Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
Horror
Rating: 4/5 - very good lots to enjoy
Synopsis
Young and ambitious solicitor Jonathan Harker (Keanu Reeves) is offered the chance of a lifetime at advancing his career.
Count Dracula (Gary Oldman), an eccentric, elderly client has suddenly and perplexingly started buying property in and around London. Jonathan is duly despatched to help seal the deals and curry favour with him after his colleague Reinfield (Tom Waits), who left several months before, returned empty-handed having completely lost his mind.
Unbeknownst to Jonathan, the Count is ‘living dead’, a ‘Nosferatu’, having renounced his life centuries before after his bride committed suicide. He exists in limbo by drinking the blood of living humans. The Count, noticing Mina’s striking resemblance to his wife, imprisons Jonathan and travels to London to seduce and ‘reclaim’ Mina. Death and tragedy follow his every step.
When to watch: Sky Sci-Fi/Horror, Thursday, December 27, 11:05pm
Review by @Reelreviewer
Gary Oldman won his Best Actor Oscar this year for Darkest Hour, but really showed his chameleon-performance skills here in several of Dracula's guises - the decrepit, elderly man; the lustful, conquering soldier and even a werewolf and an anthropomorphic bat.
His thick, sexy Romanian accent is delicious but, contrastingly, the other cast members are patchily voiced to say the least.
As the pretty young things, Ryder and Reeves struggle to make an impact as their stabs at speaking middle-class English cripples their performances.
The film is a treat for the eyes, perhaps too much. The real star here is the stunning design - costumes, sets and ravishing photography all battle for attention and, eventually, overwhelm the narrative.
The music too, featuring songs by Annie Lennox, is lush throughout.
Read the full review: http://bit.ly/dracula1992
Cast & credits
Director: Francis Ford Coppola. 2 hours 7 mins/127mins. Columbia/Osiris Films/American Zoetrope. (18)
Producers: Francis Ford Coppola, Fred Fuchs, Charles Mulvehill.
Writer: James V. Hart.
Camera: Michael Ballhaus.
Music: Wojciech Kilar.
Sets: Thomas E. Sanders.
Costumes: Eiko Ishioka.
Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Anthony Hopkins, Keanu Reeves, Richard E. Grant, Cary Elwes, Billy Campbell, Sadie Frost, Tom Waits, Monica Bellucci, Michaela Bercu, Florina Kendrick.
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