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The Blood Reich: Bloodrayne 3 (2010)
Director: Uwe Boll
review by Rod Rees
This is a good, rotten, vampire movie. Let me explain. There are various elements that go into the production of a movie. The three biggies are
script, direction and acting, and in the Rod Rees scale of things these, out of 100, weigh in with 25 points each. Then come all the subsidiary
things: cinematography, lighting, costumes, make-up and music/ sound effects. I give these five points each. The problem with The Blood Reich:
Bloodrayne 3 (aka: Bloodrayne: The Third Reich) is that they got the importance of all these things muddled up.
Let's start with the script. There isn't one. What there is here is a load of clich�d scenes stapled together in the hope that somehow they would
make a coherent whole. Actually, the basic premise isn't at all bad: an attempt by the Nazi bad guys to get a dollop of Rayne's superior quality
blood in order to stick it into Hitler to make him immortal... or something. But somehow the scriptwriter (now there's a misnomer if there ever
was one) decided to jettison any story arc in favour of shoehorning in lots and lots of fight scenes and a lesbian love scene which is risible
in its gratuity.
Next up; directing... There isn't any. Presumably, director Uwe Boll was on holiday when the film was in production, because nothing else can explain
the fact that Bloodrayne 3 is a thrill-free zone. This is a vampire movie for heaven's sake! Where are the jumps, the shocks, and the popcorn
in your crotch moments?
Last of the biggies is acting and here - hurrah! - things start looking up. Natassia Malthe in the lead role as Rayne is actually pretty good and
quite convincing as an all-fighting, all-slaughtering �ber-vampire. And Brendan Fletcher as Rayne's loyal side-kick/ love interest is excellent:
this guy has got some first-class acting chops. The problems come with the 'names'. I don't know what it is with actors playing Nazis but it seems
to cause an acting by-pass, a by-pass which leads to a place called over-the-top. Clint Howard as Doctor Mangler (Mengele, geddit?) is awful. Michael
Par� at least has the grace to be anonymous: he ain't interested and boy does he show it.
The odd thing is that the other production values are generally very good. Okay, there's so shaky camerawork during the coffee house scene, and
the make-up of the vampires is, well, odd, but all in all, this is a well made piece of work, technically. The unfortunate thing is that the good
elements are dragged down by the lousy script and no-interest direction. It's a real shame because somewhere in this mess is a good movie trying
to break free.
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