Friday, October 7, 2011

31 Days of Halloween: Day 7

Day 7

Van Helsing (2004)




It's time for some monsters, don't you think? How about a movie that encompasses 3 movie monsters at once. Van Helsing incorporates the stories of Dracula, Frankenstein and the Wolfman all in one movie and while I like the idea, the movie was a flop. It's too fantastic, too fanciful to be truly good. It's not scary, kind of funny actually. I feel that the best character is the friar Carl. He's a good comic relief and honestly, the true saving grace of the movie, especially when he kept insisting he was only a friar and not a monk.

I love the integration of the three classic stories: Dracula is trying to use the power of regeneration through the use of the Frankenstein monster and the werewolves act as some of his henchmen. The overall premise works and I believe works well. These creatures supposedly existed around the same time and in many of the same areas, so why wouldn't they be connected. The only issue with this movie is that it wasn't believable. It wasn't filmed in a realistic way. I don't believe this movie was intended to be a thrill fest; instead it was made to be a blockbuster. That didn't happen either.

I didn't mind High Jackman in this movie. Richard Roxburgh (who plays Dracula) is a bit over the top for my idea of the Count and Kate Beckinsale should stick with the Underworld series (she's much better in that).

Van Helsing is a fun movie, just not a great one. I truly think that if you haven't seen it, do. You won't get any scares, but its not a bad movie if you want all of these classic movie monsters at once.


Similar Movies:

Dracula (1931/1992) (coming soon)
The Mummy (1932/1999)
The Wolfman (1941/2010)
Frankenstein (1931/1994)
Young Frankenstein (1974) (coming soon)


Up Next

ROSEMARY'S BABY (1968)


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