Gender: Male Location: Chaos.
There can only be CHAOS!
Will VH suck like LxG? Or will it be good? Cuz it originally looked like an LxO clone to me, but hey, if it looks good, I hope it's good. Just promoted WAY too much here too.
The director didn't like Abraham so he changed it to Gabriel:
"Right off the top, I knew I didn't like the name Abraham, I just don't like it. I couldn't name my lead guy Abraham. There's a reason why he's called Gabriel as well. We've got a different story to tell here..."
Thrill seekers looking for the maximum number of effects shots for their box office dollar (or pound, euro or yen) will get their money's worth from writer-director Stephen Sommers’ $150m summer action-adventure Van Helsing. Which is just as well, because there's not much else to be got from this bland, rarely scary and occasionally giggle-inducing Universal release that attempts to launch a new franchise by matching three horror icons from the studio's library with a pair of mildly sexy monster hunters.
An extensive, synergistic advertising campaign - for the movie itself as well as for simultaneous tie-ins including DVDs, a video game, an animated prelude and a theme park ride - should still ensure a giant take from the PG-13 film's day-and-date openings this weekend in the US and 50 international territories. And the international cast and settings could give the film fairly strong international legs.
But Van Helsing's final performance - and its status as a franchise foundation - will depend heavily on the box office strength or weakness of upcoming summer competition such as Troy, Shrek 2 and The Day After Tomorrow. Big showings from one or more of those competitors could quickly bury this toothless retro horror effort.
To his credit, Sommers - who, of course, revived another Universal icon with his blockbusters The Mummy and The Mummy Returns - tries to provide some dramatic justification for the appearance of three classic monsters in one film. It turns out that Dracula (Roxburgh) and his brides need Frankenstein's monster (Hensley) - which we meet in a black and white pre-credit nod to vintage Universal horror - to give life to the next generation of vampires. And the Wolf Man (Kemp), it transpires, acts as a daytime guardian to the family of vampires.
The film's title character is a younger, better-equipped version of Dracula's original nemesis, with a past that's only revealed in the story's final half hour. This Van Helsing (Jackman) roams the world knocking off monsters for a secret religious sect. Having dispatched a bulked up Mr Hyde (who comes across as Shrek's evil twin) in Paris, our hero is teamed - in a moderately amusing James Bond spoof sequence - with nerdy friar Carl (Wenham) and sent to Transylvania to deal with Dracula. There, Van Helsing meets action chick Anna Valerious (Beckinsale), whose family has been battling the Count for generations.
Van Helsing and Anna's meeting leads swiftly into one of the film's more exciting sequences: an aerial attack on a snowy village by Dracula's three brides, who can morph from scary winged demons into sultry sirens in the wink of a bloodshot eye.
After that promising start, however, the film turns into a parade of CGI-heavy effects sequences. A few are quite effective but with virtually every scene pumped up for maximum visceral impact and almost no change of pace or rhythm, the action soon begins to go by in a blur. The only relief comes in the form of snippets of supposedly witty dialogue that might have come from a bad US sitcom.
The monsters themselves are a letdown. There's nothing very new or intriguing in the film's rock star version of Dracula and Frankenstein's monster has only a couple of fresh touches added to the familiar flat head and neck bolts. The Wolf Man is all digital effects and trousers.
The actors, several of them delivering lines with caricature East European accents, get only brief opportunities to make any impact. Jackman brings a little moodiness to an otherwise mood-less movie, but the part gives him nothing to compare to the relative complexities of his role in X2: X-Men United. Beckinsale (who earned her horror stripes in last autumn's mid-level hit Underworld) goes through the entire film squeezed into a corset and tight leather trousers and accentuates her corny dialogue with a variety of histrionic expressions.
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"That was my early career. I did a couple of porn movies. We all start somewhere."
Nose is important
Bond should NEVER NEVER be played by an actor with HUGE, LONG, POINTY NOSE, and WOLFISH facial feature, it is very very UnBondish
hmmm dont know how this movie will turn out. When i first saw the poster for this movie i THOUGHT that they had made a movie from the ANIME CARTOON called Hellsing.
NOW that series is wayyyyyyyyy wicked, one of the best vampire series i've ever seen. NOw if they could make that into a movie it will kick butt.
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She is back with you now, so take care of her
Gender: Male Location: Welfare Kingdom of California
There has been a ton of promotion going on here. I will go see it tomorrow. I'm being neutral as far as reviews and stuff. But if it sucks....trust me! I will unload my comments very heavy.
Besides, nothing could posibly more worse than LXG. But then again...who knows?.
yea this doesnt belong here and i saw it a few days ago its ok nothing special if you liked the league i suppose you would like crap so this would be great
KMC Community Forums
May 4th, 2004 05:00 PM
The director didn't like Abraham so he changed it to Gabriel:
Sig made by Sun Ce
