (Feat. Nerdy Dustin, Rick OC, & Wyatt)
You know, this film might have started that trend of the late '90s to play techno music. Like, it might have, I mean, it was obviously it came out before The Matrix, so maybe in some ways it was a trendsetter for that era because, think about it, The Matrix was nothing but Techno, nothing but Black Trench Coats. Black Trench Coats, man. Black Trench Coats, standard. And then they also set the standard for Columbine too, so all kinds of trend setting going on in this film. Emotional Diamond! Stop it. Get some help. Wesley Snipes does not get the credit that he deserves in regards to his portrayal in this role. I think that he is literally perfect for the role of Blade. You know, I think that he should be in those conversations of Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man, Hugh Jackman as Wolverine. I mean, he is literally perfect for the role. His hair looks so clean and the tattoos that he has on his head. I mean, that look ended up becoming the blade that we all know and love today. He did such a great job in that role. However, the special effects in this film definitely did not age very well. I appreciate everything this film accomplished for comic book movies. One could argue that had it not been for this movie, we never would have had a resurgence of superhero films. I think that the film accomplished a lot, but once again, it just, in my mind, and this is only my opinion. I mean, I'm sure I know that Rick has a way different opinion. That's why I asked him to come on because he loves Blade. It's probably his favorite movie of all time. As someone who wasn't deeply connected to this movie growing up, maybe watched it once or twice growing up, I just don't have that connection deep inside my heart. You know what's wild to me is that that was pretty much his breakout film, I think he was in a major league, that was a big big movie for him, but you know, at the same time, I think that it's one of those that really put him high up there. And then I think everybody would just anticipate it like we're all kinds of excitement when Blade 2 was coming out and that was also with Guillermo El Toro and you know, which was a big ordeal. And I remember, because you know, when this movie came out, I was like, six, I didn't watch it. Of course, when I was six, but later on, I remember watching it on the Saffa channel and I was like, oh my gosh, what is this movie? Later on down the line, I rented it from Blockbuster, you know, dude, I think the best definition for this movie is that it's just a movie. Just from the very beginning sequence, the nightclub scene and like, you know, a dang meat locker and just everybody just dancing, have a good time and this is brain and blood and then of course, here comes Blade, not even a drop on him, dude, this dude is awesome. It's just one of the best intro sequences. I mean, I really, really love this film a lot. I don't know if this is the film, the reason we got everything we got though, because X-Men and Spider-Man had already been in development. So regardless of Blade being successful, we would have got those films. And I'd like to thank Spider-Man X-Men or what gave us the MCU. No offense to Blade. I think Blade's fantastic, but Blade's not X-Men, it's not Spider-Man. So when people say if it wasn't for Blade, we wouldn't have what we have now. I'd have to disagree with that completely. But Blade is a fantastic film. It is. It's a fun story. It's a fun character. Wesley Snipes was definitely the best choice for this. You got to remember too, and this film came out. They offered it to Denzel, Lawrence Fishburne, Wesley got it. I mean, the director wanted Wesley from the get-go, so you know, I think he was always going to get it. But I agree. Special effects did not age well, but it's 1998. What do you expect? What do you get to do? I mean, this is the decade we had like the lawnmower, man. So I mean, like, this special effects CGI just weren't where they are now. You guys are forgetting about how we're the doc too. Oh. Come on. Ah, yeah. But that was a long time before. That was like 15 years before. I put Howard the Duck up there with like Dolph Wumburg's Punisher and Albert Poons, Captain America. It's like, those films are not why we have the MC. Hey, springies. I love Bladed, the opening scene where they're all in that dance club, and he just goes off. His martial arts and everything is so believable, especially back in that day. Like everything that he's throwing is like practical. I mean, not everything, but like practical hand-in-hand combat stuff, and he just said it all. And yeah, the special effects are, you know, kind of cheesy, but they don't go like over the top. Like, you know, like Dustle Dawn, we're stabbing the vampires and the blood shooting over their shoulders kind of stuff. It's the best vampire genre for me, and my wife argues, she's like, oh, are you watching vampires? I'm like, no, no, no. That's sparkling. He's a real vampires. Like, they're killing them with silver and, you know, they're exploding and everything. He was such a great choice for that. Like, even just his martial arts background and everything for it, I'm sure that helped whole character. I'm sure he did a lot of the stunts too. I'm not 100% on that, but I mean, the guy was a martial artist too. So it probably all came very natural for him. Later on, they had the TV show, then it wasn't Wesley. It was like, this is not my bla- and this is not Blade. I mean, we've seen Spider-Man's come and go, you know, everyone adapts to it, but I think Wesley's performance in this will never be topped, no matter who it is. That's a bold statement. Right now, Mahershala Ali was in line to play the new Blade, which I think was a great choice. He's a little more on the slender side. I don't know if he could pull off the physicality like Wesley could, and he's also a great actor. I mean, phenomenal actor. We saw what he could do in the Luke Cage series. You know, he was excellent as the villain Cottonmouth. I had my doubts slightly about Mahershala Ali, but at this point, I don't think that he's going to be playing the role anymore. He's already upwards of early 50s, I think, is where he's at. This film has really not gotten any traction. The new Blade film, that is. I don't know. At this point, he's been in limbo basically putting most of his career on hold just for this film to come out, and they've been through so many rewrites and they've scrapped the script a couple of times, I believe. At this point, I don't see him playing the role. I think they're going to get somebody a little bit younger. I mean, you don't have to have somebody 25 to play Blade, but 50, I think, is pushing it a little bit, especially if you want to have that character in future MCU projects. But I mean, what about just like the timing and stuff like that, like the little nods of like him just like that smirk every once in a while from someone who's playing like a very almost silent character? Like he gave it such a presence and a character to it without even saying much. But that's hard to do. I'm not trying to crap on this movie by any means. I mean, like I said, I appreciate everything and accomplished. There's just several moments in the film that just made me LOL big time. The one guy that's getting brain in the club, that is just so random and just like it was so out of left field to see that. I know this is like a deep underground vampire club. The vampire is supposed to be sexy, man. So they can do whatever they want with their chains and whips, dark rooms and candles. Was it Donald Loog, I think? I forget what his name is in the movie, but you know, and he's like a big part of Gotham, the TV show at one point, you know, good actor. But watching him in that, I was just like, ooh, there was a lot of times I was, I was like, man, this movie was kind of rough, you know, and then yes, some of his lines and maybe you can blame it on his delivery, maybe you could blame it on the writing, whatever the case may be. A lot of his lines don't hold up that well today. And with all that being said, I mean, there was a few cringy cheesy moments, but that one scene when Wesley walks in, because initially we're kind of, we're kind of seeing all this unfold through the eyes of that guy that's the human, right? And he's super terrified when he finds out they're all vampires. But then when Wesley walks in the room, that really shows us as an audience, like this is who you really should be afraid of. I think that was so well executed. That opening sequence too, that definitely set the tone for the film and for the franchise in general, what we were going to get from Blade, 100% agree with that. It was over the top, but it worked for the film. I'll give it that. How about just like the comedic timing and everything of Whistler? Like his like Alfred, his helper, his partner and everything, you know, guy who can't get out there and do that, but he's doing so much behind the scenes. And how about his car? Come on. He had a bad car too. And Kirkhurst, Jefferson, just an amazing actor to have in your film wounded, beat up old man, who's just grumpy, everything and he's helping him out. He was great in that and pulling out the sword, flipping it around and drawing the line on the ground, like bringing on, you know, him not talking as much, but his facial expressions, the like sarcasm that comes off, it's just a smile and a smirk and you know, grabbing the glasses, throwing them on was just so perfect. It's just so cold blooded and to the point, blade. Yeah. I think that that's what modern Hollywood is missing a lot of these days, stoicism, you know, male stoicism. It seems like the males usually in modern day cinema take a backseat. They're more talkative. They're more questioning. They wear their heart on their sleeves, this, this 1998 is a man's movie. I'm saying exactly this 1998 film totally encapsulates what, you know, it was like to be a strong male lead at this time that has changed for better or for worse in 2024. I didn't even know it was Marvel. Like when I watched it as a kid, I didn't know. I just was like, Oh my gosh, this is just an awesome vampire movie. When the nineties came around, there was definitely a lot of big vampire movies that came out. You had from Dustle Dawn, a heck yeah, kind of like just guns, blades and rock and roll vampire movie. But I will say it also kind of gave me a little bit of like lost boys vibes, like Deacon Frost, he kind of gave me that I'm so cool. Blades cool is way different. It was like like, Oh, I'm a pretty boy cool. And then you got blade is just like, no, I'm a man, because I watched it this weekend because it's, you know, to kind of touch up and he didn't really talk a whole lot. It's kind of like with a Mad Max Fury Road was such a big ordeal because Tom Hardy barely had any dialogue, but you could feel it. You know, you could really feel what he was saying. And I think in the nineties, that was kind of a big gordy. Oh, do that car, man, car, a charger, it was sexy, bro. And you mentioned the Whistler. I didn't realize that that was Chris Kristofferson, a legend, a music legend. For some reason, in my brain, because it had been many, many years since I've seen this film. And for some reason, I thought that was Sam Elliott. That's how long it had been since I've seen this film. But you know, the more I thought about that, the more I thought, hmm, he might would have been a good Whistler as well. Now that I think about it. Yeah. I thought that was truly random because I don't know. Has he, has he been in any other films, Chris Kristofferson? So my music background, of course, he was in a stars born one of the other versions, which is also funny that you say, Sam Elliott, because Sam Elliott was in the newest stars born. So that's what do you say that, but anyway, I think that there was really just no hope for any kind of comic book movie at that point, because I think this followed after Batman Robin. Yes. Which I enjoy Batman Robin, just because I'm a Batman person, but it's definitely a weak one. Anyway, I think Wesley Snipes really wanted to do Black Panther, which would have been a wild, but I think they kind of persuaded him to do Blade, because I think he started reading up on it and was like, yeah, this is pretty cool, you know, vampires, guns, swords, and uncleu fighting everybody was doing it. I brought you guys on board because I know that both of you guys really love Blade and I wanted to have someone to balance out some of the negativity that might be coming from less nostalgic eyes, eyes that didn't really watch this film when I was growing up, eyes that did probably watch this film for the first time, maybe around 2010, 2009. At that time, I thought this film was really, really, really solid, but now going back and especially given all the content that we have today, there's some glaring spots in the film that I thought were a little cheesy and a little cringy at some moments. The female character Karen, she was pretty rough acting on that for me. Honestly, everybody was pretty rough, because there were some cheese for sure, but I think what really got me the most was the editing, editing was so funky man, especially when they were in the Bible, scripts, pieces, and then it would cut back from Blade in there, then it would show deacon with his people, and then it had the little girl, then all of a sudden they were still there and then all of a sudden that little girl showed up, it was just like dang, how quick a filler. It was very jumpy. And then, Laid's mom trying to make a pass at him, I was kind of like, what was that? That was very awkward and very cringy. You know, as a kid, I didn't know that was his mom, I was a little risque on that part. Yeah, I know that like you said, the vampire's whole thing is they're slightly sexual and it doesn't matter, you're my son. But that was funny. Yeah, that was really cringy that part. I didn't realize the director was the same director as League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which I will still say is a pretty solid movie in my opinion. I know it gets a lot of hate to get it, but I think it was different. You guys know that he never directed another film after Blade or after League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I think it was League because yeah, because I was wondering, Sean Connery was like, you know what? I'm done. This is it. Sean Connery is the one that broke me. If blood is such a hot commodity, then why are we putting it in the sprinkler system and shooting it everywhere in this club and because it's sexy. You don't understand vampires. Have you not seen Lost Boys? It's about being sexy, man, when he's fighting the end sequence, did y'all catch that he ripped the deuce throat out and he threw it at a guy? Yeah. You know how many times I watched that movie and never noticed it, but I was like, oh my God, I had to rewind it and watch it again because I was like, did he actually throw a deuce throat at a guy? Roadhouse. Roadhouse. Classic, mouthing, you know, WTF, when he like turned around, looked at Frost and he was back normal and he's just like, you know, and that point, I'm just like, man, they're just having fun. He gave him Frost when he was cut in half and then his body just magically reformed there. That CGI was the absolute worst. I'm sure that they were limited in their resources at this time. You know, we alluded to this earlier, but Marvel was really in a bad place at this time, but way better CGI was available two, three, four years earlier with Terminator two. But to be fair, maybe CG was a still a very fairly new thing, but yeah, this little bit did not look good at all. It was better than Howard, the duck CGI. Well, to be fair, Howard, the duck came out in '86 or '85, something like that. I wrote down one of the lines, so we don't know the name of that actor real quick. The guy from Gotham. Donald Loog. We talked a little bit about his cringy lines, but that one scene where he's just like obviously trying to show off his vampire teeth, and he's like, I want you to make him hurt, make him hurt bad. That was so bad. I think it was just like, I got these new hands and I'm going to use them, you know, like, he's like, I've been waiting for this, like he's like juggling blages, cuts his naggy's dead. Just like, man, that was, you know, there's so much build up between the two of them of like, back and forth, you think it was going to be a little bit of a fight, but it was like, no, he went out the way he was going to go out. It was like, dude, he was just toying with him, you know, the whole time. And I will say, like, with blade two, I liked it with him and Ron Perlman, because there was so much, definitely some animosity between the two and it was all, and blade was always in control that, but like with Donald's character, it was like, I'm still in control, but you thought there was going to be this kind of a nice little battle and then it's like, you can just rip some in like a second, or something was very unique with blade, especially talking about the whole vampire world, it was him being a day walker. I don't remember seeing hardly anything about that, even as like now with blade, it was something different besides just your typical, you got somebody like blades like, Oh, no, I'm a vampire, but I can walk during the day, I don't see anybody as like a day walker type situation. The only thing you think of is blade. I don't know if you all know anything else that did that. Edward Cullen. Oh, well, you know, you said no cussing on this question of the day, question of the episode, who would win in a fight? Edward Cullen or blade? I'm going to leave. I think that Edward probably, you know, you might give him a little bit of a run for his money, he would definitely give a better fight than a then Logan. What's it? Low? Rob log? It's pronounced Donald, but with no D at the end. Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth? Well, who had less lines blade or the girl in that? That's a great question. What girl are we talking about? The main character. Yeah, the email email. Christmas Stewart. Yeah. That's maybe is a terrible. But you know, you say in that I will say kind of frost definitely give some Edward Cullen vibes, man. Absolutely. You know, he was definitely a little emoish. Well, email, I'm in my feelings, you know, let me listen to my, my Moby or whatever he was listening to, you know, find all these glyphs and it's just like, you know, he's so cool. You know, this film might have started that trend of the late 90s to play techno music. Like it might have, I mean, it was obviously it came out before the Matrix. So maybe in some ways it was a trend setter for that era because think about the Matrix was nothing but techno, nothing but black trench coats. Black trench coats, man. Like standard. And then they also set the standard for Columbine too. So all kinds of trend setting going on in this film. Emotion. No time. Stop it. Get some help. If you had to rate this film on a scale from zero to 10, zero being terrible unwatchable. I never want to see it again. And 10 being absolutely perfect. Where would you put it? Eight. Okay. Now, wait a minute. I want to call out Mr. Rick Osea. I thought that the last time you were on this show, you said that Blade was your all time favorite. Superhero movie. No, I said the Watchmen was my all time favorite. Oh, really? So you don't have you don't do you have any 10s in there? No. Next to the Watchmen. No. What would you say you would give Watchmen? Oh, I give Watchmen a 10. I wanted to see that on the big screen forever. What do you think? What? Well, Watchmen is about an eight for me. 8.5. But anyway, no, Blade is a first time it was great. But watching again, I'm like, okay, there's definitely it was definitely had the cheese. And I think that kind of puts it down a little bit for me. But I would say about 7.5 is high up there. So to speak, but at the same time, editing was rough for me. How do they make this work? But it worked. How did we skip over Pearl, which could have been like a mojo back then for the X-Men. That's who I thought of right away when I saw Pearl and then like cutting scenes and like just burning them and frying them with that flashlight. That was great. It was like out of nowhere. That was a woman when I first watched. I did too. I thought it was a woman yesterday. Excuse me. It's ma'am. But I did, you know, a little bit of the background because I was like, who is Pearl? You know, I always like to look up characters and stuff when I watch a movie because maybe it's something that I didn't catch, you know, type deal. And apparently, Pearl's that stuff because he likes to eat babies. And there was supposed to be a scene of that kind of caliber, but they were like, yeah, this is this is too much. I don't think you'll handle this. And I was like, Oh, gosh, you think you could have got some fat bastard minds in there. Oh, yeah. I love baby. That's wild. I rated this film at a five. The reason I put it at a five, when I look at my list of rankings in my phone, I don't know if I've ever mentioned now on this show or not before, but in the fives, we have films like Iron Man to Batman 89. I know that's going to be unpopular in this group. Those are my fives. And I think that blade is still a solid film. I mean, the way my list is laid out, if it's a five, it's not a bad thing. I wouldn't say it's a great thing. But once again, you guys mentioned the editing earlier, the editing was so choppy, weird and strange. Dare I say worse than Hulk 2003. You had the cringy lines. The film is dated. I appreciate everything that it did for comic book movies. And like Wyatt said at the beginning of the show, if it had not been for this film, we probably wouldn't have the MCU right now. And I really truly believe that a couple years later, it was four years later until we got Spider-Man. That's a cute outfit. Did your husband give it to you? Yeah, one could definitely argue that had this film not succeeded, we wouldn't have got the X-Man. We wouldn't have got Spider-Man. And then eventually, we wouldn't have got the MCU. So as always, I respect and give my props to this film. But at the end of the day, I have to be fair and rank it alongside everything else that we have today. Hey, let me tell you something. If it wasn't for this movie, you'd be still dealing with Uma Thurman Avengers. Very quite possibly right. the movie.