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Van Helsing

Never mind that Dracula and Frankenstein are old favorites of mine and how I was incredibly incensed when the hideously adapted (into love stories) "Bram Stoker's" Dracula and "Mary Shelley's" Frankenstein were released into theatres. Never mind that Van Helsing was one of my favorite characters from a "monster" novel.

And never mind that the rose window in Notre Dame was crushed, or that Mr. Hyde was more like Quasimoto, or that the makers of this movie had an affinity for bad teeth, or that wooden carriages can explode, or that everyone in this movie is dirty except for Kate Beckinsale, or that this is yet another movie in which werewolves break out of clothes and then magically get them back when they turn into humans, or the myriad coinicdental/conveniant occurrences in this movie.

Never mind any of that.

This movie was meant to be one thing: entertaining.

The action is almost nonstop, lots of humor, it doesn't take itself too seriously, it's creative, it throws every old fiction monster into one pot, and somehow, through all of this, it works. It's got everything, including vampires, werewolves, an exquisite ball, Frankenstein's castle, Dracula's lair, cliffs, broken bridges that must be jumped over, fun weapons, a secret Roman league, memory loss, a funny sidekick, tons of shattered windows, elaborate costumes, and expensive sets. Even the one-liners don't seem tooo cheesy. A couple of hokey moments happen (see: the brides), but overall, I was thoroughly surprised to find that I enjoyed myself.

Who knew?!

p.s. Dollar theatre was okay this time. Josh went with us, and we all got a kick out of the family behind us, who seemed surprised to find that this movie was full of monsters.

Posted by wendytime at June 30, 2004 02:38 PM | TrackBack