Amazon.com Essentials:
With dizzying cinematic tricks and astonishing performances,
Francis Coppola's 1992 version of the oft-filmed Dracula story is one
of the most exuberant, extravagant films of the 1990s. Gary Oldman and
Winona Ryder, as the Count and Mina Murray, are quite a pair of
star-crossed lovers. She's betrothed to another man; he can't kick the
habit of feeding off the living. Anthony Hopkins plays Van Helsing,
the vampire slayer, with tongue firmly in cheek. Tom Waits is great
fun as Renfield, the hapless slave of Dracula who craves the blood of
insects and cats. Sadie Frost is a sexy Lucy Westenra. And poor Keanu
Reeves, as Jonathan Harker, has the misfortune to be seduced by
Dracula's three half-naked wives. There's a little bit of everything
in this version of Dracula: gore, high-speed horseback chases,
passion, and longing.
Amazon.com Essentials:
Francis Ford Coppola returns to
Stoker's novel for this
umpteenth take of the Transylvanian bloodsucker. Gary Oldman plays the
vampire, Dracula, doomed to be a creature of the night after forsaking
God but aroused by the image of a British woman (Winona Ryder) who
resembles his own lost love. Oldman does well by the monster, even if
he doesn't register much personality in the process, and Anthony
Hopkins is a little overachieving as the vampire killer Van
Helsing. The rest of the cast is serviceable, except Keanu Reeves,
who--not atypically--is wooden and somehow empty. Coppola seems to
approach the film as chunks of experimental opportunity, some of which
work out all right while others are mannered or even foolish. What is
undeniable is the tremendous buzz of the film's energy, particularly
in a fantastic middle sequence that plays like a psychedelic
nightmare. The DVD
release has optional full-screen and widescreen formats, optional
French and Spanish soundtracks, and optional Spanish and Korean
subtitles. --Tom Keogh
Amazon.com Essentials:
With dizzying cinematic tricks and astonishing performances,
Francis Coppola's 1992 version of the oft-filmed Dracula story is one
of the most exuberant, extravagant films of the 1990s. Gary Oldman and
Winona Ryder, as the Count and Mina Murray, are quite a pair of
star-crossed lovers. She's betrothed to another man; he can't kick the
habit of feeding off the living. Anthony Hopkins plays Van Helsing,
the vampire slayer, with tongue firmly in cheek. Tom Waits is great
fun as Renfield, the hapless slave of Dracula who craves the blood of
insects and cats. Sadie Frost is a sexy Lucy Westenra. And poor Keanu
Reeves, as Jonathan Harker, has the misfortune to be seduced by
Dracula's three half-naked wives. There's a little bit of everything
in this version of Dracula: gore, high-speed horseback chases,
passion, and longing.
