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Bram Stoker's Dracula

Bram Stoker's Dracula

List Price: $14.94
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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: eyeball filling spectacle
Review: A sumptuous, intricately detailed, eyeball filling spectacle of a movie; this not only uses as much of the original story as possible but adds another possible shade to the fictional Dracula by suggesting he was the true Dracula--Vlad the Impaler. Remarkable special effects (including the use of rudimentary cameras and the filming of scenes backwards replayed forward to achieve off-kilter feelings in the audience) overwhelm the soggy acting of Keanu Reeves as Jonathan Harker. Gary Oldman imbues Dracula with a particular otherworldly touch, Lucy (Sadie Frost) is purity gone wonderfully lusty, and Winona Ryder is alternatively goofy and suitable as Mina. Extreme gothic that will creep you out somehow.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This is one of my FAVORITE movies
Review: I own this movie and it is wonderful. I enjoy literature and movies about vampires, and this is one of the best made movies on vampires. This movie and Interview with a Vampire are two of my three favorite movies, so I HIGHLY recommend this movie to anyone interested in vampires.

This role is Gary Oldman's best work. The love between Dracula (Gary Oldman) and Mina Harker (Winona Ryder) is elegantly portrayed throughout the movie. I find myself wanting to be Mina for all the strong feelings that this movie brings to mind :) At the end I actually cry, for then love is lost...or is it...

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Luscious retelling of the classic gothic horror
Review: 'Dracula' has pretty much been done to death by the movie industry, yet this recent version (along with the version shown on TV's 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer') is truly one to savour. Rather than placing 'Dracula' as a mere horror, it has amped up the sex from the book, which is basically about sexuality anyway.

The performances are all, bar Keanu, very good. Gary Oldman again proves what a versatile actor he is, playing the haggard old Dracula just as well as he does the younger seductive one. The make-up in these parts is also truly astonishing. Winona Ryder as Dracula's lust object also has remarkable presence, again showing that given the right role that she can excel. The supporting cast, including Anthony Hopkins as Van Helsing, Richard E. Grant as Dr. Seward and Sadie Frost as Lucy Westenra also leave their mark. Even Keanu Reeves is well cast, with Jonathan being a wimpy wooden character in the book perfectly suiting his limited acting range.

The lush production design ensures that the viewer is as seduced by the spectacle before them as Mina Murray is with Dracula. In particular, Jonathan's encounter with the three ladies is exceptionally original, with them appearing on all sides of him underneath a large red velvet sheet. Imageries of blood are dotted everywhere, with sex and death being equated as much the same thing. There's not one moment where you feel bored, with the finale being significantly better than the admitedly lacklustre one that the book offers up. Indeed, the alterations made to the original novel only serve to make it better. For instance, Dracula's bloodlust for Mina is made all the more passionate by the fact that she is the reincarnation of his wife that he died for several hundred years ago.

The movie even manages to be quite haunting, with an erotic sleepwalking experience/dream exchanged between Mina and Lucy followed up by a disturbing scene of Dracula's wolf calling for the young ladies. This is a must for an fan of gothic cinema, updated for the 90's with style.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Great movie, bad DVD...
Review: I really love this movie. It's a very good adaptation of the novel and a priceless piece of entertainment for a Dracula fan. When it first came out, there were a lot of documentaries and interviews on TV to promote the movie. I think that it would have been great to have a couple of these on the DVD edition. A commentary by the director & the cast would have also been great, but the DVD is FEATURELESS... There's nothing (NADA) on it but the movie. I'm still waiting for a better edition to come out. Hope it does...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The very best
Review: This is the best rendition of Dracula to date. The camera work and special FX are wonderful along with a superb cast. Oldman is perhaps the most diverse actor alive today. The gothic atmosphere and period costumes seem to come alive as the story unfolds. The best horror film to come out of hollywood in a long time.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Best Dracula film ever!
Review: From " Apocalypse Now" Director " Francis Ford Coppola" presents
this beautiful, Haunting and well-made Horror romance thriller
with Keanu Reeves, Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, and Anthony Hopkins
about the famed Count who has a lust for a beautiful young woman.
Rent it and i guarentee you would have a blood curdling good time with this movie.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Great cinematography, bad everything else
Review: If you look no further than cinematography, Bram Stoker's Dracula is a great film. Unfortunately, there's a whole lot more than cinematography here.

The film takes place in 19th Century London. Dracula (Gary Oldman) accidentally discovers that his 15th-Century wife, Mina (Winona Ryder) has been reincarnated. What's worse, she's engaged to a starch-collared English sap (Keanu Reeves).

At this point, Dracula does what any jealous lover might do: he traps Mina's fiancee in his castle, turns into a monkey-wolf, possesses Mina's best friend, Lucy (Sadie Frost), and has his way with her (yes, as the monkey-wolf).

As Lucy slowly transforms into one of Dracula's love vampirettes, Mina inexplicably falls in love with the prince of the undead himself. Enter Dr. Van Helsing (Anthony Hopkins), vampire hunter.

As the film progresses, it becomes apparent that the characters are under the control of a horrible unseen force that influences the very logic of their actions. That unseen force, however, is not some form of Draculian mind control. It's screenwriter James V. Hart's incredibly muddled screenplay.

Hart, the same guy responsible for the abysmal "Hook" screenplay, has packed the film with meaningless and baffling action. From the word go, it becomes apparent that obvious that not one of the characters will behave in a way that even remotely resembles human reaction.

In the acting department, no one is hurt more by the shoddy writing than Ryder. Why, for instance, does she seem to be emotionally unaffected when her friend becomes a vampire?

Oldman is an adequate Dracula. His young, romantic Dracula doesn't always ring true, but his old n' crusty Dracula is fittingly foul and intriguing.

Hopkins is ever the scene stealer as the film's only intentional source of comic relief. Radiating charisma, he makes his fellow actors look like cardboard cutouts. Then again, one of them is Keanu Reeves...

Reeves is exceptionally terrible in the role of Mina's fiancee. His accent is bad, his acting is bad, darn it, even his haircut is bad.

Despite these problems, you still have to hand it to Fracis Ford Coppola and his remarkable cinematographer, Michael Balhaus. Though a mainstream film, Dracula is daringly packed with double exposures, alternating film speeds and distinctive shading.

A visual feast, everything else about Dracula -- ahem -- bites.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Most Lavish Vampire Movie Ever Told
Review: Coppola's "Bram Stoker's Dracula" is definately the most sumptuous vampire tale to date. This is, of course, the classic story of Count Dracula, a Transylvanian nobleman turned vampire in the 15th century who travels to London to find his reincarnated lost love in the form of young Mina Murray and must do battle with her vampire hunting friends, led by the brilliant eccentric Dr. Abraham Van Helsing, who are sworn to protect her from his dark machinations. The film boasts wonderful performances by Anthony Hopkins and Gary Oldman (in a role that I always picture him). Winona Ryder, Keanu Reeves, Bill Campbell, and the rest also do their bit to make the movie a success.

As noted below, it doesn't always closely follow the book, but then what film does? After all, books don't always translate well literally from page to screen which is why they are often embellished and effects laden, so as to make them even much visually enjoyable. They do often take liberties with the story, but that is unavoidable.

The most enjoyable aspect of this film, besides the incredible costumes, beautiful sets, and fabulous art direction, is the sense we get of Dracula not simply as an undead killing machine, but a tortured soul, a true villian with a history and with his own wants and desires that make him not a little sympathetic. But we never forget that he is evil and that he will stop at nothing to get what he wants, your soul. This is defiantely one of the movies that I have watched over and over again and absolutely love.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: A milestone in pretentiousness for horror films.
Review: Despite some good points (for example, it is definitely not boring), Francis Ford Coppola's film version of the legendary vampire tale may be the most overblown, pretentious horror film that had been made up to that time. (Whether it has been surpassed since I cannot say.) The film is a classic example of not knowing when to stop. Everything is too loud, too colorful, too sumptuous. Titling the film "Bram Stoker's Dracula" is in itself pretentious, as it is only slightly more faithful to the novel than most other film versions. The novel certainly did not include any snickering sexual innuendo, or Dracula making an appearance as a hideous humanoid bat. As Dr. Van Helsing, the great vampire fighter, Anthony Hopkins delivers a performance so overacted that it must be seen to be believed. When we first encounter Dracula, he looks like a living mummy dragging a bridal train behind him and, when angry, he roars like a wounded rhinoceros. When he becomes younger (after feeding on youthful blood), he looks like a hippy. When Mina realizes the shocking truth about Dracula, she lightly pounds on his back with her fist. (And I do NOT think this is supposed to be funny.) In making this film, Mr. Coppola forgot an important fact -- anything that is so overblown cannot be taken seriously.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Very Good Dracula Movie!
Review: This was one of the most original Dracula movies that I have ever seen. The outstanding cast of actors makes this film all the better.Gary Oldman,Anthony Hopkins,Keneau Reeves,and Winona
Ryder play outstanding roles in this movie. The character played by Ryder resembles an old love of Dracula's.He takes her to Tranyslvania with our heros in hot pursuit.The special effects in this movie also makes it very entertaining.The scenery used in Transylvania makes the movie even more spooky. This is a very good movie that you will enjoy. Dracula was cast in a different
but effective light. Buy it.


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