The Tribe feels more like a tribute to The Lost Boys rather than an actual sequel.
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"Never grow old. Never die. Never know fear again."
Before becoming bitter enemies on their controversial reality series "The Two Coreys" on A&E, former best friends Corey Feldman and Corey Haim made movie magic together during the late 1980s and early 1990s. They've co-starred in a number of films including "License to Drive" (1988)," Dream a Little Dream" (1989), "Blown Away" (1992), and "National Lampoon's Last Resort" (1994), but their most memorable team-up is their first--1987's "The Lost Boys."
Besides being Kiefer Sutherland's breakout film that launched his career into stardom, "The Lost Boys" has risen to cult status over the years and many (myself included) consider it to be one of the best vampire films of all time. Even though it's somewhat dated by today's standards, it still has this fun factor about it that makes it an entertaining movie to watch. In fact, I had the pleasure of seeing it again on Blu-ray recently and I enjoyed every minute of it. Anyone who grew up in the 80s should love the retro music and fashion--as they're definitely a blast from the past.
Rumors of a sequel to "The Lost Boys" have been circulating for decades and one of these proposed productions was tentatively called "The Lost Girls." While that one apparently had a stake driven through its heart before it had a chance to crawl out of its coffin, the dream finally became a reality with 2008's "Lost Boys: The Tribe." Unfortunately, sometimes it's best not to reawaken sleeping monsters from their slumber.
In "The Tribe," professional surfer Chris Emerson (Tad Hilgenbrink) and his younger teenage sister Nicole (Autumn Reeser) move to Luna Bay on the coast of California after their parents are killed in a car crash. With his sister along for the ride, Chris explores the town searching for a job as a surfboard shaper, which leads them to the dilapidated trailer of Edgar Frog (Corey Feldman). Unable to find Frog, Chris leaves a note and the two of them head home.
A little while later, Chris decides to go for a walk near the beach and meets Shane (Angus Sutherland, Kiefer's actual half-brother), who also happens to be one of Chris' former surfing idols that suddenly vanished off the circuit. At their encounter, the two start chatting and eventually Shane invites Chris to a party at a house on the beach. Chris isn't in the mood to go out that night and even thinks Shane is a bit of an oddball, but he mistakenly shares the party information with Nicole who keeps prodding her brother until he changes his mind. Long story short, the two newcomers unknowingly find themselves at a rave from beyond the grave surrounded by vampires, with Shane moving in on the beautiful Nicole...
The main problem I had with "Lost Boys: The Tribe" is that Hans Rodionoff's script is basically just a carbon copy of the original. I experienced déjà vu when the two central characters move to a new town, one gets involved with the wrong crowd of thrill-seeking undead and is turned into a half-vampire, while the other sibling joins forces with bloodsucker-slayer Edgar Frog to kill off the lead vampire to save his family. It really felt like all Rodionoff did was change the character names, strip away most of the pizzazz, and replaced it with excessive bloodshed, nudity, and sexual situations. But part of the first film's appeal is that it got along just fine without brutal beheadings and boobs. Well, the boobs weren't exactly brutal, but you get my point.
Director P.J. Pesce doesn't help matters, either. He anchors Angus Sutherland as the new head vampire obviously to try and cash in on his brother's fame. The younger Sutherland wasn't all that bad, except he can't compete with Kiefer's charisma and sometimes you could almost sense that he was reading his lines from the way he practically paused after every syllable. Plus with Pesce going as far as including a familiar boardwalk saxophone player and an updated version of the catchy tune, "Cry Little Sister," "The Tribe" feels more like a tribute to "The Lost Boys" rather than an actual sequel.
Another nitpick I have is that while it doesn't specifically spell it out, the film hints that Chris and Nicole are supposedly the children of Michael (Jason Patric) and Star (Jamie Gertz) from the first film. The timeline fits and they do share the same last name (Emerson), but that's as far as it goes. Since things like this bug me, I scoured the Internet and discovered the existence of a comic book miniseries called "Lost Boys: Reign of Frogs" that links the two films together, and from what I can tell it seems to confirm that this is true. Why couldn't we have two new and unrelated people? Isn't it a little convenient that the same thing happens to a new generation of the same family? In my book, it's a total copout killing off major characters without any rhyme or reason.
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[release]23958[/release]