Ample credit should also go to director Stephen Norrington and screenwriter David S. Goyer, who prove it is possible to adapt comic book characters to the big screen without making them look absurd. Indeed, quite the reverse happens here: Blade comes vividly to life from the moment you first see him, in an outstanding opening sequence that sets the tone for the action-packed film that follows. From that moment onward you are pulled into the world of Blade and his perpetual battle against the vampire race. -Jeremy Storey The recipe for Blade is quite simple: you take one part Batman, one part horror flick, and two parts kung fu and frost it all over with some truly campy acting. What do you get? An action flick that will reaffirm your belief that the superhero action genre did not die in the fluorescent hands of Joel Schumacher. Blade is the story of a ruthless and supreme vampire slayer (Wesley Snipes) who makes other contemporary slayers (Buffy et al. ) look like amateurs. Armed with a samurai sword made of silver and guns that shoot silver bullets, he lives to hunt and kill "Sucker Heads". Pitted against our hero is a cast of villains led by Deacon Frost (Stephen Dorff), a crafty and charismatic vampire who believes that his people should be ruling the world, and that the human race is merely a food source. Born half-human and half-vampire after his mother had been attacked by a blood-sucker, Blade is brought to life by a very buff-looking Snipes in his best action performance to date. Apparent throughout the film is the fluid grace and admirable skill that Snipes brings to the many breathtaking action sequences that lift this movie into a league of its own. The influence of Hong Kong action cinema is clear, and you may even notice vague impressions of Japanese anime sprinkled innovatively throughout. Dorff holds his own against Snipes as the menacing nemesis Frost, and the grizzly Kris Kristofferson brings a tough, cynical edge to his role as Whistler, Blade's mentor and friend. Ample credit should also go to director Stephen Norrington and screenwriter David S. Goyer, who prove it is possible to adapt comic book characters to the big screen without making them look absurd. Indeed, quite the reverse happens here: Blade comes vividly to life from the moment you first see him, in an outstanding opening sequence that sets the tone for the action-packed film that follows. From that moment onward you are pulled into the world of Blade and his perpetual battle against the vampire race. -Jeremy Storey.

" and series finale "The Erlenmeyer Flask") introduce and develop the so-called "mythology" thread as FBI agent Fox Mulder (Duchovny) probes a series of UFO or alien-encounter stories to assuage his guilt over the disappearance of his sister long ago. Meanwhile, sinister forces within the government try to stop him and prevent any revelations as to what exactly is going on from breaking (a thread that would, in later seasons, stretch and break). The episode that really sold the series was the third, "Squeeze", in which Mulder and his sceptical partner Dana Scully (Anderson) tangle with a mutant (Doug Hutchison, the evil guard of The Green Mile) who can elongate himself and eat human livers. A bizarre, creepy, gruesome and slyly amusing show, this kicks off a run of episodes ("Shadows", "Fire", "Miracle Man", "Shapes", "Roland" and the "Squeeze" sequel "Tooms") featuring mutants, ghosts, psychic happenings, grisly murders (Anderson gets to do all the autopsies) and plots which sometimes have resolutions. Other standout episodes include: "Ice", a miniature of The Thing with alien bugs in the arctic taking over a research station; "Eve", an evil child/cloning story; and "Beyond the Sea", an unusually emotional ghost tale which finally allowed Anderson as much anguish as Duchovny. There are dropped balls ("Genderbender", "Lazarus", "Young at Heart") where repetition has already set in, or too much conventional cop-action stuff gets in the way. The simmering sexual chemistry of Mulder and Scully only surfaces in a few moments as the characters and the players settle into their game, and the supporting cast (Mitch Pileggi as the FBI superior, William B. Davis as the ever-smoking master villain) have yet to come into their own, but X-philes will need this on their shelves between their bottled alien baby and Anderson-in-lingerie calendar. -Kim Newman.

-Ali Davis, Amazon. com.