Dracula 2000 (2000)

Acting:		Partying:		Girls:
Blood:		Language:		Gore:
Violence:		Humor:		Sexuality:
Torture:		Predictability:		Overall:

Ah, Dracula...Corrupter. Destroyer. Movie star.

Bram Stoker's immortal Count has been mutilated, mutated, and reborn endless times on the screen, and no doubt will continue to do so into this young century. The mythology Stoker tapped into is as restless as the bloodsucker himself, and if there is no rest for the wicked, Dracula shouldn't expect nice nap for a good long while.

This version of the world's most famous Transylvanian comes to us from director Patrick Lussier and producer Wes Craven. Like the two Hammer entries I recently reviewed it's yet again an attempt to bring Dracula (300's Gerard Butler) and his nemesis Van Helsing (the great Christopher Plummer) into modern times, as well as putting a post-modern spin on the vampire genre a la Craven's Scream films. Sad to say that despite some interesting bits, it's a bumpy ride.

Back in the Victorian era Prof. Van Helsing captures Dracula, but is unable to kill the vampire lord. You see, like in "Van Helsing" and "Blade Trinity", Dracula here is presented as a sort of super-vampire (apparently simply being Dracula isn't enough anymore). Briefly pained but otherwise unharmed by the traditional weaknesses of other vamps. So ol' honest Abe decides to watch over Dracula until he can find a way to destroy him. To this end he injects himself with Dracula's blood filtered through leeches. That plot device is one of the more interesting ideas in the movie - one I felt was fairly fitting with the psycho-sexual subtext in the original novel, as well as tapping into metaphors of addiction. Plummer is able to play off all of this, thankfully without losing Van Helsing's moral authority.

Anyway, all goes well for about a hundred years or so. Van Helsing pretends to be his own grandson and builds up rather nice business empire for himself. This is all wrecked when a pack of thieves break into his vaults and steals the vampire's coffin (mistaking it for treasure). Dracula escapes, puts the bite on the thieves and heads towards New Orleans to take revenge on Van Helsing's daughter. Which brings us to one of the film's other major problems.

Dracula has been locked in a silver coffin since the Victorian age. And yet he's played as a fairly modern guy. He's in the 21st century for less than day and he's wearing Doc Martins and rocking out to Monster Magnet. Van Helsing on the other hand has seen the world grow and change, yet he's played as more of an anachronism. There's a massive missed opportunity here - imagine how interesting it would have been to have seen ...

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