Van Helsing - film we all should fear!

Rating: 4/10 (10 November 2004)

And this is S.Sommers homage to the great old horror films of Universal studio? This is,without any exaggeration,the poorest excuse of a movie I have seen in a while.
When a single movie menages to destroy everything you love and cherish about creature features of old,Dracula,Frankenstein and werewolf it's time to realize that this guy shouldn't be allowed near anything remotely similar, ever again. How can you take three of the most legendary creatures,huge amounts of money,pretty useful actors and turn it into year biggest letdown?
There is so much that's incredibly bad and laughable about this movie that I wont even try writing about all of it cause it would take a couple of days! I have seen every S.Sommers movie and it is only The Mummy that's even close to being a reasonably good movie, next to Deep Rising, which I truly enjoyed. Entertaining B-movie and fully aware of it, thats one of the things that made it work. Here he has much more money and he end up creating a turd. Effects are even worse then in The Mummy Returns (not included Scorpion King off course-still the worst CG effect ever) and that's saying a lot. The movie feels more like Shreck or Finding Nemo than horror adventure or whatever he tried to make. God only knows!
All the clichés/stereotypes are used over and over again. Poorly choreographed action sequences, overacting, laughable attempts at local accent and the dialog taken straight out of Hammer classics. The plot is probably written by his 8-year old nephew.
Draculas brides are laying eggs ?! (the castle feels more like something taken from "Aliens" than 17th century). And as for Dracula - there is "The Daddy" of all the evil creatures,the very name should cause fear. In Van Helsing we have the pleasure of seeing one of the worst casting choice for the role ever (at least for production this big - Dracula is supposed to appear menacing while this one looks like Elton Johns new lover or some Liberace wannabe! I was expecting a scene where he bites Van Helsings balls,not the neck.
One thing is certain - after watching this crap,I will never look at those creatures,even this type of films again.