Runtime: 99 minutes
Directed by: Patrick Lussier
Starring: Gerard Butler, Justine Waddell, Jonny Lee Miller, Christopher Plummer, Vitamin C
From: Miramax/Dimension
Yes, I also wish that Virgin Megastores still existed in the United States.
A
movie viewed for the first time in more than 20 years… because on a
messageboard, someone earlier in the month proclaimed that they started a
project w/ friends of viewing Gerard Butler’s filmography! As far as I
know, after a few films, this project was abandoned. They might have
felt that many of his movies were mediocre or worse. Despite viewing
this in the early 2000’s, my first reaction to him discussing this movie
was… wait, Gerard Butler was in it… and he played Dracula!? I had
no idea.
As for viewing this in 2025, what a hilarious, dated piece of work this was. As I’ve said before, quite a few movies from this era reek of its time period; it makes me laugh because this was when I became a young adult but it’s wacky now. Slick techno-thieves (that alone made me guffaw) steal Dracula’s coffin from the relative of Abraham Van Helsing-but this movie attempts to be “cool” by proclaiming that Bram Stoker based that character in his Dracula novel on him-and because reasons, the coffin is transported from London to New Orleans. Speaking of “of its time,” one-hit wonder Vitamin C had a key supporting role.
Note that my rating has zero to do with the film coming from Miramax nor the presence of another sex pest (Danny Masterson) in the cast, or yet another sex pest (Marilyn Manson) on the soundtrack. Masterson’s character suffers a bad fate, at least. The movie is nonsense which isn’t all that scary yet at times can be unintentionally hysterical. Thus, “meh” is the rating I give the film. It is funny that Butler is almost completely unrecognizable from how he’s looked in the past 15 or so years. It had an interesting cast which included everyone from Jeri Ryan and Nathan Fillion to Omar Epps and Christopher Plummer.
Ultimately, the film is inoffensive; it doesn’t fully realize some admittedly clever spins on the Dracula mythos but the movie is not one I found to be miserably bad or a chore to complete. No, I’ve never seen its two direct to video sequels… despite them featuring the likes of Roy Scheider (!) and Rutger Hauer (!!) as Dracula (!!!)
As for my mention of Virgin Megastores, for years they’ve only been in a few parts of the world; during the good old days, they were worldwide, including at what is known now as Disney Springs. It was a place I often walked around in, even if purchases were only made on rare occasions. The place (like the one shown in New Orleans) was two stories and sold the likes of movies & music. Buying items from Amazon just isn’t the same.
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