Dracula 2000 (2000 film)

Copyright: Miramax and Dimension Films

Wes Craven tried his hand at bringing us a newer, more modern Dracula film in this entry.  It starred a pretty good cast of people that went on to bigger things, as well as a couple of well-established actors, as well.  It went on to spawn a couple sequels, as well, Dracula II: Ascension and Dracula III: Legacy, each with a different actor portraying the part.  But for now, let's talk about Dracula 2000!

The film opens on a shot of the Demeter, the ship that brought Dracula to England, then a shot of him embarking into London from the beach.  From here, it jumps ahead to the modern day, where Matthew, the grandson of Abraham Van Helsing, is perusing a recently acquired crossbow his assistant, Simon, has purchased for Van Helsing's antique dealership, Carfax Antiquities.  Meanwhile, a group of thieves trick their way into the building and find their way into a highly secured vault, looking for what they believe to be an enormous treasure and finding... a silver casket.  Reasoning that it's a bit of a mind game, they decide to take the casket, only for it to spring several traps which kill two of the thieves.  Hearing Van Helsing's approach, the remaining thieves spirit the casket away, leaving Matthew to find their destination.

I don't want to go too much further into the plot, because it would give away a few things that should remain surprises for people who haven't seen this one.  The film was good, though, pretty solid acting all around from everyone involved.  The sets and locations were great, as well.

Christopher Plummer portrays Van Helsing, the antiquities dealer who has to deal with a pending vampire threat.  He has had a very long, very amazing career, including movies like The Sound of Music, plus genre films like Starcrash (with Caroline Munro and Joe Spinell from The Last Horror Film) and Vampire in Venice.  Jonny Lee Miller played Simon, Van Helsing's assistant and apprentice.  He's currently playing Sherlock Holmes on the US series Elementary.  He also played Roger Collins in Tim Burton's Dark Shadows adaptation.  Gerard Butler plays Dracula in this film.  He's done extremely well for himself in acting since (this was one of his two breakout roles, the other was the title role in Atilla).  He was also in Tale of the Mummy, Reign of Fire, Phantom of the Opera and 300.

This was a pretty fun film.  I give it a 4 out of 5.  It's not quite up with the classics, but it does stand on its own as a good possible continuation of the original.  Next up, we'll be finishing Dracula Week with one of the most recent films, Dracula Untold, then we'll be taking a look at a few video games Dracula's appeared in.  Until then, take care, and this is Red Hawk signing out!