| Review by: J.R.
McNamara |
| Date:
8/1/06 |
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Director: Stephen
Sommers
Starring: Hugh Jackman,
Kate Beckinsale, Richard Roxburgh, David Wenham,
Kevin J. O'Connor
Screenplay: Stephen
Sommers
Music: Alan Silvestri
Tagline: The One Name
They All Fear.
Country: USA
Year: 2004
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Once in a while, a movie will come along that
your average mainstream movie goer can't watch
because of how terrifying it is: Last House
on the Left, The Texas Chainsaw
Massacre, Wolf Creek just
to name a few. These movies reach deep into our
hearts and pull out the darkest, most horrific scenarios,
and with a decent script, direction and actors,
cause the meek movie fan to crawl within themselves
to try and escape the bitter scenes of carnage that
are presented to them on the silver screen.
…and then there are films like Van
Helsing.
Van Helsing
actually does quite the opposite. While not a completely
bad film, it is an affront to fans of the horror
genre, taking legendary characters from Universal's
stable, and turning them into buffoons. This film
reaches into the chest of the horror fan, pulls
out his or her heart, and turns it into a Hollywood
whiz-bang action film.
Gabriel Van Helsing (Hugh Jackman) is an agent working
for the Vatican eliminating monstrous adversaries
on behalf of the church. After dispatching Mr. Hyde
(Robbie Coltrane/ Steven Fisher) who has been terrorizing
Notre Dame (a tip of the hat to a certain Hunchback),
he and his armourer, Carl (David Wenham), travel
to Transylvania to help the lovely Anna Valerious
(Kate Beckinsale) defend her town against the likes
of Count Dracula (Richard Roxburgh), his assistant
Igor (Kevin J. O'Conner), the Frankenstein
Monster (Shuler Hensley) and various female vampires
and werewolves…as you can imagine much melodrama,
action and hilarity ensues.
Originally this was to be a sequel to 1992's
Bram Stoker's Dracula, but
somewhere along the line this fell into the lap
of Stephen Sommers (The Mummy,
The Mummy Returns and the upcoming
Flash Gordon), lost Gary Oldman and Anthony
Hopkins and gained a sense of irony and a funny
bone. The CGI is of a really average quality, David
Wenham seems to be doing an impersonation of Q from
James Bond, Hugh Jackman is riffing Wolverine from
X-Men and Kate Beckinsale seems
to have gotten a cheap fake Eastern European accent
from the Reject Shop. The main problem with this
film is there is just too much. It is apparent that
this was to be the beginning of a franchise, judging
by the merchandise that was available upon its release,
but this film has every monster from Universal's
back catalogue in it EXCEPT for the Creature of
the Black Lagoon. If it were to be that start of
a series, it certainly did not need to feature all
those monsters at the same time, but surely instead
it could have featured one or two and kept us salivating
for the next movie. This film seems to have been
a fond homage to the old Universal Horror flicks,
but falls apart with its excessiveness. Surely House
of Dracula and House of Frankenstein
should have taught all the production team that
too much is just too much. |
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| Video |
| Full of Hollywood gloss and Kate Beckinsale dressed
in leather; Van Helsing is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic
widescreen and is a clear transfer that looks great. |
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| Audio |
| The soundtrack is in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
and is spectacular. |
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| Extra Features |
Explore Dracula's Castle is one of those
interactive DVD explorations of the set of Dracula's
castle, with descriptions of the various props described
by either Dracula himself or one of his brides.
Bloopers (5 minutes 37 seconds) is a usual pile
of performers pranking, pratfalling and piss-farting
around.
Bringing the Monster's to Life (10 minutes)
This is a feature about the CGI effects used for
the creatures of Van Helsing. The creatures are
described in this as the top end level of CGI effects….boy
oh boy, were they wrong
You are in the Movie (4 minutes 29 seconds) is an
interesting ideas where hidden cameras were put
all through the set of Van Helsing to show the filmmaking
from different angles. This is a pretty good idea
that can also be attached to the viewing of the
movie in full.
The Legend of Van Helsing (10 minutes) starts as
a history of the Van Helsing character in Universal's
films, and finishes being an ego stroke for Hugh
Jackman.
Van Helsing Trailer and the Van Helsing Super Bowl
Spot are two slightly different versions of the
Van Helsing trailer.
There are also trailers for Shrek 2, Classic Universal
Monsters, The Bourne Supremacy and The Chronicles
of Riddick.
There are two commentaries on this disc, the first
by writer/ director Stephen Sommers and producer/editor
Bob Duscay, which is a light hearted look at the
making of the film which remains informative and
relatively entertaining throughout. The second commentary
is by Richard Roxburgh (Dracula), Shuler Hensley
(Frankenstein's monster) and Will Kemp (Velkan)
which is amusing and irreverent, and has some interesting
anecdotes.
Disc 2 features - Track the Adventure: Van Helsing
Map is an interactive map, where each location from
the movie has a small making-of vignette when it
is clicked on: The Vatican Armoury (5 minutes 29
seconds), The Burning Windmill (6 minutes 38 seconds),
Dracula's Castle (7 minutes 51 seconds), Frankenstein's
Lab (6 minutes 32 seconds) and The Village (8 minutes
10 sconds).
Van Helsing: The Story, The Life, The Legend is
divided into 4 vignettes, each a short rundown if
the folkloric and literary and cinematic history
of each legend, then showing it's relationship
to Van Helsing. They are: Dracula (11 minutes 38
seconds), Frankenstein's Monster (9 minutes
26 seconds), Werewolves (12 minutes 21 seconds)
and Anna and the Brides of Dracula (14minutes 23
seconds). Each of these vignettes has footage form
the original Universal movies and Van Helsing.
Evolution of a Legacy is divided into three featurettes:
Explore Frankenstein's Lab is another interactive
exploration as is the Dracula's Castle on
disc 1.
The Music of Van Helsing (9 minutes 33 seconds)
is an OK featurette about the music of Van Helsing,
which is good to see as the soundtrack to Van Helsing
is one of those bold, rollicking Indiana Jones-type
soundtracks.
Dracula's Lair is Transformed (2 minutes 40
seconds) is a demonstration using time lapse photography
of how sets can be changed and reused.
There are DVD-rom components on disc one of this
2 disc set that require the installation of InterActual
Player to see. When you install it, it appears that
the DVD-rom element IS the InterActual Player which
allows you access to content on the site as well
as playing the movie. This is obviously a disguised
anti-copy feature of this disc. |
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| The Verdict |
| As a horror movie, Van Helsing
does not work. It is far too smart alecky and self
referential, but as a super hero styled movie, or
even on a James Bond level, if he was around during
the late 1800s, it kind of does. Fans of The
Mummy and the The Mummy Returns
will probably like it. |
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| User Comments |
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1 user comments have been posted so far |
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| Regional Coding |
2 & 4 |
| Format |
PAL |
| Aspect Ratio |
1.85:1 |
| 16x9 Enhanced? |
Yes |
| Audio Options |
English DD 5.1 |
| Subtitles |
English
English (FTHI)
Danish
Dutch
Norwegian
Hebrew |
| Country |
Australia |
| Distributor |
Universal |
| Running Time |
126 minutes |
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