Editor Reviews:

Product Description:
Xander cage is an extreme sports athelete recruited by the government on a special mission. Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 10/02/2007 Starring: Vin Diesel Samuel L Jackson Run time: 127 minutes Rating: R

Amazon.com essential video:
With dizzying cinematic tricks and astonishing performances, Francis Coppola's 1992 version of the oft-filmed Dracula story is one of the most exuberant, extravagant films of the 1990s. Gary Oldman and Winona Ryder, as the Count and Mina Murray, are quite a pair of star-crossed lovers. She's betrothed to another man; he can't kick the habit of feeding off the living. Anthony Hopkins plays Van Helsing, the vampire slayer, with tongue firmly in cheek. Tom Waits is great fun as Renfield, the hapless slave of Dracula who craves the blood of insects and cats. Sadie Frost is a sexy Lucy Westenra. And poor Keanu Reeves, as Jonathan Harker, has the misfortune to be seduced by Dracula's three half-naked wives. There's a little bit of everything in this version of Dracula: gore, high-speed horseback chases, passion, and longing.

Amazon.com:
Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 Bram Stoker's Dracula is a feverishly inventive movie that often overwhelms its own narrative flow, yet proves irresistible to watch. Coppola's baroque, operatic set design, costumes, and cinematography look as lavish as they did on the film's first release. The director's grab-bag of visual effects are still bold and unabashed, if often over-the-top, and the actors still appear caught up in a certain hysterical pitch that feels a little forced but can be a lot of fun to watch. Gary Oldman's imaginative performance as the titular vampire carries the weight of Coppola's vision of Count Dracula as a tragic-romantic hero with Christ-like overtones. Keanu Reeves still looks a little lost in the pivotal role of Jonathan Harker, the London clerk who finds himself a prisoner in a Transylvanian castle while a 400-year-old vampire makes a play for his fiancée back home (Winona Ryder). Anthony Hopkins is fearless as a daft Von Helsing, and Sadie Frost is very good as the doomed Lucy. --Tom Keogh

Rating : - Fascinating failure
"Bram Stoker's...." represents the last gasp of Coppola's once-formidable talent. Like "Godfather 1 & 2", "The Conversation", and "Apocalypse Now" (the original release only), this film has personality and style to burn. The difference, and this is nearly fatal, lies in Coppola's casting choices. Clearly Winona Ryder and, especially, Keanu Reeves were chosen to grab a younger audience. That ploy may have worked at the expense of period credibiity and thespian gravitas. I enjoyed Oldman and Hopkins in their scenery-chewing glory, an antidote to the flat readings and performance of Reeves. But, what makes the film remarkable is the production itself: the sets, costumes, score, and old-style "in camera" low tech effects created by Coppola's boy Roman create an absolutely unique vision. Too bad that Coppola, who once famously fought Paramount for Pacino over Redford, and for Caan and Nino Rota, so easily capitulated to get the film made. If that was the sole way to get Columbia to greenlight the project, then it was worth it. However, the casting and, to a lesser extent James Hart's script, prevented "Bram" from being a true classic. And yet, after watching "The Rainmaker" last night, a purely journeyman effort without an ounce of cinematic personality, one longs for another effort as interesting as this "Dracula"