Possible sequel the only scary thing about Van Helsing

Thursday, May 13, 2004

Memorial Day may still be several weeks away, but the summer blockbuster season is under way with the new film Van Helsing. If this is any indication of what the summer will bring, then it might be a long three months for moviegoers. Like last summers League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, the film tries (unsuccessfully) to meld popular literary figures into a rousing action-adventure. Van Helsing starts promisingly enough, with a really nice prologue that shows Count Dracula (Richard Roxburgh) stealing the monster from Dr. Frankenstein, only to have the monster escape. The film cuts to the title character and it starts to go downhill from there. In Van Helsings first scene, he is attempting to capture Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which is entertaining enough. But then we are taken to the basement of the Vatican, which is transformed into something out of a James Bond movie, and the film shifts from interesting to campy. The rest of the story concerns Van Helsing trying to save a Transylvanian heiress named Anna (Kate Beckinsale) from Count Draculas evil grips. Writer-director Stephen Sommers fills the film with wall-to-wall action, much like his previous two films The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, while interjecting humor that worked with the former but not the latter. The humor, most of which comes from a monk as a comic sidekick, doesnt work here either. It just emphasizes how campy the whole premise really is. Jackson, who has always seemed like an actor capable of better things, doesnt really work in the lead. After two stints as Wolverine in the X-Men films, youd think hed try to stay away from a project that is very similar and try to expand his talents. Beckinsale has shown a little more promise in her career, especially in the little seen Last Days of Disco, but her performance here is a lot like her characters accent bad and all over the map. You would have thought she learned her lesson about vampire movies after Underworld, but I digress. In the end, Van Helsing is nothing more than a loud, overbearing attempt by Universal Pictures to find a new franchise and a $51 million opening weekend might cement that notion. But heres one person who hopes Van Helsing 2 never makes it past the development stages. Dollar dandy of the weekThis weeks dollar dandy is the years best film to date, Kill Bill: Volume 2 (A).Volume 2 picks up with the Bride (Uma Thurman) continuing to seek her revenge on Bill (David Carradine) and his four associates, who left the Bride for dead on her wedding day. While writer/director Quentin Tarantino used more style and less substance with great success in Volume 1, this films strength is its rich dialogue, which evokes memories of Tarantinos best film Pulp Fiction. The acting is very good, too. Carradine is fantastic as Bill, while Thurman deserves consideration for an Academy Award nomination with her performance as the Bride. While those two performances are enough to make Volume 2 worth seeing, the film is full of other interesting characters including Michael Madsen as Bills brother Budd and Chia Hui Liu as the Brides mentor Pai Mei. It all adds up to a satisfying conclusion to Tarantinos bloody revenge saga. Kill Bill: Volume 2 opens Friday at the Plaza 6, where all movies are $1. Daily News ·813 College St. ·PO Box 90012 ·Bowling Green, KY ·42102 ·270-781-1700