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Blade

Move over, Buffy -- the summer's most exciting vampire slayer would have to be Blade. Wesley Snipes plays the title character, a half-vampire, half-human superhero who's assisted by a grizzled Q-like figure (Kris Kristofferson) and a brainy Pam Grier type (N'Bushe Wright). Blade battles a vampire underworld resembling the X-Files' Syndicate and led by hipster Deacon Frost (a strung-out Stephen Dorff) that's bent on destroying the world. Naturally only Blade can stop him. With well-choreographed fight scenes, imaginative special effects, and genuinely surprising plot twists, this may be the best mindless entertainment of the summer.

Director Stephen Norrington gives Blade a stylish, dark feel that remains true to its comic-book roots (Marvel Comics' Stan Lee even served as an executive producer), modernizing vampirism without sarcasm. Just as The Lost Boys imagined vampires as metal-heads, Blade sees them as club kids. Norrington's use of sound can be masterful, but too often the editing is choppy, and the script has too many dumb one-liners worthy of Ah-nold. It's also a shame that Snipes, so much fun as the bad-ass in White Men Can't Jump and even Demolition Man, interprets Blade as completely humorless. Blade works because it doesn't take itself that seriously. Too bad its star does.

-- Dan Tobin