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Features: English, French, Spanish, Dolby Surround Sound
Editor's Note
All varieties of otherworldly creatures come out to play in Stephen Sommers' gothic carnival. Frankenstein's monster, ferocious werewolves, vampire bat babies, a maniacal scientist named Igor, and a CGI Dr. Jekyll are just a few. When they come together, a thrilling fantasy adventure results, making VAN HELSING a visual feast. Destined to fight the world's evil, Van Helsing (Hugh Jackman) is a warrior in a cowboy hat and a trench coat, heavily armed with a rapid-fire multi-arrow crossbow, among other gadgetry. A legion of monks in Rome send Van Helsing to Transylvania to hunt the immortal Count Dracula (Richard Roxburgh), who terrorizes the local people with the help of his three vampire brides. Especially threatened is the vixen Anna Valerious (Kate Beckinsale), whose family also strives to kill the Count. Van Helsing and Anna Valerious work together, searching for the secret door to Dracula's lair. But it is only after massive battles involving impossible stunts, races on horse-pulled carriages, and the desecration of enchanting medieval castles (all done with dizzying computer graphics) that they succeed. Not only does the eye candy keep on coming, the tongue-in-cheek writing and deep Transylvanian accents perfect the film with a dose of dark humor.
| Features | Region [unknown] | | Widescreen - 1.85 | | Audio:
| Dolby Digital 5.1 - English, French, Spanish | | DTS - English, French, Spanish | | DTS HD Master Audio - English, French, Spanish | | Subtitles - English, French, Spanish |
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| Entertainment Reviews
 | Van Helsing - Blu-Ray DVD Review By: Luigi Bastardo - Blogcritics.org Reviews Published on: 9/17/2009 3:43 AM | | The titular character, one Gabriel Van Helsing, is a monster killer. He is employed by Vatican City, which doubles as an early form of MI6 and even has its own gadget department run by the monks, who invent many highly sophisticated items for the 19th Century. An automatic-firing crossbow with clips. Handheld spinning sawblade thingies (with their own secret power source). A solar bomb. The rest of the 19th Century is also pretty advanced and has such amazing articles as moving pictures. No, I don’t mean the cinema — I mean pictures that move. But, of course, the other kind of moving pictures must have been pretty popular then, too: how else does one explain Van Helsing’s constant John Woo-style of gunplay?...read the full review |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
|  | Studio: Universal |
| Release Date: 9/15/2009 |
| Running Time: 120 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2004 | | UPC: 00025195053624 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Video: Color |
| Cast & Crew
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| | Professional Reviews | New York Times
"[With a] gleeful, chaotic sense of visual excess." 05/07/2004 p.E1USA Today
"The best part is the moodily handsome look of the sets..." 05/07/2004 p.2E Chicago Sun-Times
"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." 05/07/2004 p.39 Widescreen Review
"The dark, desaturated imagery perfectly complements this vampires and werewolves tale, with lots of cold bluish-gray exteriors and warm firelit interiors." 06/01/2006 p.67 |
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