Dracula's assistant tried to break free of controlling narcissist in underachieving 'Renfield' | Movie review

Apr. 12—"He's a monster. He's a [expletive] [expletive] monster — that's what he is."

This line from the opening moments of "Renfield" — an action comedy that sees Dracula's assistant, R.M. Renfield, attempting to break away from his narcissistic, manipulative and bloodthirsty boss — isn't delivered by its titular figure. Instead, it is spoken by a woman talking about her crime-committing boyfriend in a support group for co-dependents that Renfield has been attending.

Although Redfield relates to the others in this group, he is attending largely to find food for Dracula. He can rid these folks of their monsters by delivering them to his, he figures. (And don't feel too bad for this next target. The woman's boyfriend also loves ska music, so, yeah, he's gotta go.)

In theaters this week, "Renfield" has all the makings of a really fun, relatively twisted comedy, and it gets its fair share of laughs. On the other hand, it's too interested in delivering on the "action" half of its genre classification, devoting a lot of time to heavily stylized fight sequences that mostly are only so-so.

The Renfield character was introduced with the 1897 publication of Bram Stoker's "Dracula" and has appeared in various adaptations of the novel. Here, as portrayed by Nicholas Hoult, the typically devoted Renfield has been mentally strained and emotionally drained from his many, many years serving the dark prince — portrayed, yes, by the one and only Nicolas Cage.

Dracs isn't living his best life these days and has been leaning hard on Renfield, not appreciating the decapitated lowlifes his servant has been offering him for sustenance. He requires "purity," he tells Renfield — a group of nuns, a busload of cheerleaders, etc. — to return to full power. Renfield isn't jazzed about this assignment.

Leaving his boss' rough-looking lair, Renfield walks the streets of New Orleans, where he encounters a virtuous police officer, Rebecca (Awkwafina), who's determined to do something about the city's crime family, the Lobos, which is responsible for her cop father's death.

When Rebecca runs afoul of Tedward Lobo (the always-funny Ben Schwartz, "The Afterparty") and his goons, Renfield — who draws supernatural powers from dining on insects — intervenes and we see sparks fly between the two.

Before long, Renfield has infuriated Dracula, and Rebecca has become a target of Lobo matriarch Bellafrancesca (Shohreh Aghdashloo, "The Expanse"), who controls most other cops in the city.

If you think this all sounds just a little bit complicated for a roughly 90-minute romp about Dracula's put-upon assistant, you'd be right. Penned by Ryan Ridley ("Rick and Morty"), working from a story by "The Walking Dead" creator Robert Kirkman, "Renfield" spends a lot of time moving its plot pieces into place for its big climax.

And then there's all that action, director Chris McKay ("The LEGO Batman Movie," "The Tomorrow War") perhaps mistaking "Renfield" for a Marvel movie. It's underwhelming but mostly fine — better when it's played laughs, as it is intermittently.

Throughout "Renfield," the chuckles simply don't come as steadily as they need to, which is surprising given the solid premise and that Hoult is hilarious in the excellent Hulu series "The Great" and Cage in last year's wink-wink affair "The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent." You can't help but laugh when Renfield attempts to fight Dracula with, of all things, a self-help book or when Cage cocks his eyebrow at just the right moment, but you're left wanting more.

Awkwafina ("Shang-Chi and the Legend of Ten Rings") helps carry the comedic load, largely by repeatedly cussing out a fellow officer, and Brandon Scott Jones ("Ghosts"), as the leader of the aforementioned support group, thoroughly steals a couple of scenes.

"Renfield" has much in common with "Cocaine Bear," which has performed fairly well at the box office since its late-February release: fun idea, talented actors, appealingly short runtime and ... ultimately a little disappointing. Oh! And there's a lot of coke in play in "Redfield," too! (And it's used cleverly deep into the affair.)

"Renfield" certainly doesn't suck ... your blood, but it doesn't quite satisfy your lust for laughs, either.

'Renfield'

Where; Theaters.

When: April 14.

Rated: R for bloody violence, some gore, language throughout and some drug use.

Runtime: 1 hour, 33 minutes.

Stars (of four): 2.