Very Good Summer Fare

Rating: 7/10 (17 June 2004)

Stephen Sommers' "Van Helsing", like his two most previous efforts "The Mummy" and its sequel "The Mummy Returns", are very good summer fare. The kind of film you can go into with a big bucket of popcorn to enjoy some escapist fun for a few hours. But it is no more than that. Hugh Jackman is good as the title character as well as all the players, but if you're expecting something great, you're in for a very disappointing experience. The plot plays out very much like a Bond film with a loner hero, a beautiful woman ally, an evil megalomaniac intent on ruling the world, and even a lot of high-tech gadgets (which are EXTREMELY implausible for the time period but who cares?). This film has NOTHING to do with realism. This is, as I said, very good escapism. Sommers obviously has great love for the monster movie genre and it is very appropriate that Universal Studios is the studio it comes from since most of the great classic monster movies that this film pays homage to came from this studio seventy years ago. Ironically, however, those classics, who helped to save Universal from the verge of bankruptcy all those years ago, serves as the inspiration for this film whose budget will certainly never be made back from the domestic box-office grosses. But this is really beside the point. If you want to get out of the summer heat and be entertained for a f hours, check your critical brain at the door and have fun.