Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Van Helsing

I didn't have high expectations for this movie, yet I found it oddly amusing. It could be partly due to the nice scenery, or Kate Beckinsale's cute Romanian accent (she's one of those rare types who gets more attractive with age). She fits the role perfectly and could have easily played the lead role. It's visually a very attractive film, and while I'm not usually a fan of eye candy effects, its looks made me stand up and notice.

The story is cartoonishly simplistic, but in a nice way. It doesn't take itself very seriously, stays very relaxed while guiding the viewer to a tour of different monsters. It has vampires, werewolves, Frankenstein, everything you expect. The main protagonist, Van Helsing , comes off as a sort of superhero expert on these beasts. There are some good action scenes which it gets a little repetitive near the end.

No need to fool ourselves, the main reason to watch this is for Kate Beckinsale's character. She is particularly hot in this one.

Rating: 3/5 * * *
All about looks.

3 comments:

rmacapobre said...

i loved miss beckinsale in the underworld series of films. her dark and brooding appearance is an exact fit to the stereotype american films have portrayed about western european women.

my favorite character in it is surprisingly the priest/scribe/monk guy.

robdelacruz said...

I liked the scribe/monk guy too, he was a good assistant to Van Helsing. Favorite character would be Anna (Kate Beckinsale).

methodactor said...

Van Helsing was extremely close to Bollywood cinema. Fantastic, myth, surreal yet simplistic. Almost every Hindi / Bollywood movie aspires to be that. Glad to have stumbled upon your blog.