Dracula: Dead and Loving It

Even Mel Brooks' best movies have a fairly high groaner-to-zinger ratio, so it's almost beside the point to complain that this long overdue companion to Young Frankenstein could have used judicious script editing. The real problem here is Leslie Nielsen, who can be funny playing stolid and stupid but who doesn't come close to living up to Brooks' conception of Dracula, which demands someone a bit more ethnic than this WASPish actor. When he scolds his misbehaving thralls by asking, ''Do you think this makes me proud of you?'' it's amusing, but not as funny as what Gene Wilder — or almost any other performer with a Jewish mother — could have made it. As goofy as the nonstop shtick gets, Dracula: Dead and Loving It zips by on the home screen quicker than the sun can reduce the undead to dust. B-

You Might Also Like

• Video News Mel Brooks sits down for some stupid questions | Scott Brown
• Video News MEL APPROPRIATION | Steve Daly
• Video News BABY-FACE NIELSEN | Steve Daly
• What's Cool Peter MacNicol wants to avoid attention | Bret Watson