VAN HELSING

Scifind.co.uk rating - 3 - out of 5.

Reviewed By: Paul Mount

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Kate Beckinsale, Richard Roxburgh, David Wenham,

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Riddle me this: when is a horror film not a horror film? When it's directed by Stephen Sommers, of course!! You may not think it's the funniest joke you've ever heard but I can guarantee that, halfway into this exhausting, noisy CGI-bloated pantomime of a movie, you'll be firmly of the opinion that this really is no laughing matter at all.

Having already successful turned the Mummy into a lucrative mini-franchise, it's hardly surprising that Sommers turned to the rest of the old Universal coterie of monsters for his new adventure film. The gang's all here - Dracula, the Wolfman, the Frankenstein Monster, Dr Victor Frankenstein, Igor, the brides of Dracula - with hunky Hugh Jackman cast as a thinly-disguised 19th century James Bond figure who spends his life wiping out supernatural bad guys on the orders of the Vatican (presumably as MI5 hasn't been invented yet). Fo