Luc Besson’s Dracula

Traditionally, Dracula’s familiars have been bats or wolves, but since gargoyles look like giant bats, or small vampires, it sort of makes sense that he could command them. They can also be found in some examples of Medieval Romanian architecture, so again, it is maybe horror movie-plausible. Regardless, they are the sort of eccentric wrinkle that makes director-writer Luc Besson’s new take on Bram Stoker’s classic vampire amusing. Maybe that wasn’t exactly what he was going for, but its what viewers get when Besson’s Dracula (a.k.a. Dracula: A Love Tale) opens this Friday in New York.

This time around, he is Vlad II, Dracul, who was historically Vlad the Impaler’s dad. This Vlad would rather make love than war, but his generals literally pull him off his wife Elisabeta to defend Christendom from the invading Muslim Ottoman hordes. He tries to make a deal with the Almighty, to protect the faith, in exchange for Elisabeta’s safety. The soon to be late Cardinal tried to caution Dracul, it doesn’t really work that way—and indeed it didn't. However, when Vlad II responded with a bloody sacrilegious bender, he was cursed from above to become an undead monstrosity.

Dracula (as he now calls himself) has only one abiding interest: to find his reborn Elisabeta, who was so virtuous, he knows she will be reincarnated someday. That notion somewhat conflicts with Besson’s hodge-podge Christian elements, but who wants to be pedantic, anyway? It turns out she is now Mina Murray, who had the misfortune of befriending one of Dracula’s vampire slaves, Maria de Montebelo, a Belle Epoque party girl, who was betrothed to the Queen’s nephew by marriage. However, she reacted violently when a priest showed up at the ceremony.

Of course, the “Priest” immediately understands her deal, because he is Besson’s Van Helsing analog. He is also a sardonic boozer, but thanks to his Vatican training, he knows his lore and his theology. In fact, the Priest would prefer to convince Dracula to repent and thereby lift the curse rather than go through all the messy business with the stake through his heart, followed by decapitation. However, his first priority is finding and protecting the reborn Elisabeta, but conveniently Murray happens to be sitting patiently in the waiting room of Dr. Dumont (the Dr. Seward analog).

Reportedly, Besson has tried to position this Dracula as a faithful adaptation, but frankly it takes more than the average liberties with Stoker’s novel. In truth, almost no film or series has really captured the book’s second act, in which Lucy Westenra’s trio of suitors (including Seward) sit for round-the-clock transfusions in a desperate attempt to keep her alive, only to fail and swear vengeance against Dracula.

However, Besson has Christoph Waltz and Matilda de Angelis, as the Priest and de Montebelo. Both bring a lot of attitude and energy, which is especially impressive for de Angelis, since her character is undead. Indeed, she puts the vampiness in the vampire. Similarly, Waltz chews the cinema with infectious delight. While Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu is a superior film in many ways, it probably would have been just as entertaining had Waltz replaced Dafoe as Van Helsing (and Dafoe was terrific in the part).

Arthur, Malediction

How often have you wished cloying juvenile fantasies like the Harry Potter movies would turn into horror films instead. It sort of happens here, but not really. It is the Arthur series that started with Arthur and the Invisibles (Minimoys) that gets transformed. That film bombed in America, but it was a huge hit in Europe. Director Luc Besson blamed Harvey Weinstein for re-cutting it (always a safe strategy). Regardless, those kiddie fantasies meant a lot to Alex and his friends, so they set out in search of the original shooting locations, where they find trouble in Barthelemy Grossmann’s Arthur, Malediction, written by Besson, which releases on VOD this Friday.

This horror film takes a long time to embrace its genre. First, there is a long “cute” flashback to Alex’s slumber parties, devoted to watching the Arthur films. Then, we endure the festivities for his eighteenth birthday party, which is largely spent the same way. The only difference is his budding romantic attraction to his formerly platonic Arthur pal, Samantha (played by Besson’s daughter, Thalia). However, for part two of the celebration, the gang takes a road trip to the original Arthur house.

Despite previously published reports of an American shoot, the house is right there, in the Deliverance region of France. The locals are not welcoming, but they ignore the bad vibes. They also miss the clearly audible sounds of people scampering through the woods, up to no good, during the night. Finally, the predators start to make their move the next day.

The supposed “meta-ness” of Malediction is wildly overblown. This is really about as related to the Arthur series as Point Break is to Richard Nixon. However, it certainly says something that Besson would openly pursue the association. (Disney isn’t exactly the same family-friendly company anymore, but it is still hard to imagine them releasing a slasher film featuring a psycho wearing a Mickey Mouse mask.)

Basically, the film abruptly shifts from treacle to so-so survival horror. What really distinguishes the film is the disparity of the two halves. If you really know the Arthur films, the design of dilapidated is probably quite impressive. Even if you don’t, the film has a distinctive sense of place. Unfortunately, the vividness does not extend to the characterization.

American Renegades: Navy SEALs Pull a Caper for Bosnia

Navy SEALs are terrific at overthrowing dictators and re-establishing peace, but they are not so skilled at nation-building. However, this team is willing to do a little outside-the-box thinking. The plan (half-baked though it might be) is to recover 300 million dollars-worth of Nazi gold for Bosnian reconstruction efforts—minus their cut. Of course, the clock is ticking and the Bosnian Serbs are out for payback in Steven Quale’s American Renegades (trailer here), which opens this Friday in select theaters.

It gets a little messy, but Matt Barnes’ SEAL team manages to capture and extract a Serbian general right under the noses of his men. The getting in is easy, the getting out involves a tank battle on the streets of mid-1990s Sarajevo. Levin, the joint-operational commander, pretends to rebuke them, but it is definitely a wink-wink-nudge-nudge reprimand. Yet, there are presumably limits to his indulgence. Therefore, the SEALs will do their best to keep it on the downlow when they agree to run an off-the-books mission with both altruistic and mercenary motives.

Stanton Baker, Barnes’ next-in-command has fallen in love with Lara Simic, a local woman working as a waitress, who hopes to help support her country’s reconstruction with her newly incorporated non-profit. She also has some creative fund-raising ideas. As a young boy, her grandfather saw exactly where the National Socialists locked away a shipment of plundered French gold. Shortly thereafter, the resistance blew the local damn, submerging the gold under a new, picturesque lake. Of course, Barnes and his men are at their best under water.

In contrast, this film works much better when it is on dry land. Frankly, the opening action sequence is a lot of rollicking good fun, but the underwater sequences are problematically murky. We can often see when two people are fighting, but we can only hope a good guy wins, whichever one he might be.

Still, you have to give co-screenwriters Luc Besson and Richard Wenk credit for choosing sides, unlike the Peacemaker, which featured a deliberately vague “Balkan” terrorist. In this case, the Bosnians are on the side of the angels and the villains are Serbian, so just deal with it. It is also worth noting that Besson and his French film company EuropaCorp have produced probably the most sympathetic depiction of the American military released in theaters this year.

As you might expect, the best part of the film is J.K. Simmons strutting, bellowing, and just generally hamming it up as Levin. He is always fun to watch and Strike Back’s Sullivan Stapleton makes a nicely understated foil in their scenes together. Unfortunately, there is a lot of time wasted on requisitioning gear and that sort of housekeeping business.

Thanks to Simmons, American Renegades will be a pleasant streaming distraction, but there is nothing special about it as an action movie. We appreciate its respect for the American military personnel who served during the Balkan conflict, but most viewers can wait until it hits iTunes on December 25^th (making the Yuletide bright). In the meantime, it opens this Friday (12/21) in New York, at the Cinema Village.