Daybreakers

Goolphipp Award: 3.9 (Worth 11 Bucks)

Goolsby:
I grew up with Ethan Hawke as Jack from White Fang and Troy from Reality Bites. You can say I'm a fan. Put him opposite Willem Dafoe (who plays Elvis) and add some vampires, you know I'm going to be there. I thought this movie was clever and had more to offer than just being another "vampire movie." Directors and writers Michael and Peter Spierig created a whole world where vampires are the norm and humans are the minority. This movie was horror first, drama second. The blood and guts were done well. I hate it when horror or action movies over use the gore factor and then use cheap blood to boot. We had realistic looking blood for the most part and awesome action moments. Plenty of "boo" moments for all. I appreciated the under story though. The drama between Hawke's character Edward and his military brother Frankie was well delivered and placed. I really liked all the details. Vampires need to drive in the daytime, so we've got modified cars with multiple driving cameras and black windows. There were subwalks (similar to a subway) for the vampires to walk around during the day. There were also coffee stations that served blood mixed with coffee.

I really liked this movie. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it gave me more than I thought. Give me a "smart" movie where the characters make smart life saving decisions and I'm good to go. This movie made us think and I always welcome that. This movie is not for the faint of heart. Daybreakers also had its faults, but they were minimal and easy to overlook.

Goolsby overall: 4.25
"We're the ones with the crossbows."

Phipps:
I generally like vampire movies. I wasn't as pleased with this movie as Goolsby...and I suppose it's because it is a horror movie. I'm not a fan of those. I felt it had too many boo moments. They were unnecessary, the plot was enough to keep me interested. But I liked the details of the movie, especially the tricked-out Chrysler with the sun shades.

This particular movie had different pieces from vampire movies that came before it. The golden eyes were most likely pulled from the Twilight movies. The swearing was akin to Blade, as was the blood and gore. I thought the CGI was on the same level as Underworld. While these are some of the similarities, I still think that Daybreakers had something special. With all the "cool" vampire movies out, where characters want to become the undead, this movie was a refreshing change. What if everyone became a vampire? An intriguing question.

So, I guess, at the end of the day, I would watch it again on DVD. It was done well. Heck, I even dreamed a couple nights later about staking the starving bat-like vamps in Daybreakers. For the record though, Ethan Hawke makes a better human than vampire.

Phipps overall: 3.5
For Willem Dafoe...the original ex-vampire.

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