Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1992)

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

It was fun how there was some depth to the story. It's more than a cheesy horror flick. Buffy changes as a character. She struggles with being 'weird' and how it conflicts with what she'd hoped for herself. The guys in this movie are pretty cool. Maybe I like them because they are rebels or because they're just good actors. The ending was hard to understand and it was almost funny how nonchalant the main protagonist dies. It's like, why didn't he kill Buffy when he had the chance? Why did he just let his main minion be killed by Buffy? Why didn't his minion struggle at all when she was killing him? Didn't make much sense. Overall it's a cheap movie but it does have some nice depth and I thought a lot of the dialogue was clever too.

Buffy (Kristy Swanson) is the quintessential valley girl cheerleader. She and her friends are all clueless. She is approached by Merrick (Donald Sutherland) and told that she is the Slayer. There are vampires in the world, and there is a slayer who fights them. When one slayer falls, another one takes her place. It is Buffy's turn to be the Slayer. She is joined by a slacker outcast Pike (Luke Perry) in a fight against the powerful Lothos (Rutger Hauer).This is most notable for who wrote the script, Joss Whedon. Although he definitely has disowned this with all the changes to his script. It has a funny co-starring role from Paul Reubens. The style is lacking. Kristy Swanson has the looks but not quite the attitude of the valley girl exactly. She always seems a bit too bright and too serious for the clueless role. It is definitely a very light sarcastic take on the vampire movie.

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" is a movie that was made for the teen mallrat crowd. It's light, fluffy and makes very little demands of its audience. But it works for me, and mostly because of the cast. Rutger Hauer, Paul Reubens (who has one of my favorite movie death scenes), Donald Sutherland and even Luke Perry seem to fit like just-right puzzle pieces, while Stephen Root easily steals all of his scenes. Much of this movie's charm lies in its lead. Kristy Swanson has the valley girl teen down to a T. She's game for the role's physicality and brings a likability to her vapid one-liners. Smoking hot, too, let's not forget that.I didn't expect much going into this; it's a very '90s movie (not my thing) right down to its soundtrack. But I did like the vapidity of its sense of humor, very much dig the star, and it made for a good time. Certainly laughed more than I'd expected to, and it never took itself too seriously. It also helps that it's more accessible to me than the TV series. 7/10

I watched Buffy the Vampire Layer with Kristi Myst before I watched this film with Kristy Swanson (Red Water). The first was basically a bore, and this was not much better.The most interesting feature of the film was the snapshot of totally vacuous girls in the high school. They were consumed with their own pleasures and had no clue how the outside worked. It was interesting to see Buffy transformed slowly into someone who was focused on something besides herself.Unfortunately, that was about all there was as the fighting with vampires was totally unrealistic and suited more to some teen movie than a true horror film.All in all, it was a bore except for seeing Donald Sutherland.