Universal's goes back to its future with "Van Helsing"

Rating: Null/10 (5 May 2004)

In today's movie market, I suppose one should be happy with a film that simply entertains you for a couple of hours. Doing too much beyond that, such as enlightening or inspiring may be best left to Cecil B. DeMille or Mel Gibson. That being said, there is a bit of good fun still left, the kind that doesn't nourish, but sure tastes good going down, leaving us fat and happy for a time. Recent films which fit that category, in my opinion, at least, were "Butterfly Effect," "The Ladykillers" and "The Alamo." No another picture has come along to place itself safely in that category, Universal's horror/action thriller, "Van Helsing," starring the game Hugh Jackman, in the title role, shedding his his sharp-clawed Wolverine motif (for a while, anyway) to play the famous vampire/monster killer. Filmed with as much derring-do as any Indiana Jones episode (although Harrison Ford's fedora is a bit to big for Jackman right now), Van Helsing's two hours fills the entertainment bill quite nicely and, despite a few CGI glitches, comes across as a decent film for its genre. There's a reason for this, though. Director Stephen Sommers is credited with the screenplays of "The Scorpion King," "The Mummy" and its sequel, "Return of the..." The bombastic sounds emanating from these productions, as well as the dark, brooding atmosphere and a somewhat literal sense of history and fantasy, as well as nice homages to the old classic Universal horror flicks of the 1930s, the original "Mummy," "Dracula," "Frankenstein" and "The Wolf Man," make this an interesting, if not all too sophisticated experience. After disposing of Mr. Hyde (and unfortunately Dr. Jeykle at the same time, a CGIed Hulk-like Stephen Fisher), in Paris in 1880, Van Helsing is sent by his Holy Roman Catholic overseerers to rid the world of County Vladislaus Dracula (Richard Roxberg, "League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen"), the undead one who's causing such a ruckus in Transylvania. That should be simple enough, but Drac has a few friends helping out, including a ferocious werewolf (Will Kemp, when not computerized beyond all possible recognition), and a Peter Boyle-looking Frankenstein's monster who suddenly turns all mooshy on us. The Count also has a few evil wives that fly about grabbing various citizens of the Baltic country and generally doing their master's no good bidding. Needless to say there's plenty of killing, with green blobs of tiny vampires bursting apart everywhere. Fortunately, the film doesn't take itself too seriously, with an array of James Bond-type weaponry, such as a machine gun that rapidly fires arrows and special bombs that destroy only the undead (who are already dead to begin with...oh never mind). There's also a goofy friar, Karl (David Wehnam), who provides much of the comic relief. "Van Helsing" is rated 'PG-13,' and opened on Friday, May 7.