This delectably bloody offering offers an off-beat mix of characters for its premise. The cast includes a French secret service agent and an international terrorist spy who also happens to be a master criminal. Then comes the A-film superstar who seems to be the center of a whole lot of bizarre things and, of course, a very famished crowd of vampires. Imagine "The X-Files" crossing over with "Buffy The Vampire Slayer" and Lorenzo Lamas' "Renegade" and you will begin to see what "Vampire Wars" is all about.
This tale of espionage, fame and blood suckers starts out with a NASA base in Arizona getting a terrorist-style reception.
Then, not too long after, the corpse of a CIA agent is found floating in a river in Paris. With all sorts of strange violent acts going on in the world right now, these two incidents could not possibly be related, right? Well, our French secret service guy, Monsieur Lassar, in this story isn't so naïve as he believes that there is a connection. In order to go about his task of solving this little mystery, Lassar hires help in the form of the (take a deep breath before attempting to say this out loud) international terrorist spy and master criminal, Kousaburo Kuki.
Without giving away too much at this point, lets just say that things don't appear as they seemed and a lot of blood, some brief nudity and as well as some potty-mouthed language then transpires in "Vampire Wars."
Despite this intense-sounding premise, the story sadly depends on two-dimensional and stereotypical characters. The macho he-man and the subversive girl are all here. The most interesting thing about this little piece of work are the villains. Well, there really is not too much to say about Vampires, they just have an irresistible charm in their menace. No matter how they are depicted, be it the sensitive "Interview With The Vampire" type or the crude and unpolished Quentin Tarantino/Robert Rodriguez variety from "From Dusk 'Till Dawn," you can't help but adore these one track minded blood junkies. Ah, but even these adorable abominations cannot help this rather weak tale from blossoming into an epic.
"Vampire Wars" is by no means mandatory viewing for anime or horror fans, but it does provide a decent fix for those transfixed with vampires and in need of a quick bite.
12-11-98
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