Product Description

Underneath the city streets, amid the labyrinth of subway tunnels and gothic ruins, the two most notorious creatures of the night are embroiled in an all-out war that has been going on for centuries. It is the culmination of a blood-thirsty battle between the vampires and their mortal enemies, the werewolves. Stars: Kate Beckinsale (Pearl Harbor, My Life Without Me), Scott Speedman (My Life Without Me, TV's "Felicity").

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3221 in DVD
• Brand: Sony
• Model: 03152
• Released on: 2004-01-06
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: AC-3, Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Dubbed in: French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 121 minutes

Amazon.com
Blade meets The Crow and The Matrix in Underworld, a hybrid thriller that rewrites the rulebook on werewolves and vampires. It's a "cuisinart" movie (blend a lot of familiar ideas and hope something interesting happens) in which immortal vampire "death dealers" wage an ancient war against "Lycans" (werewolves), who've got centuries of revenge--and some rather ambitious genetic experiments--on their lycanthropic agenda. Given his preoccupation with gloomy architecture (mostly filmed in Budapest, Hungary), frenetic mayhem and gothic costuming, it's no surprise that first-time director Len Wiseman gained experience in TV commercials and the art departments of Godzilla, Men in Black, and Independence Day. His work is all surface, no substance, filled with derivative, grand-scale action as conflicted vampire Selene (Kate Beckinsale, who later became engaged to Wiseman) struggles to rescue an ill-fated human (Scott Speedman) from Lycan transformation. It's great looking all the way, and a guaranteed treat for horror buffs, who will eagerly dissect its many strengths and weaknesses. --Jeff Shannon

DVD features
The Underworld DVD has a powerful soundtrack that makes good use of ambient noises (e.g., bullet casings pinging on the floor) and has a clear, well-defined picture, which is especially impressive considering the film's predominant look is black leather at nighttime. The first segment of the four-part, 54-minute documentary is mostly self-congratulation and plot summary (though in this case plot summary is not necessarily a bad thing); more interesting are the creature effects and the actors learning how to do their own stunts. If you were wondering if the voice of the Lycan Raze was really that deep, you can listen to him--actor/co-writer Kevin Grevioux--along with director Len Wiseman and co-writer Danny McBride on the first commentary track as they discuss breaking the rulebook for vampires and shooting in Budapest on a tiny $22 million budget. The accent-heavy technical commentary discusses how the visual effects and sound design add to the film--one of their goals was to make Kate Beckinsale look "sexy, stylish, and subversive." --David Horiuchi

Customer Reviews

Great movie, but not exactly what I expected
I had been looking forward to the release of this movie all summer long, and it was a great movie! It was just a little different from what I had thought it would be.

The movie, as most of you probably know, is about a war that has been going on between werewolves and vampires. And it is THIS that is the primary focus of the plot (as opposed to the vampires and werewolves themselves). The werewolves have been researching their bloodlines and discovered a human who shares a common ancestor with both the werewolves and the vampires. The werewolves seek out this human, and this is noted by Selene (Kate Beckinsale), who decides to make it her mission to discover the importance of this particular human.

Unfortunately, the writers decided not to delve too deeply into vampire and werewolf lore. I was pretty disappointed by the fact that the supernatural abilities of these supernatural beings were not really emphasized. Instead, the writers chose to merely stick guns in the hands of the vampires and werewolves. In addition, the mythology was slightly different from what I've read and seen before in previous vampire and werewolf books and movies. I don't necessarily have a problem with that, but if you are going to change things from what people are used to, then it should be explained in slightly more detail.

Another thing that was a little disappointing were the effects. The previews led me to believe that the movie would be comparable to the "Matrix" in that department. Unfortunately, the best effects (with the one exception of the werewolf transformations) were all shown in the previews.

All of this aside, the movie was still pretty incredible. The plot was exceptional, which is not necessarily always the case with most action movies, and the action kept me entertained throughout the movie's entirety. The make-up and costumes were also outstanding, as was the acting. I actually saw this movie twice, and the second time around (once I got over the intial let-down of it being slightly different from what I expected) it was MUCH better. I anxiously await the sequel (and based on how the movie ended, there WILL be a sequel) as well as the DVD release!

Superb Blu-ray Hi-def release
The film is stylish and highly entertaining. Kate Beckinsale gave a stellar performance in this movie.

Besides many included extra, this Blu-ray release features superb AVC video encoding and outstanding uncompressed PCM 5.1 soundtrack.

You'll enjoy this must buy Blu-ray release.

Good fun action flick that shines on Blu-ray
Being a fan of the Underworld series as well as the lovely Kate Beckensale, I had to purchase this movie on blu-ray. I have this movie on every format except vhs. All I have to say is that this movie looks and sound awesome on blu-ray. If you want good demo material get this movie, you will not be disappointed.