Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995) * 1/2 (out of 4)Van Helsing (Mel Brooks) must go up against Count Dracula (Leslie Nielsen) in this spoof of every Dracula film ever made.Mel Brooks had hit a grand slam years earlier with YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN, which was his and Gene Wilder's homage to the old Universal FRANKENSTEIN pictures. It seems like it would be a good idea to do the same thing to the DRACULA pictures but sadly the results are the worst of the filmmaker's career. DRACULA: DEAD AND LOVING IT took a beating from critics and it crashed and burned at the box office and both of those things might be why Brooks walked away from making movies.It's really too bad that this film turned out so bad but there's just not much here. A lot of the dialogue is from the 1931 DRACULA with Bela Lugosi and when you think about it not much is done with it here. The dialogue is said in silly ways but did Brooks really think people would find that funny? The entire film is just a copy of other Dracula movies but we get one quick joke but that joke often fails. I've said this before but it's clear Brooks didn't adjust with the times because this type of comedy just wasn't acceptable anymore.The film got a pretty good cast for it with Nielsen making a good choice to play Dracula but the screenplay basically gives him nothing to do. He never gets to sink his teeth into the role or his own comic greatness. The film does have a couple decent laughs including the spider web sequence at the start as well as the stake through the heart scene where blood goes gushing.

"Dracula: Dead and Loving It" is another parody of Mel Brooks, this time based on the Bram Stoker's novel "Dracula" and its characters. The spoof has funny moments, especially for Mel Brooks' fans. Leslie Nielsen is good as usual in this type of movie that he became the greatest name but Peter MacNicol steals the show in the role of Renfield. The sequences of Harker impaling a stake in Lucy following the instructions of Professor Van Helsing and the ball with Dracula fleeing and Reinfield trying to save his master are the best moments of this film. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Drácula - Morto Mas Feliz ("Dracula - Dead but Happy")

Many people seem to have watched this movie based on its connection with Mel Brooks. Brooks was the producer, director, writer and one of the stars, playing Van Helsing. I'm honestly not much of a fan of Brooks, but I do enjoy Leslie Nielsen, who starred as Count Dracula. Nielsen had made quite a name for himself as a comedian in the previous few years in the Airplane and Naked Gun series. But, to me, Nielsen and Brooks have very different styles, and this was clearly a Mel Brooks movie - heavy on slapstick stuff. What made Nielsen so funny in the aforementioned movies was his absolute deadpan style. That wasn't much in evidence here. This was meant to be slapstick silly. And it was. It wasn't the sort of Nielsen comedy I usually enjoy.In fairness, this movie sticks reasonably close to the basics of the story. In that, it's a reasonably well done horror spoof, and the cast all try. My basic problem with it was that, unlike many, I just didn't find it very funny. There were a few chuckles, but nothing more. Your level of enjoyment of this movie will probably depend, like mine, on whether Brooks or Nielsen are your draw. If you like Brooks, you'll like this. If you're looking for a more typical Nielsen style, you'll find something lacking. Maybe, in fact, you'll find a lot lacking. (3/10)

Like others, I had heard many awful things about Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995). Given the quality of Mel Brooks' cinematic output after the 1980s, I assumed this was going to be terrible, but once I got twenty minutes in, I was surprised at how much I was laughing. This is a solid parody of the cinematic versions of Dracula, spoofing everything from the silent Nosferatu (1922) to the then-recent Ford Coppola version. Of course, most of the humor is derived from the now-campy 1931 classic, but luckily, the jokes are never mean-spirited and it's obvious (as it was in Young Frankenstein) that Brooks and the other cast members have a lot of love for the Universal Horrors of the 30s and 40s while admitting their hokier aspects.Sure, some of the gags are stupid (the enema running gag is the epitome of childish but hilarious humor). And some of the scenes seem to be there only to pad the running time (the first dance scene between Dracula and Mina (the one without the mirror) comes to mind). However, the actors all do amazing jobs, especially Peter MacNicol as Renfield, who does such a spot-on impersonation of Dwight Frye that you cannot help but be impressed. He also steals the show from even Leslie Nielson and Harvey Korman, both funny, funny men.Is it Young Frankenstein (1974)? Not at all, but it's a pleasant spoof with more hits than misses.