No-one can argue that Blood: The Last Vampire doesn't live up to its name.  The screen is near constantly awash in claret as vampire slayer Saya makes sushi of an unending stream of undead.

But, this Buffy and Blade rip-off ditches all the interesting elements of the original anime (Saya's distress at religious icons and the mention of God) and reduces the first film's racial and political swipes to brief schoolgirl teasing and passing comments about US action in Vietnam.

Displaying only the scantest interest in coherent storytelling, director Nahon seems almost disgruntled when having to pause the action to explain what's actually going on.

The basic story revolves around Saya attempting to right a long gone wrong, while riding a vendetta trip against Onigen, the vampire who killed her pop.  Due to Gianna's limited English language acting range, Nahon gives most of the film over to Allison Miller's Alice, the American schoolgirl who stumbles onto Saya's secret.

Don't be surprised if navigating all the plot holes leaves you bruised: with all the vamps on the loose, why is the film called The Last Vampire?  How does Alice know her blood will revive a mortally wounded Saya when she hasn't been told the slayer is half-bloodsucker?  Why doesn't Onigen rally all vampires behind her if she's so infamous?

 A Crouching Tiger style woodland scrap is by far the best action scene (you can't go wrong with flying ninjas and assassins leaping out the ground), but most rucks are reduced to strobing-edited headaches, with flashing lights and rain presumably disguising liberal use of stunt doubles and some very shonky Play Station 2 era CGI.

Koyuki (Tom Cruise's love interest in The Last Samurai) is wasted as Onigen, a supreme vampire so naff she can't even kill a stroppy Yank teen, and Dog Soldier's Liam Cunningham and Luton born Colin Salmon are giving woefully brief screen time as good and bad guys respectively.  

 Ultimately, when a character during the climax shrieks, "This isn't really happening!" you'll be wanting to agree.
 

Rob Daniel