not bad...

Rating: Null/10 (28 March 2004)

it's hard to say with this movie. i loved the acting. except, of course, for dear keanu. i wonder how he ever got that job. any acting job, as a matter of fact.
but aside from him, eveyone else was good. anthony hopkins as professor van helsing was wonderful to watch. gary oldman makes a pretty good dracula. some would disagree but this was the first version of dracula i ever saw. i could never get into the bela lugosi versions. and tom waits. what can i say?
this movie was pretty good in terms of following the book. unfortunately, this being the movie business, they had to add the love story between mina and dracula, citing the long-lost love theme that appears in so many vampire flicks. that ruined the rest of the movie for me, especially after i read the book. it was pointless, it didn't change anything. they already had a love story going on so why do they need another?
again, my main beef with vampire flicks is the constant melodrama. this film was better than most, surprisingly, but it was still there. to get rid of it completely would be folly because that's what makes a drama a drama, but, in this case, it was over done.
so, apart from bits of the story line and some of the feeling, i liked this movie. i would recommend it.