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An attempt to bring the well know Brams Stoker novel into the 21st
centuary, didn’t quite come off. This film directed and co-written by Patrick
Lussier starts off ok, but degenerated into ‘naff’ modern day American antics
towards the end. I could feel the sense of relief by the audience when
the titles rolled.
Lussier, u may remember edited the Scream series of movies, which I
liked very much. Quite what went wrong with Dracula I don’t know? Set in
modern day London and in New Orleans during Mardi Gras, it tells the story of
a criminal gang robbing the London headquarters of the Van Helsing
Antiques business. With insider collusion they rob the vault which contains the
silver coffin of the old count himself. The bloodline is being kept
alive by Matthew Van Helsing (Christopher Plummer) who has a daughter working in
the Virgin record shop in New Orleans!!
Mean while the would be robbers are flying to the Cayman Islands with
the coffin which up to that time they couldn’t open….yawn! Only from that
point on, does the film get a bit interesting. Van Helsing’s assistant, the
very good-looking Johnny Lee Miller follows his boss on his secret mission
to Louisiana to recover the body of Dracula before its too late. But
damage is already done, the good count has escaped mid-air and sucked the pilot
and crew dry, thus converting them to his evil ways. They set about
creating havoc on the streets of New Orleans …yawn!
Anyways, the only way to kill the old ‘git’ is a wooden steak through
the heart, an explosive bolt or by cutting his head off, so needless to say
there was much of that going on!! Dracula himself played by Gerard
Butler (born in Glasgow) gave it his best shot and has an imposing presence on
screen. Very similar to our own Gabriel Byrne in appearance.
Quote of the film said by Simon Shepard (Miller) as he chopped off a
Dracula clone’s head “ Don’t ever fuck with an antiques dealer”
Overall then?? Vamps, but no vamps
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