Blade ***½ (1998, Wesley Snipes, Stephen Dorff, Kris Kristofferson) – Classic Movie Review 1,065

An ideal Wesley Snipes stars as the vampire/ human hybrid vampire-hunter in the entertaining, blood-thirsty 1998 American superhero film Blade. It is Marvel’s first film success.

Director Stephen Norrington’s 1998 blood-thirsty fantasy thriller film Blade casts an ideal Wesley Snipes in a most lively role as Marv Wolfman’s Marvel Comics cartoon superhero character Blade, a vampire-hunter who’s half-vampire himself, but gets out in the daytime with the help of a magic potion.

As Deacon Frost, Stephen Dorff makes an unlikely adversary, all too thin and weedy to be convincing, especially in the sword fighting with Blade, which martial-arts expert Snipes handles particularly well. (Snipes is a fifth degree black belt in Shotokan karate and studies forms of kung fu).

Dorff’s casting apart, otherwise this is most entertaining, lustily gory action thriller stuff, with the just kind of strong, pervasive vampire violence it needs to work on screen. Snipes is excellent, a tremendously strong, exciting presence, and Kris Kristofferson is loyal in support as his old kung fu master, Abraham Whistler.

Everything’s just fine – the dark-toned screenplay written by David S Goyer, the costly New Line Cinema production, the effects, the fighting, the cinematography by Theo van de Sande, the score by Mark Isham, and the vampire superhero premise. So it is very strong and powerful brain-in-neutral action entertainment.

It was a huge hit in the UK where it took $5.7 million in only 10 days. It was released in the US on August 21, 1998, grossing $70 million, and took a further $60.2 million worldwide, against a budget of $45 million.

It proved to be the first in a Blade trilogy as there are two sequels so far: Blade II (2002) from director Guillermo del Toro and Blade: Trinity (2004), written and directed by David S Goyer. A TV series followed: Blade: The Series, created by David S Goyer, and starring Sticky Fingaz as Eric Brooks / Blade.

Snipes reprises his role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe film Deadpool & Wolverine in 2024, the longest gap between character appearances in Marvel films. His former Blade: Trinity co-star Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool) texted Snipes to ask him to join the film.

Wesley Trent Snipes (born July 31, 1962)

On October 17 2006, Snipes was indicted on eight counts of tax fraud, found guilty and sentenced on April 24 2008, to three years’ imprisonment. He had not filed federal income tax returns from 1999 to 2007 and owed the IRS approximately $20 million in back taxes. On the day he was sentenced, he paid $5 million to the IRS.

In 2010, Snipes began serving the three-year prison sentence in McKean County, Pennsylvania, for misdemeanour failure to file US federal income tax returns. On June 6 2011, the United States Supreme Court declined to hear Snipes’ appeal. He was released on April 2 2013.

Snipes’ apartment was destroyed by the collapse of the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers during the September 11 attacks. He was on the West Coast at the time.

Snipes made a comeback in Brooklyn’s Finest (2009) as supporting character Caz Phillips in his first cinema film since 2004.

He’s back on screen playing Doc in 2014’s The Expendables 3. Stallone had wanted him to play Hale Caesar in The Expendables (2010) but he had to turn down the part because he was not allowed to leave the US without the court’s approval.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Film Review 1,065 derekwinnert.com