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| Wes Craven Presents: Dracula 2000 (REGION 1) (NTSC) | 
 enlarge | Director: Patrick Lussier
Actors: Gerard Butler, Justine Waddell, Jonny Lee Miller, Christopher Plummer, Colleen Fitzpatrick
Studio: Dimension
Category: DVD
Buy New: £3.93
Buy New/Used from £3.43
Avg. Customer Rating:  (27 reviews)
Sales Rank: 15790
Format: Closed-captioned, Colour, Dvd-video, Special Edition, Widescreen, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Media: DVD
Running Time: 99 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.4 x 4.7 x 0.6
MPN: DISD21678D
ISBN: 0788826964
UPC: 786936145038
EAN: 9780788826962
ASIN: B00003CXSD
Release Date: July 3, 2001
Theatrical Release Date: 2000
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk Review
Stylish, snappy and entirely without a coherent idea in its head, Dracula 2001 is "Presented by Wes Craven" but shows comparatively little sign of his controlling intelligence. This is very much "Dracula--the Rock Video" with some memorable dream sequences and a lot of product placement: the heroine may not be a virgin but she works at Virgin Records. Among its incidental pleasures are a high-tech bank raid which secures the thieves nothing but an ominous silver coffin, Christopher Plummer as an immortal Van Helsing surviving by injections of leeches that feed on the imprisoned Dracula, Johnny Lee Miller as an unusually obtuse servant of good and Star Trek: Voyager's Jeri Ryan as a television news reporter turned Bride of Evil. The early scenes make interesting use of London's Eurostar terminal as a sinister backdrop. The climax moves to New Orleans during Mardi Gras giving the film a frenetic edginess and a lot of partially clad people to look at; it also proves to tie into a moderately inventive reconsideration of Dracula's origins.--Roz Kaveney
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| Customer Reviews: Read 22 more reviews...
 THRILLING GERARD BUTLER FILM September 23, 2008
I have seen countless number of vampire movies from my Dad's collection.He
is a great 'Chris Lee' fan. I too love Mr.Lee's films, but, once I saw Gerard Butler, I was bowled over. This is a vampire film with a very nice twist. Chris.Plummer acts as the aged Van Helsing, who has kept the lethal
count's body in his high-security vault. The fun begins from that point. I
will not spoil the movie for new viewers by narrating the whole story in advance. All ye modern-day vampire lovers, take it from me: This is the Best. Better than the 'Blade' flicks and even better than 'John Carpenter's vampires'.
 A MODERN TWIST ON THE DRACULA LEGEND May 2, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Wes Craven's Dracula 2001 isn't anywhere as bad as it could have been.
Breaking into a museum vault, theives Trick (Sean Patrick Thomas), Marcus (Omar Epps), Nightshade (Danny Masterson), Eddie (Lochlyn Munroe) and Dax (Tig Fong) are surprised to find a coffin instead of jewels. Finding it robbed, Van Helsing (Christopher Plummer) tells his assistant Simon Sheppard (Jonny Lee Miller) that he will track down the theives, the sets out to New Orleans to track down his stolen coffin, carrying the body of Dracula (Gerald Butler). Dracula finds his target in Van Helsing's daughter Mary Heller (Justine Waddell) and her friend Lucy Westernman (Colleen Fitzpatrick). Dracula then reveals his intentions to Mary. Simon follows a trail of corpses to Dracula and battles to stop him.
THE GOOD POINTS: This wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. What is best about the film is how they decided to break the chains binding the tradition of previous vampire films. Rather then bore us with another retelling of how he was once Prince Vlad, it decides to bring with it its own origin and ties it into the biblical account of Jesus Christ's crucifixion. This change really works and adds depth to Dracula without challenging the Dracula legend. Deciding to tie Dracula to Judas Iscariot also makes a lot more sense. It helps explain his hatred of crucifixes and holy water and it helps explain the vampire's dislike of silver. The new storyline and origin really does come as a breath of fresh air and originality (a hard thing to accomplish when dealing with the most over used vampire story of all time). The films pace is another plus always moving from one scene to another without much filler in between. The action scenes are pretty good and drive the film forward. There's also a very good ending that features loads of action and really drawn out fighting between the two sides. There is plenty of neck biting, lots of silver spikes being shot into bodies and decapitations. This isn't a blood bath but its enough to satisfy. There is also some cool scenes, such as an attack on a news reporter and you can't see Dracula through the camera but when the camera man moves the camera he can see Dracula biting into her. The brides here are about as sexy as they have ever been.
THE BAD POINTS: The biggest thing wrong with Dracula 2001 is that Dracula himself doesn't inspire any fear or threat at all. The nobleman attitude is completely missing. He completely issues none of the past trademarks or style that has made him a great figure and he isn't the least bit threatening when he is on screen. The other problem is the wire based martial arts. Some of the sequences are incredibly bad and so unconvincing its laughable. The fact that just about everyone can do it towards the end is another problem, as it is coming out of nowhere and is a detriment to the film. Not everyone will accept the changes made to the legend but I thought it was o.k.
There are some problems with the film but there is a lot of things that do work for the film. Its by no means a perfect vampire film but if your interested in the genre give it a watch.
Thank you for reading my review.
 Some interesting ideas but poorly executed February 7, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This film is something of an attempt to bring the Dracula mythos onto the modern world and to some extent this is successful. In the film Dracula is imprisoned by Van Helsing and kept locked in a silver coffin for centuries until thieves steal his prison and release him into the world where he starts to hunt down Van Helsings' daughter.
Although Dracula 2001 does have some brilliant one-liners and a few good performances from the leading cast, it is the supporting cast members who let it down with a tendency to ham their way through their scenes. The film also tries to add a few twists into the origin of Dracula and I feel these are some nice touches but vampire purists may find them annoying. In the end this film was a decent enough attempt at a modern Dracula movie but just doesn't seem to pull it of terribly well.
Dracula is back with one hell of twist. February 1, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
One of the best horror icons get's the Wes Craven treatment. While this may not be Craven's best work, it's still a fantastic movie to watch. It's hard to find something in this movie that isn't brilliant, the acting is amazing, the way the story unfolds is definitly something to be admired. If you like Dracula this is a great movie with an even better twist.
I don't care if he IS the Lord of the Undead...bite me and bite me NOW! October 14, 2006
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
What a great twist to the age old story of the blood sucking vamp! It amazes me that no-one has thought up the twist before, (including me), as it's quite believable...well it would be if there WERE such things as vampires! But oh how I long for there to be a Dracula so sexy and charasmatic as this one played to perfection by my beloved Gerry!
You may think that I'm just bigging up this film because I adore/worship/lust after Gerard Butler, (check out my name!), but you would be wrong. I admit that's what made me buy it in the first, place but how great to find an actually bloody good film to boot!
******POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT!!!******
The idea of Dracula actually being Judas Ischariot, (hence the hate of all things Christian, the cross, the bible and silver which represents his payment for betraying Jesus,) is mind bogglingly brilliant. It's perfectly suited to this dark, gothic character. The speech he gives on the rooftop at the end while looking up at a neon crucifix, complete with Jesus, is so well played and heartfelt that it's hard to despise this monster. Especially in recent months, (post DaVinci Code madness), when there has apparently been uncovered some bible pages that give clues to say that Judas was asked by Jesus Himself to betray Him. But I suppose we have to make up our own minds about that just as we do with DaVinci Code.
Aside from the story, there are some other great performances, Christopher Plummer and Justine Waddell in particular stand out for me. He is completely believable as the 100 year old Van Helsing who has kept himself alive by injecting himself with regular, small amounts of Dracula's blood, (extracted with the use of leeches), simply to protect the world from said beastie until he can find a way to kill him. Waddell plays a very convincing, haunted and terrified character. She is unaware that she's Van Helsing's daughter, conceived after he began his little blood transfusions, and therefore has a kind of dormant mental link to Drac himself. (She just thinks she's going barmy, having weird dreams of a truly hunky man!)
Some of the other performances were just a little too cheesy for my liking. I like a bit of cheddar now and then just as much as the next person, but some lines have a highly overpowering odour of Gorgonzola! I am pretty convinced that this is simply down to good ol' Wes Craven. He does like his one liners doesn't he? Omar Epps character has some really dire lines that have me cringing every time..."An eye for an eye mate"...is one that really annoys me...if you've seen it, you'll know what I mean! And something else that gets my goat up too is not just in this film but in most vamp flicks, and that's WHY do they have to have them hiss??? They aren't humans inbred with li'l pussy tats...THEY ARE THE BLOOD SUCKING UNDEAD!!! (O.K. rant over!)
Only two things have me creased up with laughter in this film that I shouldn't find funny...1) The size of Johnny Lee Miller's neck in proportion to his head!... and 2)The varying shapes and sizes of the all famous canines! O.K. everyone as different shaped teeth but come on! Jennifer Esposito's look like they ran out of proper falsies and gave her some made out of card...by a 4 year old!!!
After all my griping though, I still have to give this a full 5 stars. The good/great FAR outweigh the Stilton. Fave scene has gotta be when Draccie is watching the music vid on the side of the Virgin Megastore..."Brilliant!" Oh who am I kidding? I LOVE EVERY SCENE HE'S IN!!! :o)
If you're a fan of Wes Craven, you'll love this. If you like a good story you'll probably get something out of this too, as long as you keep an open mind to accept the cheese with a bottle of a good red next to you!
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