Dracula - Tot aber glücklich

Mel Brooks, a 85-year old American director and producer genius. He has made many a good movie. He is the king of spoofs. I could write many pages just about how great he is, but I'm not going to, for your sake.

This movie was a delight to watch in the time of all hallows eve. Leslie Nielsen always makes me laugh, whether he has a naked gun, is on an airplane, is the president of the United States of America or something else. He is a treasure. He is just plain awesome. He is gold! Peter MacNicol, Steven Weber and Amy Yasbeck are pretty good too. They sure do a more than decent jobs in this movie.

To finish this I will just say this was a movie well worth watching, I recommend it, it is a good movie to watch especially on Halloween.

I give it 7.5 stars out of a possible perfect 10.

Arrividerci! Bon Soir! Buenos Noches! Good Night and sleep tight ;-)

• Shevy

"Dracula: Dead and Loving It" is a movie that seems to define what someone either really likes or dislikes about a comedy, and more specifically a parody: gags. For me, the gags herein worked, there were reasons for their having been used and therefore makes it funny to me. The storyline didn't stall, the gags weren't desperate for laughs, and the acting was exactly what was needed: the comedic touch.

The casting choice to have Steven Weber and Amy Yasbeck, both veterans of the TV series "Wings", was brilliant because the chemistry between their personalities was proven and honed before the movie. The choice of Leslie Nielsen for the titular role was dead-on. Someone that has the wisdom of centuries (decades, whatever), is cunning (a la the Naked Gun series), and above all, never gives up (until turned to dust). Mel Brooks, having proved his comedic prowess with films like "Young Frankenstein", comes through in the role of Van Helsing. Even the incidental characters seem to have a reason to belong and flow in the movie, like Essie, the guardian of Mina, or Martin, Dr. Seward's right-hand man of the sanitarium...

Martin: "...the patient in the west wing? He's havin' a conniption fit."

Dr. Seward: "Oh. Give him an enima."

As stated, the movie will most likely be quite funny or very dull, depending on what the viewer expects from it beforehand. Being that I like a good slapstick comedy (and I do), the performances above all are what were able to pull me in.

FOOSH-TAA!

"Dracula: Dead and Loving It" gets 9 of 10 stars

This Dracula spoof has many original laughs along the way. After all the recent Vampire movies it's even more funny.

Typical Mel Brooks humor is laugh out loud and crude. The cast is good including Amy Yasbeck as Mina and Leslie Nielsen as Dracula. Mel himself plays Van Helsing. Peter Macnicol is good too as Dracula's helper. Love the mock English accents and the way they pronounce "Lucy".

It's not as original as Young Frankenstein or as ribald as History of the World but it's got enough laughs. Surprised to find out it had bad reviews and wasn't a hit. Definitely worth a watch. I am a Mel Brooks fan and this one is about in the middle of the range.

Mel Brooks's scattergun approach to comedy has a number of misses. Spaceballs was OK at parodying its genre. This film is far more sophisticated and well played.

The successful jokes are on the culture of Victorain times with references to an engaged couple who after 10 years have suddenly held hands being condemned as immoral, prostitutes, lechers and the like.

Into these cultural and successful observations Brook's introduces Leslie Nielson doing a great impression of Bela Lugosi's Dracula with the difference that his powers are incompetent.

Seeing the Lugosi movie will give you the basis to appreciate the sophistication of this film.

This comedy followed the Bram Stoker book very closely. It merely turned the whole tale into a hilarious romp, making fun of Dracula and his inept sidekick, Renfield, as well as the other characters. A lot of slapstick gags in this film, some I saw coming from a mile off, but I still got a kick out of them. I especially liked the scene where Van Helsing and Harker staked the vampire in the tomb - what a riot. Neilson was great as the troubled bloodsucker.