Dracula 2000

Very likely Dracula 2000 would win a contest for lamest movie title of the year. It's the kind of bland generic title that does nothing to inspire movie goers to think they might be in for a good movie. Luckily the movie attached to that awful name isn't equally as bland.

This movie takes the classic Dracula story and advances it to modern times. Sure you've heard that kind of thing done many times with other familiar stories but this one is a tad different. This movie assumes that the events in the Dracula story were real and some of the characters are very much alive. The vampire hunter Von Helsing is still around. He has wiped out vampires except for one, Dracula himself. But Von Helsing managed to imprison Dracula until he could figure out how to destroy him. So now the legendary vampire is locked away in a heavily guarded vault. Von Helsing keeps himself alive by injecting himself with vampire blood filtered through leeches.

However one night a group of high tech thieves break into the vault on the advice of one of Von Helsing's assistants. They really have no idea what is in the vault but assume that it must be valuable simply because it's in a vault. Needless to say, things go badly and Dracula is once again free to roam the night. Von Helsing and one of his assistants have to travel to America to try and recapture the vampire.

The movie walks a careful line between comedy and serious horror. That's not terribly surprising considering Wes Craven produced the movie. His Scream movies walked a similar line between comedy and horror. This movie mostly tries to stay serious but has a weak spot for a good one-liner and it has no shortage of those. Clearly the most important thing for this movie is to have fun. It has no grand intentions beyond entertainment and that's about what it provides.

The story seems very straight forward in its approach early on but as time goes on it becomes clear that there is a larger mystery at work here. In this movie there is a bit more to the Dracula legend than we have previously known. I won't go into it here but it takes the basic elements of vampire legends and spins them for a completely different origin. Trying to piece the clues together on your own is a big part of the fun.

It is a fun movie. It never takes itself too seriously but never gets so silly that it undermines itself either. Modern special effects are liberally applied to give vampires a measure of power that earlier movies couldn't deliver. It might be appropriate to nickname the fighting style of the movie vampire-fu. The blood suckers float effortlessly, spinning and twisting in mid-air to avoid attack and deliver blows.

The acting is nothing to get excited about. The movie stars a whole lot of people you don't know and a few you probably recognize but couldn't name. Christopher Plummer, Omar Epps and Jennifer Esposito pretty much comprise the only veteran movie actors in the film. That's okay though as everyone does exactly what they need to do to advance the plot and nothing more.

The writers clearly did their research into vampires as the movie carefully acknowledges the various facets to existing vampire legend while simultaneously creating its own. Savvy viewers will take note of the fangs on the vampire skulls adorning Von Helsing's vault. That attention to detail pays off in a film that always seems to know where it needs to go even if it's mugging to the audience for laughs. This isn't a great movie by any stretch of the imagination but it is a solidly entertaining one. I saw it in a theater that's only redeeming feature was the low admission price and still found myself enjoying myself. Bad theaters can often distract me, resulting in lower enjoyment but this movie managed to rise above that. That's a pretty good compliment.

- John Shea