Studio: Sony Pictures
Video: 1080p -16:9 - AVC ( 24Mbps)
Audio: English PCM 5.1 (Uncompressed - 4.9Mbps), English
Dolby Digital 5.1 (640kbps), French Dolby Digital 5.1
(640kbps), HungarianDolby Digital 5.1 (640kbps),
CzechDolby Digital 5.1 (640kbps), Polish VODolby Digital
5.1 (640kbps), Russian Dolby Digital 4.0 (640kbps),
English Audio Commentary Dolby 2.0 (192kbps)
Subtitles: English, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Czech,
Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi,
Hungarian, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese,
Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Romanian, Icelandic, Bulgarian
Special Features Subtitles: English, French, Portuguese,
Spanish, Korean, Dutch
Disc: Dual-Layered Blu-Ray (50GBs)
Runtime: 127 min.
Extras:
Deleted Scenes
Audio Commentary and Introduction by the Director
The Blood is the Life - The Making Of Dracula
The Costumes Are The Sets - The Design of Eiko Ishioka
In-Camera - The Naive Visual Effects of Dracula
Method and Madness - Visualizing Dracula
Release Date: October 2nd, 2007
Package: Standard Blu-Ray case + case cover
Synopsis:
Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder and Academy Award Winner
Anthony Hopkins (1991 Best Actor in a Leading Role,
Silence os the Lambs) star in Oscar winning director
Francis Ford Coppola's (1974 Best Director, The
Godfather: Part II) visually stunning, passionately
seductive version of the classic Dracula legend. In Bram
Stoker's Dracula, Coppola return to the original source
of the Dracula myth, and from that gothic romance, he
creates a modern masterpiece. Gary Oldman's
metamorphosis as Dracula - who grows from old to young,
from man to beast - is nothing short of amazing. Wynona
Ryder brings equal intensity to the role of a young
beauty who becomes the object of Dracula's devastating
desire. ANthony Hopkins co-stars as the famed doctor who
dares to believe in Dracula, and then dares to confront
him. Opulent, dazzling and utterly irresistible, this is
Dracula as you've never seen him. And once you've seen
Bram Stoker's Dracula, you'll never forget it.
****
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This is it, the quintessential
vampire movie. Based on Bram
Stoker's 1897 gothic masterpiece
"Dracula." There are many arguments
as to who was Stoker's influence for
The Count, and the most rabid
purists insist that it is NOT Vlad
the Impaler. However, this movie
forms it's basis around the Vlad
story, and I'm obliged to agree that
this is the most familar of all the
various versions of the tale of
Count Dracula, and whether or not
this is where Stoker got his
influence is a moot point and does
not make this film any less of a
masterpiece.
We begin with the young Count, a
ruthless warrior on his way to
defend against the enemies of Christ
by battling the Muslim Turks .
Acting on rage and a barbarian
instinct the count impaled countless
Turks across the countryside
gernering him the title of "Vlad the
Impaler." Although victorious, one
day an arrow is shot into the castle
of the Count with an attached note
stating that the Count has fallen in
battle. Distraught, Count Dracula's
young bride pens a suicide note
before plummeting hundreds of feet
to the sea below.
Count Dracula returns to find the
corpse of his bride at an altar, and
laments how a God he fought so
valiantly for could allow this to
happen. Insult is added to injury by
a priest who states that The Count's
beloved wife will never find heaven
because she took her own life thus
damning her soul for eternity. Count
Dracula then renounces Christ, and
thrusts his sword into the crucifix
causing a flow of the blood of life,
which he then drinks turning him
into the immortal bloodsucker we all
know and love.
This movie is so well made I could
go on for pages. However, I have
never liked reading lengthy reviews
of anything so I'll try to keep it
to a minimum.
Casting for the movie is fantastic.
I don't care much for Winona Ryder
or Keanu Reeves, but the
performances of Gary Oldman, Tom
Waits, and Anthony Hopkins'
masterful portrayal of Van Helsing
more than make up for this
oversight. The sets were epic, the
use of shadowing was amazing.
Basically this movie does a lot of
what other vampire movies fail to do
and that is to explain Dracula's
aversion to mirrors (vanity disgusts
him), crucifixes (he renounced
Christ remember?), why he has to
sleep in his native soil, etc.
Dracula also keeps a pretty
impressive stable of half-naked
vampi concubines (one played by the
beautiful Monica Bellucci.) The
three of which alone satisfy this
movies nudity quota.
Gary Oldman is by far the best
Dracula ever. Showing the Count in
all of his guises, wolves, bats,
rats, old, young. He turns women's
tears into diamonds (I hate when
guys do that, how can we lesser
mortals even compete with that?)
More simply put, he's charming as
hell, or slicker than whale shit in
an ice flow if you will.... Waits'
insect chomping Renfield is also one
of the more notable performances of
the film.
Excerpt from Horrorwatch.com located
HERE
The Video:
This looks like the same master source
from the latest SD DVDs (some compared
HERE), but here
improved/adjusted for High-Def. The
shadows and dark areas here are stronger
than in the DVD, I didn't find the
result bad since this is supposed to be
a dark movie and the intention behind
this enhancement of dark areas maybe be
related to the special effects, too much
brightness in High-Def could be
revealing. After watching the extras I
noticed that the hi-def images of the
movie (I am not referring to the "behind
the scenes" recording) used in the
Making-Of are indeed less contrasted and
more bright with more details available,
also making the artificial environment
perceivable.
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By watching the movie itself I already
noted the miniatures and the settings a
lot more in this Blu-Ray than on the SD DVD. But since there is a theater
feeling behind the whole movie and the
acting, I didn't find this overly distracting.
The special effects here are just a
detail anyway, and I don't believe they
were meant to fool the audience but
rather in a 'minimalist old-school
style', way to transmit this gothic
environment without deviating too much
attention from the superb acting and
narative.
So, having this belief in mind, I find
the upgrades from the SD DVD are quite
considerable. I couldn't actually find
any disturbing flaws - the red cast that
surrounds the movie is supposed to be
there, the high contrast as well. This
high exposure that sometimes hides
details is also supposed to be there,
but here it is more noticeable than
before, but still I wouldn't consider it
a problem.
The movie cinematography makes the
background difficult to be seen and
analyzed, not only by the intentional
blurriness but by the exposure as well.
On the other hand, everybody in the
foreground is detached, the a possibly
living dead appearance in the faces of
the characters is now evident. I have to
confess that watching this Blu- ray was
the first time I noticed Anthony Hopkins
plays two roles here, the priest who
announces the death of the Dracula's
wife, and Van Helsing. Many more details
made me appreciate this movie a bit
further with this Blu-Ray release.
Luiz R.
Screen Captures
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Audio:
Most of the scenes are conversations in a quiet environment. However, when
present, the surround environment(s) make their presence known. The best audio option is the PCM 5.1 uncompressed, although
I couldn't find much difference regarding
the voices compared with the 5.1 option. The whistling wind sounds
superior - ditto for
the rest of the background and soundtrack. It resembles CD
quality. I mean a real CD like sound not that crazy propaganda most DVDs
carry over. Other than that nothing much is left to evaluate the sound, but I
feel this is an above-average mix for a Blu- Ray disc.
All the other languages seemed to have the same quality as the English
Dolby Digital 5.1, the only differences are regarding the volume
adjustment and the dubbing. The Russian comes in a 4.0 option instead of
5.1 but sounded quite similar to the others.
EXTRAS:
This is one of the standard released Blu-rays with more supplements
available. I believe they are the same release in the "Collector's
Edition DVD", but some are now in high definition and the pleasant part
is that all of them are subtitled, even the audio commentary, in English
and some other languages like Portuguese and even Korean.
All the documentaries have their value, and actually I don't know if
anything more interesting could be added to make this package more
worthy. You have many features that range from the making of to the
costume design. Two good short documentaries about the visual effects,
that will give you an insight of the good and original ideas used to
make this film.
The the amount of deleted scenes included is impressive, more than 30
minutes, including an alternative ending. IMO, they should stay as
deleted scenes, but I still found this raw collection of cuts
interesting to watch.
This is probably the best kit of extra I found in a single disc release
and I am satisfied, even more considering the price.
SUBTITLES:
There are plenty of subtitles available, I'll just comment about the
Portuguese subtitle which is another language I think I understand.
It is a bit different from a Brazilian edition I have previously seen,
it is better at times but doesn't seem to keep with the classic English
style spoken. Actually this style also varies during the film as the
English accent quality osculates from actor to actor... in general I would
say it is a good translation - certainly not worse than the previous one available.
Menus
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BOTTOM LINE: Well, this one is famous/ This is that puritan love story about a Dracula who left Monica Belluci plus 2 bonus girlfriends behind to go after Wynona Ryder. And save for some casting discrepancies I consider this movie a great accomplishment in a chamber environment with theater like performances. This Blu-Ray was a pleasant surprise, and if I am not mistaken this is the first Copolla release in High-Def. I am happy with the result considering the stylistic intent. I think this a good addition to any Blu-Ray collection and makes this film experience even more enchanting.
Luiz R.

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