Review: Van Helsing
Another reminder that big budgets don’t make good movies. Having director Stephen Sommers touch 3 Mummy movies showed that already, and this continues throughout his career (anybody still having nightmares from Deep Rising ? Or did you block it from your memory ?) With only 2 more movies beating the budget (excluding advertisement, Spiderman 2 and Troy) on this current summer movie slate, one can only hope the worst is over. The movie is piece by piece designed for budget eating scenes and surroundings. Stitched together with chillingly cold dialogues and the occasional stiff punchline, the story is hard to find, as is the acting. All the over-acting villains sport a bad accent, and to make the tediousness complete, so does Kate Beckinsale. The score and special effects are overwhelmingly chaotic, but even then, even the insomniacs will doze off if they don’t pay attention (or the occasional self-pinch will help too).6.