Bram Stoker's Dracula (DVD) > Reviews

Advantages: Good visuals and effects, brooding eroticism
Disadvantages: Some corny acting

Oh! How brave i must have felt, when in 1992 I went to see a horror film at the cinema for the first time. It was at the multiplex at Port Solent on the outskirts of Portsmouth. I shot along the M27 in my Austin Maestro (god, i was a real man about town, wasn't I?) and went to see Francis Ford Coppola's film 'Bram Stoker's Dracula'. as you might imagine from the title, the film purports to be a true and authentic representation of such a seminal work ... Read review

Advantages: Faithful and Carefully Crafted
Disadvantages: Lacking cohesion and any real chills

Francis Ford Coppola's take on the Dracula tale never quite hits full speed, despite all the best intentions. Reasonably faithful to the original text, and with a careful eye on design and casting, it is hamstrung by a new element to the story, which will be familiar to fans of the Mummy genre, reincarnated love interests. Dispensing with retreads of the stage version of Dracula, which spiral way back to the 20's, James V Hart's screenplay looks ... Read review

Advantages: Faithful adaptation
Disadvantages: The ending

...claiming to be based on Bram Stoker’s book. Unlike previous versions of Dracula, largely based on the Hamilton Dean stage play, this is almost entirely Stoker, apart from one thing, which is the film’s only downfall. I’m sure most people know the story of Dracula, so I won’t bore you by repeating it, but instead will go one to describe why the film is such a joy to watch. As so often, it’s the little touches that do ... Read review

Advantages: Style, chilling, faithful to original novel.
Disadvantages: The bat costume.

What first strikes you about this movie is it incredible level of style. The whole film takes on an eerie, seductive feeling that can only be likened to that of Dracula himself. You know that this is sticking closely to the original premise set out in the novel even if like myself you've never read it. The most notable chilling moments are those when the count's shadow appears to be following Dracula. The effect is done with such subtlety that ... Read review

Advantages: brilliant storyline, acting
Disadvantages: nothing

This is the best vampire/Dracula film that I have watched. Gary Oldman plays an excellent Dracula and Winona Ryder is, as always, brilliant. I did also notice that the costumes were really good in this film, but that maybe a typical woman's point of view! Although it is quite a long film I can't think of any bits that are boring. The storyline is steady all the way through. Even Keanu Reeves, who usually really annoys me, is good. This ... Read review

Advantages: Brilliant performance by Gary Oldman
Disadvantages: Terrible performance by Keanu Reeves

Bram Stoker would have been amazed if he knew that the stories his mother told him while he was sick in bed, would grow into one of the biggest myths and moneyspinners of the 20th century. Coppola's film is a gothic, sumptuous and rather overblown version of the novel. As for 'faithful' - I don't remember a bit where Lucy runs through the garden wearing a red curtain only to be shagged senseless by a bison. Or the bit at the beginning where Vlad ... Read review

Advantages: The best vampire film ever made.
Disadvantages: Gets lost a bit in second half. Keannus dreadful acting.

I agree with Incoginito(check his review) when he say this is the best vampire film ever made. That is to say I think the first half is the best ever. I've been watching horror movies since I was around 7 (and I'm 32 now!) and this is the closest I have found to capturing the romantic/gothic/horror element that makes vampirism the most fascinating of the horror genres. Even Nosferatu doesn't quite capture the sprirt of Dracula like this gothic opera(even ... Read review

Advantages: Dark atmosphere and style, well- cast, hsitoric subtones
Disadvantages: None really

This is THE greatest vampire film of all time, after Nosferatu and Blade, for one good reason. All vampire fils fall into three types: slayfests, like Blade and the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer film, vampire sexfests (being em I ain't seen any of them) and very rare explorations of the vampire legend. BS Dracula is one of the latter films. BS Dracula gives a whole new light, or darkness. This film gives vampirism a new rich and deep style, a ... Read review

Advantages: Fantastic story, wonderful gothic images, a familiar myth come to life.
Disadvantages: It isn't good for those who do not like the sight of blood.

Dracula, most feared of all vampires, recreated for your viewing pleasure. He renounces his god on the death of his wife Elizabetha, and becomes the undead, searching eternity for his lost love. Dracula, (Gary Oldman) a seductive killer, finding his Elizabetha reincarnated as Mina, (Winona Rider), determined she will love him again. Dracula, the eccentric count who employs Mina's intended husband Jonathan (Keanu Reeves),to buy him property ... Read review

Advantages: Francis Ford Coppola
Disadvantages: none

This 1992 version of the Bram Stoker novel is different from the previous Dracula movies that were made in 1931, 1958 and 1979. The visual style is stunning and I just love they way they handled the characters. Without a doubt the best thing about this movie is Gary Oldman in his role as the blood sucking count from Transylvannia. His Dracula is like a mix of the scary looking Nosferatu from "Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens" and the gentleman ... Read review

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I saw this movie three times. I still want to see it. It's magnificant. You'll be caught in action. Dracula was put on movie in many many variants. I think this is the best. It's more interesting for me beacause I'm from Romania (even from Transilvania). This is a good fiction about Vlad Tepes, a transilvanian leader who LIVED. He put bad people in spikes. Was a terror. Noone dared to do something bad. The movie is about lord Dracula who leaves in ... Read review

Mistitled but gorgeous movie. Gary Oldman is excellent Dracula (now true-life 15th century prince Vlad Tepesh, who, quite frankly, was the filthy sadist and does not deserve the honour) who finds the reincarnation of his true love in 1897 London. He falls for gorgeously dressed and strikingly beautiful Mina Murray (ideally cast Winona Ryder) and vampirizes her equally stunning friend Lucy (ideally cast Sadie Frost), an English rose with a nymphomaniac heart. (Very Stokerian Lucy, eh?) Sets, costumes, colours and score are glorious and evocative backdrop to this story of rich ruby red "blood", passion and undying love, with the Victorian fascination to East shown in costumes and harem fantasies.