Worst Dracula ever?

[Mangamax]

Here's Richard Roxborough in the upcoming Van Helsing.
Just how awkward does he look?

Link: http://josie-maran.com/image.php?i=MJMexclusive-VanHelsing-production21.jpg&x=900&y=1231" target="_blank">Tut tut

[Smiley]

Going by the pic he looks like a half hearted goth.

Still, vampire totty, eh?

[SmallBlueThing]

Oh no, the worst Dracula ever was Christopher Lee in that truly dreadful Jess Franco 1970 movie. Urk. Mind you, Jack Palance and Louis Jordan come close.

Roxby looks a bit miscast, but I'm 100% behind this movie... if only on the grounds that they've named it after my son. Well, my son's middle name is Helsing anyway.

Steev
Whose favourite Dracula movie is still 'Dracula's Daughter', with the utterly spellbinding Gloria Holden.

[Quirkafleeg]

Oooo Mr L. Nielson in Dracula: Dead and Loving it was totally unwatchable (nothing worse than an unfunny comedy) and I seem to remember the bloke in Love at First Bite was pretty bad too, though it's a long time since I've seen it...

Nice try with this guy ...http://www.vinylvulture.co.uk/pages/images/records/blacula.jpg">

[Noisybast]

"Still, vampire totty, eh?"

Yeah, Miss Maran looks a likely contender for the "Underware" thread...

[Leigh S]

Nobody mentioned Gary oldman yet?

[Mangamax]

100% behind the movie???
Have you seen Hugh Jackmans mullet? And equally 80's jacket?
Baaad portents...

[Richmond Clements]

"Nobody mentioned Gary oldman yet?"


Or Jack Palance..?

[SmallBlueThing]

After a decade disliking Gary Oldman's portrayl... especially his adoption of the previously unknown 'small jewish tailor' side of the Count's character ("Listen to the children of the night. What muisic dey maike. Oy vey.")... I've grown very fond of it in the last couple of years. Once you realise that everything within the film is unreal and a construct, *and supposed to be like that*, everything makes sense. Even Keanu Reeves's accent, which is unfairly lambasted by all and sundry, makes sense because it's so ridiculous it draws attention to itself. Nothing is supposed to be "real", nothing is "realistic"- the performances, the effects, nothing. It's a film for people whose love of the movies isn't based solely upon whether they are "believable".

Ditto Branagh's wonderful Frankenstein, which is operatic in it's wildly over the top melodrama and the propensity for people to break into spontaneous dancing when they are happy, ludicrous set design and DeNiro's Italian hood monster.

Two movies there that rock my world and that very few people understand, I think.

But what do I know? I loathed the first two parts of Lord of the Rings and my favourite film of last year was the marvellous Texas Chainsaw remake.

Steev

[Richmond Clements]

I agree with you totally about Kenny's Frankenstein, I love it.
And I do like Oldman in Dracula... but sorry, you cannot make an excuse for Reeves,"I know where the baastad lives."

[Leigh S]

Well that's one way of reading it, but then why not call it Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula, or even more accurately, MTV's Dracula.  

There's striving for an unreal feel (and there's that whole dreamy vision of Transylvania that works for me as an unreal construct - Keanu Reeves, Oldman (and lest us forget Hopkins and Ryder) performances don't make the film seem more unreal or dreamlike or otherworldly for me - they just seem to be at a loss as to what to do and out of their depth.  But it's always good to be able to see things that others can't  - Though I'm not sure if that's because we misunderstand what the film makers really intended, or whether your acceptance of their performances as another layer of unreality is just a happy accident (for you at least)! :)  

[stront692]

dont forget francis ford coppola has a habit of going off on one at his actors, making them do really strange things

they were probably shell shocked

i always liked the old hammer horror films run, i was scared stiff by the blood of dracula follow up when i was about 65 - it wasnt until i watched abbott and costello meet frankenstein that my fascination with horror movies really developed as i then went back and watched them all unafraid as i understood that they were not real

there was also a film when i was a kid called ghost squad for kids which was quite good, with drac and frank as the good guys for a change

[Generally Contrary]

The Monster Squad?

Good ol' Frankenstein's Monster.  He love kids you know...

[judge dreddd]

not all good books make good films

its that simple

[stront692]

thats the one