Dracula 2000 ** (2000, Gerard Butler, Jonny Lee Miller, Justine Waddell, Christopher Plummer) – Classic Movie Review 1731

Christopher Plummer brings a touch of class to this modern-day vampire flick as Abraham Van Helsing, who keeps Dracula (Gerard Butler) in a coffin that’s stolen by gang of thieves, who break into a chamber expecting to find valuable paintings.

The crooks inadvertently wake and release the evil Count, who promptly makes a beeline for Van Helsing’s lovely daughter Mary (Justine Waddell). Van Helsing and his apprentice Simon Sheppard then travel from London to New Orleans to try to rescue Mary from Dracula.

Alas, director Patrick Lussier’s flashy, tolerable but musty and slapdash 2001 revamp of the old horror yarn is all as old and creaky as Drac’s coffin lid. Butler makes a handsome, reasonably commanding Dracula, but Jonny Lee Miller bites off more than he can chew as Simon Sheppard, an inept Cockney vampire hunter hero out for the count.

Director Lussier provides the original story with Joel Soisson, who gets the sole credit for the screenplay. Also in the cast are Danny Masterson, Jeri Ryan, Colleen Fitzpatrick, Jennifer Esposito, Lochlyn Munro, Sean Patrick Thomas, Omar Epps, Tig Fong, Shane West, Tony Munch and Nathan Fillion.

It was originally called Dracula 2000, or Wes Craven Presents Dracula 2000, but it took so long to get to Britain it was retitled Dracula 2001. The name of Van Helsing’s antique business, Carfax Abbey, is of course the house Dracula moves into in Bram Stoker’s book Dracula.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1731

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