Francis Ford Coppola, Fred Fuchs and Charles Mulvehill
Screenplay:
James Vhart
Music:
Wojciech Kilar
Cast:
Dracula: Gary Oldman (Air Force One, Basquiat, The Fifth Element, Immortal Beloved, JFK, Leon, Lost in Space, Meantime, Murder in the First, Prick up your Ears, The Scarlet Letter, Sid and Nancy, State of Grace, True Romance)
Mina Murray/Elisabeta: Winona Ryder (The Age of Innocence, Alien Resurrection, Beetlejuice, Boys, The Crucible, Edward Scissorhands, Heathers, House of the Spirits, How to Make an American Quilt, Little Women, Looking for Richard,
Night on Earth, Reality Bites, Welcome Home Roxy Carmichael)
Professor Abraham Van Helsing/Chesare: Anthony Hopkins (Amistad, August, The Bounty, A Bridge Too Far, Desperate Hours, The Edge,
The Elephant Man, The Good Father, Great Expectations (1997), Howards End, Legends of the Fall, Magic, The Mask of Zorro, Meet Joe Black, Nixon,
The Remains of the Day, The Road to Wellville, Sense and Sensibility, Shadowlands, Silence of the Lambs, Surviving Picasso)
Jonathan Harker: Keanu Reeves (Bill And Ted's Bogus Journey, Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure, Chain Reaction, Devil's Advocate, Johnny Mnemonic, The Matrix, Speed)
Doctor Jack Seward: Richard E. Grant (The Age of Innocence, Hard Times, Henry and June, Hudson Hawk, Jack and Sarah, Keep The Aspidistra Flying, Portrait of a Lady, Spiceworld, Twelfth Night, Withnail and I, TV: The Scarlet Pimpernel)
Lord Arthur Holmwood: Cary Elwes (The Crush, Glory, Hot Shots, Jungle Book, Liar Liar, Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Twister)
Quincey P. Morris: Bill Campbell (Independence Day, Lost Highway, While You Were Sleeping, Zero Effect)
Lucy Westenra: Sadie Frost (Crimetime, Shopping)
R.M. Renfield: Tom Waits (At Play in the Fields of the Lord, The Outsiders, Short Cuts)
Bram Stoker's Dracula
is Francis Ford Coppola's take on the classic tale of horror following
the life of Count Dracula (Gary Oldman) from Eastern Europe to 19th
Century London. After going into battle and coming out the other end unscathed,
he returns to find his love Elisabeta has taken her life after hearing false
news that he did not make it. He continues his search because she has been
reincarnated as Mina and must win her back, despite her affection for another
suitor, Jonather Harker (Keanu Reeves) and Doctor Van Helsing (Anthony
Hopkins), who is less than pleased to see Dracula still walking the Earth.
Whatever you say about it, this certainly is a love story with a difference.
The picture quality is mostly very good but there's an element of artifacts
present in dark areas, which accounts for a great deal of the film. However,
most of these are not that noticeable from the usual viewing distance so won't
impede the picture for most people which is good news because the entire film
is packed with lush visuals. The film is presented close to its original
widescreen ratio of 1.85:1 by being shown in 1.77:1 (16:9) and is enhanced for
16:9 widescreen televisions - thus allowing for 33% higher resolution - and the
average bitrate is a good 6.73 Mb/s, occasionally peaking over 9Mb/s.
The sound is spot-on though. The entire film has an eerie score which sets the
scene well and turned up loud makes a good job of making your flesh crawl.
Despite being a master of disguise,
the red eyes and fangs would always be a bit of a giveaway.
Extras :
Chapters :
There are 24 chapters for 123 minutes of film which isn't too bad, but
it's annoying to note that the American release has 52 so why don't we?
The US theatrical trailer is included as is a promotional trailer for DVD.
Languages/Subtitles :
The disc contains 5 dialogue languages, but just one, English, in Dolby
Digital 5.1. French, German, Italian and Spanish all come in Dolby Digital 2.0
(Dolby surround) flavour. As for subtitles, this release mirrors the record
set by
Nowhere To Run
as there is TWENTY languages : English, French, German, Polish, Czech,
Hungarian, Hindi, Turkish, Arabic, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, Icelandic, Dutch,
Norwegian, Portuguese, Greek, Hebrew, Spanish and Italian.
Other extras :
Documentary: "Dracula: The Man, The Myth, The Legend": a 29-minute
documentary giving insights into the film including interviews with cast
members.
Costume Designs: Sketches and artwork for a number of the key costumes
in the film as worn by Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder and Tom Waits.
Filmographies: Available for Oldman, Hopkins, Reeves, Winona Ryder
and director Coppola.
Menu :
The menu is static and silent but has a classy look to it with a collage of
stills taken from the film. On playing the disc, The Columbia TriStar logo
is followed by the main menu.
Upon selecting the "Start Movie" option, you'll first see the "Sony Picture DVD
Center" logo, the Dolby Digital helecopter trailer, the copyright info and
then the film itself.
Overall, this is one of the few Region 2 DVDs that fare better than their
American counterpart. On the downside, it doesn't have the number of chapters
of the Region 1 release, but on the flipside it has a lot of extras not on the
US release, plus surround soundtracks for the other languages, whereas the R1
release only manages mono in Spanish and French, with no trace of a German or
Italian soundtrack. About the only extra missing that would be useful is a
director's commentary track.
As for the film, the whole is less than the sum of its parts. It's certainly
worth a watch by anyone (over 18), while looking and sounding a treat, but for
this reviewer, it certainly doesn't quite hang together.
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
