Customer Reviews
A MODERN TWIST ON THE DRACULA LEGEND - By: stuart, 02 May 2007 
Wes Craven's Dracula 2001 isn't anywhere as bad as it could have been.
Breaking into a museum vault, theives Trick (Sean Patrick Thomas), Marcus (Omar Epps), Nightshade (Danny Masterson), Eddie (Lochlyn Munroe) & Dax (Tig Fong) are surprised to find a coffin instead of jewels. Finding it robbed, Van Helsing (Christopher Plummer) tells his assistant Simon Sheppard (Jonny Lee Miller) that he will track down the theives, the sets out to New Orleans to track down his stolen coffin, carrying the body of Dracula (Gerald Butler). Dracula finds his target in Van Helsing's daughter Mary Heller (Justine Waddell) & her friend Lucy Westernman (Colleen Fitzpatrick). Dracula then reveals his intentions to Mary. Simon follows a trail of corpses to Dracula & battles to stop him.
THE GOOD POINTS: This wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. What is best about the film is how they decided to break the chains binding the tradition of previous vampire films. Rather then bore us with another retelling of how he was once Prince Vlad, it decides to bring with it its own origin & ties it into the biblical account of Jesus Christ's crucifixion. This change reallly works & adds depth to Dracula without challlenging the Dracula legend. Deciding to tie Dracula to Judas Iscariot also makes a lot more sense. It helps explain his hatred of crucifixes & holy water & it helps explain the vampire's dislike of silver. The new storyline & origin reallly does come as a breath of fresh air & originality (a hard thing to accomplish when dealing with the most over used vampire story of alll time). The films pace is another plus always moving from one scene to another without much filler in between. The action scenes are pretty good & drive the film forward. There's also a very good ending that features loads of action & reallly drawn out fighting between the two sides. There is plenty of neck biting, lots of silver spikes being shot into bodies & decapitations. This isn't a blood bath but its enough to satisfy. There is also some cool scenes, such as an attack on a news reporter & you can't see Dracula through the camera but when the camera man moves the camera he can see Dracula biting into her. The brides here are about as sexy as they have ever been.
THE BAD POINTS: The biggest thing wrong with Dracula 2001 is that Dracula himself doesn't inspire any fear or threat at alll. The nobleman attitude is completely missing. He completely issues none of the past trademarks or style that has made him a great figure & he isn't the least bit threatening when he is on screen. The other problem is the wire based martial arts. Some of the sequences are incredibly bad & so unconvincing its laughable. The fact that just about everyone can do it towards the end is another problem, as it is coming out of nowhere & is a detriment to the film. Not everyone will accept the changes made to the legend but I thought it was o.k.
There are some problems with the film but there is a lot of things that do work for the film. Its by no means a perfect vampire film but if your interested in the genre give it a watch.
Thank you for reading my review.
Some interesting ideas but poorly executed - By: T. R. Alexander, 07 Feb 2007 
This film is something of an attempt to bring the Dracula mythos onto the modern world & to some extent this is successful. In the film Dracula is imprisoned by Van Helsing & kept locked in a silver coffin for centuries until thieves steal his prison & release him into the world where he starts to hunt down Van Helsings' daughter.
Although Dracula 2001 does have some brilliant one-liners & a few good performances from the leading cast, it is the supporting cast members who let it down with a tendency to ham their way through their scenes. The film also tries to add a few twists into the origin of Dracula & I feel these are some nice touches but vampire purists may find them annoying. In the end this film was a decent enough attempt at a modern Dracula movie but just doesn't seem to pull it of terribly well.
Dracula is back with one hell of twist. - By: Mr. R. J. Jones, 01 Feb 2007 One of the best horror icons get's the Wes Craven treatment. While this may not be Craven's best work, it's still a fantastic movie to watch. It's hard to find something in this movie that isn't brilliant, the acting is amazing, the way the story unfolds is definitly something to be admired. If you like Dracula this is a great movie with an even better twist.
I don't care if he IS the Lord of the Undead...bite me and bite me NOW! - By: Sue Lewendon, 14 Oct 2006 
What a great twist to the age old story of the blood sucking vamp! It amazes me that no-one has thought up the twist before, (including me), as it's quite believable...well it would be if there WERE such things as vampires! But oh how I long for there to be a Dracula so sexy & charasmatic as this one played to perfection by my beloved Gerry!
You may think that I'm just bigging up this film because I adore/worship/lust after Gerard Butler, (check out my name!), but you would be wrong. I admit that's what made me buy it in the first, place but how great to find an actuallly bloody good film to boot!
******POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT!!!******
The idea of Dracula actuallly being Judas Ischariot, (hence the hate of alll things Christian, the cross, the bible & silver which represents his payment for betraying Jesus,) is mind bogglingly brilliant. It's perfectly suited to this dark, gothic character. The speech he gives on the rooftop at the end while looking up at a neon crucifix, complete with Jesus, is so well played & heartfelt that it's hard to despise this monster. Especiallly in recent months, (post DaVinci Code madness), when there has apparently been uncovered some bible pages that give clues to say that Judas was asked by Jesus Himself to betray Him. But I suppose we have to make up our own minds about that just as we do with DaVinci Code.
Aside from the story, there are some other great performances, Christopher Plummer & Justine Waddell in particular stand out for me. He is completely believable as the 100 year old Van Helsing who has kept himself alive by injecting himself with regular, smalll amounts of Dracula's blood, (extracted with the use of leeches), simply to protect the world from said beastie until he can find a way to kill him. Waddell plays a very convincing, haunted & terrified character. She is unaware that she's Van Helsing's daughter, conceived after he began his little blood transfusions, & therefore has a kind of dormant mental link to Drac himself. (She just thinks she's going barmy, having weird dreams of a truly hunky man!)
Some of the other performances were just a little too cheesy for my liking. I like a bit of cheddar now & then just as much as the next person, but some lines have a highly overpowering odour of Gorgonzola! I am pretty convinced that this is simply down to good ol' Wes Craven. He does like his one liners doesn't he? Omar Epps character has some reallly dire lines that have me cringing every time..."An eye for an eye mate"...is one that reallly annoys me...if you've seen it, you'll know what I mean! And something else that gets my goat up too is not just in this film but in most vamp flicks, & that's WHY do they have to have them hiss??? They aren't humans inbred with li'l pussy tats...THEY ARE THE BLOOD SUCKING UNDEAD!!! (O.K. rant over!)
Only two things have me creased up with laughter in this film that I shouldn't find funny...1) The size of Johnny Lee Miller's neck in proportion to his head!... & 2)The varying shapes & sizes of the alll famous canines! O.K. everyone as different shaped teeth but come on! Jennifer Esposito's look like they ran out of proper falsies & gave her some made out of card...by a 4 year old!!!
After alll my griping though, I still have to give this a full 5 stars. The good/great FAR outweigh the Stilton. Fave scene has gotta be when Draccie is watching the music vid on the side of the Virgin Megastore..."Brilliant!" Oh who am I kidding? I LOVE EVERY SCENE HE'S IN!!! :o)
If you're a fan of Wes Craven, you'll love this. If you like a good story you'll probably get something out of this too, as long as you keep an open mind to accept the cheese with a bottle of a good red next to you!
I was bitten at first glance! - By: Celine MacDonald, 15 Jun 2006 When I saw the preview for this movie, I was so blase that I almost shrugged in disgust. I had seen so many vampire movies & I can honestly say that one I disliked more than anything had been the Gary Oldman version. But something about the vampire in the preview kept me glued to the screen during the whole preview so for sure I would see it. I was immediately taken in by the different take on the whole Dracula story. The fact that the whole story takes place in beautiful New Orleans made it interesting. It is so hard to make me jump during a horror movie that I was myself surprised when I did twice as we get our first glance at what must be the ugliest vampire ever! Then, lo & behold! He regenerates & becomes the sexiest vampire I have ever seen on the big or smalll screen for that matter. Mr. Butler's performance is what makes this movie work. He has such a screen presence that you can feel how evil his character is, how he will do anything to get Mary Heller & at times, even in his most sexy self, he can be quite scary as he is fighting with Mary on top of the roof. Yet, he can also make you feel just how impressed a being who has walked the earth through so many centuries can be with the modern technology of music videos. One has to smile as he exclaims: "Brilliant!" As he enters the Virgin Megastore & alll the women there starts drooling, we finallly get an idea of how a vampire can be so allluring that his victims would falll prey to him so easily. Of course, there are several other good actors in there, like my fellow Canadian who was recenlty honored here at McGill University, Christopher Plummer, who has himself at some point played such a character with an intense glare in "The Silent Partner". He does comment on how impressed he was with Gerard Butler's intense performance in "Dracula 2001". Then there are Justine Waddell, very beautiful & talented & quite convincing as the frightened Mary Heller Van Helsing. Colleen Ann Fitzpatrick although more of a musician does a good turn as the lucky/unlucky? Lucy Westerman who not only gets to bed Dracula but then becomes one of his undead brides. Jeri Ryan of "Star Trek Voyager's" fame is quite convincing as the t.v. reporter who has a scary encounter with the vampire. Jennifer Esposito is a talented actress & she proves it in there playing the villainous & greedy Selina. Sean Patrick Thomas & Omar Epps convey with their acting that they are having fun in this movie. Danny Masterson is probably the one who had the most fun since he was the one who suggested that one of the leaches should attack him. Also, the suggestion that Dracula might have been Judah Iscariot might have shocked some people but then people are easily shocked by anything but it is an interesting & a fresh angle on an old take.
