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Bram Stoker's Dracula (2 Disc Deluxe Edition) [1992]


RRP: £15.99
Our Price: £2.84 (subject to change)

Overblown but impressive Gothic movie
Review date: 2008-10-29 Rating: 8 out of 10

Some great scenes & some outright bad ones, but overall this is an impressive movie & well worth rewatching.

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Reviews


Upgrade your old vanilla edition NOW!
Review date: 2008-07-28 Rating: 10 out of 10

This film really cast a spell on me when I saw it in the cinema back in the early nineties and I was always slightly disappointed with the vanilla edition DVD, because it always seemed that there was such a lot to say about a film which looks so good.

I know the Coppola take on Dracula was not to everyone's taste, but this great edition gives the full story, for those who want to know. Lovely packaging, presentation, great commentary from Mr C himself. By far though, it's the 3 or 4 documentaries which make this release. Why? Because they illustrate brilliantly the single-minded process which went into creating the film.
I was stunned to learn that Coppola insisted on all old-style effects, so that everything done in actually done ON SCREEN i.e. no CGI. Usually documantaries are a bit take-it-or-leave-it but here it's totally fascinating: how they created Dracula's separate shadow, the long arm of the coachman, even little illusions which go by almost un-noticed in the film.

Also, a seperate doc on the costumes and again, you really appreciate how important that was (Coppola:"the costumes ARE the set for this film")

The most incredible thing for me was learning that the WHOLE FILM was shot on a soundstage - that almost defies belief. As Coppola says at one point - it's the restrictions which lead to inventiveness.

The only let down was the lack of really up to date interviews with the actors, but in a sense this is Coppola's show, and with this disc he opens up his bag of tricks and gives us a quick but fascinating glimpse inside.

Buy without worry. By far, the most interesting take on the book in the last fifteen years now has a worthy DVD to match.

Her prince is coming
Review date: 2008-06-28 Rating: 4 out of 10


When Francis Ford Coppola is good, he's very very good. When he's bad... he turns out something like "Bram Stoker's Dracula." Whose title is also very inappropriate, since only a tattered, abused outline of Stoker's original novel is left.

Instead, somebody (probably writer James V. Hart) decided to turn the story of Dracula aka Vlad the Impaler into a tragic star-crossed love story. But not only does this revamped "Dracula" not make much sense, but it rapidly degenerates into a feverishly baroque eruption of schlock, horribly wooden acting and endless drippy sympathy for an avowed brutal murderer.

Prince Vlad the Impaler went off to war, and came back to find that his wife had high-dived into the river. Enraged, he renounced God (I'm not sure why) stabbed a cross (which started inexplicably bleeding), and became a vampire.

Centuries later, Jonathan Harker (Keanu Reeves) arrives in Transylvania to sell a house to Count Dracula (Gary Oldman) -- only to find that Dracula's castle is a depraved, bloody horror house. As he's tormented by Dracula's brides, Dracula travels to England and encounters Harker's fiancee Mina (Winona Ryder), who apparently is the reincarnation of his late wife. So he wines and dines her, while seducing her lusty pal Lucy (Sadie Frost).

And as Lucy grows sickly, lustier and weirder, Doctor Seward (Richard E. Grant) calls his old mentor Dr. Van Helsing (Anthony Hopkins) to help cure Lucy. Of course, she's being turned into a vampire by Dracula, who is none too pleased that Mina is now rushing to marry Jonathan. Van Helsing's little group sets out to destroy Dracula once and for all -- but Mina is going to make things difficult.

Despite including Bram Stoker's name in the title, it's pretty obvious that Coppola only sticks to the bare bones of Stoker's classic vampire novel. This isn't necessarily a bad thing in itself -- some changes to books are good things. Unfortunately "Bram Stoker's Dracula" is changed in mostly negative ways -- an illogical love story, absurd costumes and hair, schlocky special effects, and some really rotten acting.

And sadly, turning the story into a soggy tragic romance causes a number of plot holes -- Renfield is superfluous, Harker mysteriously survives a fall that killed Elizabeta, and Mina goes on sexy dates while her best pal is dying (there's a friend for you!). And the appalling James V. Hart's attempts at romantic dialogue fall painfully flat, especially when they come from from the legendary Vlad the Impaler ("I have crossed oceans of time to find you!").

Even worse, the beginning of the movie is soaked in schlock -- red satin, animal helmets, muscle armor, creeping shadows, and Dracula's hilarious "breasts" hairdo. Coppola thankfully tones down the schlock factor pretty quickly, although the hyperactive cameras never quite calm down. Many of the following scenes are genuinely lovely: bridal vampires, polished crypts, haunted forests and a gloriously ruinous Carfax Abbey bathed in flames.

But while the story of "Dracula" has a fair dose of subliminal sex, someone apparently decided it isn't blatant enough. So we get random lesbian kisses, screamed orgasms, bare breasts, green mist sex, Mina snogging Van Helsing, and Lucy getting raped by a werewolfized Dracula on a bench.

Gary Oldman makes a solid enough Dracula, although even his formidable talents can't make me sympathize with a brutal mass murderer just because he's an incurable romantic and has pretty hair. Hopkins makes an outstandingly quirky Van Helsing, and Cary Elwes makes a solidly stiff-upper-lipped Arthur Holmwood. Bill Campbell and Richard E. Grant also make solid contributions.

Unfortunately, more spotlight time is given to the appallingly bad Ryder and Reeves. Ryder's acting is mostly confined to looking dewy-eyed all the time, and her outrage upon finding that "her prince" killed her best buddy is all too fleeting. Reeves devotes most of his questionable acting skill to wrestling with a splotchy British accent. Eventually this pivotal part is reduced to clumping around randomly, looking befuddled.

This would be better called "Francis Ford Coppola and James V. Hart's Dracula," soaked in superfluous sex, wooden acting, plot holes, and a feverish haunted-house ambience. Oldman and Hopkins are sublime, but not much else is.

What almost was
Review date: 2008-06-08 Rating: 6 out of 10

I found the original "Bram Stoker's Dracula" to be a jerky unpolished piece [Note I do not even discuss the Dick Van Dyke impression Mr Neo Matrix gives]. The lack of physical chemistry between the leads is too old a story for me to drag up here: But it remains a sumptuous visual feast all the same. This two disc version has a very fine director's commentary & a number of deleted scenes which, had they been cut into the main feature would have smoothed out the flow of the story, as well as some glaring continuity errors [Dr Steward sitting on Quincy's hat for instance]. The Extras reveal Mr Oldman to be a bit of a stroppy actor, but how they managed the non CGI effects is a delight. In essence, if you're a fan of the film, BUY. If you like cinema, buy if you like to see how they make mistakes in films & try to fix them against the budget, but a "Directors Cut" it is not.

Melodramatic love story
Review date: 2008-05-26 Rating: 2 out of 10

As a fan of Bram Stoker's novel and of Francis Ford Coppola I had high hopes for this film, but was incredibly disappointed. Keanu Reeves seems completely out of his depth in the role of Jonathan Harker: his acting is wooden, his attempt at an English accent is embarrassing.
In various places the acting becomes melodramatic, unfortunately not in a satirical way.
The idea that Dracula is trying to find his dead lover Mina is ill-explained and confusing and seems a bizarre reading of the novel. An argument could be made that the film is merely Coppola's take on the novel, but he did choose to call it 'Bram Stoker's Dracula'.
The sexyness of the film is good, although I think it is a bit over-played.
It is a shame that Whitby is omitted from this film. It is a memorable part of the novel and would have been an incredibly atmospheric location. The film does lack atmosphere and suspense. It turns into a melodramatic, nonsensical love story rather than being a darkly humourous horror story and I don't feel it does the novel justice.

Product Details/Specifications


Artist(s):
Dracula

Actor(s):
Winona Ryder
Gary Oldman
Anthony Hopkins

Creators:
Gary Oldman (Primary Contributor)
Winona Ryder (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
EAN: 5035822459090
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 2
Format: Anamorphic, Box set, PAL,
Release date: 2007-10-22
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Audience rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 122 minutes
Language: English (Original Language)

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