Hugh Jackman's Forgotten Movie Is Crushing Netflix World Wide

Hugh Jackman has many talents, such as singing, dancing, acting, and fighting with giant blades that shoot out of his knuckles.

He's such a versatile actor, you could be forgiven for forgetting at least a few of his many movies. But, if you've been trying to get through his entire portfolio, or you like movies packed with literary monsters redone with a side of camp, there is a Hugh Jackman movie crushing it on Netflix internationally that needs to go straight onto your watch list.

Van Helsing came out in 2004. In the Hugh Jackman timeline we are all blessed to be living in, that's between the second and third X-Men movies. In the movie, Jackman plays a vampire hunter fans of the novel Dracula may remember, but in a very different vein than the original incarnation.

The movie did respectably well at the box office when it was released. In fact, it made nearly twice its budget. But it never achieved the same sequel-worthy status as other monster movie reboots like Brendan Fraser's The Mummy.

In fairness, the lack a follow-up for Van Helsing may have partly come down to Jackman's extremely tight schedule. But those who saw and appreciated Van Helsing know that it should have received the same level of appreciation as other popcorn franchises that came out around the same time.

And maybe it will, now that it's been resurrected on streaming.

Full disclosure: Jackman's title character doesn't just hunt vampires, which is a key reason this movie is so fun. He works for the Vatican hunting all sorts of unholy monsters that have popped up in unholy literature over the centuries.

“Bless me Father for I have--”

“Sinned. Yes. I know.”

After dispatching Mr. Hyde, Van Helsing is sent to Transylvania to help the last remaining member of the cursed Valerious family fight off a scourge of vampires. Not just any vampires: this is Count Dracula and his three brides, plus the thousands of baby vampires they're working to create with a machine made by a mad scientist. But the last member of the Valerious family, Anna, doesn't want Van Helsing's help in taking out the threat — at least at first.

The story takes many twists, each of them introducing new monsters and unlikely magical scenarios, and great fight scene set-pieces. Spoiler alert: There's also Frankenstein, and in an exceptionally over-the-top twist, he turns out to play a key role in vampire reproduction. Yup — sounds crazy, but it all makes sense within Van Helsing's wild continuity.

Like we said earlier, Van Helsing landed right in the middle of Hugh Jackman's original Wolverine era, when the actor's best traits were his fight moves, quips, and trademark surliness. The character in Van Helsing is surprisingly similar, if a little more soulful. He is one of the Vatican's dark secrets, after all. If you love watching Hugh Jackman bring his unique brand of impossibly proportioned muscles to choreographed stunts and fights with his winning Aussie charm tacked on as a bonus, you will definitely find something to enjoy in Van Helsing.

Even if you're less a Hugh Jackman fan than you are a monster movie fan, the chances are high that Van Helsing is your kind of movie. It's written and directed by Stephen Sommers, who also wrote and directed the underrated adventure films The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, and it pays homage to the old monster movies of the '30s and '40s, with as much relish as those other action classics. The monsters-per-minute ratio is also even higher in Van Helsing than it is in The Mummy, so if you enjoyed Sommers' other monster projects, you'll like this too.

Really the only people who probably wouldn't enjoy Van Helsing are those who can't bear to see literary monsters reinterpreted for a new audience in such a radical, violent way. This movie is over the top, paced to keep you interested, and about as fun as you'd think battling hundreds of baby vampires with an automated crossbow that shoots stakes like a machine gun would be. It's exactly as fun as that.

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