lathe-of-heaven The Blu-ray that I have is the shorter 97 minute version (UK) I haven't seen the longer Uncut version, and I'm sure that it has a lot more nastiness in it, but I found this version to be very sharp, well put together and tightly paced.I've always liked Lucy Liu and I KNOW that not everyone likes her or thinks that she is that hot. I've enjoyed her in the recent 'Elementary' teleseries and she does a nice job here. The thing that makes her character likable is the she is fully believable in the role. She literally plays a normal person who has been thrust into a VERY NON-normal situation. Chiklis is awesome; that guy is a great actor and does an excellent job with a pretty simple role. He injects a LOT of feeling and coolness into the character, more so than you would expect from that type of role.I thought that the modern Vampire angle was done really well. I frigg'n LOVED the main bad guy; he was SO damn smooth! He was clearly completely Evil, but the way his character was written and the charismatic way he portrayed it REALLY made the role live. What I also really liked and appreciated about the film was that the characters were very believable and had a style of their own; they weren't just stupid, shallow caricatures. They were indeed larger than life Comic Book style characters, but they had a cool vibe to them that worked really well. The story moved along nicely too and definitely carried the audience along with it.The views about this movie are pretty polarized. I don't know if it is primarily because of Lucy Liu or just the story and the way it was done itself, I'm not sure. But, it looks like about half the people love it and half hate it. I'm most definitely one of the ones who loves it. Not getting into any Spoilers or anything, but I liked the way it ended. The overall mood and atmosphere of the movie were nicely balanced between a very slick, modern approach, but at the same time you still get a real Classic, epic Comic Book feel to the film.Since people are so divided about the movie, it's kind of hard to know exactly how to recommend it to others. The things that were appealing to me were primarily the director's style, the way the characters were dimensional and textured, and of course... Lucy Liu : ) Seriously though, it was really the tone and mood of the film that I liked. It had a real Comic Book feel to it which gave it sort of a larger-than-life energy which I personally found very entertaining.I don't like a LOT of the more recent Vampire type films that have come out in recent years. The reason being is probably because I really love the more Classic Traditional approach to the Vampire Story. BUT... when they at least show SOME respect for the Vampire history and lore, even in a modern setting, I personally enjoy it a lot more. In this case, they depicted how Vampires cannot be seen in mirrors, so I kind of liked that little nod to the Vampire Tradition.I guess I would say that if you like a good Vampire story, and you like a stylized approach where the characters really come to life in their roles, and you don't mind the simplicity of the story, then you might have a good chance of liking this movie. Keep in mind though... that if you are more of a fan of the 'TWILIGHT' approach to modern Vampire tales or if you are really steeped in the more Classic, heavily textured romantic style like 'INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE', you might come away from this film somewhat disappointed. Another thing too that I personally liked about this movie was that it approached the story from a bit more of a Modern Gothic angle. So, to me, the film came across as a nice balance or blend of a Classic Gothic style, but with a more slick modern tone, AND without the dumbed down approach of the 'TWILIGHT' films.I hope that this helps to give an overall view of what the movie is like so that you can determine whether you want to take the time to watch it...

Uriah43 "Sadie Blake" (Lucy Liu) is a young reporter who has recently received praise for her investigative writing on the topic of weird happenings in the Los Angeles area. One day she happens to stumble upon a case that is more serious than anything she has ever handled before and she pays for it with her life. But then she reawakens on a morgue slab with a thirst for human blood and an intense desire to retaliate against those who put her there. The director (Sebastian Gutierrez) uses a number of flashbacks which, in this particular case, fits in rather well with the storyline. Along with that there is some nudity involved but it also tended to complement the film rather than detract from it. As far as the acting was concerned this was Lucy Liu's film to either make or break and in that regard she put in a decent performance all things considered. In short, I thought this was a good vampire movie and I have rated it accordingly.

adi_hecht Well, I didn't know what I was getting into when I killed some time with this flick.Lucy Liu plays a clichéd vampire-turned-vampire huntress, spouting hokey lines, and unconvincingly struggling with vampiric feelings of guilt or anger or revenge - or whatever feelings those are that make the good vampires brood. It's a very weak script,with cardboard-cutout stereotypical characters, such as an alcoholic grieving cop that becomes an ally.It's bad, but not painfully bad. And it gets an extra star from me for that incredibly hot and sexy scene with Liu and Cameron Richardson. That scene comes very early in the film, so you don't have to waste your time watching the entire thing.

owen_twistfield (In this comment I try to focus on the movie as a work. When you judge my comments please sent me a message to tell me what and why as I can then work to improve the comments)Rise is not an ordinary vampire movie. I expected it to be one as the text on the DVD hinted at this. But the word vampire is never used and the persons afflicted by the condition never show fangs or fall to pieces in the sunlight. Yet on the other hand some vampire signs are on evidence: the dependency on blood, the fact that they don't cast a reflection in the mirror and that the afflicted are uncommon strong and resilient. What is different is that the movie spends time on how Liu feels when she finds out that she has become a thing of the night, forever barred from normal live. At heart rise is a revenge movie. Lucy Liu is a reporter who is killed when her investigation set her on the trail of a weird sect. These people turn out to be a sort of vampires and Liu becomes one of their victims. Liu however rises from the dead(hence the title)as one of the creatures and hunts them down one by one.Woven into the revenge story is the story of Chiklis who plays a police cop whose daughter got the same treatment as Liu. He is hot on the trail of both Liu and the top bad guy, either in the hope to find his daughter or find out what happened to her.At the end both stories interconnect as Chiklis catches up with Liu and face each other and finally the top bad guy.The choice of having both stories into the movie makes the revenge story more intricate as Chiklis as 'normal' human can as well help Liu as sabotage her desires. In this way also him being a cop is at odds with him being a concerned father. The story itself plays at night, in dark and usually uncomfortable places(I use this word as this is what all these places are meant to be). This is also interesting as it illustrates how Liu's world has suddenly become estranged. The story is mostly made up out of one-on-one confrontations that exist mostly out of conversations. The camera is close to the person and shots are medium and close up mostly. The fight scenes are short and unspectacular: most are more like executions.The story itself is easy to follow, yet at some turns one wonders about the choices made. Liu comes in contact with someone called the alchemist who has been usurped by the leader of the weird vampiric sect. He gives her a small crossbow with which she kills all the others, yet seen doesn't turn on him. Also the choice of the crossbow feels odd as it's such an unhandy weapon to use in a fight. The killings of their victims by the vampiric sect are strangely bloody, with bodies and surrounding furniture covered by blood and blood splashing and spraying everywhere. It somehow doesn't fit in with the mood of the movie, certainly as compared to the subdued fighting scenes. It seems as if at regular intervals the movie needed to interrupted by a horror scene.It is a common thing that 'vampire' movies are associated with seduction. In Rise this is downplayed. Liu herself seduces one(well she actually more or less jumps her victim). In all the other cases seduction seems more or less a side story then a pivotal event.Acting is reasonable but it loses at the point where the script seems to bare the actors from playing out their role. Liu seems to be shocked at first time and there are some tears when she realizes what she has become. But you would expect someone to show more emotions after she has been brutally murdered and risen from the grave: just some sign of mental stress beyond the anger Liu displays. Also Liu is somewhat too certain she needs to kill herself. Liu lacks things like doubt, uncertainty and fear. She show mostly anger. Chiklis also does not a really great job when he moment of truth comes as he is confronted by his daughter turned-vampire. She pulls a gun out and shouts abuses at him and he is quite emotionless. Nor is he in doubt once Liu has shown him that she can't be seen in the mirror. This latter seems actually a plot device that is needed to convince Chiklis of Liu's condition. I found it so unfitting as everything else vampiric is merely hinted at and then suddenly this inescapable proof is offered.Rise makes me think of The Brave One. Both involve women who undergo a traumatic experience that changes their world forever and exact revenge on perpetrators that are the cause of the change. But where Jodie Foster convinces in the role of a woman that suffers a lot and who's action are in tune with her person and experiences, Liu fails to convince as she mostly displays anger. Her change from an reporter into a determined one-woman-murder-squad leaves enough to desire. The movie seems neither fish nor foul: for those people who expect another underworld there is not enough fighting, beauty and sensuality. For those who like movies like the brave one, there is just not enough reality in the movie. The gory bloody scenes are in either case misplaced.Rise is a reasonable movie that I think could have been better if the creators had decided either to infuse more of the fantastic or if they had introduce more of the realistic. They could probably have played out the break between her normal life and her undead life better. Nevertheless a interesting vampire movie.