Rise: Bloodhunter

The storyline of a woman who wakes up in the morgue as a vampire looking for revenge sounded interesting. Throw in some good actors like Lucy Liu, Michael Chiklis, Carla Gugino, and James D'arcy and you've got me looking forward to it. Alas, I didn't see that Sebastian Gutierrez (wrote the screenplay for Snakes on a Plane) was the writer/director of the project. Gutierrez attempted to make the worst movie ever with his Mermaid Chronicles: She Creature in 2001. Why was I watching said terrible film? I was intrigued much like I was with the cast for Rise. Surely the lovely Ms. Gugino and Rufus Sewell couldn't be in that bad of a film? I was wrong both times.

Rise starts out with the priviously mentioned scene of Lucy Liu waking up and trying to find out what happened to her. She finds out through her investigative skills of her former life that a shady character named Biship (D'arcy) was involved in her fate. As she she tries to track down Bishop, she comes across the path of alcoholic cop Clyde as played by Chiklis. Clyde has had his daughter taken by a myserious cult of goth's and thinks that this Bishop could be the key to her safe return.

On tv, the directors of The Shield make Chiklis seem larger than life. Here in the film, his character seems tiny and weak. His character Clyde has little more than a few scenes drinking in which to try and establish some depth. Lots of holes surround his character that you are just supposed to accept. Liu gets some major props not just for the gratuitous nudity (Thanks Sebastian), but for a lot of hands on fighting. She is obviously in great shape and it seems a pity that the low budget didn't allow her to show this in more elaborate scenes.

Gutierrez just isn't a very good filmmaker. Somehow he keeps getting actors and producers to work with him. I can only hope that will stop... soon please.

Note: After I wrote that, I discovered he already has a new screenplay being made with Jessica Alba, Parker Posey, and Alessandro Nivola (Junebug). How does this keep happening?

10/100 (only received 10 for having Lucy Lui in various states of undress, so if that is not your thing, call it 0/100)