Dracula -- 1992 -- R

aka: Bram Stoker's Dracula

Despite the title, Francis Ford Coppola's version of the classic vampire story holds true to the novel in some ways, but departs completely in others. The most outstanding example is that the novel is no where near as erotic and sensual as this film is. Pretty much the entire sequence of Dracula following Mina around town never occurred in the book. In fact, Mina is nearly nonexistent from the novel except where Lucy is concerned, and then she runs off to Jonathon upon hearing from him.

The relationship between Mina and Dracula is an element of the film only. The novel contained no Elisabeta and no sequence where Dracula was damned. Mina's desire to drink the count's blood, while so willing in the film, is described like this in the book: "The attitude of the two had a terrible resemblance to a child forcing a kitten's nose into a saucer of milk to compel it to drink." Mina herself says later that she was forced to suffocate or drink.

The film taken on its own, it plays remarkably well. The characters are fairly well rounded, and the plot moves at a good pace. The relationship between Mina and Jonathon is not as well as it really should have been made, since you feel like she should be with Dracula and even feel a bit sorry for the count when he loses her.

It did do a good job of condensing the novel into a conhesive whole with the wealth of characters contained in the book. Dracula is extremely creepy and very well conceived in this version. He doesn't walk; he glides. His shadow has a mind of its own. Very awesome. He also plays as a very threatening character; one to be feared and not underestimated.

Compared to novel: extra plot never contained kind of takes away from the horror element. As a film alone: excellent.

Prelude to a Kiss -- 1992 -- PG-13

I watched this one as I watch a lot of films: knowing absolutely nothing but the title and maybe some cover art. I knew about Meg Ryan and Alec Baldwin, so I made the RomCom assumption. It moved rather fast through the first 45 minutes. I was beginning to wonder what I was in for since it was breaking a lot of coventions. My shocker came at the halfway point. The movie makes no secret of what went on if you're paying attention.

This bizarre twist is what makes this film unique in the romcom world. After this halfway point, we have a totally differnet movie to work through, and to be honest, this is where it started slowing down. Through several scenes, the point was reached very quickly, but the scene continued. I wanted to move on. The old man tended to chatter on a long time when he was on screen despite his identity. It was strange and just a reversal from the characters we met in the first half.

The separation part of this one was uncommonly long, but uncommon anyway since it was only kind of a separation. Once we started moving into the final 15 minutes, the pace picked back up and the climax was very satisfying.

It's not a bad film, and it's unique enough to work well with me. I definitely did not see what happened at the halfway point coming at all, and the rest remained fairly unpredictable as well. Despite a few slow spots, it was good.

El Mariachi -- 1992 -- R

This is Robert Rodriguez's revered "$7,000 film" that got him into the Hollywood circles. I actually read quite a bit on this before I watched the film, including Rodriguez's book, Rebel Without a Crew.

The plot is very simple: a mariachi comes to town with his guitar looking for work. In fact, he's willing to work just for tips. Little does he know that a thug has recently escaped from jail, dressed in black like our mariachi and carrying a guitar case full of weapons. This similarity creates a mix-up for the bad guys and they believe that our hero is actually the other bad guy they're looking for. Insert chase scene and a little romance from all parties involved and you've got the film.

This is a film that moves very quickly when it has to, and slows down to get to know the characters at least a little better. No one is fleshed out to an extreme here, but we get a sense of who everyone is, and know the names of all the principals, including what they appear to be capable of. The plot flows very smoothly from point to point, and considering I know what went into making it, it's a rather impressive piece of work.

So in the end, it's not that bad. There are some hiccups here and there (especially the opening "escape" from jail), but it works. It's an action film and plays out like an action film.

Reservoir Dogs -- 1992 -- R

Catching another flick of Quentin Tarantino that makes the top 250 list, as most of his films have done. He has a knack for creating a good story and good characters, and this was an early effort for him.

The plot involves a group of hoods who plan to heist some diamonds from a wholesaler. Everything is worked out before hand, and it seems all the bases have been covered. However, something goes terribly wrong. The cops are right there to nab them, and the shooting begins. There is a rat on the team, but no one knows who it is. There is no investigation here. We are placed on a journey into each character's life prior to the event to fin out for ourselves who is in it for who.

When it comes to plotting, this one is as unconventional as Pulp Fiction, but in a simpler manner. We get some literal BS-ing at the beginning to introduce us to everyone, and then flash right to the end of everything to make us wonder what the heck happened, and then flashback to each character's prep prior to the crime. Wonderful way to build a world, and a style that Tarantino does a lot in his films to ensure the audience stays interested in a very, very simple plot.

The film is played for the characters and dialogue. This is Tarantino's forte right here. This is the most important part of any film and he knows it, and it is milked to its fullest. We know each character by the time the end comes and though twists will happen, none of them come as a big surprise. Instead of being shocked and instead of playing into an inevitability, we don't really know what will happen, but when it does, it works.

I don't have any major problems with this one with the exception of some of the dialogue scenes running a bit too long on occasion, but this is a perennial problem in Q's films which balances out his strengths.

It's a classic flick in film history, and established Quentin Tarantino as a formidable force in the business. Definitely something worth watching, but not for the squeamish or bleeding eared.

Amityville: It's About Time -- 1992 -- R

This is actually the sixth film in the Amityville saga. I'm unable to watch the 4th and 5th films because they aren't out on video, but from what I've been able to gather, I haven't missed much, and this one works pretty much on its own. Let's face it, the demonic possession is the star here, and we have that, so on we go.

This installment involves a place far, far removed from Amityville itself. A guy comes home after working in Amityville on a housing project. With him, he brings a clock that appears to be an antique, and he says it's just what their new house needs. The clock was apparently part of the original Amityville house and as such, is possessed. Its presence causes all kinds of weirdness to go on before people start dropping dead. Of course, you have the weird neighbor who just happens to have all the right occult books that show pictures of the clock and the original amityville house and a picture of the very room that the clock was in so we could get that relationship. And of course, the people who know all about it are the first to either die or disappear so they can't warn anyone else.

The characters here exist to service the plot. There's very little to any of them so it's difficult to make any kind of connection. The weirdness is weird for the sake of being weird; it has very little correlation to the overall story in most cases. The black goo that was introduced in 3-D appears to be a very prevalent feature now. In 1 & 2, it wasn't black goo; it was blood.

In this one, they had the daughter become overly sexual in response to the demon possessed clock (you figure out the relationship there). What was her one sexual act? Seducing the boy she'd been seeing into the basement by removing her skimpy clothing...and waiting for him in her stock bra and oversized granny panties...huh? One would think we would be in for lingerie based on the way she was dressed before, but I guess she wouldn't have any? I dunno. It was pretty weird.

The plot was not complicated at all. Bring in weird clock. Clock does weird things. There's not much to know about continuity or anything else in this one. It's just a thin plot line of "figure it out or survive it" for those involved. But the hardest part is figuring out a way to end it that is satisfying and sensible. Hm...

I saw the ultimate ending coming some time before we got there. You deal with time, you occasionally get endings like this one. Not too spectacular, but not too bad either. Inevitable really.

So after it all, the movie isn't bad. It's kind of a stock horror flick with quite a few cliches and conventions we've come to expect from a film of the genre. I do appreciate that they took a bit of a different direction with the franchise than just another haunted house movie. Possessed items are nothing new, but I supposed it kept the fans satisfied in the age of horror sequels.

To put this in perspective, at this time, Nightmare on Elm Street had just come out with their 6th, Friday the 13th with their 7th, and Halloween's most recent was the 5th. Amityville was working hard to keep up, but theirs were direct to video releases.