I'm taking my mom to see it on Sunday (Mother's Day) along with my dad. Both were fans of the original show.
Eva Green cast as female lead in Dark Shadows
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I'm taking my mom to see it on Sunday (Mother's Day) along with my dad. Both were fans of the original show.
It's tanking at the box office.
Even if the movie is good, those wretched ads are enough to kill it.
Even if the movie is good, those wretched ads are enough to kill it.
Still discouraging.
I saw it. Not a fan of the original show, in fact I've never seen it and likely never will, but I liked the movie. It's typical Tim Burton. I don't think it deserves all the negative reviews it's getting. It's not great cinema, but has anything Tim Burton ever done been that thrilling or insightful? He's directed some of my favorite movies ever, but mostly they're just fun. And Dark Shadows was definitely fun, for me anyway.
It reminded me most of "Mars Attacks", another movie I love and most people seem to despise. Both are weird, campy, full of jokes that are more amusing than gust-busting, and feature gleefully over the top set pieces that to the right eye are a treat to behold. To others, they're just silly and nonsensical.
In any case, I'm glad he's off doing remakes of children's books.
PS. I also saw the Avengers last week, which was undoubtedly better, I just didn't feel the need to post about it because the entire world already knows it is awesome.
hmmm.... I DID like Mars Attacks....
^^ And yet, if anything that was in the trailers is actually in the movie then it's too campy. 
The thing is, Mars Attacks was consistent with the source material.
Saw it yesterday and I'd say it's closer to Beetlejuice than anything else recently. Not as good as Beetlejuice. It is a little all over the place tone wise, the trailer is almost for a different film. It's not the comedy film the trailers made out but it is enjoyable overall.
The trailer is cut together in a way that the set ups and punchlines are different. So there's actually different jokes in the trailer than in the film. There is of course scenes that happen as in the trailer, but the tone is very different.
The trailer is cut together in a way that the set ups and punchlines are different. So there's actually different jokes in the trailer than in the film. There is of course scenes that happen as in the trailer, but the tone is very different.
Interesting comments, I've been wondering how this holds up as a "Tim Burton movie". I generally find something to like with them even if it's not how I'd have personally approached the material.
^^ And yet, if anything that was in the trailers is actually in the movie then it's too campy.
The thing is, Mars Attacks was consistent with the source material.
Kind of... the Mars Attacks trading cards were way more gruesome and far less comedic than the movie.
Dark Shadows, the movie, is also less of a comedy than Mars Attacks. Whether it's consistent with the source material, I couldn't and am not interested in saying.
I suspect it's all about your expectations. If you want yet another serious remake of the original series, you're probably in trouble. But if you go in expecting a horror-comedy along the lines of "Young Frankenstein" or "Fearless Vampire Killers," it looks like it might be fun.
Or maybe "Abbott & Costello Meet Barnabas"?
Or maybe "Abbott & Costello Meet Barnabas"?
Or maybe "Abbott & Costello Meet Barnabas"?
^^ And yet, if anything that was in the trailers is actually in the movie then it's too campy.
The thing is, Mars Attacks was consistent with the source material.
Doesn't much matter to me, I'm not really familiar with the source material. I'm looking to be entertained, that's all.
^I watched it via a friend's 8mm copy [!] about 1978 or so.A true classic!
I screened it on my college campus back in the eighties, when I was scheduling the film track for our local college sci-fi con . . . . .
I just finished watching the new movie.
I think it's a three hour movie that's been butchered to half it's length because someone is being a bastard with a cleaver.
I think it's a three hour movie that's been butchered to half it's length because someone is being a bastard with a cleaver.
just got back from seeing this. i enjoyed it. there are certain aspects that will make older fans go WTF. mostly Carolyn. wow, what they did to her came out of the blue. if you thought Roger was a colossal jerk in the original then be ready for new Roger. the cameo of the four original actors is a blink and you'll miss it scene.
still, it was a fun movie. not the comedy the trailers make it out to be. its more like Sleepy Hollow or Beetlejuice.
still, it was a fun movie. not the comedy the trailers make it out to be. its more like Sleepy Hollow or Beetlejuice.
Dark Shadows
My Grade: B-
-----------------------------
Today being Mother's Day I took my mom out to see this movie along with my dad, both of whom were fans of the original TV series/daytime drama of the same name that ran in the late '60s. We did AMC's "Fork and Screen" as they've never done it before.
I've never seen much of the original show nor its follow up made in sometime in the 1990s
The movie begins in the 18th century where a man -Barnabus Collins- tortured by the death of his parents and torn between two women who love him; one of whom a witch who has made him into a vampire in jealousy after finding out Branabas has fallen for the other woman. She curses the other woman to throw herself off a cliff and then a mob comes for Barnabas, locks him in a tomb, and buries him presumably for all time.
Flash-forward nearly 200 years to 1972 where the once proud and regal Collins estate and wealth has fallen to shambles and Barnabas is hopelessly out of touch with the world. His spurned lover still lives and is not too happy to find Barnabas out of the ground and that he is working to help revive the Collins family name and business, he has also fallen for a recently arrived young woman intending to work in the manor caring for the youngest heir to the Collins name.
The movie divides itself between dealing with the soap-opera-y drama/"love triangle" between Barnabas, Angelique (the witch) and Victoria (who isn't used a whole lot, but Barnabas falls for anyway because the plot says so...?), Barnabas dealing with reviving his manor and adapting to life in the 20th century. Much of the humor plays to that and it falls prey to the usual trope movies like this have that are set in a vintage time where things are too set for that time. In one scene Barnabas overlooks a table filled with pretty much every toy game that came out in the time period as well as him becoming fascinated with other conveniences of the time.
It would've maybe been better if the time period felt more "naturally like the time period" instead of "Hey! It's 1972!" being shoved in our faces all of the time.
Now, I'm usually pretty critical of Tim Burton as he pretty much makes movies the same way "South Park" suggests Family Guy makes episodes, unfortuantely Burton only has one trained otter and only the same handful of ping-pong balls. Say it with me:
Danny Elfman score.
Helena Bonham Carter
Johnny Depp
White facepaint.
Somehow here it all seems to work. The white-face makeup on some of the (supposedly living) characters is maybe too much and the white-pancake batter used on Depp to make him look maybe eternally 30 instead of the 50 he really is. In some scenes the dark makeup used to give him "cheek bones" makes his face look more like a skeleton skull than someone who lacks blood in what passes for his circulatory system.
As I said I've never seen the show, but my parents have and they really enjoyed and admitted the movie took liberties, changed some things and characterizations but on the whole enjoyed it if not for Depp's performance alone. Which, granted, is pretty good here and probably the "best work" he's done with Burton since Edward Scissorhands.
Overall, I think I mostly liked it. The set design and atmosphere is pretty well done (again the Burton-isms seem to work more here than they have for me in other recent movies of his), all of the actors certainly turn in good performances and the movie at times does feel like something of a better-acted soap-opera. Not being a fan of the show I can't say how others will like it but my parents sure seemed to enjoy it.
So, yeah. Not too bad, really. I was going in expecting a lot worse from the stuff I had read and heard about it and even seen from trailers (all seemed to imply Barnabas' adapting to 1972 was played up more.)
But.
yeah. Good time.
Besides, it's really hard to hate a movie that has Alice Cooper performing in it.
My Grade: B-
-----------------------------
Today being Mother's Day I took my mom out to see this movie along with my dad, both of whom were fans of the original TV series/daytime drama of the same name that ran in the late '60s. We did AMC's "Fork and Screen" as they've never done it before.
I've never seen much of the original show nor its follow up made in sometime in the 1990s
The movie begins in the 18th century where a man -Barnabus Collins- tortured by the death of his parents and torn between two women who love him; one of whom a witch who has made him into a vampire in jealousy after finding out Branabas has fallen for the other woman. She curses the other woman to throw herself off a cliff and then a mob comes for Barnabas, locks him in a tomb, and buries him presumably for all time.
Flash-forward nearly 200 years to 1972 where the once proud and regal Collins estate and wealth has fallen to shambles and Barnabas is hopelessly out of touch with the world. His spurned lover still lives and is not too happy to find Barnabas out of the ground and that he is working to help revive the Collins family name and business, he has also fallen for a recently arrived young woman intending to work in the manor caring for the youngest heir to the Collins name.
The movie divides itself between dealing with the soap-opera-y drama/"love triangle" between Barnabas, Angelique (the witch) and Victoria (who isn't used a whole lot, but Barnabas falls for anyway because the plot says so...?), Barnabas dealing with reviving his manor and adapting to life in the 20th century. Much of the humor plays to that and it falls prey to the usual trope movies like this have that are set in a vintage time where things are too set for that time. In one scene Barnabas overlooks a table filled with pretty much every toy game that came out in the time period as well as him becoming fascinated with other conveniences of the time.
It would've maybe been better if the time period felt more "naturally like the time period" instead of "Hey! It's 1972!" being shoved in our faces all of the time.
Now, I'm usually pretty critical of Tim Burton as he pretty much makes movies the same way "South Park" suggests Family Guy makes episodes, unfortuantely Burton only has one trained otter and only the same handful of ping-pong balls. Say it with me:
Danny Elfman score.
Helena Bonham Carter
Johnny Depp
White facepaint.
Somehow here it all seems to work. The white-face makeup on some of the (supposedly living) characters is maybe too much and the white-pancake batter used on Depp to make him look maybe eternally 30 instead of the 50 he really is. In some scenes the dark makeup used to give him "cheek bones" makes his face look more like a skeleton skull than someone who lacks blood in what passes for his circulatory system.
As I said I've never seen the show, but my parents have and they really enjoyed and admitted the movie took liberties, changed some things and characterizations but on the whole enjoyed it if not for Depp's performance alone. Which, granted, is pretty good here and probably the "best work" he's done with Burton since Edward Scissorhands.
Overall, I think I mostly liked it. The set design and atmosphere is pretty well done (again the Burton-isms seem to work more here than they have for me in other recent movies of his), all of the actors certainly turn in good performances and the movie at times does feel like something of a better-acted soap-opera. Not being a fan of the show I can't say how others will like it but my parents sure seemed to enjoy it.
So, yeah. Not too bad, really. I was going in expecting a lot worse from the stuff I had read and heard about it and even seen from trailers (all seemed to imply Barnabas' adapting to 1972 was played up more.)
But.
yeah. Good time.Besides, it's really hard to hate a movie that has Alice Cooper performing in it.