Van Helsing is coming...

My life.
My job.
My curse...is to vanquish evil.

I saw the trailer for Van Helsing the other day before my wife and I saw the delightful Ladykillers. I don't think I've ever seen a trailer make a movie look so potentially bad. It works so hard to create this serious, dark, gothic look that your only possible response is to laugh. Rain, thunder, a guy dressed in a costume from a Duran Duran video fighting, get this, Dracula, the Wolfman, and um, uh ... oh yeah, Frankenstein. (Or as modern gothic afficianados call him: Frankenstein's monster.) A flash of humour in the trailer might have made it look worth watching, but no, all they serve up is this serious gothic nonsense. I caught a serious whiff of Waterworld when watching it.

But the funny thing is that I'm sure I'll wind up seeing the movie on the opening weekend. I've a friend who's also a stay-at-home father, and he has a fascination with examining the latest droppings from between Hollywood's cheeks as soon as he can. I'm the guy that comes along with him. Mostly it's been a good experience. I've seen a lot of good movies that I never would have had an interest to see on my own (like The Rundown, or The Missing) and got out of the house for a few precious hours. I'm expecting Van Helsing to be completely terrible, but can't wait until it gets here...