At a bit of a loss.

Rating: 7/10 (4 August 2001)

How to put this, some parts to this movie were incredibly good, while others plain stank. Shall I be positive and start with the good? Yes. From the very flashback beginning, (I have a personal affection for movies with flashbacks) I was captivated, and when seeing the mad who was he again in his cell, rising from the ground all surreal I was practically jumping up and down with excitement. Then came the blow. Keanu Reeves has got to be one of the most overrated actors out there, him and Arnold Shwartznager (sorry if I killed that because I always call him `Shwartzy'). Not only was his face a stone in this movie, like in any other, but his forced, horrible British accent just plain well, come one now, even I could do a British accent better (and I am not saying I am any good at it)! All the other actors were marvelous, especially I enjoyed Hopkins and Ryder. A lot of the art was wonderful in it also such as all the scenes with the Vampire brides and the flowing gowns in the night. Some, however, were rather cheesy such as blood coming from both sides of the screen and green smokeI mean, this just kills the mystical experience of the movie when you have special effects such as that. It makes it feel like some sort of cheep horror flick, and not a good one. The constant show of red blood cells also was a bit too technical and unmystical to be shown, I thought. What should have been done was to have the blood trickle like little snaky rivers over and around things (much more subtle that way), and the smoke to be black rather then that pop green. Perhaps subtleties was another good word to use, the movie lacked it. I would have preferred it more of a drama and less of horror such as Interview With The Vampire. Dracula himself was often portrayed a bit too obviously scary, it would have been better, I thought, had he looked more normal yet had some subtle chilly notes about him. The moving by itself carriage and all such was also a bit too `evil witch of the west'ish. So while some parts of the movie I thought to be exquisite, others I just had to shake my head at. It was almost sad because it could have been a truly wonderful movie had some parts not been there, but with them I would give it (with sadness) a 6.5/10.