Dracula 2000

Abraham: "I had them destroyed, eradicated. All but one: my secret in the abbey. He is what they stole."
Simon: "Who?"
Abraham: "Dracula. Dracula: not myth, nor ravings of a mad Irish novelist, oh no. He's real, I assure you."

release year: 2000
genre: horror
viewing setting: home DVD, 3/30/15 and 3/13/10 and theater 1/10/2001

synopsis: Beneath London lies a massive, secret vault which some thieves break into; unfortunately, the loot turns out to be nothing more than an ancient coffin, which the thieves steal and take to America, but not without incident...because it's not empty.

impressions: This wasn't high art, but it was entertaining - highly so. It had blood, violence, scares, humor, references to the classic Dracula story...and it had a good twist pertaining to Dracula's origin. Although the tie-in with the Van Helsing family made sense to the plot, I found myself wishing that the movie had simply been about Dracula running amok in our time. Some of the moments where he encounters modern music, commercials, etc were humorous. Oh well. This was still a good vampire movie with many of the necessary elements.

something this movie has that no other movie has: A leech to the eye!

acting: Gerard Butler made a good vampire lord: tall, dark, brooding, and with both nobility and attitude. Christopher Plummer did a good job as the old Van Helsing, as did Jonny Lee Miller, who played his young protege. I wasn't too impressed with Justine Waddell as the Van Helsing daughter character; she did several stupid things at critical moments.

final word: Pretty good "modern" vampire movie which honors the source material.

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