Dracula mort et heureux de l'être

"Dracula: Dead and Loving It" is another parody of Mel Brooks, this time based on the Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula" and its characters. The spoof has funny moments, especially for Mel Brooks' fans. Leslie Nielsen is good as usual in this type of movie that he became the greatest name but Peter MacNicol steals the show in the role of Renfield. The sequences of Harker impaling a stake in Lucy following the instructions of Professor Van Helsing and the ball with Dracula fleeing and Reinfield trying to save his master are the best moments of this film. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Drácula - Morto Mas Feliz ("Dracula - Dead but Happy")

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.

While this skewering of the Dracula mythology and the various cinematic interpretations of the story never achieves the kind of crazy heights of "Blazing Saddles" or "Young Frankenstein", it still shows that Brooks still had it in him to come up with some great, gut busting scenes. Being a genuine horror fan as well as a comedy legend, he and his team of collaborators do go to great lengths to give this film the proper look, and it's a colourful, stylish looking movie, going with the idea that the composer wasn't in on the joke and featuring a score by Hummie Mann that's full of foreboding. Leslie Nielsen is the pratfalling prince of darkness who is set up quite well early on when he comments on the "Children of the Night" and "the mess they make" - and then promptly slips in such a mess. He's a delight as always, with wonderful support by a bunch of actors who mug for all they're worth, especially Peter MacNicol as the loony, bug munching Renfield and veteran Brooks colleague Harvey Korman, who in his performance as Dr. Seward, does an amusing impression of the actor Nigel Bruce. Brooks himself, in fine hammy form, plays the part of the intrepid Van Helsing. Lysette Anthony and Amy Yasbeck are both quite ravishing as Lucy and Mina respectively, with Steven Weber as a prudish and uptight Jonathan Harker, and Mark Blankfield, Megan Cavanagh, and Clive Revill doing well in smaller roles. Cameos include Avery Schreiber, Chuck McCann, co-screenwriter Rudy De Luca, Charlie Callas, and the wonderful Anne Bancroft paying tribute to Maria Ouspenskaya in her brief bit. Standout scenes include the staking of Lucy (Van Helsing stays well out of the way for good reason), the breakfast sequence with MacNicol and Korman, which is particularly priceless, and the scene where Dracula is trying to manipulate both Mina and Essie and not having much success. A snappily paced movie leading to a fairly big finish, "Dracula: Dead and Loving It" is good entertainment as Brooks comedies go, and even gives its principal cast members the kind of "curtain call" at the end that we don't see in movies that often. Seven out of 10.

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 ;-)

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