BRAM STOKER'S DRACULA (1992) **1/2 Francis Ford Coppola busts out a credible alternative to an all-time classic, but the only thing that you can positively identify as better in this version is Tom Waits' nearly perfect Renfield. It could have been a lot better, but for horribly miscast Keanu Reeves (who fails to do a good impression of a British accent, all the while apparently believing that gentlemen have no psychological gears other than “soft”) and Winona Ryder (who always appears to suffer in dramatic roles even more than her characters). To complicate matters, much of the early going to relates to Reeves and Ryder, so you've got a film with a few wheels stuck in the muck from the onset. Anthony Hopkins' entrance is so brilliant and flamboyant that you think he's out to save the film, but he gets more sidetracked than messianic. He's good a lot of the time, though, and that's something. So is Sadie Frost as the infected girl-it doesn't sound like much of a role, but she does an impressive job. I wouldn't even begin to know how to look like that, and I guess doing so is part of the curse. Well done, Sadie. All the while Coppola is gunning up these incredible action sequences against a background that looks like Dracula should. Tremendous stuff, not enough to make you forget about Tod Browning's stuff, but a tremendous scientific update considering the inherent limitations of color. Coppola makes no visual errors, but the best scenes tend to come out of nowhere, but not in a positive way. The pacing is scattered, like the performances (good heavens, man! They're dealing with an eternal curse! yeah, but...). Gary Oldman is most effective as the count when he's a young man about town, strolling the streets of London in psychedelic sunglasses. I remember thinking that he invoked Axl Rose somehow, not a bad reference. Against everything that came before, Ryder puts it together for the climactic scene, and things finish up with a bang, as they should. Well, Coppola, I mean, you knew he was never going to allow this many stars to stand around in the same scene without some of ‘em gettin' hit.
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