Most probably my least favourite film, both of Mel Brooks (though I haven't seen 'Life Stinks' yet) and of Leslie Nielsen (though I refuse to watch any other of the post-'Airplane' and 'Naked Gun' knockoffs he's made over the years since), but it still doesn't deserve all the hate. It's STILL at least 50,000 times funnier than Lena Dunham's 'Tiny Furniture' (or about 70% of the so-called contemporary American comedies made these days).
2016-09-28Nielsen has done better, but this movie is good enough to be enjoyable and mildly funny.
This comedy, starring Leslie Nielsen and intelligently directed by Mel Brooks, is truly good. It is a parody of old horror movies, in which Dracula is an aristocratic undead who lives off the blood of unsuspecting humans. The film is more directly inspired by the old productions of Hammer Studios and Francis Ford Coppola's Dracula, which was still recent when the film was released. The script is, therefore, similar in every way to the last film I mentioned.
Nielsen is perfectly capable of putting up with the film effortlessly, with a generous dose of good humor, charisma and spirit. The actor is a veteran of cinema comedies and satire, we've seen him before in very funny films, and the actor does well here again. However, I can agree with those who say that the actor has done better works. In addition to directing, Brooks gives life to Van Helsing and is also resourceful and witty, with a relatively flawless work, but also without major merits. Much better than Brooks was Peter MacNicol's excellent performance in the role of Renfield. The actor is good, and he seems genuinely deranged. Amy Yasbeck and Lysette Anthony do what they can, but they're not particularly happy, because their characters don't really matter here.
Being a film that takes place in the Victorian England, it is possible that Brooks gave the cast instructions to try to Britishize their accents. However, such an effort rarely resulted in any happy results, not to mention the jokes, who didn't always work well, with several scenes sounding overly serious or dull. The sets, as well as the costumes, are good enough, and I didn't find any major problems with the question of the historical period. The regular cinematography, the satisfying but not brilliant editing and the relatively lukewarm soundtrack complete the production values of the film, which is far from being really good, but it turned out to be interesting, funny and good enough for us to bear watching it again.
2022-08-14Amusing parody of Dracula with Leslie Nielsen, Mel Brooks and Harvey Korman
“Dracula: Dead and Loving It” (1995) is a Mel Brooks spoof of the Dracula story with the same fun style and goofy humor of “Young Frankenstein” (1974) and “Spaceballs” (1987). Unlike "Love at First Bite" (1979) with George Hamilton, the story doesn’t take place in the modern day, but is basically a silly redo of the first half of “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” (1992) along with bits from other Dracula flicks.
With Nielsen as the protagonist, you can’t help but think of The Naked Gun movies. Meanwhile Steven Weber is effective as Harker and Peter MacNicol hams it up as Renfield.
The presence of the stunning Amy Yasbeck brings to mind Brooks’ previous film, “Robin Hood: Men in Tights” (1993. Along with Amy, Lysette Anthony is a highlight in the feminine department as Lucy. Too bad her part wasn’t bigger (but it’s big enough, I reckon).
The film runs 1 hour, 30 minutes, and was shot in at Culver Studios in Culver City, southeast of Hollywood.
GRADE: B-
2023-03-21
