The opening sequences of this film promptly indicate that it'll be a 100% silly and immature horror/comedy that requires you to leave all your remaining brain capacities at the door. As Count Dracula rises from his coffin when the night falls over his Transsylvanian castle, he's stung by an ordinary mosquito that sucks HIS blood for a change. The insect then literally fetches a plane to South Korea, where it subsequently plants its blood-infected sting into the neck of the corrupt police detective Kang. As far as horror movies go, I'd say this is by far the stupidest way for any character to transform into a vampire. The campiness grows even larger when Kang doesn't seem to evolve as regular vampires. His fangs don't just grow longer and pointy when night falls, but whenever he's sexually aroused. From the moment Kang gets an erection, his appetite for blood becomes insatiable and dangerous, so he uses his newly gained powers to pick up ladies in night clubs and performs all kinds of macho stunts with a stupid white mask on his face. The actual plot only takes off when his former business partner kills his best friend and kidnaps his girlfriend. Kang teams up with a priest and finally learns to use his vampire skills as advantages to help the police investigation. "Vampire Cop, Ricky" is a pretty lousy and unbelievably incoherent quickie that can't seem to decide what it wants to be. Surely, horror and comedy can be mixed together to a certain degree, but the script also pretends to cover buddy-cop story lines and even martial arts action. Unfortunately for director Si-Myung-Lee, the comedy aspects aren't funny, the horror isn't impressive and the drama elements are downright pathetic. The Kung-Fu sequences are rather entertaining, though they're hardly enough to revolve an entire movie on. With a playtime of nearly two whole hours, "Vampire Cop Ricky" is far too long and inevitably gets boring fast. South Korean movies often tend to be overlong, but at least half of the footage in this film is redundant and should have remained behind in the cutting room. The acting performances are weak (with the exception of Byung-ho Sohn as the eccentric bad guy), there are no particularly memorable stunts or action-highlights and the ending is laughably inane. Feel free to skip this one, but in case you're looking for South Korean horror-comedy that is actually worthwhile, watch "The Host".
2 Reviews
Good fun
thomas-mcgovern8 September 2006
Warning: Spoilers
Good fun as Ricky, a cop of dubious virtue has deal with two problems which claim his soul and cast him into the outer darkness. Cleverly mirroring his gradual change into a vampire with his attempts to reclaim his good name as a police officer, the script offers some jokes and some action along the way. It leaves plenty of room for a sequel as the concept has some more mileage.
The lead is engaging and brings the necessary vitality to the role. As with most Korean films,it could perhaps do with some editing as it goes on for 2 hours, but the film didn't outstay it's welcome.
The special effects were fine and the action well shot. A deserved success.
The lead is engaging and brings the necessary vitality to the role. As with most Korean films,it could perhaps do with some editing as it goes on for 2 hours, but the film didn't outstay it's welcome.
The special effects were fine and the action well shot. A deserved success.
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