The story moves along at a steady pace (despite its unwieldy 21/4-hour length) but doesn't have any real focus. What's more, those expecting a horror film will be sorely disappointed. There are no real scares here, no tension or suspense. Rather, Coppola has crafted a gothic romance that occasionally goes off half-cocked in bizarre directions — here it veers into splatter film territory, there it becomes an anti-biblical epic. There are even scenes that pay homage to, of all things, "The Exorcist" (Lucy's projectile vomiting of blood all over Van Helsing) and "Stage-coach" (a chase toward the end that looks like it came straight out of an old Western). (The climax also has a rather tasteless moment when Dracula utters two lines of dialogue that are biblical quotations spoken by Jesus Christ on the cross.)

Even the performances are all over the map. While Oldman, Hopkins and Waits vie to see who can go farthest over the top, Reeves is stiff as a board (and very uncomfortable with his affected English accent) and Campbell plays his role like a cartoon cowboy. Only Winona Ryder seems as if she'll escape unscathed, and even she is required to go batty (so to speak) before it's all over.

Coppola and friends offer some interesting visual tricks and certainly the costumes, set design and special effects are occasionally eye-popping. But in the end it is all for naught. The story is overwhelmed by Coppola's bigger-is-better approach and the characters just never get very interesting.

In other words, "Bram Stoker's Dracula" has no bite.

The film is rated a very hard R for considerable violence, gore, sex and nudity, along with a bit of profanity and vulgarity and a scene that appears to have Dr. Seward abusing drugs.