Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Dracula Dead and Loving It- Couldn't help it. Bringing it up with Nosferatu, made me want to make sure my claim was correct, and I'm glad to say it was true. You have to like Mel Brooks films, or at least the 'Spaceballs' kind of spoof humor, not 'Blazing Saddles' or 'The Producers' territory. It's a semi-recent film in his career, but it's way better than 'Robin Hood: Men in Tights', which I just couldn't get into. Just too silly. Brooks takes it a little more seriously than he normally does, using a fair amount of homage to 'Nosferatu' and Coppola's 'Dracula' while also using his own signature brand of humor. Leslie Nielsen does a good Count Dracula, but it's really Peter MacNicol's Thomas Renfield, the faithful servant/slave to Dracula that steals the show. Every bit with him is great, from the upside-down hanging in a prison cell to speak with Dracula, to the moving coffin on the boat scene. But the best scene by far is when the main character, Jonathan Harker, chooses to stake a vampire with Dr. Abraham Van Helsing "by his side". There is something hilarious about this movie, even if it equally misses as much as it hits. Those shadow jokes are just too good. I guess it's a guilty pleasure in my film list.



- Jeff Bassin