Van Helsing the one name we can all enjoy

Rating: 7/10 (11 March 2006)

Van Helsing is Universals homage to classic monsters Dracuala, the wolfman and Frankenstein., and just for the record its a pretty darn good homage at that. The story goes as follows Van Helsing played by an effective Hugh Jackman is a monster hunter who is used by the Catholic Church to vanquish evil. He is sent to Transylvania were he meets Princess Anna played by Kate Beckinsale who whilst not exactly putting in a great performance does remain very sexy. There he finds out that her family are ruled over by an evil curse and that they will never enter heaven until the evil count dracuala is killed. The film is silly.It is not a masterpiece but it is good fun. I was not expecting to see it get a high user rating and indeed at 5.3 out of 10 it certainly doesn't however to me Van Helsing is easily a 7 due to the fact it is spectacularly enjoyable and very camp throughout. Richard Roxburugh was not an inspired choice as Dracuala as he makes quite a hash of it but everyone else is at least average in their role. In fact Hugh Jackman was born to play Van Helsing as he adds great style to a great character. I have to hand to Sommers and his crew, the movie has great effects and is well edited throughout. The script is often sharp and always silly so it is an easy movie to enjoy. Its not perfect but hell Van Helsing is one cool way to start a summer season.