Release Date: Friday, May 7 2004 Stars:
Hugh Jackman , Kate Beckinsale , Richard Roxburgh , David Wenham , Will Kemp , Shuler Hensley , Samuel West , Kevin J. O`Connor
Genre(s): Action, Horror, Adventure
im not good with thes "what the movie's about" things, so i'll use info from movies.yahoo.com
"Set in the late 19th century, monster hunter Dr. Abraham Van Helsing (Jackman) is summoned to a mysterious land in East Europe to vanquish evil forces... evil forces with names like Count Dracula (Roxburgh), the Wolf Man (Kemp), and Frankenstein's Monster (Hensley). Assisting him once he gets there is Anna (Beckinsale), the heir of a long-running family committed to hunting down and destroying Dracula. (Anaya, Colloca and Maran play Dracula's brides; Wenham plays a friar, Carl, who escorts Van Helsing through the dangerous wilderness) The movie gets its start as Dr. Van Helsing is hunting down a mysterious monster called Mr. Hyde who has some sort of tie to a chemist, Dr. Jekyll... "
On one hand, it has Hugh Jackman. As well, it's an intriguing premise which, if handled well, could be great fun...
...but, on the other hand, it's directed and written by Stephen Sommers, who gave us 'The Mummy' and 'The Mummy Returns' - which, I have to admit, have their moments, but overall they're incredibly stupid films that lack the finesse and style of the Indiana Jones films (which they ripped off, clumsily).
As well, there's Kate Beckinsale, who did look rather cute and spunky in 'Underworld'...but apart from that, with her flat acting, she sucked (pun unintended).
If someone like, say, Robert Rodriguez had done this instead, my hopes would be higher.
I agree if there's a ripoff here its Hellboy cause Van Helsing is a character from Bram Stoker's Dracula written in 1895, but i want to see both movies, despite any similarities they might have.
I'm excited...it comes out two days after my birthday. When I first saw the coming attraction during another movie I knew immediately that this was a movie I would be interested in seeing.
From the plot description and the fact that it's directed by the bloke who gave us "Mummy Returns", this looks to be yet another addition to the long list of popcorn,instantly forgettable summer flicks. Want to see a really kickass Van Helsing? Check out some Hammer films starring Peter Cushing.
Anyways, has anyone ever read Bram Stoker's Dracula? This is NOT the real van Helsing. He was old, and and doctor. Where does the wolfman, and stupid spinning crosses come into play? This is pure rip off cheeze!
There was a lot wrong with this turkey, including the following:
* (worst of all) a gross over-indulgence of CGI and would-be spectacle that quickly became annoying and mind-numbingly dull
* (second worst of all) a relentless barrage of increasingly ridiculous action scenes that also became annoying and mind-numbingly dull
* a serious lack of characterisation - after a while, I didn't really give a damn about what happened to any of the characters, because there was little reason to give a damn about them
* an increasingly stupid tone that made the film seem less and less convincing, even within its own fantasy-world
* Van Helsing himself - Hugh Jackman made a great-looking hero...but as a person, he was a bland and clumsy goofball who relied more on increasingly ridiculous weapons than any sort of cunning, resourcefulness or smarts
* Kate Beckinsale - as in 'Underworld', she looked very hubba-hubba...but also as in 'Underworld', there was not a lot about her character that was interesting, and at times she seemed quite clumsy and unconvincing as an action-hero
* sexlessness - despite some eye-candy, there was very little romantic or sexual passion in 'Van Helsing'
As much as I don't think sex-appeal has much to do with anything, Dracula was basically a twisted love story. Van Helsing, a part of Brom Stoker's Dracula, was portrayed as best as could be with the script by Hugh Jackman, but Kate Beckinsale was bland, dispassionate, and had a terrible accent. Dracula, also, claimed throughout the movie to "have no heart", which, I think, really took away from the plot. I wouldn't try to convince anyone to watch this movie, but I wouldn't try to convince anyone not to watch it either.
I wanted a movie that doesn't suck. It had vampires, and werewolves, and Jekyll and hyde, and frankensteins monster. And it had kate bekinsale looking tasty and packing a big groovy sword.
How can you mess that up? A chimp could have made a better movie if that was what he started with.
Oh, and that bit when they're just about to infiltrate castle frankenstein, and she turns to him and says how her father went to the beach, and how she's never even seen the beach, and he looks into her eyes and says: "What the f**k has that got to do with anything?!"
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