Even in its knowing twitting of the teen-blase society, it's not satirically thorough about the task. It lacks the insidious import of its 'Heathers' model.

But the movie - even with the campy participation of Paul ('No More Pee-wee') Reubens as Hauer's fangy sidekick - never does. When a vampire does emerge, Swanson has to rise to the occasion extremely fast. When he says he doesn't, her petulant disgust is total. 'Do you have any gum?' she asks Sutherland. There may be nothing funnier in the movie than Swanson sitting impatiently at the edge of a recent grave, with a cross in one hand and a wooden stake in the other.

'Well,' Sutherland retorts with the peeved air of a parent, 'you're going to have to skip it.' When the reincarnated time traveler tells Swanson she must meet him at a graveyard to kill a nascent vampire, she complains, 'I have cheerleading practice, OK?' The master-disciple relationship between Swanson and Sutherland becomes the movie's best element, an amusing clash of the old and the lite. One bright shopping day, as Swanson and friends get into an elevator, Sutherland (still unknown to Swanson) hustles his way in. However, in his depiction of the vapid SoCal world, Whedon knows the territory. The second half feels stretched out and muddled, as if screenwriter Joss Whedon drove a stake through his script. 'Buffy' is amusing for a time but its destiny is to die in a disappointing, long-winded conclusion. 'Does Elvis talk to you?' Swanson asks Sutherland. There are vampires all over the place, and she has to train for the ultimate battle with aristocratic vamp Rutger Hauer. As the Chosen One she'll have to drop the pom-poms and take up the wooden stake. High school senior Swanson's life consists of working out gym-floor routines with her vacuous pals, idling with equally empty beau Randall Batinkoff (the vapid banker's son in Robert Altman's 'The Player') and exchanging haughty taunts with lowlife rebel-student Luke Perry.ĭoes this sound just a leetle bit like 'Heathers' to you?Īnyway, things take a turn for the mythic when bearded stranger Donald Sutherland informs Swanson of her destiny. For someone whose ambition is to 'graduate high school, go to Europe, marry Christian Slater and die,' that's a total bummer.

Southern California cheerleader Kristy Swanson learns she's the latest in a long line of girls chosen by fate to rid the world of vampires. The situation in 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' is almost enough to carry the movie. Children under 13 should be accompanied by a parent

Half life vampire slayer