Movie Review #59: Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995)

 

We all know that I would rent horror movies like there was no tomorrow when I finally got the chance, but what about before that. Well, it was mostly kids films. You know like Homeward Bound and Little Rascals. Cinematic classics like that, however my dad would rent old comedies from the 1970s and 1980s. The kind I probably shouldn't have been watching when I was 7. He would rent stuff like Airplane and Mel Brooks movies. Several Eddie Murphy movies, mostly Trading Places. I was totally into them even if a lot of the comedy went over my head for a very long time. I had a copy of Spaceballs taped off television and it was the best thing I owned. I loved Spaceballs as a kid. Way more than Star Wars as weird as that might be. I watched Spaceballs the way several other people watched Star Wars. 

I also loved Mr. Leslie Nielsen. Leslie Nielsen spent like the first 25 or so years of his career as an actor as a serious actor man. Like one of the most serious kinda serious actors. There was a movie spoof called Airplane that changed his career for like the last 30 years of his career. He became a comedy star and well his comedies came in two different ways. He was either the stonefaced guy saying the dumbest and most outrageous shit (like in Airplane) or a big goofy weirdo (like in Spy Hard). I do believe he was very good at both types of comedy but much better at the stoneface stuff. I think that might be why I like The Naked Gun series the most out of his comedy movies because you get both styles in one film series. 

Now all of this is to tell you that when this movie came out when I was 10 that I was already a fan of both man. A really big fan. I was excited as hell to see this movie. I'm not sure but I might have even seen this movie in the cinema and WOW was I ever fucking disappointed. Clearly, clearly the worst of their movies I've seen up to that point. Over the last 26 years I would mention this as the worst movie both men had ever made. (I still haven't even seen ever comedy film Leslie Nielsen was in), I figured because I had this silly little blog where I talk about movies and cartoons and comics and all kinds of nostalgic shit that it would be a perfect time to rewatch this movie. (Another thing was that my sister seemed to love this awful movie and I had to watch it a lot as a kid)

I don't know where to start with this movie but I guess I'll get this out of the way right here: I fucking do not like Peter MacNichol's acting. I really really dislike it. He's bad at comedy. This guy tries way way way way way too fucking hard as Renfield. He tries way way way way way too hard in all of his comedic roles, including Ghostbusters II (he is the worst part of that movie and I don't care what anyone says about that. He just gets on my last nerve and he's gotten on my last nerve since I was a child. Not a fan of it. Not at all. I also have to admit that Leslie Nielsen is completely wasted in this movie. He really doesn't get a chance to do his stone-faced deadpan bit. He also does not get a chance to be silly. It's unfair and I'm not a fan of it. He's just playing a boring version of Dracula. Like everyone in this movie from Amy Yasbeck to Mark Blankfield are just wasted. Horribly, horribly wasted. It's very sad as this is a very talented cast.

When it comes to the jokes a lot of them just don't really work. It's that they are bored to be here. There's also a lot of moments that just seem to go on way too long. Oh and as weird as it might be there's a lot of moments in this movie where there's no jokes at all. I get the feeling that Mel Brooks was not really into making this movie and it might have been some kind of contractual thing. Like in every other movie of his every scene was a goofy joke, or had some joke in the background. They went for the gusto and I honestly thing the vast majority of them are very good to great comedies (Honestly this is probably the only Mel Brooks movie I dislike.) I will be fair that there were some moments that got a few chuckles out of me but it just feels very sparse when it comes to jokes.

FINAL VERDICT: Young Frankenstein is the Mel Brooks movie to watch around the holidays. It's way funnier, the actors seem to actually be having a good time, It actually feels like a Frankenstein movie that could have come out in 1942 or whenever. Dracula: Dead and Loving It just feels like something no one on the cast was all that excited about. I mean it's taken 26 years since Mel Brooks wrote anything for movies or tv (I say 26 years because he's apparently working on a History of the World Part II tv series for some streaming service. I hope this happens so it can wash the taste of this movie out of my mouth)