Way back in the mists of time Abbot and Costello we're given license to peddle their trademark comic schtick on screen alongside the stars of the Universal horror vault. Thus an unsuspecting world was given Abbot and Costello and The Mummy, Abbot and Costello and Dracula, Abbot and Costello and The Wolfman and countless more. Return to the present day and writer-director Stephen Sommers has been handed a similar deal. Thus the set-up of his hokey but entertaining Deep Rising has been reworked to spawn The Mummy, The Mummy Returns and now Van Helsing.
The plot of Van Helsing is based on Bram Stoker's Dracula about as loosely as a sumo wrestlers cat-suit would fit posh spice. So if your tongue is placed firmly in your cheek then we will begin. After disposing of Dr Jekyll / Mr Hyde in Notre Dame Cathedral bounty hunter Van Helsing is given orders by the Vatican to hunt down Dracula. Along the way he encounters a gypsy princess, werewolves and Frankenstein's monster without batting an eye-lid.
In case you hadn't guessed Van Helsing makes no attempt to be a serious film. As Van Helsing Hugh Jackman is armed to the teeth with semi-automatic crossbows, mini circular saws and enough one liners to fill a comedy convention. Jackman plays his Wolverine persona for laughs with admirable ease whilst Kate Beckinsale, as the female lead, finally demonstrates that she can do action films after the atrocity that was Underworld. The supporting cast are basically playing panto but with the viewer enjoying it as much as they are.
This is now the fourth time in a row that Sommers has made the same film. As such everything has been turned up to 11 to keep things interesting for him. As such we have three legends where one would do, the threat of the entire world being destroyed instead of just our heroes and the local vicinity and the cliff hander set pieces resolving themselves not so much at the last second but a few minutes after you'd sworn they should have all been dead.
The film survives this burden by virtue of it's slick pacing, thankfully undiluted by a syrupy romantic sub-plot. The closest Van Helsing may come to a classic is in the "freely adapted from the book by..." credits at the end, but it should still entertain anyone looking for a couple of hours of action nonsense.