Mainly good now that Mel Brooks's "Dracula: Dead and Loving It" and that one "Simpsons" episode have spoofed it.

Rating: 5/10 (15 July 2006)

I guess that eventually, there had to be a version of Bram Stoker's classic novel following the original story. However, Francis Ford Coppola's "Dracula" suffers under its own pomp, and Keanu Reeves is not really the right choice to play Jonathan (I kept expecting him to say "Whoa!" or "Dude!"). Still, you can't deny that Gary Oldman makes a pretty neat version of the Count, alternating between looking like a centuries-old creature, a modern businessman and a wolf. As Mina, Winona Ryder really gives the impression of a delicate person who may have more to her than we realize.
I actually think that the best part of the movie is the part set in 1462 Romania. The way that Prince Vlad impales the Turkish invaders gives one the feeling that even before he became a full-fledged vampire, he already had sort of a nasty side (although the Turkish invaders probably deserved what he did to them). And I don't think that anyone could have predicted the sword-in-the-cross scene! Anyway, this version is good in the sense that it sticks to the original story, but it's too full of itself to really merit any recognition. And since the Bela Lugosi movies were kind of silly, I still say that the best Dracula movie ever was Werner Herzog's "Nosferatu". If nothing else, this movie at least saved Coppola from financial ruin. And how often do we get to hear Romanian, Greek and Bulgarian spoken in movies? Also starring Anthony Hopkins, Cary Elwes, Sadie Frost, Tom Waits and even a very young Monica Bellucci.
Two really cool spoofs of this movie are the "Simpsons" episode "Treehouse of Horror IV" (where one of the vignettes portrays Mr. Burns as a vampire praying on Bart) and Mel Brooks's goofy "Dracula: Dead and Loving It" (starring Leslie Nielsen as a hapless, clumsy version of the Count).