Featured Title of the Month - August 2004
The Lost Boys (r1)
Reviewed by Timo Sipari.
"Sleep all day, Party all night. It's fun to be a vampire."
This particular movie has a kind of special place in my DVD history. Since the DVDs became
available here in Finland (I think it was at the second half on -98), this movie was one of those first movies released on DVD in Finland by Warner Bros.
In fact, if I recall correctly, this was the first DVD which I ever rented. Back those days, there were not too many titles to be rented.
The most common way to get almost any title on DVD, was to purchase it online from the States or Canada. Like back those days,
this version is also region 1 DVD, but a two-disc special edition.
The movie begins with a family moving into a new home at the fictional town of Santa Carla. The mother (Dianne Wiest) is recently divorsed and
she is moving along with her two teenage sons (Corey Haim and Jason Patric) to live with her dad (Barnard Hughes) in the hills above this fictional town.
It's quite fun to see these young actors on their verge of fame, especially Kiefer Sutherland who plays the part of David, a boss of the vampire pact.
This movie also started the conjoined careers of two Coreys, Haim and Feldman, by working on many movies together since this cult classic vampire movie.
Seeing this 80's movie works for me as a kind of a wayback machine, as the 80's was my decade of being a teenager also, like many of the characters of this movie.
Those huge hairs and quite ridiculous clothing are always a fun to see, as like the soundtrack, which gives me so much good memories from the time when everything seemed so much simpler and easier.
Oh well, those were the days alright...
Ok, back to the movie.
Directed by Joel Schumacher and produced by Richard Donner, this movie gives me a feeling, which only those movies of the 80's can provide.
It's very hard to put a finger on it, but if you are raised with movies like me on the 80's especially, you know what I mean. Since the days of
Bela Lugosi, the vampire stories has been deleloped to reflect the style of the time. This vampire tale was directly addressed to the teenagers of the 80's and it has no deeper meaning or a message,
just a story, which entertains on a level which it was intended to do. The particular style of this movie is far from those early horror tales, being a teenage rock'n roll movie which
from time to time suffers from the lack of direction. On one level it seems to be a horror story but at the same time it's a real comedy. Anyway, the direction, which ever it is, works
for me and I liked it once again, after these years.
On a side note, a Finnish heavy-rock band, The 69 Eyes, has published a single labeled as "Lost Boys".
The band directly pays the tribute to the movie, as their official website says: "This is the final warning. The Helsinki Vampires are back."
My final verdict is, if you are a slightest bit into vampire movies and need your fix of 80's movies, this combination is highly recommended.
The movie is presented on it's original aspect ratio, 2.35:1. The soundtrack is all-new digital transfer and seems to be retouched also.
The picture is generally good and the soundtrack works quite well. The second disc contains various documentaries, multiangle video commentary, photo gallery
and music video among other things.
Video clips: (opens in a new browser window)
The Lost Boys at Amazon.com
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