Wes Craven Presents: Dracula 2000
Starring Jonny Lee Miller, Justine Waddell, Gerard Butler, Colleen Fitzpatrick, Jennifer Esposito, Danny Masterson, Jeri Ryan, Omar Epps and Christopher Plummer. Written by Joel Soisson (from a story by Soisson and Patrick Lussier). Directed by Patrick Lussier.
Well, I’m a sucker for vampire movies, always have been always will be, though I’m not so fond of movies with the character Dracula in them. It’s so hard to be a good Dracula these days, and while Gerard Butler tries, he’s no Bela Lugosi.
That being said, I had some high hopes for Dracula 2000. Director Patrick Lussier is fairly new at the directing game (The Prophecy III being his only other directing credit), but he has a lot of experience in film editing, so it comes as no surprise that he also co-edited this film. Jonny Lee Miller, the young protégé of Christopher Plummer’s Van Helsing, is passable, and familiar (you will remember him as Sick Boy in Trainspotting). His love interest, if you call her that, is played by Justine Waddell, who is extremely photogenic, and good at portraying a nut-case. Her acting though, leaves something to be desired. Which is kind of what I felt throughout the film.
Plummer has the old-geezer role of Matthew Van Helsing a very rich antiques dealer, and the descendent of the famous Abraham Van Helsing, or is he? Seems that old Matthew is really Abraham, and Dracula’s blood is keeping him alive. Also seems that the good professor killed all the other vampires back in the 18th century, but could only capture Dracula and could not find a way to kill the head vamp. Enter Omar Epps and his team of crack (or is that crack-addicted) master thieves. They break into Van Helsing’s place of business looking for loot. They don’t find loot. They find a silver coffin. They think the loots inside, so they bundle it up and fly it to the Caymans, via New Orleans, only the plane never gets there, since Drac wakes up and kills all of them. The plane crashes in the bayou, and local television reporter Jeri Ryan (Star Trek Voyager’s Seven of Nine) investigates, but she gets killed too.
Except you know this is a vampire movie right, so no one dies, they get turned into vampires.
So now Drac has his little army, and he’s looking for "the one with his own blood" which turns out to be Mary (Justine Waddell), who is also Van Helsing’s daughter. Van Helsing has been using Drac’s blood to keep himself alive, he sired a daughter some twenty years before the beginning of the movie, you get the picture. Mayhem ensues when VH and his protégé travel to New Orleans to do in Drac once and for all.
Oh, and Drac turns out to be much, MUCH, older than simply being Vlad Tepes from the 15th century. Oh, that’s where this film breaks into some interesting ground. I won’t spoil it, but it’s actually an interesting concept, and one that’s novel in it’s approach.
Along the way there are the usual jumps and scares that are modern-day horror pre-requisites. And there’s a lot of blood and gore. And some nice naked women too. Not Jennifer Esposito or Jeri Ryan, but Colleen Fitzpatrick has a nice love scene with Drac, and she was once the lead-singer of Eve’s Plum. So there.
Anywho, it wasn’t a waste of six bucks, but I’d have rather gone to see Traffic, but the line was around the block. Stay home and rent it…or better yet, rent Modern Vampires it’s better.
My Rating: **1/2 out of 5.