New BBC VERSION, WOOHOOT!

[Silk and Velvet]

I have just found out this morning that there is going to be a special Dracula this Christmas. I CAN'T WAIT! What is so amazing is that about two years ago I phoned them up and requested a new version of it. So, weird huh? I obviously wasn't the only one!

Can't wait!

[Fluphidia]

And I must have missed it! I can't believe it... now I'll just have to hope it's repeated soon. Was it good, Silk and Velvet?

I did see 'Bram Stoker's Dracula' and 'Van Helsing' though, and most enjoyable they were, too. Rrrowrr.

[Silk and Velvet]

You haven't missed it Fluffy. It's on Thursday, and I am boycotting it as they have completely vandalized the story AGAIN!

They've gotten rid of Jonathan AND Mina Harker, and come up with this fanfiction story of this guys search for a cure for Syphilis.... Bram Stoker would be quivering in his grave.

I'm prepared to let characters be written out of adaptations but the fact that the two main characters have been written out beggars belief!

So, no, being the purist that I am I won't watch it.

[Fluphidia]

Thank you, Silk and Velvet; I'd like to see it anyway, just to compare the two versions. I don't think I'll like it much, though; I also disagree with the loss of two central characters.
It's so flipping aggravating when film makers take so much licence with a plot and cast in this way and so often to the detriment of the story.

[Silk and Velvet]

Did you watch it? I didn't. I watched Swap Shop instead, I'm glad I did, I was guaranteed entertainment on that!

Also, it was a bit of nostalgia trip for me... I loved Going Live and Live and Kicking when I was a puppy! He he!

What was it like, though, in your opinion?

[Fluphidia]

Well, what I saw of it was pretty alright, and Jonathan and Mina were in it - in fact, because of this, I'm wondering if what I did see was the BBC version.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to see all of it as GOH, my Grumpy Old Husband, wanted to watch something else halfway through so I saw the first and last ten or twenty minutes, but I did see some fine acting, that most of the casting was good and the majority of the sets were very atmospheric and historically accurate in the designer's attention to detail - this last always especially impresses me.

One scene which particularly won my vote was that in which Dracula appears at the lace curtains of her bedroom window while she is having - ah - quite a dream! I have a lasting impression of Dracula materialising in the bed and crawling up the bed from it's foot; this whole scene was brilliantly done.

I was most intrigued - I'd like to see this again all the way through, so I am hoping it will be released on DVD soon, if it isn't already.

[Silk and Velvet]

Well, I read somewhere that it didn't have bats or wolves in it, so that has definitely lost me in the DVD sales for this particular version.

I'll stick to Guy Maddens ballet version - which, surprising, was the most accurate AND scariest version I've seen.

[Achilles]

I really like Bram Stoker's Dracula, top cast, good storyline...some say it's a bit corny sometimes, maybe yes. But I'm a romantic type of guy lol. Gary Oldman is certainly a good Dracula and honours the character which Christopher Lee depicted so much...for me he is the only Dracula, and certainly not that idiot you see in Van Helsing.

[Silk and Velvet]

I prefer Richard Roxburgh - to me he's Dracula; at least he wears black and is evil... plus he played the part like Bram wrote him. I hate Gary Oldman's Dracula with a vengeance. He completely ruined the evil that Dracula is portrayed as in the book... I mean where did that backstory come from?

No, give me Van Helsing Dracula anyday.

[Achilles]

It's funny how you are actually complaining of Gary Oldman while you have in your signature...lol

[Silk and Velvet]

I like Gary Oldman as an actor, I just can't stand his Dracula.

I've got loads of his films; and think he's a fascinating actor... He's also gorgeous; but I was sorely disappointed with his Dracula... I watched the film straight after reading the book, and well let's just say I'm a purist. I think that it should be outlawed to adapt a book to film if it's not done as close to the book as possible.

I won't trust anyone to adapt any of my books but me; and possibly Emma Thompson... as it takes a great deal of energy to set the plot twists and all these fanfic adaptations of Dracula are just getting on my nerves.

Have you seen the Guy Madden ballet version? It was true to the story, and it was excellently done; and guess what? I actually found it frightening.

[Achilles]

Well I thought it was nice to see the story from the bad guy's point of view. You knew he was evil, but thats also something you see in star wars, nobody is born evil, and the story in the film showed how he became evil. Everybody has a good side, how small it is, even Hitler. He was a very evil man, no doubt of that, but he like anybody else wasn't born evil and that is well shown in this movie as in the star wars movies.

That is also what I liked in Troy, You see that Achilles isn't the nice guy hero you see so much in other films, he's arrogant and selfish, but with the lead of a woman, he shows his good side. As in this Winona Ryder's character showed his good side, while you can see his evil side when he faces the other characters in the movie

Cause that is what is missing in Van Helsing...Lack of depth in the characters, cause the Dracula in van helsing...well he's just evil, act evil...which is sorry boring and not frightening at all.

[Silk and Velvet]

He frightened me! And Dracula actually is evil; and another thing I hated about that film was the fact that American Actors put on very bad British actors and the British actor was the bad guy. That gets on my nerves as well.

[Achilles]

You get that in al lot of films including star wars that the british are the bad ones, but it has nothing to do with the british themselves, but their posh language. Dracula is royalty so he needs to talk posh, but Gary Oldman wasnt chosen because he was british, but because he's very good in doing accents. And the rest of the cast? Common Anthony Hopkins is one the best actors of all time. His permformance as Hannibal Lector is almost legend. The film doesnt credit the book as it should be maybe, but its much better than Van Helsing, which was a merged story which they just tried to sell because of the special effects. It was a flop.

[Silk and Velvet]

I love Van Helsing; and Amy Lee of Evanescence said that it was the best movie she'd ever seen, and she has seen ALL of them.

Let's just agree to disagree on this one shall we? I didn't like it and never will; you do and you always will.