by Mark McNamara

Dracula, Judas and Noah Wyle combine for the type of high-end family entertainment typical of the franchise.

There’s a vampire theme in “The Librarian: Curse of the Judas Chalice,” which in these “Twilight”/”True Blood” days might feel like, um, overkill, but try not to let it bother you.

For one thing, like its predecessors “Quest for the Spear” and “Return to King Solomon’s Mines,” this third “Librarian” film is an old-fashioned family flick with an emphasis on humor, adventure and chaste romance over disturbing sexual metaphor.

It stars, once again, the doe-eyed, PG-appealing Noah Wyle as Flynn Carsen, a callow brainiac pried out of his 15-year college plan to work for the mysterious Metropolitan Library, where, under the watchful eyes of the head librarian (Bob Newhart), many treasures of yore are kept safe. There’s Pandora’s box and Excalibur, the Ark of the Covenant (apparently whatever Indiana Jones found was a fake) and a real live unicorn. Flynn’s job is to procure more of the same, usually a half a step ahead of some dastardly band with nefarious plans.

“Curse of the Judas Chalice” opens in Bucharest (and really, all you have to do is flash “Bucharest” across the screen to know something at least semi-wicked this way comes), where the frail but feisty Professor Lazlo (Bruce Davison) is finishing up a lecture on Romanian history, after which he ruefully acknowledges that all anyone cares about is Vlad the Impaler, a.k.a. Dracula. Minutes later, Lazlo is kidnapped by Russians searching for the cup made from the 30 coins paid to Judas for his betrayal of Jesus. They hope to use it to reanimate, you guessed it, Dracula.

Meanwhile, our man Flynn has problems of his own. He’s bidding on a Ming vase that has its own little secret, but he’s also trying to placate his girlfriend, who’s getting sick of him disappearing for no good reason (his adventures are, of course, secret).

He gets the vase but loses the girl and finds himself reading the riot act to the head librarian and his curmudgeonly head of personnel (Jane Curtin).

So instead of accepting the assignment to find Lazlo, he goes on vacation. A dream of a beautiful woman takes him to New Orleans, where he not only finds her, Day One, but he is also instantly drawn into the whole Judas chalice situation. Soon he’s racing around colorful New Orleans with a canny local sidekick and the mysterious Simone (Stana Katic), trying to stop a bunch of guys who are probably all named Boris from bringing Dracula back to life.

See, when you say it out loud, it sounds silly. But it’s very fun to watch, and if the theory that Judas Iscariot was the world’s first vampire might not stand up, well, it’s as nifty a plot twist as any. It helps that Katic is as good as she is, but what’s great about “Curse of the Judas Chalice” and the Librarian films in general is that they are the rarest of breeds — high-end family entertainment. (Writer Marco Schnabel and director Jonathan Frakes again did the honors.)

Wyle is funny and charming and dispenses just enough fascinating arcane knowledge to keep things semi-educational, the special effects are great, Newhart and Curtin are always great to see, the ubiquitous Davison (“Knight Rider”) is obviously having a blast as Lazlo, and really, who doesn’t like a good vampire story?

Popularity: 67% [?]

The world is in danger of being overrun by vampires, and the only person who can prevent it from happening is Flynn Carsen in the third installment of TNT’s hugely successful Librarian franchise, starring Noah Wyle (ER). THE LIBRARIAN: CURSE OF THE JUDAS CHALICE, co-starring Bob Newhart (Elf, The Bob Newhart Show) and Jane Curtin (Our Town, 3rd Rock from the Sun), sends the bookish hero Flynn to New Orleans, where he tries to undo a nefarious vampire plot and rescue a kidnapped professor (Bruce Davison – X-Men, Knight Rider) with the help of a beautiful chanteuse (Stana Katic – Feast of Love). THE LIBRARIAN: CURSE OF THE JUDAS CHALICE was directed by Jonathan Frakes (Star Trek: The Next Generation), who also directed the second Librarian installment, The Librarian: Return to King Solomon’s Mines. The story opens with the kidnapping of Professor Lazlo (Davison), a brilliant language and history expert at the University of Bucharest. Elderly and using a crutch to walk, he is taken hostage by a group that wants to force him to locate the Judas Chalice. They hope to use the cup – which was made from the 30 pieces of silver Judas received for betraying Jesus – to bring the notorious Prince Vlad Dracul back to life and foist evil on the world. Meanwhile, Flynn heads to New Orleans for what he hopes will be a vacation. He has been summoned through mysterious dreams by Simone Renoir (Katic), a gorgeous New Orleans jazz club singer. She has made it her mission to keep the location of the Judas Chalice a secret so it won’t fall into the wrong hands. When the secret is accidentally revealed and the cup taken, Flynn and Simone must do everything in their power to prevent Vlad Dracul from casting the entire world into shadow. Helping from the sidelines are Judson (Newhart), the enigmatic and always surprising head of the Library, and Charlene (Curtin), the extremely serious-minded, no-nonsense personnel director. THE LIBRARIAN: THE CURSE OF THE JUDAS CHALICE was executive-produced by Electric Entertainment’s Dean Devlin, Kearie Peak and Marc Roskin. Wyle and Electric’s Phil Goldfarb produced the movie, with the company’s Rachel Olschan co-producing. The teleplay is by Marco Schnabel. TNT’s Librarian franchise of movies has proved enormously successful. The first installment, The Librarian: Quest for the Spear, ranked as ad-supported cable’s #1 movie of 2004. The second installment, The Librarian: Return to King Solomon’s Mines, ranks as ad-supported cable’s #1 original movie sequel of all time and placed among the top five movie telecasts of 2006.

Popularity: 81% [?]