Blade ***½ (1998, Wesley Snipes, Stephen Dorff, Kris Kristofferson) – Classic Movie Review 1065

Director Stephen Norrington’s 1998 blood-thirsty fantasy thriller 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 and Kris Kristofferson is loyal in support as his old kung fu master, Abraham Whistler.

Everything’s just fine – the production, effects, fighting and the vampire premise. So it’s 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 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).

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 $20million in back taxes. On the day he was sentenced, he paid $5million to the IRS.

In 2010, Snipes began serving the three-year prison sentence in McKean County, Pennsylvania, for misdemeanour failure to file U.S. 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.

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).

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Film Review 1065 derekwinnert.com