that echo the author’s stories. With his verbal dexterity and skill playing unconventional romantic leads, Cusack isn’t necessarily a bad choice to portray Poe, but the script and direction conspire against whatever ambitions he may have had to stretch himself as an actor. Rushing headlong from one corpse to another, he rarely gets a chance to show us the character’s torment or genius directly. Instead, we’re constantly told about these qualities by others. Worse, the script is


full of both grating anachronisms (a “ser- ial killer” headline when that term wasn’t coined until the 1970s) and cliché-heavy dia- logue (“Edgar, we can’t go on like this… ”). And when the villain


is finally unmasked we couldn’t care less because he has no meaningful connection to the main characters. In short, I’d say that The Raven is enough to make Poe turn over in his grave except I don’t want to give any- one ideas for a sequel.


PETER GUTIÉRREZ WAKE US WHEN IT’S OVER


UNDERWORLD: AWAKENING Starring Kate Beckinsale, Stephen Rea and India Eisley


Directed by Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein Written by Len Wiseman, John Hlavin, et al. Sony


Fans of the Underworld


franchise were probably pretty surprised that a fourth installment was being re- leased five years after the last one. Then again, it does- n’t take a genius to realize that squeezing Kate Beckin- sale into a skintight latex cat-suit equals big bucks at the box office. Set twelve years after the


events of Underworld: Evolu- tion (2006), we discover that mankind has learned of the existence of vampires and werewolves and insti- gated a systematic purge to wipe both species off the planet. We join Selene (Beckinsale) as she awakens from a lengthy coma in the experimental labs of a pharmaceutical company run by Dr. Jacob Lane (Stephen Rea: Feardotcom, V for Vendetta), whose evil agenda to make the lycans invincible is painstakingly revealed throughout the course of the movie. Selene breaks out of the lab and discovers a girl (India Eisley), who is apparently a rare vam- pire-lycan hybrid, with whom Selene appears to share a psychic bond. Although it’s gorier than its predecessors, Awak-


ening is unfortunately not as dark, sexy or exciting as the first three films due to a definite lack of sleek edginess in the combat between the vamps and the lycans. Selene does battle in a three-sided war:


Underworld: Awakening: India Eisley plays a girl who is both fang and fur.


with humans, who, for the most part, are completely inept at fighting her; against vampires, who have become a demoralized lot; and with CGI lycans, who look about as scary as a pack of cranky Pomerani- ans. She’s more lethal in this outing – one scene sees her break back into the lab in Matrix-like fash- ion, slashing throats and shredding ly- cans with high-powered automatic weapons – but when she’s not deci- mating baddies she mostly stomps through the film looking like she’s on her way to a goth club. It’s this abusive overuse of style over sub- stance, coupled with flat performances and unin- spiring dialogue that make this a disappointing outing. Although the movie has


been presented in theatres as a 3-D experience, most of the time you won’t even realize it until the odd throwing star or werewolf claw lunges out of the screen. Yep, Beckinsale’s marquee value is clearly all


that saved this sucker from going direct to video. LAST CHANCE LANCE


WALKER STALKER


COLD SWEAT Starring Facundo Espinosa, Marina Glezer and Omar Musa


Directed by Adrián García Bogliano Written By Adrián García Bogliano, Ramiro García Bogliano and Hernán Moyano Dark Sky


For the thoughtful horror fan, the concept of evil


as it is represented in various foreign cultures is an alluring one. A filmmaker’s interpretation of his own region’s dark history can tell a story in ways that most reference materials cannot, and while Adrián García Bogliano’s Cold Sweat does represent a very


rare product – an Argentinian horror film – the re- sult is a bit of a mess. Friends Román (Facundo Espinosa) and Ali (Ma-


rina Glezer) sit nervously outside a large, creepy building, wondering if they should enter in search of Román’s ex-girlfriend Jackie (Camilla Velasco). The two presume she’s in there for an internet- arranged booty call, but soon discover that it’s a dank, labyrinthine tor- ture dungeon manned by a couple of semi-re- tired fascists-in-hiding. The weapon of choice for the septuagenarian psychos is a highly dis- tilled preparation of ni- troglycerin fashioned from crates of dynamite stolen during the brutal Dirty War, an actual pe- riod in Argentina’s his- tory (1976 - 1983) when


military rulers committed numerous crimes against the nation’s supposed dissidents and subversives. Murderous friends since childhood, Gordon (Omar Musa) and his hulking henchman Baxter (Omar Gioisa) have taken to using the volatile concoction against youngsters who are lured to the grounds by phony internet profiles. Upon discovering Jackie bound to a table, Román and Ali hatch an escape plan. The only catch is that Jackie’s covered head- to-toe with the explosive substance so their exit must be anything but quick, lest they end up paint- ing the walls with their own guts. Luckily, Gordon can’t move without his walker. This gives way to some tense but hilarious chase scenes. Really... slow... chase... scenes. The basement full of hun- gry, pissed-off human experiments that assault everyone, hero and villain alike, don’t help matters much either. And yet, perhaps the biggest victim in all of this is the audience.


C I N E M A C A B R E 37RM


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