neumu [ cinematronic ]




	Queen Of The Damned
	Michael Rymer Stuart Townsend, Aaliyah, Vincent Perez, Lena Olin, Marguerite Moreau 2002		Vampires, vampire worshippers, vampire scholars and a vampire who wants to be a rock star populate this amped-up, vacuous interpretation of horror novelist Anne Rice's book of the same name and other entries in her "Vampire Chronicles." Anti-hero Lestat the vampire is back. Played by callow UK swain Stuart Townsend, he still digs sipping up that red gooey liquid found in fine necks everywhere. And now, he wants to be on the cover of Rolling Stone. He starts a band, but his high profile pisses off less outgoing vamps. It would be easy to say the movie ... um ... sucked. Instead, let's reflect on its occasional virtues: cameos by classy Euro-actors Vincent Perez and Lena Olin, slumming in fangs; some OK computer graphics; a ponderous industrial-Goth soundtrack that seems like a parody of old Bauhaus songs; and the nubile, snarly presence of late soul-pop singer Aaliyah, whose first appearance as Queen Vamp doesn't come until an hour of film unspools. Where's Buffy when you need her?