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Movie Review by The Gravedigger
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02.28.04
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When I saw this on the video store shelves I thought 'Great, a new Dracula movie'. Was I ever disappointed.Instead of a new Dracula tale the producers decided to make ANOTHER version of the Bram Stoker novel, only this time updating it to the present time, which simply doesn't work. Jonathan Harker is a real estate agent on business in Budapest with his girlfriend Mina and several of his friends. Harker is approached by Vlad Tepes (Patrick Bergin (HIGHWAY TO HELL, FRANKENSTEIN, SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY) to coordinate the selling of his old estate and belongings in Romania and purchase a new abode in Budapest. He can't refuse because the count offers him a great deal of money.Harker goes to Romania, crashes his car in the woods and is picked up by a horse & carriage, which takes him to the Count's home. The usual stuff happens here-the count seems friendly one moment, threatening the next-and then when Harker is asleep the three vampire brides try to feed upon him. Then, Harker finds himself locked within the castle.When he eventually returns to his fiance and friends he's silent about what happened, dismissing it as a bad dream. But the count starts seducing Lucy, Mina's friend, and turns her into a vampire. We are also introduced to Dr. Seward, who runs the local mental asylum, Renfield the crazy patient, and Van Helsing (GIANCARLO GIANINNI), who is an old associate of the Doctor. The Renfield character really has nothing to do with any thing that goes on and Van Helsing is weakly portrayed, very much a side character.In the end Mina ends up getting bitten by the count and taken away-and just as she seems to be on his side she stakes him in the heart. He falls to the ground, dies and turns to dust in a bad computer effect. And then the movie ends on a very predictable, stupid 'cliffhanger', alluding that the story isn't over.This is a movie that should never have been made--don't even bother renting it.
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Rating: nan out of 10.0 - 0 votes cast total
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