| |
The premise of this story is unable to kill him, Van Helsing imprisoned Dracula in a coffin for over 100 years. Now modern day thieves have broken into the vault and stolen the coffin. Van Helsing, who vowed not to die until he found a way to kill Dracula, has been extending his own life by injecting himself with Dracula's blood acquired by leeches. The coffin filled with crawling leeches over Dracula's emaciated body was one of the more gruesome visual effects. Van Helsing (Christopher Plummer) and his young handsome assistant Simon (Johnny Lee Miller) are on the trail of Dracula, who heads to New Orleans in search for something he is missing. Van Helsing had a daughter, Mary, who carries Dracula's blood and has a psychic connection to the vampire. Can Simon save Mary from Dracula's clutches? Can they finally figure out how to end Dracula's life?
Gerald Butler makes an excellent Dracula. A piece of hypnotic eye candy that makes all the girls stop and stare. Justine Waddell as Mary is an innocent good Catholic girl worthy of saving. Dracula's three blonde bitches are just that evil bitches and play their roles well if a little camp.
I enjoyed this movie very much. I especially enjoyed the ending which was a radical departure from the familiar Dracula myths that it made a very refreshing change, but I felt the mimicking of the original story was a little bit much. Instead of the Demeter the airplane wrecks on the coast, the pilot lashed to the yoke. And Mary's best friend is Lucy. The New Orleans Mardi Gras setting was a little trite as well. The story was fast moving and visually interesting. The gore and horror level wasn't over the top.
I would rate it as one of the better vampire movies.
Release Date: December 22nd, 2000
Video Release Date: July 3rd, 2001
Cast: Gerard Butler (Dracula), Justine Waddell (Mary Van Helsing), Christopher Plummer (Van Helsing), Jonny Lee Miller, Omar Epps, Jennifer Esposito, Jeri Ryan, Colleen "Vitamin C" Fitzpatrick, Lochlyn Munroe, Sean Patrick Thomas
Director: Patrick Lussier (The Prophecy III: The Ascent)
Screenwriter: Joel Soisson (Highlander 4: Endgame; cowriter of The Supernaturals, Trick or Treat; his next project to be adapted is Mimic 2) Reviewed
by Linda Suzane, June 16, 2004
This movie tells the story of the historical figure Vlad Tepes, casting him as the misunderstood hero of the Romanian people. It was a made for TV movie that I found slow and plodding as period pieces tend to be.
Interestingly enough USA movie site gives a detail time line history of Vlad and an excellent series of links, but in doing so points out just how inaccurate the movie is.
http://www.usanetwork.com/movies/darkprince/
It does cover the major historical events that most of us Dracula fans have come to know in regards to Vlad Tepes, such as the nailing of the hats on the heads of the Turkish ambassadors and the killing of the nobles at the banquet, told with a definitely pro-Vlad Tepes slant. The fact that is was filmed in Romania may have something to do with the near hero status of Dracula.
Rudolf Martin makes a very handsome Dracula, with some similarity to the historical portraits of Vlad.
Its historical inaccuracies, for example having Radu kill him, when in fact Radu was already dead, makes it a tale of pure fiction masquerading as history.
There is a slight connection to the vampire Dracula hinted at in the death scene, where Vlad claims to be condemned to walk the earth and the final credits show him and his wife, who was a suicide, walking off hand in hand into the night.
Release TV 2000.
Stars: Rudolf Martin, Jane March
Other Stars: Peter Weller, Roger Daltrey, Michael Sutton, Christopher Brand, Dan Badarau, Niels Brinks, Claudiu Bleont, Dan Bordeianu, Razvan Vasilescu
Director: Joe Chappelle
MPAA Rating: R for Violence
Run Time: 01h:31m:20s
Release Date: April 23, 2002
Genre: historical adventure Reviewed by Linda Suzane, August 30,
2002
Movie with Adrian Paul
The Breed is a very different vampire movie. It reminded me of the
first movie of Alien Nation where two cops of different races are thrown
together, distrusting each other at the onset, they learn to co-operate
and come to respect each other. In this world, supposedly the future,
but quite a strange future, that is almost Nazi or maybe behind the Iron
Curtain, with WWII clothes, cars, propaganda blaring, vampires have come
out of the closet. Now a vampire killer threatens to ignite the world in
fear and paranoia. Two cops must track down the killer before chaos can
erupt. Adrian Paul makes for a dark, brooding, overly controlled,
complex vampire, an ex-Jew whose family was killed by the Nazis. He
plays the role well, if a little too dead.
The other vampires are more interesting, more dark and sinister. And
the humans almost stereotypical stupid and afraid. It is a story of fear
and prejudice, Jews, Negroes, with an unrealistically happy ending.
But I did enjoy it very much, as much for its differences, for it is
certainly different from the normal vampire fare.
Release Date: 2001
Cast: Adrian Paul, Bai Ling, Bokeem Woodbine, Zen Gesner
Director: Michael Oblowitz
Reviewed by Linda Suzane, April 11, 2002
|
|
VAMPIRE
EFFECTS
VAMPIRE EFFECTS is a Chinese kung fu movie which has been dubbed into
English. It suffers from the typically silly dialogue and makes you
wonder how true the translation is. Could the script in Chinese really
be that horrible, that shallow? If so, then the Chinese certainly have a
weird and juvenile sense of humor. There are also the typical short cuts
and lack of character and story development as the movie jumps from
fighting scene to fight scene. That said, there was a lot that was
surprisingly good about the movie.
First, they had some of the best looking vampires I have seen in a
vampire movie, and I don’t mean good looking, hulky actors. The
vampire make-up was exceptionally well done. Each vampire
individualistic and scary, without doing the whole bumpy face routine
that so many make-up artists go for. The growing of fangs, which was
digitally done, was also very effective.
The other special effects were also very, very good. The changing
into bats, the whirl wind, the magical book, the destruction of the
church windows spectacular.
Ekin Cheng, is a well known martial arts actor and does well as
Reeve, the Vampire hunter. A couple of "pop" music big names,
Charlene Choi and Gillian Chung, play a Reeve’s sister and his new
partner. These two are a couple of ditzy chicks, but when Reeve is
turned into a vampire and must be killed, the two girls take the fight
to the evil vampire. Jackie Chan makes a "cameo" appearance.
Actually it is more than a cameo. In a couple of long sequences, we are
treated to Jackie’s humor and his incomparable fighting style.
Is it a great vampire movie? Not particularly. A great kung fu movie?
Probably not. While I enjoy them occasionally, especially Jet Li and
Jackie Chan, I’m not an avid fan. But it is worth watching. It
definitely has its moments of humor as well as great fighting. At the
core is what could have been a very good vampire movie, if it had a good
script and the potential was fulfilled, but as it is, it is just a fun
piece of fluff.
Original Release Date: 2003
Cast: Ekin Cheng, Charlene Choi, Gillian Chung, Anthony Wong Chau-Sang,
Edison Chen, Jackie Chan, Mickey Hardt, Josie Ho, Ricardo Mamood, Maggie
Lau, Karen Mok, Winnie Leung
Director: Dante Lam
Reviewed by Linda Suzane May 2, 2005
|
