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Interview with the Vampire [Blu-ray] | ![Interview with the Vampire [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Iq20M7vRL._SL160_.jpg)
 enlarge | Director: Neil Jordan
Actors: Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Antonio Banderas, Stephen Rea, Christian Slater
Studio: Warner
Category: DVD
List Price: $28.99
Buy New: $19.99
You Save: $9.00 (31%)
New (25) Used (6) Collectible (1) from $15.50
Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 6144
Format: Color, Special Edition, Widescreen
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), Spanish (Original Language), Japanese (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: Blu-ray
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 123
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 6.7 x 5.3 x 0.5
MPN: WARBR35881
UPC: 883929003549
EAN: 0883929003549
ASIN: B001AQR3E4
Theatrical Release Date: 1994
Release Date: October 7, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 10/07/2008 Rating: R
Amazon.com essential video
When it was announced that Tom Cruise would play the vampire Lestat in this adaptation of Anne Rice's bestselling novel, even Rice chimed in with a highly publicized objection. The author wisely and justifiably recanted her negative opinion when she saw Cruise's excellent performance, which perceptively addresses the pain and chronic melancholy that plagues anyone cursed with immortal bloodlust. Brad Pitt and Kirsten Dunst are equally good at maintaining the dark and brooding tone of Rice's novel. And in this rare mainstream project for a major studio, director Neil Jordan compensates for a lumbering plot by honoring the literate, Romantic qualities of Rice's screenplay. Considered a disappointment while being embraced by Rice's loyal followers, the movie is too slow to be a satisfying thriller, but it is definitely one of the most lavish, intelligent horror films ever made. --Jeff Shannon
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| Customer Reviews:
 THIS is the BEST BluRay you could do??!!?? November 20, 2008
Let me begin by saying that I absolutely ADORE this film...my rating is for the BluRay transfer and presentation ONLY. This version SUCKS...especially for THIRTY BUCKS. Only a couple of moments in the Theatres des Vampires appear slightly crisp and refined, the rest is no better than the standard DVD. 'IWTV' deserved better than this rubbish. Shame on you Warner Bros., you did a FANTASTIC job on The LoSt BoYS but on this film you dropped the ball.
AND GET NEW DVD EXTRAS FROM THIS DECADE! THEY ARE LO-DEF AND TIRED LOOKING!
Don't waste your money.
Interview with the Vampire November 12, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I love this movie, but my rating is about "blu-ray" version. There is NOTHING about this movie that is "hi def" The package states 1080p hi def AND 480p/i standard version. There is no way in the menus to play different "versions" and I'm CERTAIN I'm watching a regular 480p standard version of this movie.....
No new audio formats either....
There is NO reason to buy this movie on blu ray! It's NOT high definition.
Worst Blu Ray so far October 21, 2008
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
I bought the original DVD and then the special edition. Comparing the DVD vs. the blu-ray with the DVD on a low end multidisc Sony and the Samsung BDP-1200 which was considered about the best Blu-ray, I can't believe how little difference there is. The Blu ray looks like they tried to make it blurry and have no color. I have an older DTS receiver, so the DVD audio is actually better for me on the DVD, which is all the more insulting. Until now, the 2 years ago Sleepy Hollow Blu ray was my worst purchase, this far exceeds it. The extras are lame and in SD. this should be $4.99. Save your money! Worst Blu-ray remastering EVER!
Interview with the Vampire - Blu-ray Info September 23, 2008
5 out of 15 found this review helpful
Version: U.S.A / Region Free
VC-1 BD-25 / Advanced Profile 3
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Running time: 2:02:33
Movie size: 20,84 GB
Disc size: 22,58 GB
Average video bit rate: 19.93 Mbps
Dolby Digital Audio English 640 kbps 5.1 / 48kHz / 640kbps
Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 2.0 / 48kHz / 192kbps
Dolby Digital Audio French 192 kbps 2.0 / 48kHz / 192kbps
Dolby Digital Audio Japanese 192 kbps 2.0 / 48kHz / 192kbps
Dolby Digital Audio Spanish 192 kbps 1.0 / 48kHz / 192kbps
Subtitles: English SDH / French / Japanese / Spanish
Number of chapters: 29
NO LOSSLESS (High Definition) AUDIO
#Director's Commentary with Neil Jordan -
#In the Shadow of the Vampire"
#Introduction by Anne Rice, Neil Jordan and Antonio Banderas
#Theatrical Trailer
 Dies Irae; Dies Doloris. September 9, 2008
8 out of 11 found this review helpful
"Libera me, Domine, de vitae aeterna" - "Free me, Lord, from eternal life": If a movie begins with a choir and boy soprano singing these words, in a requiem's style and overlaying the camera's sweeping move over nightly San Francisco bay, zooming in on a Victorian building's top-floor window after having followed the life on the street below like a hunter follows its prey - if a movie begins like this, you know you're not looking at your average flick, whatever its subject. (And if the first thing you catch is the Latin phrase's grammatical mistake, this is probably not your kind of movie to begin with).
Much-discussed even before its release, due not least to Anne Rice's temporary withdrawal of support and her no less sensational subsequent 180-degree turn, Neil Jordan's adaptation of the "Vampire Chronicles"' first part, based on Rice's own screenplay, is a sumptuous production awash in luminous colors, magnificent period decor and costumes, rich fabrics, heavy crystal, elegant silverware and gallons of deeply scarlet blood, supremely photographed by Phillippe Rousselot, with a constant undercurrent of sensuality and seduction; an audiovisual orgy substantiated by one of recent film history's most ingenious scores (by Elliot Goldenthal). Although the book only gained notoriety after the publication of its sequel "The Vampire Lestat," followed in short order by the "Chronicles"' third installment, "The Queen of the Damned," by the time this movie was produced, Rice had acquired a large and loyal fan base, who would have been ready to tear it to shreds had it failed to meet their expectations. That this was not unanimously the case is in and of itself testimony to Neil Jordan's considerable achievement (only underscored by the botched 2002 realization of "Queen of the Damned"). Sure, some decry the plot changes vis-a-vis the novel and the fact that some of the protagonists (particularly Louis and Armand) look different from Rice's description. But others have embraced the movie wholeheartedly; praising it for remaining faithful to the fundamentalities of Rice's story and for its production values as such. I find myself firmly in the latter corner; indeed, in some respects I consider this one of the rare movies that are superior to their literary originals - primarily because the story's two main characters, Louis and Lestat, gain considerably in stature and complexity compared to Rice's book.
While both film and novel are narrated by Louis (Brad Pitt), giving an interview to a reporter (Christian Slater) in the hope of achieving some minimal atonement for 200 years of sin and guilt, and while Lestat (Tom Cruise) appears on screen barely half the movie's running time, Lestat is much more of a central character than in Rice's novel; and vastly more interesting. For Anne Rice's Lestat only comes into his own in the "Chronicles"' second part, which is named for him and where we truly learn to appreciate him as the vampire world's aristocratic, arrogant, wicked, intelligent and unscrupulous "brat prince," who although completely lacking regret for any of his actions nevertheless shows occasional glimpses of caring, even if he would never admit thereto. *This*, however, is exactly the movie's Lestat; not the comparatively uninformed and, all things considered, even somewhat brutish creature of Rice's first novel. It is no small feat on Tom Cruise's part to have accomplished this; and in my mind his portrayal has completely eclipsed the character's original conception, which was reportedly based on Rutger Hauer's Captain Navarre in "Ladyhawke."
Similarly, while every bit as guilt-ridden as the character created by Anne Rice, Brad Pitt's Louis regains more inner strength - and more quickly so - than the narrator of Rice's book, rendering him more of an even foil for Lestat, and equally lending greater credibility to his initial selection as Lestat's companion, his actions to ensure his and Claudia's escape to Europe, and his later decision not to stay with Armand. (Indeed, Louis's and Armand's separation after the burning of the Theatre of the Vampires makes perfect sense in the movie's context; it would have undercut both characters', but especially Louis's credibility had they gone on to share years of companionship like in the book.)
Kirsten Dunst's Claudia was not only this movie's biggest discovery - not surprisingly, in an interview included on the DVD Dunst calls this "the most prominent role" of her career so far - she, too, embodies the novel's child vampire to absolute perfection; capturing her eternally childlike features as well as her Lolitaesque seductiveness and the ruthless killer hidden under her doll-like appearance. Doubtlessly furthest from the novel's character is Antonio Banderas's powerful and charismatic Armand: But while I do somewhat miss Rice's auburn-haired "Botticelli angel," I always had a problem imagining him as the leader of the Paris coven, in control even of the quicksilver-like Santiago (marvelously portrayed by Stephen Rea in one of his most overtly theatrical performances). Here, too, the movie - if anything - gives the story greater credibility; although it's admittedly hard to reconcile with parts of the "Chronicles"' later installments, particularly Armand's own biography.
In interviews, Neil Jordan and Brad Pitt particularly have mentioned the emotional strain that this movie put on all its participants; due its almost exclusively nightly shooting schedule, and even more so because of its incessant exploration of guilt, damnation and, literally, hell on earth. Anne Rice's vampires truly are the ultimate outsiders; no longer part of human society, they feed on it, can neither be harmed by sickness nor by methods the world has taken for granted ever since Bram Stoker's "Dracula" (which are in fact merely "the vulgar fictions of a demented Irishman," as Louis explains, simultaneously amused and contemptuous) and are thus, if not killed by fire and/or beheading, condemned to walk the earth forever, without any hope of redemption. It is primarily this element which has given Rice's novels their lasting appeal, and which is perfectly rendered in Jordan's adaptation. I'm still not sure I'd ever want to meet them in person, though ...
Also recommended:
Complete Vampire Chronicles (Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, The Queen of the Damned, The Tale of the body Thief)
The Vampire Companion
Ladyhawke
Bram Stoker's Dracula (Collector's Edition)
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