Vampirella

Vampirella for those not aware was a comic book that for its t&a levels became rather cult.

During the mid 90's there was an influx of superhero comic book adaptations and Vampirella was certainly an odd choice.

It tells the story of Ella (Vampirella) from the planet Drakulon (Or something to that effect) who is out to avenge her fathers death against the evil Vlad (Yeah really).

Soto is an awful actress, sided with The Who lead singer Roger Daltrey as the antagonist and a cameo appearance by the tall man himself Angus Scrimm. For those unfamiliar with Soto she played Kitana in the live action Mortal Kombat movies where she was equally dire.

Vampires in space, vampires with black cloaks with red inner lining, vampires that insist on hissing and showing their teeth and for the love of all 3000 gods they couldn't even get the iconic Vampirella outfit right.

Cringe inducing and I think 3 is being excessively flattering.

The Good:

Decent soundtrack

The Bad:

Cringe inducing fight scenes

Talisa Soto is a poor actress

The very definition of cheesy

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Some comic book characters should be left on the pages

Soto should have transitioned into modelling

OK, to get this part out of the way, I don't read comic books, and had never heard of the title character. So, unlike some of the previous geek commentators, I have no disappointment about the adaptation of the material. Now, I find it fairly hard to rate some aspects of movies, (e.g. acting) when the actors are portraying cartoon characters. I would normally say that Roger Daltrey was exceedingly bad in this, playing it way over the top, etc. but is that really true when he's playing a comic book figure? I'm not sure. Richard Joseph Paul (three first names?) as Van Helsing was bad any way you look at it. Talisa Soto seemed pretty good given the limitations of the material. Corinna Harney was good in a small part. There could have been a bit more T&A. It's a Roger Corman production, for crying out loud! I'd say missing this one would be a good choice.

This had all the elements of a cult classic but was ruined by the makers of this film. Film starts off with a rogue vampire named Vlad (Roger Daltrey) who is about to be sentenced by the high council but his cohorts bust him out and kill all the high elders. They jump on a ship and head to Earth. The stepdaughter of one of the elders seeks revenge and makes her way to Earth also. Vampirella is played by Talisa Soto and she runs around in a fairly skimpy red outfit and tracks down Vlad and the other vampires that were involved. She meets Adam Van Helsing (Richard Joseph Paul) who works for PURGE that is an outfit that combats vampires and at first he is not sure if Vampirella is working with Vlad to infiltrate their unit. This film just doesn't capture what the comic book had done successfully. First, the outfit that Soto wears in the film is not as skimpy or revealing as the one in the comics. So they have her wear more clothing! Secondly, there is very little blood shown which is surprising since more than 50% of the characters are vampires. The sets are cheap and they just don't have any scenarios that make the film stand out. Its so run of the mill! Their is only two quick scenes where two female vampires get topless so cult status is pretty much out the window. Here's a film made by the Roger Corman group and directed by Jim Wynorski so you would think that some sort of bloody and sexy exploitation film would have been made. But no! For you trivia nuts out there, a young man is named Forry Ackerman and of course he is named for the creator of the comic book and also "Famous Monsters of Filmland". The real Forrest J. Ackerman makes a cameo in a bar. Director John Landis plays an astronaut and actor Angus Scrimm (Phantasm) plays Vampirella's stepfather and high elder. Film had real potential for cult status but for some strange reason the makers decided to ignore that and go the extremely safe route. What a shame!

Vampires from outer space that are honourable citizens and no longer kill to feed themselves! Vlad (Roger Daltrey) - a renegade vampire, kills Vampirella's father and flees to Earth and joins nasty vamps as we better know them. Vampirella pursues him in seek of revenge. Sounds trashy? Yes it does! However, while this film will never rank amongst one of the great classics, it does provide 80 minutes worth of mindless viewing that is not entirely unsatisfying. Talisa Soto (Vampirella), apart from being a stunning beauty, carries this film quite well often with a semblance of some good acting skills. Roger Daltrey is Roger Daltrey. Some of the support acting is scarily awful at times but, as B Movies go, this is not the worst I have seen by far.

When I was a child I religiously read FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND and,when my mom wasn't looking,VAMPIRELLA.I was curious about this movie when I heard of it,although I'd heard it sucked.When I saw it was to be on cable I eagerly watched it.I wasn't disappointed!It was fast-paced,sexy fun,just like the comic.A sequel?