Innocent Blood

John Landis, the man who brought us AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON decides to return the favor by bring a vampire from France to America...Pittsburgh in fact which is no doubt a tip of the hat to my man Goerge A. Romero. Come to think of it, the whole flick is one ginat in-gag tip of the hat though it really should have been set in New Jersey because INNOCENT BLOOD plays out like a blood sucker episode of THE SOPRANOS and a lot of Tony's crew are to be seen here! The french vampire in question here is played by the fabulous Anne Parillaud who we all know and love from LA FEMME NIKITA. Anthony LaPaglia, who for some reason I always mistake for one of the neverending Baldwin brothers, provides the male lead and oddly enough in this case "the romantic interest" as the story is really about Parillaud and a vampire she makes by mistake wo just happens to be Robert Loggia in the funniest role he has ever taken. When I mentioned THE SOPRANOS I wasn't joking. Here we see see the likes of Tony Lip, Rocco Sisto, David Proval, Chazz Palminteri (who wasn't in THE SOPRANOS but bloody well should have been!) and Tony Sirico. As for horror related cameos, see if you can spot Forrest J Ackerman, Tom Savini, Dario Argento, Linnea Quigley as well as Sam Raimi, Angela Basset and Frank Oz...and we can't forget about Don Rickles who brings some great laughs here. Yet, what really makes INNOCENT BLOOD work here is top notch writing, a little too much of the lovey dovey aspect for my liking but hey, what do you do, and fine directing with great acting all around. This still remains one of those great films nobody saw...do yourself a favor and make sure you're not one of them!