Popcorn Perspectives with Danny Minton
Week of February 2, 2026
Dracula
Rated R for Violence, some gore and sexuality
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 54%
In Theaters
The Fifth Element creator Luc Besson is back in action, taking on the legendary romantic story of Count Dracula. Originally called Dracula: A Love Tale when it was release in Europe last summer to a mediocre reception, the movie is finally getting its U.S. debut, where it hopes to do at least slightly better. Dallas area’s own Caleb Landry Jones plays Vlad, set against Christoph Waltz’s priest, who becomes the film’s Van Helsing character, in spirit, not by name. Production-wise the film is beautiful and flashy, fully reminiscent of a Luc Besson production. They went all out on costume, makeup and set design, and the score by Oscar-winning composer Danny Elfman is truly remarkable. It will be hitting my playlist regularly now that I have discovered it. Where the movie struggles is it feels like Besson got his inspiration far more from watching other Dracula movies and less so from the book. In this regard, it is almost too much like Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula then it should have been. Sure, they embellished and changed some things up, but many of the elements are still there in full display. That being said, I really liked Caleb’s portrayal of the count, even if the actors around him were a bit boring for a film such as this. When he is on screen, you don’t really need much more. I like Christoph Waltz in nearly anything he does. Here he is a bit underused, but still strong. Having him play roles like this in Frankenstein and Dracula back-to-back is an odd choice for him to make, but technically this one did release first, at least for most of the movie-watching world. The most important requirement here is the film’s entertainment value, which fortunately the film manages to pull off. It was beautiful to watch and engaging from end to end, even if it had its problems here and there. I can easily see it as a decent date night movie, much more so than the other options showing in theaters right now. B