Genre: Action, Fantasy, Thriller, Adventure, Horror, Vampires, Monsters, Werewolf, Fantasy, Gore, Suspense, Mad Scientists
Tagline: The One Name They All Fear
Plot: During a time in history when the supernatural still seemed as conceivable as the everyday, when storytellers supplied imaginative reasons for the unexplained and when mythic creatures still crept by night…there was a single figure fighting against the dwindling mysteries hidden in the encroaching darkness: Van Helsing.Gabriel Van Helsing (HUGH JACKMAN) is a man cursed with a past he cannot recall and driven by a mission he cannot deny. Charged by a secret organization to seek out and defeat evil the world over, his efforts to rid the world of its nightmarish creatures have been rewarded with the title that now follows him: murderer. Van Helsing roams the globe an outcast, a fugitive, a loner, himself hunted by those who don’t understand the true nature of his calling. When dispatched to the shadowy world of Transylvania, Van Helsing finds a land still mired in its past…where legendary creatures of darkness come to life…a place ruled over by the evil, seductive and undefeatable vampire, Count Dracula (RICHARD ROXBURGH)…and it is Dracula that Van Helsing has been sent to terminate. Anna Valerious (KATE BECKINSALE) is one of the last of a powerful royal family, now nearly annihilated by Dracula. A fearless hunter in her own right, Anna is bent on avenging her ancestors and
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 If you liked The Mummy Returns, then you'll probably like Van Helsing. It has a good mix of action, adventure, horror, and romance. But some campy scenes might ruin the movie for some viewers.-- (ComingSoon.net)
Van Helsing ends up as a high-concept adrenaline rush that never stops generating lesser concepts over its elongated 145-minute run time.  --Sean O'Connell (FilmCritic.com)
If you're looking for a brainless, mile-a-minute summer monster movie jam-packed with action scenes, hot chicks, wild beasts, midgets who look like Ewoks, over-actors, a pulse-pounding score, laughs and adventures up the wazoo, line up for this film today and enjoy the gratuitous love of unadulterated campy fun 7/10--'JoBlo' (JoBlo.com)
What we got was a story that tries to cram in so many surprises that it begins to collapse under its own weight. What action there is, and there's plenty of it is subverted by dialog so awful that our audience was laughing out loud when they weren't supposed to.--Chuck Schwartz (The Cranky Critic)
There are quite a few unintentionally funny moments, although the overall experience was too intensely painful for me to be able to advocate it as being "so bad, it's good." Some, however, will doubtless view it as such. More power to them, since sittingthrough this movie requires something more than a strong constitution and a capacity for self-torture.  --James Berardinelli (ReelViews)
Even Kate Beckinsale in a leather corset and Hugh Jackman's cast-bronze pecs can't save this lavishly cheap monster mush.--Stephanie Zacharek (Salon)
The movie is like a Greatest Hits compilation; it's assembled like Frankenstein's Monster, from spare parts stitched together and brought to life with electricity, plus lots of computer-generated images.  --Roger Ebert (Chicago Sun-Times)
That's "Van Helsing": too camp to be kitsch, too kitsch to be camp, too big to be good, too good to be dull. That is to say, it's a modern, effects-insane, big-studio American summer movie, 17 or so hours long and one-fifth of an inch deep.--Stephen Hunter (Washington Post)
"VAN HELSING," which brings together Dracula, Frankenstein's monster, various wolfmen, Mr. Hyde and creature killer Van Helsing, is the ultimate clash. No, I don't mean between vampires and wolfmen, or man and monster. I mean between a good story and in-your-face computer-generated effects. The story loses big-time.--Desson Thomson (Washington Post)
Noisy, atrociously acted, poorly written and arrogant in the assumption that it’s pleasuring the audience with an endless cluster of special effects, “Van Helsing” represents the very worst in American cinema today. F--Brian Orndorf (FilmJerk.com)
...a gargantuan mess of a film which substitutes special effects for story and has not a single redeeming moment in its two hour plus running time. D--Edward Havens (FilmJerk.com)
... the film overall is enjoyable, with plenty of original features and amusing dialogue, fast pace and sexy, spectacular effects for vampire and monster movie fans to be happily entertained. 7/10--Avril Carruthers (Movie-Vault.com)
But tomorrow every boy, in every town will be shouting a new name for movie terror: "Ripoff!" --Blake Snyder (MovieWeb)
This isn't a good film, really. I'll have forgotten most of it by tomorrow. I couldn't recommend it, right? Yet... I can't deny that I had a good time watching it, warts and all. That's still not a recommendation, but if you feel like seeing a big stupidmonster mash...  --Kevin N. Laforest (Montreal Film Journal)
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| Cast |
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 | Richard Roxburgh
Moulin Rouge!, Mission: Impossible II, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen |
 | David Wenham
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Moulin Rouge! |
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 | Josie Maran
Little Black Book, The Gravedancers, Van Helsing: Behind the Screams |
 | Robbie Coltrane
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Ocean's Twelve |
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| In short, this next-generation horror epic proves a monster of a mess, a herky-jerky, stitched-together amalgam of plot twists, monster lore and classic lines --Glenn Lovell (San Jose Mercury News)
Although all the usual criticisms apply (it’s too long; there’s some dodgy CGI; parts of it are painfully bad), as Big Dumb Fun Blockbusters go, Van Helsing is actually quite enjoyable, provided you’re not averse to a little canon-messing.  --Matthew Turner (ViewLondon)
"Van Helsing" is more amusing and exciting than frightening, though there are probably enough genuine shocks to generate a box-office stampede and numerous tie-ins - a video game, an animated prequel, an upcoming TV series - as well as the inevitable sequel.--Lou Lumenick (New York Post)
Van Helsing is simply far too much of a good thing, and although Hensley’s Frankenstein's Monster comes off better than anyone else, the film suffers from some truly inane dialogue and pacing that will likely cause tachycardia in members of the audience old enough to recall who Dwight Frye was. --Marc Savlov (Austin Chronicle)
Being a big fan of the special effect and creative action sequence, Van Helsing should be one of the rides of the year. Unfortunately, unless you take some sort of stimulant before hand, you'll be longing for it to all wrap-up in the least embarrassing way possible for all those involved. 5.5/10--Paul Boschen (Movie Marshal)
Jackman is pretty good here, but him, and everything else is just overwhelmed by the CGI and Sommers' dizzying direction. But I guess we should be grateful that he is that he's still using human actors...  --Brian Gallagher (MovieWeb)
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