This is an acclaimed movie by many with an all-star cast that deals with Bram Stoker?s version of Dracula. It is directed by Francis Ford Coppola who gets an “A” for effort in his attempt at this but I thought this movie wasn?t very impressive. It stars Gary Oldman (Air Force One, Fifth Element) as Dracula. His love interest in his past and present life is dually played by Winona Ryder, her present time fianc? is Keanu Reeves, and the legendary vampire slayer is played by Anthony Hopkins. In this version of the story, it is more love story then horror story that is told. Dracula is created by a man who lost the women he loved while away at war protecting the church. After her death he renounced the church and took an oath of evil and everlasting life that required the drinking of blood.

As I mentioned above, Coppola took a huge chance telling the story the way he did. He is all over the map, jumping from location to location and portraying Dracula as young, old, a wolf, wolf-like human, and cloud of smoke. It has a very cheesy old school feel to it which I believe was his intent. I found the movie a little slow and boring. There was a lot of soft dialogue with thick accents and that didn?t mix well. It took away from some very impressive acting performances by everyone in the main cast. It?s something that needs to be watched at least twice before you can truly form an opinion.

Video

Well I can easily form my opinion on the picture… it is definitely one of the worst looking Blu-ray discs that I?ve seen. It is soft and is barely an upgrade over most regular DVD’s. The video codec is MPEG-4 AVC and the aspect ratio is 1.85:1. I?m not sure what went wrong with the transfer. I know the movie is 15 years old but I?ve seen movies almost as old or older in Hi Def and they all looked better then this. There was no sharpness an no strong detail. The blacks weren?t really black and there was a lot of it. I understand that the director?s intent was to give it that old time look but that can be done and the movie can still look good as well. This is definitely not a disc to buy to show off the capabilities of your Blu-ray system.

Audio

The audio on the disc includes English PCM 5.1 & Dolby Digital 5.1, along with French, Czech and Polish Dolby Digital 5.1. Sony used the 50 GB disc to include many foreign language tracks but didn?t worry about making the primary English track sound up to par. There was a ridiculous up and down in the sound. I had to turn my receiver up real high to pick up all the dialogue but then I?d get hit with random soundtrack sounds that were overly loud. The audio was on the same level as the video but in this case that?s not a good thing.

Special Features

For extras you start with an intro and commentary by Francis Ford Coppola himself. He basically discusses how and why he loves the subject of Dracula. His commentary is very insightful but has very dull moments of silence. There is an overall boring tone to his voice as well. Not a bad commentary but not a good one either. Beyond that there are about 2 hours worth of making of videos and deleted scenes. The making of videos are very informative. They do give great details about what it?s like to make this film and cover all aspects from the special effects to the costumes. I though overall they were pretty good and for those that enjoy the film they will like them even more. There were about a half hour worth of deleted scenes. I wasn?t to impressed with the scenes that made up the movie so obviously I didn?t think to much of the ones that didn?t make it. I will give them credit on the extras for maximizing use of the space on this disc.

Final Thoughts

Definitely a huge let down. I?ve heard good things about this movie and was definitely expecting a real good presentation. Neither was the case. The movie was to artsy and not very entertaining. There were aspects that were positive but not enough to make it a worthy movie. The most disappointing part was the transfer. I?ve seen about 80 percent of the Blu-ray discs released and this was definitely one of the worst looking. If you?re a fan of this movie I?d recommend renting it first and if you?re not a fan I?d recommend not wasting you?re time.