Why So Blu?

The Lost Boys – The Thirst (DVD Review)

The third installment of The Lost Boys trilogy, (The Lost Boys, The Lost Boys – The Tribe, and now this one The Lost Boys – The Thirst), is out now and is better than the poorly received yet profitable previous movie.  This time around, Corey Feldman has an Executive Producer title as well because he wanted to ensure that this one was better than the second one.

There are only two original cast members left out of the franchise, with the other characters either written off or killed in previous installments.  Corey Haim was not involved in this movie like he was with his cameo in the last one, but he had planned to join the possible fourth movie before his untimely death.  It’s uncertain whether or not there will be another one in the series but if this one is as profitable as the last one, it’s safe to say that the Frog Brothers will be back.

Film 

I am extremely wary of direct to video sequels as they are rarely as good as the originals and usually represent an attempt at a cash grab from nostalgic consumers.  I was dreading this movie in all honesty and so I was somewhat surprised to see that the movie was a lot better than I anticipated.  But then again, after watching Troll 2 everything seems better!

The movie opens with Edgar Frog (Corey Feldman) alone and destitute after his brother Alan (Jamison Newlander) was forced to drink some vampire blood which turned him into a half-vampire from an earlier fight.  Edgar now facing eviction, is so desperate that he is selling his prized comic book collection for a lot less than it’s worth.  While he is at the comic store vising his friend Zoe (Casey Dolan), he runs into an obnoxious blogger named Johnny Trash (Porteus Xandau) who is in town for an upcoming rave that he is promoting.

When Edgar is later approached by novelist Gwen Lieber (Tanit Phoenix) who is willing to pay a lot of money if Edgar can save her brother who was kidnapped at an earlier rave.  It seems that vampires are handing out a new drug called The Thirst which is basically vampire blood mixed with ecstasy which turns the user into a half-vampire.  Despite being almost homeless, Edgar says no for some reason until he remembers the good ol’ days of vampire killing with his old buds.

The movie takes a more topical approach than usual as the novelist is an obvious facsimile of Stephanie Meyer and her Twilight series that romanticizes vampires which disgusts Edgar who knows that they are monsters.  In addition, there’s a former reality star (Lars van Goetz) who joins the team in an attempt to regain popularity which is completely believable in this day and age of reality TV.   I also enjoyed some of the sly humor as well such as the ancient senator (think Strom Thurmand) trying to suck the blood out of a congressman so he can live longer as a full-fledged vampire.  I mean we all know that politicians are bloodsuckers right?

Overall, I did enjoy this movie more than I thought I would although there was room for improvement.  The special effects were pretty good for a direct to video movie and the cast was fine too, but some bigger stars could have helped.  With Corey Feldman doing his own version of Christian Bale’s Batman voice, it’s a little distracting but he did a fine job in the role and if he did truly make a difference as an Executive Producer then that’s even better.  Jamison Newlander also does a fine job and the only real dramatic scene of the movie is between the two brothers arguing about their differing philosophies.  If you are a fan of this series then you should enjoy this.

Video

For a DVD, the anthropomorphic wide-screen picture quality is pretty good.  It has a nice clean image without any specks, scratches, and the like.  The only issue I had was with scenes that occurred in the dark where DVDs always fail in my book as the images became murky and detail was lost.  The film was shot in South Africa and does its best to look like Southern California and the outside shots of the beach and surrounding areas have a nice detailed image.  I would be curious to see how the Blu-ray turned out on this front.

Audio

The Dolby Surround 5.1 track is nothing special but it gets the job done.  It’s mainly focused for the center speaker but there are parts of the movie that utilize the rest of the speakers especially during the rave sequence.   This is one of those movies that likes to play with the sound levels so keep your hand on the remote as you could be surprised.  I kept turning up the volume to understand Feldman’s Bat-Frog voice and then I’d have to turn it down once a vampire attacked him.  I guess that’s par for the course on a vampire movie though.

Special Features 

Although the Blu-ray has more extras, the DVD only has a featurette hosted by Charisma Carpenter (who wasn’t even in the movie!) talking about Vampires and why they are so popular.  Although they assembled some eclectic talking heads for it including filmmaker Mick Garris and the cast of the movie, it wasn’t very long or very interesting.  If you want this movie I highly recommend that you buy the Blu-ray version for the better quality and the extra features.

Final Thoughts 

I think you can safely go from watching the first Lost Boys directly to this one as it feels more like a direct sequel with all of the flashbacks and the references to the original movie.  I wasn’t expecting much so it was better than I thought it would be.  Just remember, after Troll 2 everything looks better including watching paint dry, so take this rating for what it’s worth! The best thing about the movie was the humor which the last movie was criticized for lacking the last go around.  I’d say rent it and if you like it then go ahead and buy unless you are a huge fan of the franchise in which case you should just click on the link below to purchase it!

Get your copy today!