BloodRayne 2: Deliverance (2007)

Too much of everything

Sorry, this movie sucks

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

A lot of fun.

Scene after scene of death defying stunts? Actually, there is surprisingly little action here - surprising that is, since it's an ACTION movie. What you REALLY have is a plot similar to literally gazillions of old B-westerns, about a peaceful town that has been taken over by a gang of Bad Men and consarn it somebody's gotta put things right (spit). The Bad Men are Billy the Kid's gang, and after them are U.S. Marshall Pat Garrett and a Mysterious Stranger. That particular story has been told dozens of times in better movies such as Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid or The Left Handed Gun. The difference here is that Billy is a vampire and the Mysterious Stranger is a vampire hunting Daywalker! What a twist! Other than that there is little here that wasn't a cliché in 1932 when movies like Ghost Valley or The Vanishing Riders were coming out three a week from Hollywood's 'Poverty Row' studios like Monogram or Republic. Hmm. I should write SOMETHING positive... Star Natassia Malthe has excellent cheekbones and looks fetching in a full length black leather duster which rather oddly for the American West features a bare midriff. Other than that there's not much here to like. It's no worse than, say, The Vanishing Riders, but no better, and given that there are whole catalogs full of B-westerns of similar quality, that is not much of a recommendation.

BloodRayne II: Deliverance is set in the small American frontier town of Deliverance during the Wild West of the late nineteenth Century where a Vampire Billy the Kid (Zack Ward) & his posse of Vampire cowboys have taken all the children in Deliverance hostage to control the adults. Half human half Vampire all Vampire killer Rayne (Natassia Malthe) arrives in Delivarance looking for Vampires to kill & learns of Billy the Kid's plan to use the railroad that will soon go through Deliverance to spread Vampirism throughout the US. Rayne teams up with lawman Pat Garret (Micheal Paré) to stop Billy the Kid & his Vampire henchmen...This Canadian German co-production was executive produced & directed by Uwe Boll, now anyone with any real interest in the horror genre will have heard of German filmmaker Boll & will probably know that many consider him the worst director ever & his films are the worst ever which I think is total rubbish. There are far worse filmmakers out there & just by looking at some of the comments & reviews on the net that really put the knife into Boll I personally think it's more to do with people's dislike of Boll rather than the merits of any particular film he has been involved with. Anyway, I don't think that BloodRayne II: Deliverance is a particularly good film but it's not too bad, the script mixes horror & western with a touch of historical as well since it actually uses real life people from the time including outlaw Billy the Kid & lawman Pat Garret although it obviously doesn't try to present them in any factual light. I suppose my main problem with BloodRayne II: Deliverance would be that it's too average, sure it tells a decent enough story at a fairly sedate pace & it passes the time but I only saw it last night & I can barely remember anything about it. The film could also have used a few more set-pieces or just big moments because as it is BloodRayne II: Deliverance just feels a little shallow & empty despite a fairly fun if silly plot.Boll does a reasonable directing job here, he manages to mix the classic Vampire horror & western imagery quite nicely & while the two seem at odds with each other it does sort of work. The action is mostly confined to some shoot-outs & slow motion fights, the shoot-outs could have been edited better as it's sometimes hard to tell who is shooting at who & where they are in relation to each other while the fights are too short. There's not much gore here, there's a slashed throat, some blood splatter & that's about it. One of the few films in which children are killed. The computer game BloodRayne 2 on which this was apparently based is very different & the two share no real similarities plot wise as the computer game is set during World War II.The IMDb reckons this had a budget of about $10,000,000 which I think is total rubbish, there's no way this cost that much. The production values are alright, the special effects are good & it's well made save for some disappointingly flat action scenes. Filmed in British Columbia in Canada.None of the cast from the original BloodRayne (2005) are present & Rayne herself has been recast, obviously for her looks rather than acting ability.BloodRayne II: Deliverance is a film which will get panned on the IMDb & other sites because of who directed it rather than the merits of the film itself, sure it ain't no masterpiece but I can fifty low budget straight to video horror films which are much worse than this. Just about worth a watch I suppose but nothing special. Uwe Boll is currently working on BloodRayne 3: Warhammer (2010).

I'll say it short. First of all it has nothing to do with the game. Rayne from powerful, vampire warrior became weakling which is constantly beaten, kidnapped and such (even her blades look like can openers). She is no longer a "living weapon" against Nazis, of course why he should put this original idea into the movie? Cowboys sounds better! Most scenes lack sense, i don't want this post to contain spoilers, so let me just say it was very disturbing because amount of bull-crap per 1cm of reel is unspeakable, especially the "Great final".Personally i hated it, as all Uwe Boll movies. If this guy wants to keep his "art" like this, he shouldn't use trademarks and titles from video games. He just can't keep up to it even in small piece.

The original BloodRayne opened with a promising montage and effective establishing shots – it showed a flicker of hope before collapsing into a pile of mediocrity. This sequel opens with an uninspiring montage of faded photographs, it introduces a nails-on-a-chalkboard city boy writer who just arrived in the old west, and like its predecessor it goes downhill from there.Like a baby learning to walk, Uwe Boll has taken a few unsteady steps away from blatantly ripping off better films in hopes that somehow a bit of Peter Jackson, Sam Raimi, and Michael Bay will rub off on him. Boll fell down, got scared, and ran back to his most primal instinct: leaching. Look out Sergio Leone, since this is a Western, guess who's next? Contrary to what the credits say, the star of BloodRayne II: Deliverance is not Natassia Malthe who plays the titular character. No, the star is the Western clichés, themselves. All of them.An outlaw, Billy the Kid, has gripped the poor town of Deliverance. A lone gunslinger (sword slinger?) Rayne rides into these desolate, dusty streets. The sheriff issues her a stern warnin' "not to cause trouble in these here parts. Sade don't like trouble." So Rayne moseys on over to the saloon where she runs into another outlaw, a rival. And they'll settle them thar differences over a game of cards. Yes, cards. Because even if evil vampiric Billy has kidnapped all the children as he holds a town hostage and builds an undead army, there's always time for five card draw.Rayne whips out a four-of-a-kind (aces, no less) as all these films require, trumping her competition's full house. Of course, villains don't like losin', so they settle this civilized style with an ol' fashioned showdown at noon—er midnight, or … whenever. That thar Sheriff don't like that much, so he arrests Rayne and sentences her to hang but not before giving her time to make peace in the jail because no Western is complete without a jail scene. Naturally, the heroine is destined to escape and round up the magnificent seven – er, magnificent four – for the obligatory hero's walk down the main dusty road.Clichés alone are not any reason to fire off criticism; however, when the plot is nothing more than a game of "connect the clichés" then you're asking for trouble. Compounding this, Uwe Boll decides to imitate the immortal The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly which is really asking for trouble.The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is a fifteen minute plot sustained across three hours by the directorial virtuosity of Sergio Leone (helped immensely by the energizing and exhilarating score by Ennio Morricone.) That film is the ultimate triumph of style over substance.While Uwe Boll can be a stylish director, he lacks any sense of discipline (or common sense for that matter.) Thus, Boll ripping off a movie that often flirts with overkill and parody (but knows when to stop) spells disaster.Prime example: Good, Bad, and the Ugly draws out its final showdown with close ups of eyes, guns, and itchy trigger fingers. So BloodRayne II's finale is a dual narrative where Rayne's posse waltzes into a barn where Billy's posse awaits in the rafters with a small arsenal, meanwhile Rayne sets off a trap that threatens to hang the town's children. It's up to Rayne to hold the rope in place and keep the kids alive. Cut back to the barn, Rayne's posse of two stand around waiting to die, exchanging last moment quips and lighting up a cigarette at a leisurely pace while a redundant tragic motive whines like a dying coyote in the soundtrack. Cut back to Rayne still holding the rope while Billy gets up to give a villain's speech. Cut back to the posse, they're being told to turn around for the tenth time. Cut back to Billy, he still hasn't shut up yet, and Rayne still stands there holding the rope while the shortest of the brats hangs and dies (then Billy feeds on him.) On their own, either scenario is painfully drawn out; together, they're unbearable. Oh, and now we're cutting over to the townsfolks and city boy who are arguing whether or not they should get involved. Two people run outside, one gets shot, the other runs back inside. More talk ensues. Wonderful.Someone – anyone – for the love of God do something meaningful.But the greatest sin is how poorly the titular character is handled. Rayne is pathetic. She beats one outlaw just fine, and then magically turns into the most worthless action hero ever. The sheriff bops her on the head, and she's out cold. She escapes the gallows, dives into the river, bad guys shoot in her general direction, and when she surfaces she's on the brink of death (nope, we never see any bullets actually hitting her either.) During the film's climactic confrontation, Billy gets bored of fighting Rayne with his letter openers and decides to beat the living crap out of Rayne with his bare fists in front of the villagers – villagers who two seconds ago vowed to make a stand … standing on the porch, watching Billy hold Rayne up with one hand, repeatedly punching her in the face with the other.Rayne, you know those blades you've kept on your back through the whole movie? You might try using them.It's nice to see an action movie willing to hurt it's hero, and even nicer that it's brutal in the beating, but an action movie's hero still needs to be tough. Bruce Willis got ripped apart in the first Die Hard, and the Predatory beat the hell out of Arnold Schwarzennegar … but Arnold and Bruce also fought back.Rayne just stands there and bleeds. I guess that explains the title.