Movie Review: Dracula Untold

In his feature film debut, Gary Shore takes a shot at telling the origins of one of the most iconic Universal monsters in Dracula Untold.

In the 15th century, the Turkish empire was trying to take over the world (because Everybody Wants To Rule the World).  In so doing, they would take young boys from their families and train them to become ruthless killing machines for their armies.  One of these was a young boy from Transylvania named Vlad.  He earned himself quite a reputation for impaling all of his victims on wooden spikes earning him the nickname Vlad the Impaler.  He wasn't fond of what he'd become and eventually got out of the army to go back and rule Transylvania peacefully for many years.  The Turks showed up unannounced one day and decided they wanted to take the young again, including Vlad's son.  Vlad did not have the army to oppose them, so he made a deal with a master Vampire in the mountains to give him the power to stop the army.  He was informed that he would have the powers for three days and then revert back to human form if he could avoid the temptation of drinking human blood, otherwise he'd be a vampire forever.  You can probably fill in the blanks from there.

I feel like this is one of those movies I shouldn't have liked on principal, but I liked it anyway.  Some origins should be left a mystery, especially Dracula's, but somehow I got over this.  I also somehow got over the fact that they took an absolute monster and turned him into a tragic hero.  A lot of it worked based just on the performance of Luke Evans (The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug).  He really sold this character for me.  He played a man who was ashamed of what he had done in the past and was willing to make an unspeakable deal with a monster that may damn him forever, just to keep his son from having to live the same life.  He played off the struggle well too.  You could see the conflict as he tried to avoid that fateful temptation of drinking human blood.  Then something happens that angers him so much that he gives in (not a spoiler: you knew he was going to stay a bloodsucker) just so he can ultimately destroy the Turks, giving his son a chance to rule in peace.  When he does, you see that it has taken something from him and he will have the monster inside to fight forever.

One of the things that really worked well for me was the running time of the film.  It clocks in at under 90 minutes sans credits.  I've seen some complain that this does not allow for much character development, but I think that's where Luke Evans comes in again.  His is the only character that truly needs developed and he does such a fine job that you see his transition from man to monster quite well in those 90 minutes.  I do try to steer clear of other reviews when trying to review something myself, but there is one thing I have to mention.  I've seen a lot of negative comments about this movie, with the biggest gripe being that of historical accuracy.  They use actual historical figures in this film, and sure it's probably all wrong, but you're watching a film about a guy who can turn into a bunch of bats!  If anyone goes to a Dracula movie looking for a lesson in history, we have much bigger problems to deal with.  As for the character of Dracula, I don't know the full lore, but I'm sure that some things were changed to suit the story.  However, they kept in the classic attributes such as daylight, wooden stakes to the heart, crosses.  I felt they kept enough the same to not ruin the character entirely.

Another thing that worked was the special effects.  Some weren't fantastic, and some of the action got a little quick and dizzying, but a lot of it worked.  The armies of bats that you see in the trailers I thought were done well.  Also, when the vampires dealt with anything life-threatening (ie, daylight), the skin peeling from the body was quite effective.

I've already mentioned that Evans rose to the challenge of his role.  The other actors put in decent performances.  Nothing stellar, nothing bad.  Charles Dance (Alien 3) also did a fine job as the master vampire.  Dominic Cooper (Need For Speed) was okay as the Turk sultan, Mehmed, but after having seen him play an evil sadistic bad guy so amazingly in The Devil's Double, I think I hold him to an unfair standard.

This is by no means an award-winning movie.  Yes, I did enjoy the effects, and to a certain extent also the acting.  This film is not trying to be an award-winner though.  It's essentially trying to be a quick, fun ride.  In that aspect I felt everything worked well together.  It is a good movie to rent on a Friday or Saturday night with some friends when you want a fun action movie that moves along at a good pace.  It was a solid first effort for a new director, and it held me enough to want to see where else they take this new version of the classic monster.

Rating: ******---- (6 out of 10) [rental]

Memorable Quote:

Master Vampire: Let the games begin!

Movie Review: Need For Speed

Need For Speed is the sophomore effort by former stuntman turned director Scott Waugh.  His first film being Act of Valor which is shamelessly plugged in this film.  His eye for stunts is the one shining point to this otherwise generic racing film.

Tobey Marshall (Aaron Paul, Breaking Bad) and his gang of mechanic friends are just trying to get by running his dead father's auto shop.  Money is tight, he's falling behind on loans.....enter Dino Brewster (Dominic Cooper, The Devil's Double) as an old street racing rival turned pro.  There's bad blood from a stolen girlfriend or something?  Dino offers him a job which will help pay off the loan.  Then he offers to race Tobey to go all or nothing.  This race results in Tobey's best friend being run off the road and killed by Dino.  Dino runs away, gets an alibi and Tobey takes the fall for a two year stint in jail.  This seem long-winded?  That's just the set-up for the rest of the film, and it took up 30-40 minutes.  And still it didn't seem like it really gave any depth to the back stories of the characters.

From there Tobey gets angry and tries to get into a secret underground race in California to get back at Dino.  The majority of the film is essentially a race to get to the race in time.  Meanwhile, Dino hires other drivers to "take out" his competition along the way.  I guess what's next is a spoiler, but you've probably already figured out that he gets to the race in time and wins.  The end.

I want to be fair to the movie and at least play up it's strengths.  Like I said, Scott Waugh was a stuntman before, and that is a good thing for this film.  He did all practical effects.  What you see with the driving was really done.  Little to no CGI or special effects.  Some of the stunts are pretty cool, one involving a jump and another involving a helicopter.

The other good thing is some of the acting.  This narrows down mostly to the two leads, Aaron Paul and Imogen Poots.  I thought they had pretty good chemistry together, and were fun to watch when it was just those two.  Sadly, they had very little to work with because they apparently forgot to hire a script writer.  Another character who most didn't like because he was too over the top was the one I liked because he was too over the top.  That was the "mysterious" DJ Monarch (Michael Keaton, Robocob (2014)).  I also enjoyed Scott Mescudi, who played one of his comic relief mechanic friends.

Then there were the other actors.  Again, not entirely their fault.  Some of it was just the bad writing.  A good example is Dominic Cooper playing the bad guy.  He's very bland in this movie, but I know he can act.  He's fun as Howard Stark in the Marvel movies, and if you want to see some of the best acting of the past few years, watch him in The Devil's Double.  He is absolutely phenomenal.

The biggest downfall of the film is the story, and before you start, I was well aware that the story was going to be weak going in.  However it's the character development that makes it not work.  The whole opening of the film didn't work because even spending as much time as they did you still didn't really care about the rivalry.  I wanted Tobey to just take the initial money and go back to his shop.  He took the race instead.  This also was frustrating because Pete's death is what ultimately drives him to the end of the film.  We're supposed to feel sympathy about Pete's death, but it was the result of a reckless race through town where they caused several car accidents and almost killed a homeless man.  Tobey is supposed to be a sympathetic protagonist through the movie, which would have worked for me if I didn't watch him leave a path of death and destruction across the whole country through the entire movie.

Despite all this, I still did have a little fun watching the middle "Smokey and the Bandit" section of the movie.  Yes, he causes accidents, but it's a little fun watching him evade the cops across the country with the help of two friends in a truck (resulting in a high speed gas refill), and one eye in the sky (Mescudi inexplicably showing up in multiple stolen aircrafts including a Cessna plane, a news helicopter and somehow an Army helicopter with a stupefied co-pilot).  And like I said, Keaton brought a little life to the end of his movie with his "mysterious, identity unknown" DJ Monarch.  (Not sure how this works, when he plasters his face on his web feeds). 

Overall, it's really not a great movie.  If you can turn off your brain for the plot holes and make it through the 30-40 minute set-up, you might have fun watching the racing and high speed chases, if that's what you're after.  I'd at least suggest a red box rental when it comes out.

Rating: ****------ (4 out of 10)

Memorable Quote:
Julia Bonet: Never judge a girl by her Gucci boots.