Dracula (1992)

Of course best known for the Godfather trilogy and Apocalypse Now, Francis Ford Coppola's try at Bram Stoker's classic remains one of his noteworthy endeavors. Though it had some fairly questionable casting decisions, Dracula stuck fairly close to the novel despite what you might think with Winona Ryder and Keanu Reeves starring. Luckily they are buoyed by the chameleonic Gary Oldman, Anthony Hopkins, and some very high quality art design and set direction among other good performances.

First of all, the problems. Keanu Reeves' performance. It seems as if he sat down a night before the first scene and pounded out a rudimentary British accent and, contented, slept. Needless to say it's clumsy and ridiculous, and he does not do much else to bring Jonathan Harker to life. Winona Ryder's is not much better, but she is still much more believable as Mina Harker. The film is riddled throughout with screenwipes and transitions that seem out of place. It is as if a student learning these techniques is just finding excuses to squeeze them into his work but in a film like this they are distracting.

Aside from that, I am a huge fan of Dracula. Do not mistake it for some of the embarassing 'vampire' movies these days that can only be called this in the loosest sense of the term. Gary Oldman's Dracula is what a vampire should be, a ferocious warlord who returns from victory against the Turks in the opening scene to find his wife has committed suicide, only to forsake God and literally become pure evil. He is at turns a London gentleman, garish and yet ominous in his tophat and cane, a disturbing old Count, or a werewolf-like beast, among other forms.

Anthony Hopkins is Van Helsing, giving you exactly what you would imagine Anthony Hopkins would playing a doctor/vampire hunter. A relatively small but important part is nailed by Tom Waits, the former law clerk who loses his mind under Dracula's corruption, Renfield. Jonathan Harker (Reeves) is sent to replace him, finding himself in Transylvania, in a disturbing old castle full of malice. He is trapped by ravenous wolves and the Count, in flowing red robes with his white hair in an elaborate bouffant, without eyebrows and utterly pale.

Count Dracula leaves Harker to his luscious, evil brides and ventures to London where both the plot and the twisted sexuality of the movie picks up steam. The story is fairly complex and does not leave room for much action, but it is more than made up for in eye grabbing sets, terrific detail and not-so-carefully cultivated mood. Dracula is somewhat overwrought in certain ways, but never as a detriment. It is a glorious spectacle for the senses.

Do yourself a favor, enjoy Dracula this Halloween with some good wine in your belly whether you've already seen it or not.

Verdict: Epic Win [9.25/10] (I have crossed oceans of time to find you)

The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans (2009)

Apparently the wordy title is a result of the how this movie was initially conceived: as a remake of the 1992 Harvey Keitel movie Bad Lieutenant. What Werner Herzog and Nic Cage have produced is not a remake, but rather something completely remarkable and often hilarious.

It takes place in the titular city shortly after, what else?, Hurricane Katrina. Lieutenant Terence McDonagh (Cage) leaps into neck high water to rescue an inmate. This results in life-long back pain. The movie is quick to establish in the first few minutes that good deeds are punished. McDonagh develops an addiction to vicodin that quickly leads to hard cocaine abuse.

The remainder of the movie purports to follow McDonagh and a cast of characters including Val Kilmer trying to solve the murder of an African family. This goes quickly off the rails as McDonagh is much more interested in shaking down club goers and the evidence room attendant for more drugs. He gets heavy into college football gambling debts. Eva Mendes plays his prostitute (girl)friend Frankie, which later leads to McDonagh running afoul of an Italian mobster. Eventually he gets into the drug trafficking business himself and McDonagh's motives are never quite clear.

Each of these plot lines collides in a perfect shit storm much like the Hurricane itself. However when that first scene establishes that good deeds lead to punishments, you start to realize that the opposite is also true for the "bad" Lieutenant. Despite his horrendous behavior McDonagh is the most likable and sympathetic drug addict since Raoul Duke. It helps that most of the stuff he does while high is hysterical.

Nic Cage is a weird dude. He is associated with so much routine garbage that it is hard to remember that he can act. This is his show and it is impressive. The decent into madness is cataloged by an increasingly nasty attitude, weird voice, and penchant for insane laughter. His character suffers from chronic back pain and so Cage lurches around. This is offset by the hilarity of how he wears his gun: right in front, hanging out of pants with only his belt to hold onto the barrel.

I've read some reviews that describe this as a deliberately bad movie- an ironic piece of pop cinema that lampoons detective movies. They are full of shit. Herzog isn't a hack. This movie wonders what it must be like for authority figures to live in those post-disaster conditions like New Orleans. Several shots spend minutes lingering on things like alligators and iguanas, which will surely produce "wtf" moments from the audience. Until you realize that in all the chaos of the storm and thereafter the reptiles did not give a shit.

Verdict: Epic Win [10/10]

http://www.badlt.com

Global Metal (2008)

From Sam Dunn, the maker of Metal: A Headbanger's Journey comes Global Metal, a look at metal in some of the less-discussed corners of the world. While the original documentary focused on the roots and subgenres (and therefore the US and Europe), Global Metal is more concerned with locales than artists and styles themselves.

Like his previous work, Dunn presents Global Metal within the framework of his college anthropology studies. He does this a lot, and much of the narration sounds like it's being read out loud from a thesis page. It's pedantic at best and alienating at worst, but A Headbanger's Journey was at it's best when other people (namely Gaahl) were doing the talking.

Unfortunately, Global Metal's interviews lack the topical punch of it's predecessor. There is one interview with an Indonesian headbanger that Dunn is clearly framing to be the "bad guy", but in the end he just outs himself as a complete idiot. Mr. Dunn, it is entirely possible to be against Zionism without being a Nazi. Ideological opposition to the state of Israel is not "hatred", and your flailing about just makes you look silly.

There's at least some fun to be had with Global Metal, though most of it comes from the joy of seeing people in far off places finally get to enjoy the music and culture that the rest of us take for granted. The one exception to this is the ever-enjoyable Lars Ulrich, who should be nominated for some kind of backpedaling award as a result of his interview footage. I don't want to spoil it for you, but watching that ape stammer and stutter his way through a zinger of a question is just about the funniest thing I've seen since House, MD called Lars "the greatest metal drummer of all time."

Max Cavalera is a great interviewee, as always, and the movie could have used a lot more in-depth look at his homeland of Brazil. Japan suffers similarly, with the primary interviewees being Tom "Decrepit Saddam Hussein" Araya and the aforementioned Mr. Ulrich. Instead of talking to Sigh, who make a very brief appearance, Mr. Dunn spends his time discussing Japan with a bunch of US citizens. Awesome.

Fortunately, Visual Kei makes an appearance to save the day from the West in the form of some Sex Machineguns footage and an X Japan interview. Though I'm not the biggest fan of the genre, it at least makes for interesting viewing.

I don't want to spoil too much of the various locales, since they're really the most interesting part of Global Metal. Hearing about the proliferation of metal music & shows in non-western countries is pretty interesting, even if the people doing the talking aren't. Plus, Tom Araya seems to think that being into Slayer in a Muslim country gets you killed. All right, Tom. I guess you really are that important.

There are plenty of other problems with Global Metal. Unattributed footage, bland interview questions and interviewees, and a bunch of outdated information. Calling Varg a Nazi these days isn't just tired and uninteresting, it's straight up wrong. Varg had a Nazi phase, sure, but who doesn't? Er - I mean... The point is that he hasn't been associated with Nazism for a very long time, and has written plenty about his movement away from that ideology. It's a bit like saying that Joe Lieberman is still a democrat, innit?

Anyway - I know I digress, but the point stands. Sam Dunn, for a supposed metal aficionado, doesn't really impress me much. Perhaps that's just the jaded enthusiast voice in my head talking, but I have seen much better questions asked by mediocre interviewers and better fact-checking in Norwegian tabloids. Global Metal can be worth watching for some of the live footage alone, but I could have just as easily ignored it.

Verdict: Indifference [5/10]