Most probably my least favourite film, both of Mel Brooks (though I haven't seen 'Life Stinks' yet) and of Leslie Nielsen (though I refuse to watch any other of the post-'Airplane' and 'Naked Gun' knockoffs he's made over the years since), but it still doesn't deserve all the hate. It's STILL at least 50,000 times funnier than Lena Dunham's 'Tiny Furniture' (or about 70% of the so-called contemporary American comedies made these days).
**Nielsen has done better, but this movie is good enough to be enjoyable and mildly funny.**
This comedy, starring Leslie Nielsen and intelligently directed by Mel Brooks, is truly good. It is a parody of old horror movies, in which Dracula is an aristocratic undead who lives off the blood of unsuspecting humans. The film is more directly inspired by the old productions of Hammer Studios and Francis Ford Coppola's _Dracula_, which was still recent when the film was released. The script is, therefore, similar in every way to the last film I mentioned.
Nielsen is perfectly capable of putting up with the film effortlessly, with a generous dose of good humor, charisma and spirit. The actor is a veteran of cinema comedies and satire, we've seen him before in very funny films, and the actor does well here again. However, I can agree with those who say that the actor has done better works. In addition to directing, Brooks gives life to Van Helsing and is also resourceful and witty, with a relatively flawless work, but also without major merits. Much better than Brooks was Peter MacNicol's excellent performance in the role of Renfield. The actor is good, and he seems genuinely deranged. Amy Yasbeck and Lysette Anthony do what they can, but they're not particularly happy, because their characters don't really matter here.
Being a film that takes place in the Victorian England, it is possible that Brooks gave the cast instructions to try to Britishize their accents. However, such an effort rarely resulted in any happy results, not to mention the jokes, who didn't always work well, with several scenes sounding overly serious or dull. The sets, as well as the costumes, are good enough, and I didn't find any major problems with the question of the historical period. The regular cinematography, the satisfying but not brilliant editing and the relatively lukewarm soundtrack complete the production values of the film, which is far from being really good, but it turned out to be interesting, funny and good enough for us to bear watching it again.
