We had gone to see the new Dracula movie about a week and half ago (well 10 days) and my wife and I wanted to re-watch Bram Stoker's Dracula from 1992. Plus there had been some other movies I saw this challenge that made me want to go back and see this one.
I wanted to wait till I picked it up on Blu Ray. I had watched the DVD a couple years back (four years) and it just didn't hold up on my HD TV. The Blu Ray looked really nice. It was a direct transfer, so no enhancements that I could see and I swear I noticed things in this that I didn't remember from seeing it in the theaters or on the VHS or DVD versions I have, which is cool.
I was hoping for more value added material though. There is a collection of deleted scenes, which I don't recall seeing on my DVD. There are some documentaries, which I do remember seeing.
There is something else. I know people said this then and I ignored it, but really the acting is just not that good. Ryder and Reeves are so horribly miscast as to be a joke really. I like both actors, but this is kind of stupid really. Anthony Hopkins is great, too bad he isn't really playing Van Helsing here. Richard E. Grant, Cary Elwes and Billy Campbell are great in their roles as Lucy's suitors. Sadie Frost in her first roll (if I recall right) was great as Lucy; but I don't really recall her being this lascivious in the book (it has been 3 years since I have read it last and all the Lucys blur).
Gary Oldman though gives a great performance (though sometimes coming close to being over the top) as Dracula. Oldman is fantastic in everything he is in really to say he is good in a roll is like complaining about Nick Cage only having one character he plays in every single movie. Tom Waits of course was an unexpected treat as Renfield. Maybe one of the best Renfields ever in fact.
The sets, the costumes and the effects are still visually stunning 20+ years later.
I just wish we could drop this whole "Dracula and his immortal beloved" story idea. Dracula picked Mina because she was there. She was Harker's wife and because he is an evil bastard (Dracula, not Harker) he decided to make her his bride. We never hear stories about his three brides being his loves. Come to think of it. We HAVEN'T ever heard of his three brides. Do they even have names?
Ok new rule. If there is a movie dealing with Dracula and his "murdered/suicided/dead and now reincarnated bride" then it immediately looses 1 star in my mental ranking system. I'll give this movie a pass even though it is not the first and it is the most egregious of the error.
Remember the real-life Dracula actually murdered one of his own wives when he caught her lying to him. So he is not the romantic ideal movies are making him out to be.
Harker is no saint either, but the book was very clear that they loved each other.
You can read what I said about this movie in 2010.
Overall I think I am a little harder on the cast now than then, but my main points remain.
--
Tally so far: 27 Total Watched / 18 New
What do you find scary?
October Horror Movie Challenge hosted by Krell Laboratories.
4 comments:
More than anything else, this movie really does feel 1992 to me.
No doubt. I can remember watching this in the theaters while in Grad School.
Cary Elwes and Tom Waits are about the only part of this movie that I really dig. I normally love Oldman, but not in this one.
The Drac/Mina love connection has always bugged me too. Mamuwalde and Strahd can play that card, but not Drac.
Deep eternal love on one hand, turn to wof form and rape your loves friend on the other. Vampire love is confusing to me.
Post a Comment