Dracula Untold – The year is 1462. Transylvania enjoys peace under the rule of Vlad III [Luke Evans] and his beloved wife, Mirena [Sarah Gadon]. But a war with the Turks and a pact with a demon are about to change Vlad’s life forever.
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Van Helsing (Hugh Jackman) is working for the Vatican as a monster hunter. The Vatican in this film is a holy MI6. They even have their resident Q named Carl (David Wenham) who also doubles as this film’s comedy relief. They sent Van Helsing, and Carl to help the last of the Valerious family line destroy Dracula. If they should fail nine generations will be trapped in purgatory for all of time. In Romania, during a vampire attack, they meet Anna Valerious (Kate Beckinsale), and they learn her brother Velkan Valerious (Will Kemp) has been killed by a werewolf. Adding to their problems they must find a cure for lycanthropy before the next full moon. Unfortunately, Dracula (Richard Roxburgh) has the only cure. Time is running out, and death is around every corner.Read More »Van Helsing [Hugh Jackman]
I’ve been doing reviews of various movies with Harvey Korman, since his recent death. This led me to watch Dracula: Dead and Loving It starring Leslie Nielsen, Steven Weber, Peter MacNicol and Lysette Anthony. Most of the reviews that I’d read led me to believe that it was a very unfunny movie, with only one or two laughs during the entire movie. In my opinion, they were totally wrong–I would describe this as Mel Brooks’ most underrated movie.
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Hotel Transylvania aims at a juvenile audience. Complete with the fart jokes and low humor that we’ve come to expect from Adam Sandler. And that’s a real pity. It’s actually a much better film than that.
Before talking about Dracula vs Frankenstein itself, I would like to point out that it was the final appearance by two excellent actors: J. Carrol Naish (Sahara, Annie Get Your Gun) and Lon Chaney Jr. (The Wolf Man, The Defiant Ones) — and both frankly deserved better. Lon Chaney Jr. was mute in the film, due to the damage done by throat cancer. Although I doubt that it would have improved the film very much if he had been able to speak. Yes, Dracula vs Frankenstein is that bad.
The basic plot for Dracula vs Frankenstein, such as it is, is as follows: the lovely and successful Judith Fontaine (Regina Carrol) is looking for her missing sister, Joan (Maria Lease, St. Elsewhere) who has disappeared into the hippie community of Venice, California. However, Joan has become the victim of Groton (Lon Chaney Jr.), a mute, axe-wielding homicidal maniac who alternates with playing with little puppies. Groton, in turn, is working for Dr. Durea (J. Carrol Naish), a wheelchair-bound mad scientist who is experimenting with re-attaching decapitated heads and resuscitating the victims. Dr. Durea is secretly the last descendant of Dr. Frankenstein and is running a house of horrors by the beach as a cover, assisted by Grazbo the Evil Dwarf (yes, that’s the character’s name, portrayed by Angelo Rossitto).
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Blacula is a blaxploitation film, that rises above its origin. largely because of the quality of the acting, especially the title character, portrayed by William Marshall.
The story begins in 1780, with African Price Manuwalde (William Marshall) seeking the help of a European count to end the slave trade. Unfortunately, he’s chosen to ask the aid of Count Dracula (Charles Macaulay). Dracula is all about enslaving people of all colors and having them join his undead army. And the count is offended by the African prince …
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