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Bram Stoker's Dracula (Superbit Collection) Customer Reviews (10 - 12 of 82 Reviews)

Lesson and Performance
A lesson by Coppola and a grand performance by Gary Oldman. The scene with the gypsies, the scene when Oldman "meets" Ryder, Madame Mina and introduces himself, when Oldman catches Reeves with the vampire whores or when he crawls along the walls of his castle: try and shoot that or act like Oldman...

Behind the Victorian curtain...
Some people watch Bram Stoker's Dracula and are immediately disgusted by the erotica/blood and gore. At first it seems as though FFC butchered the novel, but upon closer examination a viewer realizes that he actually tapped into the undercurrents of Victorian society. One of the classic themes in storytelling is the fascination with the dark man/woman, such as in Phantom of the Opera or Time Machine. In the Introduction to Bram Stoker's Dracula (at least, in my copy), a lit crit expounds upon the undertones of women's sexuality, and on the hidden references to Dracula's sexual power over the female characters in the book. You may notice in the course of the movie, you never see him draw the blood of a man and you never see Lucy draw the blood of a woman. This is because the drawing of the blood is a semi-metaphor for intercourse (just look at the face Oldman makes as Ryder begins to drink his blood). To sum it up, the love story, the reminiscing is not directly referenced in the novel, but the sexual connection/attraction between Dracula and Mina is.

What I personally like about the movie is the soundtrack and the art direction (with the exception of some of the gore and the rape scene). Most of all, I love this movie for Gary Oldman's beautiful performance. He is famous for being a 'man without a face' (like as Mason Verger in Hannibal), and in the course of the movie Dracula assumes five different faces. His ability to embody both horror and love, both anger and longing is almost painful to watch because it is so good. At one point he says to his beloved Mina "I have crossed oceans of time to find you", and his longing almost becomes tangible even through the screen.

I would not describe this movie as a 'must-see' unless you're a horror movie fan. You have to have a stomach for violence, or a quick finger on the fast-forward button. Additional criticism: Keanu Reeves doesn't do the 'love' thing; the brides of Dracula are over the top; Dracula isn't evil enough.

This movie is one of my favorite romance movies (for an idea of where I stand, I should tell you that Hannibal is also one of my favorite romance movies). The longing displayed is of a Phantom of the Opera calibur, and reaches to parts of the human psyche that most people don't even realize are there.


An honest review
After I finished reading Bram Stoker's original work, I could think of nothing more to top off my Dracula binge than sitting back and watching the story unfold for me on TV. I had read somewhere that this particular version of Dracula romanticized my carnal friend. That's fine. I'm open minded. If you want to make Dracula a tragic hero, I'll cringe a little bit but I'll still give it a fair shot.

Here are some scattered thoughts that I hope encapsulate the film:


KEANU REEVES/Johnathan Harker: Come on, dude.. I really liked you in Speed. The Matrix was good, too. But what are you thinking? The first moment that Keanu was introduced, I threw up a little bit. It really hurt my feelings how second rate his acting, British accent, and hairdo were in this film. While I liked the addition of naked vampiresses draining his blood, the best thing the writers could have done at this point would have been to let him die a quiet death that doesn't necessitate bringing him back onto the screen for the remainder of the film.

DRACULA: It was completely fine with me that they wanted to romanticize him in Bram Stoker's Dracula, but the least they could have done was get rid of those stupid looking blue sunglasses that they made him wear in London. I couldn't even focus on the film because I was so confused and offended at how stupid the director made him look. More importantly, and even more offensive, Dracula never once in his 400 year life hung out at a peep show. He can control women with his mind, - what's he need softcore porn for?

ANTHONY HOPKINS/Van Helsing: I liked watching that abomination of the writers' continued molestation of the original story line that kept Lucy and Mina naked most of the movie, so I don't have much to say about Hannibal. Unlike Keanu Reeves' sh*tty performance in this movie, Anthony Hopkins' misfortune of being in such a wreck of a movie does not negate every other work that he has even done in film. On a brighter note, Anthony Hopkins was the only person in this film that didn't make me hate myself for watching it.

THAT STUPID CUT SCENE OF REMINISCENCE: Halfway through the movie, the camera cuts from looking at a tragic, romantic Dracula to three or so cinematics, each lasting only a couple of seconds. The one that really got me was when it flashed back to Dracula's early days of battle, the landscape shown in a sun-setting hue with the outline of the combatants being mere shadows of darkness. What bothered me about this is that for some outrageously unknown reason, the combatants are toy figurines. At this point I got really embarassed for having watched the movie this far but figured that I should still wrench out some of my $3.99 in rental fees if I finished. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out how a movie can have such name actors as Keanu Reeves and Anthony Hopkins, yet they use a cut scene with sh*tty toy soldiers? Come on!.. There were some nice war scenes early in the movie with real people, why couldn't they do it again for just three more seconds? They could have shown me a three second reel of the movie Gettysburg or Black Hawk Down and it would have made alot more sense to me than did what was actually shown.



I could go on, but it would be unfair for me to bias anyone who hasn't yet seen the movie. But it you DO end up seeing this movie and you think of my reaction, don't be afraid to come back here and give me a "YES, this review was helpful" and support my complete distaste for this movie.


Things I would have rather done in 123 minutes:
1. Watch 4 re-runs of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air on Nick at Nite.
2. Read an entire newspaper word for word.
3. Drive back to Blockbuster, pick up Braveheart, and spend the next hour and forty minutes apologizing to myself for two hours of time not well spent.

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