Gary Oldman is super in this hammy reimagining of the tale of the legendary Count Dracula. Having lured his lawyer - the unsuspecting, and frankly rather insipid, "Harker" (Keanu Reeves) to his Transylvanian Castle he employs cunning and guile to use him to acquire "Carfax Abbey" in England. He also has designs on the young man's glamorous fiancée "Mina" (Winona Ryder) and is soon set to acquire much more than just the eerie stately pile. Luckily, "Prof. Van Helsing" (Anthony Hopkins) is on hand to help our rather hapless hero and perhaps they can thwart the evil intentions of their vampiric visitor? Francis Ford Coppola presents us here with a highly stylised interpretation of the legend. At times it does border on the Hammer style of production with the gore and peril really unconvincing for most of the film. The heavily made up Reeves is easy enough on the eye, but his accent is tougher on the ears and his performance is more about box office than generating any sense of menace as his red-clothed nemesis marauds around in a wig Marie Antoinette would have found fitting. It does send itself up, and that works - there is plenty that is theatrical about it, and that is what helps make this iteration distinctive. Oldman looks even inch the megalomaniac as he effortlessly glides, purrs and munches his way from Romania to Victorian England. Ryder delivers well - her part has very little substance to it, yet she does rise above the all too obvious damsel in distress persona. There are also valuable supporting efforts from Richard E. Grant and the eagle eyed might spot sword and sandals veteran Jay Robinson as "Hawkins". Wojciech Kilar's score helps create quite an atmosphere too, especially as we enter the last half hour of against the clock drama. I didn't much care for the way the ending is portrayed but after two hours of quickly paced and colourful entertainment, that maybe didn't matter so much. This really does need big screen visuals to have any real impact, and if you can find a cinema screening then this is very much at the better end of the Dracula genre of output - even if it does play rather fast and loose with the book!
