First brought to life on the big screen by Max Schrek, innovated by Bela Lugosi, and perfected in this adaptation of Bram Stoker's legend of a mysterious Transylvanian resident bent on turning the living into the undead and finding his longlost love, Francis Ford Coppola rebounded from the Godfather III (1990) fiasco to create a wonderfully cinematic piece of celluloid.

     Jonathan (Keanu Reeves, for some weird reason) travels to Transylvania to secure Carfax Abbey for the eccentric Count Dracula.  In doing so, he becomes his prisoner as the Count proceeds to kill everyone in his path to finding his lost love, played by the cute, but surprisingly unbelievable, Winona Ryder.  I guess Coppola forgot about Ryder's role in the debacle that went down two years prior.

     With captivating cinematography and a very creepy European soundtrack (capped off with the beautifully written 'Love Song for a Vampire' by Annie Lennox), this was truly a more surprising delight in an otherwise lackluster latter day career for Francis.

 

     What Makes This Movie Cool:  Gary Oldman.  This should have been what The Dark Knight (2008) was...an Oscar-worthy performance in an otherwise vanilla movie.  Say what you will, Gary's performance deserved to be nominated waaay more than Clint Eastwood's performance in Unforgiven (1992).  He gives the role grace, class, menace and a compassion that no other rendering of Dracula has been able to provide.