Chaotic ‘Van Helsing’ energized by charming fiends

In theaters

VAN HELSING, written and directed by Stephen Sommers, 124 minutes, rated PG-13.

The new pre-summer spectacle “Van Helsing” is loosely based on Bram Stoker’s famed stake-wielding character from his 1897 novel, “Dracula.” It’s not for the faint of heart, though it is perfectly suited for the hard of hearing.

The decibel level on this CGI powerhouse from Stephen Sommers (“The Mummy,” “The Mummy Returns”) is jacked so high, there’s the sense that the filmmakers wanted everyone to join in the fun – those in the theater next to you, those in the next state, and perhaps even Stoker himself, who has been dead 92 years, but who has no doubt heard every word of this movie from his London grave.

The film, which Sommers based on his own script, follows last year’s “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” in that it gathers together several well-known monsters and villains from the past, and allows them to go at each other’s undead throats for the better half of two hours.

The difference between the films? As chaotic and as overblown as “Van Helsing” is, it never wants for energy, it doesn’t take itself seriously, and as a whole, it’s rather fun – elements the overbearing “Gentlemen” lacked.

The movie stars Hugh Jackman as Van Helsing, who has had something of an extreme makeover since Anthony Hopkins played him in 1992’s “Dracula.” Indeed, the only thing sagging on this Van Helsing is the brim of his hat.

Otherwise, he’s buff and young, a swarthy tough who finds himself multi-tasking for the Vatican.

Van Helsing has been charged to kill Count Dracula, who is played by Richard Roxburgh in the sort of buckles-and-brocade attire favored by Michael Jackson during his “Bad” period. Drac’s drag is unsettling, yes, but what’s more unsettling is that in order to kill the count, Van Helsing will first need to go through Frankenstein’s monster (Shuler Hensley), who turns out to be an intellectual softy, and the Wolf Man (Will Kemp), whose bite apparently holds the key to killing Dracula. Who knew?

Tossed into the mix is Kate Beckinsale’s Anna Valerious, who sounds like an invasive species of plant and who behaves like one, too.

She’s a hot piece of work, sporting Lara Croft’s body and double her attitude, and she undulates on screen in ways that would make the folks at a red light district blush. Her tart, rolling Romanian accent gives the film the necessary jolt of camp it needs, but then so do the three shrieking, winged vamps (Josie Maran, Elena Anaya and Silvia Colloca) who take to the skies to do Dracula’s dirty work.

In a bloodthirsty, dead-three-centuries sort of way, they’re perfectly charming if a bit high-strung and unmannered, which proves fitting for this $150 million blockbuster that embraces the same qualities and launches us fully into the summer movie season.

Grade: B

On video and DVD

IN AMERICA, directed by Jim Sheridan, written by Sheridan, Naomi Sheridan, Kirsten Sheridan, 103 minutes, rated R.

Jim Sheridan’s “In America” is a semi-autobiographical account of the Irish director’s grueling early years in America, when he left Canada with his wife and two young daughters in tow and moved to Manhattan with barely a month’s rent in hand.

It was a life-altering risk, with the Sheridans taking up residence at a Hell’s Kitchen tenement. There, where junkies roamed the corridors and transients begged on the street, they hoped to start life anew, leaving behind memories of a relative’s tragic death, which has changed each of them in ways none fully realize or comprehend.

But they will.

As written by Sheridan (“My Left Foot”) and his two adult daughters, Naomi and Kirsten Sheridan, this modestly fictionalized account, loosely set in 1982, is filled with the sort of sharp details that smack of life lived – and lived hard.

It stars Paddy Considine and Samantha Morton as Johnny and Sarah Sullivan, with the gifted, real-life sisters Sarah and Emma Bolger as their daughters, 11-year-old Christy and 6-year-old Ariel.

Initially, they seem like an average family, with Christy capturing their experiences on her camcorder. What she films is episodic, chronicling how the Sullivans came to fall apart and put themselves back together again with the help of a dying African shaman named Mateo (Djimon Hounsou).

Nothing in the early scenes prepares you for the overwhelming grief these characters must face if they’re to press on with their lives. By extension, we must face it along with them, and it can be wrenching, particularly toward the end, when this film about the bonds of a family – and what it means to be a family – takes hold in ways that won’t be revealed here.

Grade: A-

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, 5:30 p.m. Thursdays on WLBZ 2 Bangor and WCSH 6 Portland, and are archived on RottenTomatoes.com. He can be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.