DVD Review: ‘Vampire’s Kiss’ is seductive on Blu-ray
Let me make my position clear: “Vampire’s Kiss” is a great film... profoundly great and one of the dozen best films of the ’80s. It appears now on Blu-ray, sharing an inexpensive twofer with “High Spirits,” which is kind of a mess.
Nicolas Cage is easy to mock. His most memorable performances are so insanely over-the-top that viewers are often unsure whether they’re supposed to be laughing or dumbstruck. Sure, he’s good in things like “Leaving Las Vegas” and “Red Rock West,” but I can picture any number of other actors being just as good. With films like “Wild at Heart” and “Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans,” however, it’s tough to imagine anyone else coming close; it’s tough to imagine anyone else in the part at all. (Gary Oldman would be the nearest competition.)
In short, the way to get the best out of Cage is to give him a context that exploits his most distinctive aspects. Give him a project with scenery that demands to be chewed. And that’s never been done better than in “Vampire’s Kiss” (1988).
Cage plays Peter Loew, a quintessential late ’70s/’80s type — an obnoxious New York yuppie, who cruises discos for a succession of one-night stands. One night a bat flies into his apartment while he’s drunkenly undressing with Jackie (Kasi Lemmons). Soon thereafter, another conquest, Rachel (Jennifer Beals), bites him with more than normal passion. The two events convince him that she has turned him into a vampire.
The rest of the film is his hilarious decline, evidenced primarily by his increasingly sadistic treatment of Alva (Maria Conchita Alonso), a meek secretary in his office. Part of the central joke is that he’s always been a jerk; now he’s just displaying it more nakedly. Another part is that no one is much surprised or appalled; a boss is toying with an employee. What else is new?
Despite how funny the film is, don’t expect a pure comedy. “Vampire’s Kiss” grows very dark indeed. It may not cleave to realism, but the decidedly uncomic ending is inevitable from the beginning.
The new Blu-ray edition is a marked visual improvement over the murky DVD from the early 2000s. It includes the same extras — a trailer and a commentary track (recorded for the DVD) with Cage and director Robert Bierman. It’s very off-the-cuff, but mostly interesting, with Cage and Bierman sometimes remembering details of the shoot differently.
Vampire’s Kiss/High Spirits (Scream Factory, Blu-ray, $24.97)
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ANDY KLEIN is the film critic for Marquee. He can also be heard on “FilmWeek” on KPCC-FM (89.3).