Rise: Blood Hunter is not a great film by any stretch of the imagination but it entertained me, for some reasons. These modern vampire movies sometimes get on my nerves in trying to define portraits of bloodsuckers as tragic, romantic figures, struggling inside some underground secret societies. We should blame Anne Rice, I presume, but I digress.

Lucy Liu in Rise: Blood Hunter plays a reporter that becomes a vampire during a strange investigation. Let’s say that she’s not pleased in discovering her state and its limitations. In the proceedings, Ms. Liu gets naked often. Or is tied up a couple of times. She even gets naked and tied up upside down! Does these scenes justify going through a 122 minutes movie in its uncut version? You tell me. I went through it… and am I complaining?

Poor box-office and critical reception will probably result in no sequels for this potential franchise… or maybe a follow-up straight to DVD with another actress in the Lucy Liu role.

What happened to her exactly since Kill Bill? She had become a high profile Hollywood starlet, working in some blockbusters and independent projects, but it seemed to fizzle out for her. She’s doing more TV work and voice-overs these days. I’m still a big fan of her freckles, though.