"Dollar Rental Bin Review"

UNDERWORLD (2003/Running Time: 103 Minutes/Rated R/Horror/Kate Beckinsale, Scott Speedman)

Which deals with an ongoing war of hundreds of years between Lycans ("werewolves") and Vampyres. Kate Beckinsale plays the part of a "master vamyre's" daughter who throughout this flick tries to figure out why the Lycans are after a mortal (played by Speedman), not as food for for experiments on his blood

Seems this whole war began a good thousand years ago when werewolves were the servants and protectors of vampyres, and watching over their hiding places while the undead slept during the sunlight hours. One lycan dared to fall in love with a vampiress (the daughter of the Master Vampyre), marries her and they produced children: a male that was a werewolf and a female that was a vampyre.

The Master Vampyre discovers this and chains the Lycan to the floor of a dungeon and his own daughter to a post, then leaves and opens a light shaft above her, forcing the werewolf to watch his beloved vampiress burn to a crisp.

The Master Vampyre then sends his assistant to kill the lycan, but he actually fails in this and the werewolf lives on through the ages taking his revenge out against all the blood-suckers he can. Plus he has the agenda to find the last heir to his lineage (Speedman) who now has the factor in his blood to become a mixture of both werewolf and vampyre: stronger than either!

Naturally, Beckinsale and Speedman fall in love even though she's been ordered to kill him, and a good deal of the film too deals with her protecting him from both sides... until he's bitten by a werewolf. Beckinsale then "puts the bite" on him herself to add the vampyre mixture, and he transforms into---what? (Well, I don't want to give away all of the spoilers and ruin the whole flick for you).

A fun and fast paced film for all monster lovers with the added attraction of a Quentin Tarentino-type gunfight every few minutes makes this flick a good choice for that Halloween evening viewing. I'd give it a decent B+ and recommend it as a discount rental.