Il bacio di Dracula

I actually bought Dracula's Curse(the U.S. title) on DVD a few months ago, but I never found it on IMDb. That is until I saw that this was actually just the film version of an Italian TV series. So I watched this the first night and I couldn't help but laugh more than a few times, like one of the opening lines "Mina, did you ever think we'd be in a magnificent ballroom in Budapest, Hungry?", it was so cheesy, especially the way the actor said it, along with how the voices are so preppy and outgoing. But you know what's strange? I actually continued to watch this film a couple times, it's so hypnotizing. While it remains faithful to the novel, with the exception that it's updated, it's just too mystery solving. But at the same time I enjoy it's cheesiness, I think we all need that movie in our lives where it's so ridicules that you can't help but enjoy it.

A group of friends in Budapest are about to celebrate their friend's, Jonathan and Mina, engagement. But Jonathan is helping out a client, Vlad Tepech to move out to Budapest. Guess what?! Vlad's a vampire! And he's after Jonathan's friends by tempting them with things that they dream of in the world to build an unstoppable army of vampires. But when he goes after Jonathan's fiancée, he's gone too far and now the gang is on a mission to destroy him once and for all.

The actors are a bit funny. We have the women, who actually are kind of fun in this film, the woman who played Lucy was funny, I loved her delivery of the line "How delicious!" to Mina about her engagement. Then we have the boys, oh, the boys didn't do so hot. Speaking of hot, Dracula wasn't sexy! I know it's a silly complaint, but isn't he supposed to be dashing or something? But then again, Gary Oldman wasn't that much of a sexy Dracula either, but that's besides the point. But for some reason this movie has me addicted, I still don't mind watching it. It's like chocolate cake, you know it's bad, but yet you can't help but enjoy it.

4/10

In the present days, in a ballroom of a hospital charity party in Budapest, the successful American lawyer Jonathan Harker (Hardy Krüger Jr.) surprisingly proposes his girlfriend Mina (Stefania Rocca) to get married with him on the next week. Their common friends Lucy (Muriel Baumaster), Quincy (Alessio Boni) and Arthur (Conrad Hornby) have been invited by Jonathan and have just arrived for their wedding without the awareness of Mina. Meanwhile, they are introduced to the promoter of the party, the psychiatrist Dr. Seward (Kai Wiesinger), and they stay together along the night. Later in the same night, Jonathan is called by a rich client, Tepes (Patrick Bergin), who hires him to prepare the inventory of the wealth of his uncle, the count Vladislav Tepes (Patrick Bergin), in Romania. Jonathan travels to the Carpathian Mountains in his Porsche, has an accident and finally arrives in the count's old castle. From this moment on, his life and the lives of his friends are jeopardize by a terrible menace. "Dracula" is an excellent contemporary version of Bram Stoker's famous novel. I expected a bad movie, based on the low IMDb User Rating, but this movie is surprisingly good. I have watched it on VHS in a version of 104 minutes, and I found many favorable points. The locations are amazingly beautiful; the camera and the photography are excellent, inclusive the introduction in a ballroom is fantastic; the story is a great adaptation of the Bram Stoker's novel to the present days; last but not the least, the unknown (at least for me) actress Muriel Baumaster is certainly one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen on the screen. The important role of Jonathan deserved a better actor, but anyway, fans of vampire movies like me will not be disappointed with this version. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "O Beijo do Drácula" ("The Kiss of the Dracula")

This is a great film. A romanian vampire moves to England to search for new victims. If you do not get scared of this movie then no movie will scary you. This is a great horror remake. This movie has a great story line. It also has great acting. It also has great special effects. This is best one of the of the best horror books ever. This is one of the best horror movies ever. Patrick Bergin is a great actor. Giancarlo Giannini who was also in Casino Royale is also a great actor. This movie is very intense. This movie scarier then The Exorcist. And that is not easy to do. It is almost has scary as Dracula (1931) It is very scary. One of the best vampire movies ever. This movie is a must see. Hardy Kurger Jr is a great actor.

There have been so many versions and updates of this classic horror story that it is impossible not to ponder things like, how does Patrick Bergin's version of the Count compare with that of Christopher Lee, Bela Lugosi or, bless us all, Zandor Vorkov? He's very good, actually, aided by some impressive ageing/anti-ageing make-up and plenty of directorial build-ups.

This two-part television movie takes full advantage of its beautiful Budapest locations by presenting a world that is timeless, in the sense that we have flash cars and mobile phones, but also horse-drawn carriages and candelabras. Rather than the production existing in any kind of vacuum, it instead inhabits an exotic ageless environment which aids the story nicely. There are many moments taken from the book, but fitted into an updated timeline. The various CGI effects are mainly very decent, with a few over-ambitious misfires.

Not everything is great. This is a faithful but bloodless adaption and, while spectacular, it is not remotely frightening - although Director (and co-writer) Roger Young's ambition to create an epic, cinematic version of the famous story is laudable. I felt that the climax was very abrupt (nice twist at the end though).

The acting is terrific throughout, with Giancarlo Giannini is a rather under-used Van Helsing-like Dr. Enrico Valenzi and Muriel Baumeister as Lucy of particular note. My score is 7 out of 10.

Van Helsing was a better movie than this. Badly written and terribly acted, this dreck doesn't deserve an IMDB page. The characters are all one dimensional - more so than in the original novel. Patrick Bergin is by far the worse Dracula ever seen. Even worse than Thomas Kretschmann in Dracula 3D. There are plot holes you could drive the Queen Mary through. Avoid at all costs. You'd have a better time watching Zoltan: The Hound Of Dracula than this.