Siskel & Ebert was on channel 2 at 11:35pm every Sunday. Here is our weekly tribute to the two legends. Film school starts now.
G’s Take: This film has always felt a bit like a missed opportunity. It has all the pieces in place for an epic experience: amazing sets, stunning cinematography, some of the best actors in the business (Gary Oldman as Prince Dracula, Anthony Hopkins as Van Helsing), and incredible special effects. However, it also has a story that goes nowhere, Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves who stall the film, and an editor who is asleep at the wheel. The classic story of Dracula has been done so many times that it seems to be a struggle for even Coppola to bring something new to the tale. This film made me wonder what Coppola would have done with an original vampire tale, I think it would have resembled Del Toro’s CRONOS which remains one of the best vampire films to this day. It is still worth seeing though for the visual appeal of the film and Oldman’s performance as Dracula. A marginal Thumbs up.
See you on forty deuce,
G
