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Poor Bela, Bela's undead
Jan. 16th, 2011 11:11 amYesterday I saw Mel Brooks' Dracula: Dead and Loving It, which I've been meaning to see for over a year, ever since I heard it existed. I was astounded that I hadn't heard it existed earlier, in all my years of watching Mel Brooks movies and being a huge vampire nerd.
Sadly the answer as to why this seems to be the Mel Brooks movie that time forgot would appear to be "because there isn't a whole lot to it." It really doesn't come off so much like a parody of Dracula adaptations as it does like a Dracula adaptation with a handful of jokes thrown in. I would think that this would be because the Dracula story is so amazingly hilarious and trashy to begin with, except that I've seen over and over again that Dracula, and vampire stories in general, are endlessly, endlessly parodyable. How Mel Brooks managed to not actually do that is quite beyond me.
Leslie Nielson's Bela Lugosi impression is spot-on, though. Or I think it is; it's been a while since I watched the original Dracula movie. It's exactly as spot-on as Martin Landau's Bela Lugosi impression in Ed Wood, at least.
I still found it quite an enjoyable movie to watch, since I can watch Dracula crap all day, but for what it was supposed to be... it really just didn't get there.
Sadly the answer as to why this seems to be the Mel Brooks movie that time forgot would appear to be "because there isn't a whole lot to it." It really doesn't come off so much like a parody of Dracula adaptations as it does like a Dracula adaptation with a handful of jokes thrown in. I would think that this would be because the Dracula story is so amazingly hilarious and trashy to begin with, except that I've seen over and over again that Dracula, and vampire stories in general, are endlessly, endlessly parodyable. How Mel Brooks managed to not actually do that is quite beyond me.
Leslie Nielson's Bela Lugosi impression is spot-on, though. Or I think it is; it's been a while since I watched the original Dracula movie. It's exactly as spot-on as Martin Landau's Bela Lugosi impression in Ed Wood, at least.
I still found it quite an enjoyable movie to watch, since I can watch Dracula crap all day, but for what it was supposed to be... it really just didn't get there.
