| | | Adventure Lives Forever.
Features: DVD
Legendary monster hunter Van Helsing (Hugh Jackman) is summoned to mysterious Transylvania on a mission that will thrust him into a sweeping battle against the forces of darkness! With non-stop action and electrifying special effects, Van Helsing is an adrenaline-powered motion picture event Roger Ebert calls "Spectacular."
"...succeeds magnificently as compulsively watchable spectacle." Gregory Weinkauf, Dallas Observer
"Non-stop action...a breathtaking thrill ride." Jeffrey Lyons, NBC-TV
"...exhilarating fun, a richly designed and often quite funny re-exploration of the movie past." Kirk Honeycut, The Hollywood Reporter
"Silly and spectacular, and fun." Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
"The dark, desaturated imagery perfectly complements this vampires and werewolves tale..." Widescreen Review
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 | Track The Adventure: Van Helsing's Map - The Secrets Behind Each Fantastic Set Are Revealed Via An Interactive Map | | Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound | | Audio: French, Spanish Dolby Digital Stereo | | Dubbed: French, Spanish | | Feature Audio Commentary With Richard Roxburgh, Shuler Hensley, & Will Kemp | | Featurettes: Explore Dracula's Castle - Through An Innovative 360 Degree Self-Guided Tour, Discover The Stunning Environments Of Van Helsing That You Couldn't See In Theaters; Bringing The Monsters To Life - From Pencil Sketches Through Complete Digital Composition, The Experts At Industrial Light & Magic Show How The Van Helsing Monsters Were Brought To Life; You Are In The Movie - Experience Movie-Making Magic Through Miniature Cameras On The Set That Give You The Actor's Perspective On The Filming Of A Scene; The Legend Of Van Helsing - The Evolution Of The Legendary Character Throughout Film History; The Music Of Van Helsing; Dracula's Lair Is Transformed - Time-Lapse Photography Captures The Transformation Of Dracula's Coffin Room; Explore Frankenstein's Lab - Explore Frankenstein's Lab Through A Groundbreaking 360 Degree Self-Guided Tour That Lets You Discover The Secrets Not Shown In Theaters; Dracula; Frankenstein's Monster; The Werewolves; & The Woman Of Van Helsing - Anna & Dracula's Brides | | Interactive Menus | | Original Theatrical Trailer | | Outtakes | | Play The Van Helsing Xbox Game: Put This DVD Into Your Xbox Console & Play The First Level Of The Stunning Van Helsing Game! | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: English, French, Spanish | | Super Bowl TV Spot |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Universal |
| Release Date: 7/8/2008 |
| Original Release Date: 2004 | | Catalog ID: 61104060 | | UPC: 00025195032858 | | Number of Discs: 2 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1 |
| 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 ReelViews 5 of 10
Before I start mercilessly shredding this movie, let me offer a silver lining. Those who delight in bad movies and enjoy producing their own unfilmed versions of Mystery Science Theater 3000 may gain a measure of semi-masochistic enjoyment out of Van Helsing. 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." (The length is part of the problem - boredom eventually overwhelms cheesiness.) Some, however, will doubtless view it as such. More power to them, since sitting through this movie requires something more than a strong constitution and a capacity for self-torture...Most monster movies are entrenched in the horror genre, but so little about Van Helsing is scary that Sommers is forced to rely on action. There's plenty of that, but each set piece outlasts its welcome, and the exposition that fills the interludes is hollow and boring. 15 minutes into the movie, we're already tired of the artificiality of the fights and chases, but there's still two hours to go. Van Helsing quickly becomes an exercise in repetition, which leads to tedium. Watching a movie about vampires, werewolves, and other assorted monsters is supposed to be fun, not drudgery. - James Berardinelli
Variety 7 of 10
A monster mash on steroids, "Van Helsing" takes Universal's hallowed horror cycle to a new level. Whether that level is the pinnacle or the nadir will be a matter of distinctly divided opinion, depending very much on viewer age, respect for genre tradition and appetite for being pummeled by nonstop CGI effects and a thunderous soundtrack. Fans of Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff and Lon Chaney Jr. will be appalled...Packed with nothing but "big scenes" and breathlessly paced in a way that suggests panic at the idea the audience might get bored if things were slowed and toned down even for a moment, pic opens in voluptuous black-and-white with a nine-minute Transylvanian prologue, set in 1887, in which Dracula (Richard Roxburgh) puts the bite on Dr. Frankenstein in an attempt to adopt the monster for his own private purposes...Overdone as they are, the effects are superbly rendered, delivering the thrills and shocks the intended audience will pay to see. Same is true of Allan Cameron's spectacularly dark production design, Allen Daviau's superbly judged shadowy cinematography (if only he could have shot the whole thing in black-and-white), the coolly inventive costumes by Gabriella Pescucci and Carlo Poggioli and the innumerable visual, special and makeup effects by a team so large the end credits take 10 minutes to unspool. - Todd McCarthy
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