Interview with the Vampire (1994) starring Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Kirsten Dunst, Antonio Bandaras, Christian Slater, Stephen Rea directed by Neil Jordan Movie Review

Interview with the Vampire (1994)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise in Interview with the Vampire (1994)

Blood Runs Dry

Louis de Pointe du Lac (Brad Pitt) tells reporter Daniel Molloy (Christian Slater) the story of his life starting back in 1791 when at the age of 24 and grieving the death of his wife and child he meets vampire Lestat de Lioncourt (Tom Cruise) who changes him. But being a vampire doesn't come easy to Louis as he struggles with killing humans and starts to loathe himself for what he has become. But then they are joined by a young girl called Claudia (Kirsten Dunst) who Lestat also changes in order to keep Louis sweet except as the years go by and these vampires never age Claudia begins to resent Lestat for what he has done to her...

The storyline to "Interview with the Vampire" goes on as that barely covers the first half of the movie but in the same manner the focus is on Louis' story and his conflict with being a vampire and his hatred of Lestat for doing this to him. And there is no denying that "Interview with the Vampire" has a well thought out storyline built upon the now familiar theme of the conflict of being a vampire but as a whole I don't like it.

But before I get to what I don't like about "Interview with the Vampire" and will keep you guessing it has to be said that it has a good looking production. Better than average looking sets, great costumes and some entertaining direction from Neil Jordan give it a look to match the story. In fact I like the combination of director Neil Jordan and the story by Anne Rice.

But whilst I should like "Interview with the Vampire" going on the writing and directing I don't because of the acting. It is 20 years since "Interview with the Vampire" was made and since then both Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt have matured as actors but in 1994 they were both trading on their star names and it is their names and their looks which they bring to the movie, not great acting. It is all incredibly soap-operaish from them and at times laughable which really spoils the movie. And in truth the best performance in the movie comes from Kirsten Dunst who in my book out shines both Pitt and Cruise.

What this all boils down to is that "Interview with the Vampire" has never done it for me and is a case that it could have been a great movie if it wasn't for some seriously wrong casting which turned it from an interesting movie into one all about the star names and their looks rather than their characters and what happens.

Tags: Vampire Movies


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