Due to a slight delay for reasons unknown, this film was relesed here in the UK as ‘Dracula 2001’, and was actually very good.
Blatantly rushed in order to be released in 2000, Patrick Lussier’s modern day retelling very cleverly resurrected the Count in New Orleans whilst retaining the aspects of the character that appeals to fans.
When a gang of thieves raid an antiques house, they never expected to find Dracula hidden in the vault, but as is to be expected the Count comes back once again to terrorise the relatives of his arch enemy Van Helsing.
The cast and crew are all excellent talents ensuring that the film is fun to watch from start to finish. I had originally liked this much more when I saw it at the cinema, but for some reason I now find that ‘Van Helsing’ is a better movie, despite the fact that the Count sucked (sorry).
The strong points here are undoubtedly the casting of Gerard Butler as Dracula and the excellent new mythology added to the character by the writers, not to mention the references such as having the female characters work in Virgin rather than be virgins (because lets face it how many twentysomething virgins do you know?).
OVERALL SUMMARY
Well acted with an amazing cast and excellent ideas, ‘Dracula 2000’ is a worthy addition to the character’s legacy of films, and deserves far more respect than it got. Don’t get me wrong there are moments of cheese, and if I had reviewed this four years ago it would have gotten a higher rating, but it’s a great way to spend 90 minutes.
