The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice DVD Review
The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice DVD Review
Horror lite, and guilt-free
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I'll admit it: I'm a sucker for historical adventures. I'll watch Indiana Jones, Allan Quartermain, and The National Treasure movies over and over. I'm not picky: if I'm channel surfing, I'll even tune in for The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen or The Mummy 3. So it probably goes without saying… but I like The Librarian movies, too. This is the third one, and it just might be my favorite.
Made for the TNT Channel, these flicks star Noah Wylie as an unlikely and completely likeable hero. In contrast to the cool, suave, tough guys who usually embody these roles, Wylie brings a safe, assured, everyman (or at least, every man with several PhD's) vibe to Flynn Carsen. We first met scholarly nerd Carsen a few years ago in The Librarian: Quest for the Spear, where he was initially recruited to be a guardian of the precious artifacts housed in a supernatural section of NYC's Metropolitan Library (which boasts such fanciful finds as Excalibur, Noah's Ark, King Solomon's Treasures, The Fountain of Youth, etc.).
Of course, in order to house these things, they must first be found and rescued from the hands of potential baddies who would use them for all the wrong reasons. Guardians at the library also include Judson (a delightfully droll, deadpan Bob Newhart) and curator Charlene (comic queen Jane Curtain), but they're retired from the fast lane and so it's up to young Carsen to do all the swashbuckling.
In this adventure (coming to DVD next week), Carsen is sort of a "Bookworm: the vampire slayer" when he finds himself drawn into a KGB plot while on vacation in New Orleans. And this isn't any old Russian skullduggery — it's a plan to find the Judas Chalice, the source of all command for the very first vampire to ever have walked the earth. It's said to be made from the 30 pieces of silver Judas used for his ultimate act of betrayal, and therefore holds great and evil magical power.
Vacation scrapped and adventure began, Carsen joins forces with a sexy vampiress, Simone (super-sensuous Stana Katic), and together they wend their way through the atmospheric French Quarter, spooky old cemeteries, and the sultry bayou on their quest. Filmed entirely on location and with costumes and sets to dies for, this a must-see for detail-oriented fans.
The movie starts right out with a hilariously droll and action packed sequence at an antiques auction, and never slows down from there. Cleverly and archly written, the quippy dialogue is clearly an homage to the old Errol Flynn days, but it's hip and modern enough to please today's learned genre geeks. After Carsen gets to the Big Easy and meets up with Dracula himself, things really kick into high gear.
The only complaint I have, which is minor, is that the ever-fab Newhart has an even smaller part than usual (he does, however, have a pivotal role in the proceedings).
DVD special features include before and after visual effects, and deleted scenes.
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Reviewed by Staci Layne Wilson