THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 1, 1994 TAG: 9409020846
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 56 lines
THERE'S JUST NO escaping vampires at the movies. The genre refuses to die, proving that repetition is apparently not nearly as deadly as a wooden stake. Even the usually classy Michelle Pfeiffer had a run-in with a wolf this movie summer.
Here, if nothing else, is a new, dark and foreboding flick that proves that vampires are loose in Mexico, too. With folks who speak both English and Spanish groping about looking frightened, it's a tale that would have made an effective 30-minute segment in the twilight zone. As it is, 90 minutes is a bit too long, and the thrills are somewhere off camera.
From Mexican director Guillermo del Toro, ``Cronos'' is another one of those quests for eternal life. It only SEEMS like an eternity. Give the film credit for an effective Gothic mood, but mood is about all you'll find.
It begins with a prologue, set in 1536 - something murky about an alchemist who has this ``device'' that will bring eternal life but also needs blood.
Switch to modern times and the ``thing'' has ended up in an antiques shop owned by Federico Luppi. With his feisty-but-silent little granddaughter as his accomplice, he learns the secret of the toy. Forget all the sci-fi mumbo jumbo. To me, it looks like a gold egg which, when the music gets foreboding, spouts legs and becomes a kind of insect. They call it the cronos. It pierces the veins and draws blood.
A wealthy, eccentric type, who lives in a germ-free haven that smacks of the late Howard Hughes, wants the cronos and sends his plug-ugly nephew hunting for it. The nephew, who dreams of the day when he can take his uncle's fortune and get plastic surgery, is played by TV's beast of ``Beauty and the Beast,'' Ron Perleman.
Luppi gets looped on the kickapoo joy juice. First, he looks younger. Then he turns blue. Then he dies - only to live again.
Oh, well, you know the plot. ``Cronos'' is effective with several moments of droll humor. If for some unusual reason you've always had the urge to see a Mexican vampire movie, now's your chance. For the rest of us, only its brooding moodiness actually separates it from the standard Hollywood horror entry. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic
MOVIE REVIEW
``Cronos''
Cast: Ron Perleman, Claudio Brook, Federico Luppi
Director: Guillermo del Toro
MPAA rating: R (blood)
Mal's rating: Two stars
Locations: Naro Expanded Cinema in Norfolk, today only
by CNB