The Frank Langella version of "Dracula" is dull and dreary. All the colour has been sucked out of it so that it looks like a black and white film. The original "Dracula", the one everyone knows even if they haven't seen, actually was in black and white, and yet it felt more colourful than this.
This Dracula, played by Langella, looks like an ageing member of a New Wave band. The subtitle of the movie is fitting: it is more of a love story than a horror flick, though there's a couple of violent scenes, and one genuinely scary apparition.
Remember how the Coppola version had Gary Oldman's Dracula fall in love with Winona Ryder's Mina Harker? There, you could actually understand the attraction. Here, not so much. The Dracula looks too old, and the Mina Harker is pretty forgettable.
The movie is apparently based on a play, which was based on the book. It's not a direct adaptation of the novel. There are some weird changes, like the whole episode of Jonathan Harker in Castle Dracula being left out, and the characters knowing Dracula personally, him apparently being a guest of theirs.
He seems less a figure of absolute evil than an annoying dinner guest. This version of the Dracula story is overlooked in favour of Bela Lugosi's, Christopher Lee's and Gary Oldman's. Now I know why.
This Dracula, played by Langella, looks like an ageing member of a New Wave band. The subtitle of the movie is fitting: it is more of a love story than a horror flick, though there's a couple of violent scenes, and one genuinely scary apparition.
Remember how the Coppola version had Gary Oldman's Dracula fall in love with Winona Ryder's Mina Harker? There, you could actually understand the attraction. Here, not so much. The Dracula looks too old, and the Mina Harker is pretty forgettable.
The movie is apparently based on a play, which was based on the book. It's not a direct adaptation of the novel. There are some weird changes, like the whole episode of Jonathan Harker in Castle Dracula being left out, and the characters knowing Dracula personally, him apparently being a guest of theirs.
He seems less a figure of absolute evil than an annoying dinner guest. This version of the Dracula story is overlooked in favour of Bela Lugosi's, Christopher Lee's and Gary Oldman's. Now I know why.