VAN HELSING (2004)

Cast

Plot

Stephen Sommers gives us something for our eyes to feast on, if lacking some of the charm of his earlier efforts ('The Mummy' franchise, all of which he wrote and directed). The Dracula story has had quite a few outings in the cinema, and this is definitely one of the weaker ones. The eponymous hero is of course the infamous Monster killer, played in earlier (more innocent) days by Peter Cushing who was armed only with a wooden tent peg with which to destroy Christopher Lee. This time around, the stakes (sic) are upped a little in that he has been despatched to Transylvania to take out not only Dracula, but the Wolfman and (shurely shum mishtake!) Frankenstein's monster as well! Talk about over-egging the pudding... Kate Beckinsale eases the pain a little but it's a relentlessly confusing effort. The arsenal of weaponry at Helsing's disposal is bewildering (where's the room for ingenuity?) and it has a serious sense of humour failure half way through. Balls.