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SOURCE-Bootleg DVD made from the Laserdisc
Man this is one I haven't even thought about in years. I saw it in a theater not long after it came out. Then for a few years in the mid 90s saw it at least in part once a week. Mostly cause a friend had a copy and watched it all the time.
Then other night was talking to a friend and this film,and the subject of how it doesn't follow the book it is based on,came up. So I dug around in the media vault to see if I had a copy. Yep got a DVD-r that is a rip of the Laserdisc.
There is so much about this film that is good. It looks amazing. The sets and costumes look damn good. The score is really good. But all that goodness can't offset the bad shit.
Like how no one in the cast can deliver the lines without looking like they hate being there. Sure everyone remembers how bad Keanu was in this,and yes he is horrible. But Gary Oldman and Winona Ryder get praised when they aren't much better than Keanu.
Then you got the major flaw. Francis Ford Coppala and the fan press,like Fangoria,kept saying how this would be the first Dracula film to follow the novel. I had read the novel back in JR High and was waiting for a good adapatation of it. It isn't a good adaptation. Really it feels like Coppala had read the novel 60 years ago and just used the few parts he remembered. But all over the place was critics and fans raving about how it was "JUST LIKE THE BOOK"!
I walked out of the theater after the film was over thinking "Wow that was a total piece of shit." And the many viewings of it since then haven't changed my mind. Really if this was called say Francis Ford Coppala's Dracula this would be a much better film. But calling it Bram Stoker's Dracula means to me I want to see a adaptation of the novel. Not Coppala changing most stuff from the novel.
Bram Stoker's Dracula gets a F+
