Dracula: Dead and Loving It
Tags: cult, gothic, romantic

Plot synopsis:
Transylvania: 1893. A coach containing Thomas Renfield (Peter MacNicol), a solicitor from London, and two Transylvanian natives, rocks up a mountanous path. Renfield says he's feeling queasy and one of the helpful natives leans out the window to tell the driver to slow down. Just as he does so, he catches a glimpse of the setting sun and yells for the driver to go faster. The carriage rocks and jerks its way to the closest town.When they arrive, a townsperson opens the door of the carriage, and Renfield tumbles out headfirst. The driver throws his luggage down after him, saying he will go no further tonight. Renfield is forced to walk to his appointment at Dracula's castle, disregarding the townspeople's warnings about vampires as a silly superstition.By the time Renfield arrives, it is dark. He tries to knock at the door, but the knocker crumbles away in his hand. Just then, the doors swing open of their own accord. When Renfield steps in, the doors swing shut again and he turns around in surprise. Behind him, at the top of a long staircase, Count Dracula (Leslie Nielsen) makes his appearance. He stands still at the top of the stairs as shadow creeps forward across the wall in a predatory stance. Dracula scolds it in a foreign tongue and it retreats. Renfield, startled, turns around and is relieved to see the count. Dracula starts to introduce himself and trips on some bat guano, tumbling down the steps. He gets up at Renfield's feet, unharmed. He leads Renfield up the staircase, while his shadow limps across the wall behind him.As they walk up the stairs Dracula passes without incident through a giant spiderweb that is in the way. Renfield, confused, attempts to follow, only to become tangled in the web. He is still picking cobwebs off his clothes as he enters the room into which Dracula has led him. Dracula brings up his purchase of Carfax abbey. Renfield produces the documents. Just as Dracula is about to sign, Renfield gets a papercut. Blood spurts all over the documents as Renfield attempts to find his hankerchief. Dracula smacks his lips and looks on in interest.Later that night, Renfield is sleeping soundly in the guest room. The door creaks open and two vampire maidens float into the room. Renfield wakes up to see them molesting his furniture. He is indignant at their intrusion, but when they advance upon him he soon gives in to their mistrations with gusto. Dracula walks by to see them in a very comprimising position. He calls the vampires off and scolds them. They start to float out of the room, but he tells them to stop it, so they just stomp into the hall.Dracula finds Renfield cowering under the covers and tells him he was having a nightmare. He offers to show Renfield an old Transylvanian method of relaxation, where the other will stare deeply into his eyes. However, Renfield promptly falls asleep before Dracula can make him his slave. This happens once more before Dracula hoists Renfield up by his shoulders and goes through it all very fast. Renfields eyes get wider and more twitchy as he listens, and the scene ends with Renfield totally under Dracula's control.The next scene opens on a ship at sea. It is The Demeter, bound for England. Dracula's coffin is down below, being knocked about the cabin. Renfield enters and tries to tie down the coffin again, only to be crushed against the wall multiple times by the rocking ship. When Renfield finally manages to tie down the coffin, Dracula emerges with a groan. Renfield says he looks dried out, and offers him some whisky. Dracula refuses, and says he'll start with the first mate.A London Enterprise headline segways the next scene: Corpse of Captain Found on Empty Vessel-- Sole Survivor a Raving Maniac.At a showing of Faust, three theatre-goers look over the audience from their box seats. The fourth, Dr. Seward (Harvey Korman), who runs an insane asylum, enters late. His daughter, Mina (Amy Yasbeck), his ward, Lucy Westenra (Lysette Anthony), and Mina's fiancé, Jonathan Harker (Steven Weber) greet him. He apologizes for being late, citing the lunatic he brought in from the empty ship as an excuse.Meanwhile, Count Dracula approaches an usher (Leslie Sachs) in the hallway outside and requests to speak with Dr. Seward alone. He makes a gesture with his hand and she is instantly transformed into a mindless slave, repeating his request as she approaches the box. Just before she draws back the curtain, he adds "and you will remember nothing of what I tell you." She draws the curtain to summon Dr. Seward and suddenly has no idea why she's there. Dracula, annoyed when she greets him for the second time, denys her a tip and says he'll do it himself.Dracula enters the box and introduces himself as the new owner of Carfax abbey, which ajoins Dr. Seward's sanitarium. He is just about to introduce himself fully when the usher returns, relaying the original message Dracula imparted upon her. Dr. Seward leaves at the summons and Jonathan Harker takes over, introducing the offended Dracula to the rest of the group. Dracula takes an interest in Lucy. At one point he stares, transfixed, at her neck. She seems flattered.Later that same night, Lucy looks out her window at Carfax abbey and undresses to just her nightclothes. As she gets into bed, Dracula turns into a bat and flies across to her window. Just as he reaches it, Lucy shivers and reaches out to push the window shut. It swings shut and Dracula flies into it head-on, sliding down the glass. Afterwards, in human form, he pushes in the window and hoists himself up onto the sill and into the room. Suddenly, a knock sounds at the door. Dr. Seward and Jonathan come in and turn on the light, saying they thought they heard a prowler. They search the room and find nothing, while Dracula clings desperately to the ceiling above their heads. They say goodnight and Dr. Seward slams the door on the way out. Dracula crashes to the floor.After the men have gone, Dracula creeps over to Lucy's bedside and begins to drink her blood with a loud, slurping noise.The next day opens on a cell in Seward's Sanitarium where Renfield fusses and frets on his cot. Martin, (Mark Blankfield) a caretaker at the sanitarium, enters and says Dr. Seward is ready to meet with Renfield. He leads him out to where Dr. Seward is sitting, eating lunch. Renfield takes the seat opposite him. Renfield acts normal until he catches sight of an insect and stuffs it into his mouth. This happens three more times and Renfield tries to play it off, but eventually Dr. Seward is forced to call Martin back to put Renfield in a straightjacket.That same morning, Mina comes into Lucy's room, where the other girl is still in bed. Mina remarks that Lucy looks pale, and Lucy says she doesn't think she can get out of bed. Mina calls her father and he examines the two little bruises on Lucy's neck with interest. Jonathan suggests an insect, and asks if Lucy recalls being bitten. Lucy alludes to a strange dream she had, but when they press her on the details she says she remembers nothing and drifts to sleep.Dr. Seward suggests contacting Dr. Abraham Van Helsing (Mel Brooks), who he thinks might be able to shed some light on the disease.At the London Hospital Dr. Abraham Van Helsing's autopsy lecture is being conducted. Van Helsing disects the body and passes various body parts around until every student has fainted. A nurse comes in and sees the bodies on the floor. She congratulates him on a "ten out of ten." She then says she just got a message from Dr. Seward summoning VanHelsing to Whitby for an emergency. Van Helsing looks thoughtful.Dracula's coffin opens on a new morning. Dracula is at first startled that he can be up during the daytime, but then becomes joyful as he thinks that Lucy's blood had cured him. He goes out for a walk and samples a picnic. Suddenly, Renfield appears and warns him away. Dracula begins smoking in the sunlight. Startled he starts to run back to his coffin but can't seem to get anywhere. Cut to Dracula's coffin, which is rocking. Muffled screams are coming from within. It opens and Dracula looks around him, seeing that it is night. He was having a daymare.Van Helsing examines Lucy and can only suggest the interferance of a vampire. At first Jonathan and Dr. Seward don't believe him, but they come to as he explains his line of thinking. They ask what they can do, and Van Helsing consults a vampire book. He finds what he is looking for in the suggestion of hanging garlic around Lucy's room as she sleeps, to prevent Dracula from finishing the job.Dracula rises from his coffin that night and bumps his head on the chandalier directly above. He grumbles that he must move his coffin.Garlic drapes over every surface in Lucy's room that night. She complains about the smell, but Dr. Seward and Dr. Van Helsing insist. Dracula creeps up to the window once they have left and opens it, only to be warded away by the disgusting smell. The next time we see him he is at the window of Renfield's cell. He calls his slave to the window and bends open the bars, floating gracefully down to the ground. Dracula beacons to Renfield and he leaps from the window. Renfield gets up, groaning. Dracula reminds Renfield that he doesn't fly. Renfield limps after Dracula on the way to Lucy's room.Once there, Renfield opens the window and begins to gather wreaths of garlic in his arms. He is distracted, however, and peeks under Lucy's blankets. Lucy wakes up and screams. Renfield screams. Dr. Seward and Jonathan come in and restrain him. Martin appears at Dr. Seward's call and drags Renfield back to his cell. Jonathan closes the window. When Lucy is alone again Dracula uses his vampire powers to call her to him. She opens the window and steps out into the night. Mina steps out onto the terrace and sees a dark figure bending over Lucy's prostrate figure. She screams, which brings Dr. Seward and Jonathan stright to her side. They rush out into the night and find that they are too late.A funeral is held. Dr. Van Helsing warns that unless they stake her to her coffin she will rise from the grave. Seward expresses doubts about the whole vampire theory. Just then, Count Dracula is shown in. He is introduced to Van Helsing, who questions the relationship between Count Dracula and Vlad Dracula, who impaled his subjects on iron spikes. Dracula insists they had it coming. Van Helsing and Dracula engage in a childish game of trying to get the last word through insults in the language of Ancient Moldavian. The professor notices The Count never gives up, leading him to suspect Dracula might be the vampire.At the Westenra crypt voices are coming from within Lucy's coffin. A man drinking nearby hears and lets her out. She attacks him.Back at the house, Jonathan is going out to stand guard at Lucy's grave, just in case. We next see him walking in the graveyard with a lantern. Suddenly, he hears his name called out long and soft. Lucy, now transformed into a vuluptuous vampire, steps out of the shadows. She begs Jonathan to come away with her, and tries to seduce him. However, he is too British to succumb to her wiles. She tries to bite him, but Van Helsing steps out of the darkness with a cross to drive her back. She retreats to her crypt, with Van Helsing at her heels.When Van Helsing and Jonathan enter the crypt they find Lucy lying prostrate in her coffin. Jonathan thinks she's dead, but Van Helsing says that unless she is staked through the heart by one who loved her in life she will rise again. Jonathan insists that he only liked her, but Van Helsing will hear none of it. He retreats behind a pillar and Jonathan hits the stake as hard as he can with a mallot Van Helsing produced. A deluge of blood pours out from where the stake drove in and Jonathan is soaked. He hits it one more time, with the same effect. Van Helsing hands him a hankerchief.Back at the house, Mina's nurse, Essie (Megan Cavanaugh) is sitting watch over her while she sleeps. Dracula is out in the garden and hypnotizes Essie to fall asleep and makes Mina awake. Dracula orders Mina to the door and there is some confusion in which he accidentally carries Essie away. When he realizes his mistake he drops her and goes back for Mina, spiriting her away into the night.Jonathan and Van Helsing return. Seward is shocked at Jonathan's appearance and makes him use the servant's entrance.At Carfax Abbey Dracula carries Mina into a candlelit room. They begin to dance, as a dusty old organ accompanies their movements. Their shadows dance and Dracula's shadow gets a little carried away, if you know what i mean. Dracula yells at it to stop, and they continue dancing. Dracula bites her.The next morning Mina is up early while Essie sleeps. Jonathan comes in and they wake her. Jonathan comments that Mina looks different, and she agrees, saying she's changed. She comes on to him, which makes Jonathan uncomfortable. Her father comes in and catches them in a very compromising position. Jonathan blames Mina, but she rescinds all blame. Seward is furious and orders Jonathan out. Van Helsing comes in and is suspicoius of Mina right away. He rips off her scarf to reveal two tiny puncture marks on her throat. She claims she did it pinning a shawl, but when Van Helsing presents her with a cross she faints.
The group decides they need to find out the identity of the vampire, and Van Helsing suggests a way.The next scene opens with a ball. They invite Dracula and Renfield. Dracula comes up behind them while they are talking and startles them. He spots Mina and asks to dance. Jonathan is about to refuse, when Van Helsing stomps on his foot. Renfield calls Dracula's attention on his way to Mina. Renfield is suspicious of the circumstances under which he was invited. Dracula agrees that it is suspicious and says that if he is discovered he has movied his coffin to an abandoned Chapel, and that Renfield must meet him there, making sure not to be followed.Dracula begins to dance with Mina. Martin is given the signal to drop the curtain from a giant mirror. Everyone starts staring at Dracula and Mina, because he does not reflect in the mirror. He thinks they're staring because he's a good dancer. When he finally figures it out, he snarles and throws a table through the window. With Mina in his arms he leaps into the night.Renfield yells out after him, but quickly covers it. Van Helsing is suspicious of Renfield, and suggests they let him go to see if he'll lead them to Dracula. Renfield starts off in the direction Dracula indicated, only to remember his advice. To make sure he isn't followed he zig-zags in a circle and then advances, sure that he lost them.Renfield arrives at the castle, proud of his achievement. It is just then that Dracula hears the sound of his pursuers at the gate. Renfield is crushed that he couldn't fulful his duty, and begs Dracula to punish him. Dracula obliges and throws Renfield down the stairs. The group tramples over him on the way up the stairs.The door is locked when they get up, however. Dracula leans down to bite Mina as they beat on the door, and just as his fangs are about to sink in they break in. There is a struggle, at the end of which Dracula turns into a bat and flies into the rafters to escape. While he is up there, they are unable to burn him with the light of the sun. Just as Dracula thinks he's safe, however, Renfield opens a pannel in the ceiling for escape, accidentally letting in the sun. Bat-Dracula goes down in a ball of flames and Mina awakens as herself again.Jonathan carries Mina out the door. Just after them, Renfield comes in the room, sobbing. He scoops up his master's ashes, places them in his coffin and draws a smiley-face in them, trying to fix it. Seward tells him that he doesn't need to serve anyone anymore. Renfield follows him out the door, saying, "Yessss masssster." As Van Helsing puts on his hat, he opens Dracula's coffin and shouts one last insult in Ancient Moldavian, getting the last word. He slams the coffin shut as the film ends.

Review: Into these cultural and successful observations Brook's introduces Leslie Nielson doing a great impression of Bela Lugosi's Dracula with the difference that his powers are incompetent.Seeing the Lugosi movie will give you the basis to appreciate the sophistication of this film..
"Dracula: Dead and Loving It" is a movie that seems to define what someone either really likes or dislikes about a comedy, and more specifically a parody: gags.
Mel Brooks, having proved his comedic prowess with films like "Young Frankenstein", comes through in the role of Van Helsing.
Being that I like a good slapstick comedy (and I do), the performances above all are what were able to pull me in.FOOSH-TAA!"Dracula: Dead and Loving It" gets 9 of 10 stars.
The cast is brilliant in their roles especially Leslie Neilsen as "Dracula" and his brain-washed slave "Renfield" (Peter MacNicol) portraying an insane, insect eating madman extraordinarily well!The humour is all in the typical Mel Brooks 'tongue-in-cheek' style and also quite reminiscent of Monty Python in parts, the over-the-top British accents may attribute to that part.The final film directed by Mel Brooks, "Dracula Dead and Loving It" is very entertaining and the mindless humour make for a very enjoyable spoof movie!Highly recommended : ).
If you are not familiar with the original story of Dracula, as well as seeing both the Bela Lugosi and Gary Oldman movies, with others in between, then the gags will be lost on you.People have rated that Brooks is losing his touch.
Leslie Neilson did a great job in the role of Dracula, and his Renfield, Peter MacNichol, was a superb performance.This movie deserves full credit for its level of parodistic comedy, even if it is lost on viewers.
Leslie Nielsen, who revived his career later in life playing goofy roles, also is very good, this time as 'Dracula." Actually, I thought he was far better in here than in those other spoofs, such as the "Naked Gun" series.
I do not understand howthis movie only achieves a 4.5 rating.Among the many memorable moments there are several downright hysterical gags: when Dracula slips in the bat pooptrying to walk down the stairs, when Harker drives the stake and isdrenched in blood, when Dracula rises from his coffin and basheshis head on the chandelier...the list goes on and on.Also, Harvey Korman was extremely funny as the bumbling,blubbering Dr Seward; as was Mel Brooks as Dr Van Helsing, andLeslie Nielson as Dracula.I give it 9/10..
This is one of those movies who has unjustly been underrated by those who do not understand its type of artistic expression and humor.Leslie Nielsen is one of the best actors i have ever seen and he personified Drakula in this comedy movie(which i do not consider a comedy entirely but a horror movie with class) His performance was perfect and the funny scenes were funny but they had the feeling of silly rather then comic.Most of the movie in my honest feelings is not a comedy but a Elegant Vampire movie.It is a deep classic and i am sure that in time it will earn its rightful place in the hall of fame.GREAT!!.
"Dracula: Dead and Loving It" is Mel Brooks' greatest/funniest film ever!
After all the recent Vampire movies it's even more funny.Typical Mel Brooks humor is laugh out loud and crude.
DD&LI works for me because Mel Brooks doesn't actually make fun of the cinematographic myth of Dracula, HE PAYS HOMAGE TO IT INSTEAD by relying not on ridiculing some of the "technical" shortcomings of the original tale in its various incarnations – which would be easy shots for any modern day wise a@& – but instead by extracting the humorous flavor of some of the situations, including of course the more risqué ones, as extrapolated for the contemporary audience.Leslie Nielsen seems to take a slightly perverse pleasure at embodying the cinematic Dracula of Lugosi / Oldham, and it shows because Leslie likewise does not ridicule the character: he maintains its commanding stateliness nearly all the way through, including in the delivery of some of the classic lines or variations thereof.True, some of the language jokes are run into the ground (no pun intended!) a bit, and probably don't survive further viewings.
While still displaying appropriate atmosphere and thematic technique, this film just simmers with good, old-style Mel Brooks comedy, and is hilarious throughout.
This genius working product of the meeting of comical genius Mel Brooks (Young Frankenstein, High Anxiety, Men in Tights) and, once again, comical genius Leslie Nielsen (Naked Gun, Spy Hard), creates a comical masterpiece.
One of my favorite comedies: Leslie Nielsen and Mel Brooks, two shining stars of the Parody unite to give us FUN!!!The autopsy scene is unforgettable.
And so is the spiking.The characters are perfect: Leslie Nielsen as Count Dracula at his best, Mel Brooks as Professor Van Helsing who speaks the old Wallachian language (Vlad Tepes was really the High Prince of Wallachia but he is certainly believed to be "active" in Transsylvania).
It's impossible for Mel Brooks to make a completely bad film (well, then again, there was "Life Stinks".......) and "Dracula - Dead and Loving It", while hardly up there with "Young Frankenstein", has enough good yuks in it to make it well worth watching.
"Dracula: Dead and Loving It" is another parody of Mel Brooks, this time based on the Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula" and its characters.
Leslie Nielsen is good as usual in this type of movie that he became the greatest name but Peter MacNicol steals the show in the role of Renfield.
Amy Yasbeck, Harvey Korman, Mel Brooks, Leslie Nielsen, Steven Weber, Peter Macnicol, etc...
While this skewering of the Dracula mythology and the various cinematic interpretations of the story never achieves the kind of crazy heights of "Blazing Saddles" or "Young Frankenstein", it still shows that Brooks still had it in him to come up with some great, gut busting scenes.
Being a genuine horror fan as well as a comedy legend, he and his team of collaborators do go to great lengths to give this film the proper look, and it's a colourful, stylish looking movie, going with the idea that the composer wasn't in on the joke and featuring a score by Hummie Mann that's full of foreboding.
Standout scenes include the staking of Lucy (Van Helsing stays well out of the way for good reason), the breakfast sequence with MacNicol and Korman, which is particularly priceless, and the scene where Dracula is trying to manipulate both Mina and Essie and not having much success.
A snappily paced movie leading to a fairly big finish, "Dracula: Dead and Loving It" is good entertainment as Brooks comedies go, and even gives its principal cast members the kind of "curtain call" at the end that we don't see in movies that often.
Disappointingly-bland Mel Brooks spoof of Bram Stoker's classic horror novel "Dracula." It has many funny moments, though, but also a lot of comic misfires.As Count Dracula, Leslie Nielsen delivers a hilarious performance, and Peter MacNichol is funny as Renfield, his sidekick.
However, it is definitely worth the wait.Mel Brooks is also funny as Van Helsing, and it's good to see "Wings" co-stars Steven Weber and Amy Yasbeck together.
Anne Bancroft has a surprisingly small role as a gypsy woman (which is rather funny).If you like Mel Brooks, go ahead and watch the movie.
Leslie Nielsen is not quite up to his usual Frank Drebin deadpan comedy routines, and even though Peter MacNicol delivers a note perfect Dwight Frye (Renfield in the 1931 version), as well as good turns from Harvey Korman and Brooks himself, the final result is depressingly unfunny.
So let me clarify from the outset: This "comedy" is not to be laughed at.Who would have thought that Mel Brooks  the genius writer/director behind Blazing Saddles, History Of The World and Young Frankenstein (a successful comedy movie wholly in the vein of this failed one  pun intended)  would be prone to helming a comedy as pitifully appalling as "Dracula: Dead And Loving It"?
Instead of easing back and letting the film's levity wash over me, as should have been the case, all these logistical details kept bugging my senses, detracting from the already-sparse humor.During the cast-and-crew screening for this film, one has to wonder whether there were any genuine laughs or whether the aura of the director's past glories tainted the crew into believing that they had a good comedy on their hands, thereby eliciting perfunctory giggles out of respect for their elders.In this film's adherence to the original Dracula story and noticeable neglect of comedic opportunities, not only did it fail as a good comedy, it becomes barely convincing as an A-List movie.
Harvey Korman's Dr. Seward can almost be an actual over-actor from one of the REAL Dracula movies, whilst Steven Weber's Jonathan Harker frequently comes across as an exaggerated English nobleman from a Christopher Lee film.
On paper, Leslie Neilsen's Dracula seemed like a hilarious coup, as did Mel Brooks' Dr. van Helsing, but both seemed to be laboring under the specter of their own reputations as funnymen.
And Brooks' van Helsing seemed too self-aware of every mispronunciation he made - for the sake of schoolyard quotes - to be regarded as genuinely hilarious.If Mel Brooks has grown so blind that he cannot see that the comedy boat has left him onshore; if he has become so oblivious to discernment that he actually thinks this film is noteworthy enough to be considered a vital "comedy", the movie's subtitle may well be applied to HIM  "Dead  And Loving It".(Movie Maniacs, visit: www.thedunmore.com/POFFY-MovieReviews.html).
While Dracula maybe "Dead and Loving It" I am loving this movie, it is among my all time favorite comedy-horror flicks.This is one of Mel Brook's most hysterically funny films...
And I will take a moment to plug Brook's "Young Frankenstein" movie because it is just as much of a must see comedy-horror as "Dracula: Dead and Loving It".If you like "Dead and Loving It" then you may like a similar film called "Love At First Bite".9/10.
This movie isn't really worth anyone's time if they're expecting the laugh quality of Naked Gun.This movie is a big spoof on Bram Stroker's Dracula, with Neilson as the count trying to find love.
I guess if you are already chuckling at the idea of Leslie Nielsen playing Count Dracula you will probably enjoy this movie...
I could say the same for Leslie Neilsen, who used to be in some funny movies, too, but really fell into some bad schtickt.Supposedly a spoof on Francis Ford Coppola's "Bram Stoker's Dracula", it actually has more in common with the original 1931 Dracula with Bela Lugosi.All that said, the jokes fell flat, many of them were done to death.
Never quite as funny as you want it to be or as it would like to be but still a funny, brisk time killer.If you're a Mel Brooks fan, you'll love this parody of the Dracula legend.
Steve Webber chooses to play it straight the whole time except for when he gets covered in blood from nailing the stake into undead Lucy's heart and Van Helsing (the hilarious Mel Brooks) keeps telling him to nail her again and he eventually, cynically replies "She's dead enough." Amy Yasbeck doesn't get to be really funny until she tries to get the very repressed Harker to touch her after her night with Dracula.
Mel Brooks has done much better parodies in the past (SPACEBALLS is still a cult favourite for me) but Dracula: DEAD AND LOVING IT isn't too bad as they go.
Nielsen is good value as always as the Count but the material is hardly up there with the wild and frenetic nature of the AIRPLANE films or indeed his NAKED GUN trilogy.The worst thing about this spoof is how many of the scenes are actually played straight when they could have been much funnier.
He states: "Unless you're a die hard Mel Brooks fan (are there any of them left?), there's no compelling reason to sit through Dracula: Dead and Loving It." Mister James, just check out the comments on IMDb, which is the best site of it's kind, before you make such affirmations, and see how many fans are...
Of course, this may not even be quite as bad as some of the movies he went on to ('Wrongfully Accused, anyone?), but it still isn't a good fit by any means.As is common with Brooks' movies, it actually makes the mistake of taking it's plot too seriously at times, forgetting that it is a recycled story from the film it is supposed to be making fun of.That, and the jokes are all pretty lame.
Having Nielsen as Dracula opposite Mel Brooks as Van Helsing is only a recipe for more gags as two gods of comedy go head-to-head.
All in all I would heartily recommend this film for any fan of Mel Brooks, Nielsen, Dracula or just plain good comedy..
If you love Leslie Nielsen, Mel Brooks, Peter MacNicol, and Dracula then see Dracula: Dead and Loving it!.
As has been the case with all of Mel Brooks's recent movies, "Dracula: Dead and Loving It" is a big excuse to be silly.
The usual, rich English are attacked by Dracula (Leslie Nielsen) and Dr. Van Helsing (Mel Brooks) is brought in to save the day.
Mel brooks has made some great movies in his career (Like Young Frankenstien) and some bad ones (like the horribly over-rated "Spaceballs"), but this is one of his best films to date.
It's not the best Mel Brooks movie I've ever seen, but it isn't that bad.
I am a big fan of Mel Brook`s movies.From Blazing Saddles to Young Frankenstein.But this movie is one of his best.I love Leslie Nielsen and Peter MacNicol as Reinfield and Count Dracula.It has funny jokes that can make everyone`s laughometer go off.It makes fun of the classic Dracula.I am a big fan of Leslie Nielsen and Mel Brooks but them together in one movie will make everyone laugh.I love how Dr.Seward always says "Give him a enema".This movies has scenes of hilarity like when Reinfield eats bugs and when Jonathan drives the stake through Lucy`s heart.This movie is so funny great for fans of Mel Brook`s movies.Rent no buy it it is so funny.Don`t believe the bad reviews it has gotten.See this movie your`e in for a treat you can sink your`e teeth into..
It follows Dracula (Leslie Nielsen) from Transylvania to London where he battles Dr. Seward (Harvey Korman), his assistant Jonathan Harker (Steven Weber), Lucy (Lysette Anthony), Harkers' fiancée Mina (Amy Yasbeck) and van Helsing (Mel Brooks!).
It follows the 1931 movie fairly closely--it sometimes picks up entire lines and sequences and tweaks them to make them funny.There are plenty of good things about this film--it LOOKS just great; Nielsen plays Dracula very well just like Lugosi (accent and all) but never makes fun of the character; Yasbeck and Anthony are just great; Korman does a hysterical imitation of Nigel Bruce and even Peter MacNicol has some moments as Renfield.
I remember seeing Dracula: Dead and Loving It in the theater- one of only two I had the chance to with Mel Brooks's films- and walking out just thinking "how could this be this lame, even for a kid my age"?
I think it is funny as mentioned, for me it starts to get more funny a little too late but nevertheless is still lazy work and probably too silly most of the time to create a reasonable film.Overall a Mel Brooks comedy that fails to shine, you know the type of movie that never delivers on it's promise of being hilarious, but can have it's moments in the spotlight.
Leslie Neilson and Mel Brooks were very interesting, in a good way, in this movie.
The finale is bad, some of the funny moments just aren't funny and the script tires out in the middle of the film, although always biting back (literally) with something original, which still makes it get a high mark.Enjoyable renter for anyone who is just looking to sit back and watch a downright hilarious little flick.I rate Dracula: Dead and Loving It 7 out of 10..
Of course, as in all of his movies,  Mel Brooks has a role, this time as Dr. VanHelsing, the man in charge of finding Dracula and trying to destroy him.
There is just nothing I haven't seen in other films he collaborated on.If you are channel surfing and see Dracula: Dead and Loving It watch if 1)You really like Brooks parodies 2)You are a Dracula fan and a comedy version of the story is appealing 3)There is nothing better on Otherwise, pass..
(Apologies in advance for bad spelling) Mel Brooks had long since lost his touch by the time he embarked on what looks like his final movie.
Anyway Dracula : Dead And Loving It does have some funny bits which is why I recommend you watch the trailer rather than the movie itself..
And who knows, maybe he was ashamed and that's why Dracula: Dead and Loving It is his last film.This is a flick that feels more like someone trying desperately to be as funny as Mel Brooks rather than Mel Brooks himself.
Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995) * (out of 4) You'd think teaming up THE NAKED GUN star Leslie Nelson with comic legend Mel Brooks would lead to an outright laugh riot but sadly that wasn't the case as this film really delivers the part of the title that reads dead.
Dracula: DEAD AND LOVING is (to date) Brooks' last film as director and it's a shame he went out like this but at least he did give us countless classics to enjoy..
I don't think I laughed more than once during this film, which is an all-time low for a Mel Brooks flick.