Sillier than a bat in a catsuit

'It's alive!' shrieks Dr 'Veektorrrr' Frankenstein, opening mega-budget monster movie Van Helsing with a melodramatic campness even the Carry On team would consider OTT.

Still, start as you mean to go on: this film packs in so many Gothic clichès there's barely room for hunky monster-slayer Gabriel Van Helsing (Hugh Jackman) to swing a bat. Crippled by amnesia and a comedy friar sidekick (David Wenham), Van Helsing is on a mission to destroy Count Dracula. But he bites off more than he can chew: a party-size pack of werewolves, Frankenstein's assorted creatures, vampirettes and even Jekyll and Hyde.

At least he's got an Indiana Jones hat, a rippling torso (woof!) and corseted vampirespiking aristo Anna Valerious (Kate Beckinsale) to keep his tail wagging.

And writer/director Stephen (The Mummy) Sommers's latest venture into old-fashioned fantasy with newfangled SFX may be sillier than a bat in a catsuit but, surprisingly, it's no hatchet job.

Van Helsing
Cert: cert12A