Dracula - Tot aber glücklich

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 was the second Mel Brooks film I ever watched, and I

positively reeled in laughter watching it. I do not understand how

this movie only achieves a 4.5 rating.

Among the many memorable moments there are several downright hysterical gags: when Dracula slips in the bat poop

trying to walk down the stairs, when Harker drives the stake and is

drenched in blood, when Dracula rises from his coffin and bashes

his head on the chandelier...the list goes on and on.

Also, Harvey Korman was extremely funny as the bumbling,

blubbering Dr Seward; as was Mel Brooks as Dr Van Helsing, and

Leslie Nielson as Dracula.

I give it 9/10.

I remember being an 11 year old boy in stitches with laughter when I first viewed this film on new release VCR (yeah, video - old school)!

Having just watched this film again recently I have to say that it's still just as funny as it was as a child. The film of course is a parody on the 'Dracula" mythos and the jokes and gags are much better understood if you've watched films such as "Bram Stoker's: Dracula" which I can't watch seriously anymore cos' I constantly think of this film in certain scenes and start laughing!

The cast is brilliant in their roles especially Leslie Neilsen as "Dracula" and his brain-washed slave "Renfield" (Peter MacNicol) portraying an insane, insect eating madman extraordinarily well!

The humour is all in the typical Mel Brooks 'tongue-in-cheek' style and also quite reminiscent of Monty Python in parts, the over-the-top British accents may attribute to that part.

The final film directed by Mel Brooks, "Dracula Dead and Loving It" is very entertaining and the mindless humour make for a very enjoyable spoof movie!

Highly recommended : )

"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 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.