If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
The Blog
The problem with Dark Shadows is that it is not a comedy. It isn't a drama either. It is part camp and part horror flick and none of it works.
Two hundred years is a long time to revive a vampire, but then again, 40 years is long time to revive the first horror soap opera (not counting an earlier, feature adaptation and a TV reboot in the '90s).
Chaos, confusion and irritation best describe this forced gothic nightmare, based on the vampire soap opera from 1966.
On Friday, a very boring movie called Dark Shadows gets released into theaters. The new film brings together Johnny Depp (The Astronaut's Wife) and director Tim Burton (Big Fish) for their first eighth collaboration. Ahead, we answer every question that you could possibly have about Dark Shadows.
When Tim Burton and Johnny Depp decided, "Oh, wouldn't it be fun to make a movie out of the campy '60s TV show Dark Shadows," the correct response should have been the following three words: Wild Wild West.
So if a car's experience is so fundamentally different than riding transit, what parallel experience can we plumb for joyous attributes? I would propose we look for a model to long-distance trains and their sense of possibility and romance, not the raw sex of cars.
The Johnny Depp/Tim Burton big-screen retooling of TV's legendary "Dark Shadows" isn't in release yet, though the trailers look fabulous. (This new version appears to be intentionally funny, as opposed to the unintended yucks sometimes generated by the series, which was taped live.)
Their big picture concept? A visual spectacle such as has never been seen before in any other attraction in the UK. So what might Alice Liddell have said about these creative upgrades to her favorite story in her summer vacation town?
Before he left, he invited the audience to a surprise screening of The Dictator at 11 that evening in a local movie theater and, as he left, he stopped to kiss Katzenberg's head.
"Magic, beauty, color, amusement, character, intrigue, questions, excitement, puzzlement, amazement, fear, suspense, fun and a happy ending" are the reasons why Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is still a classic today.
I'm sure there are those who will be shocked that I not only enjoyed a lot of The Lucky One, but that I think Zac Efron's performance is a break-out moment -- the announcement that a teen dream has made the transition to adult dramatic actor.
A cursory glance at his campaign thus far -- particularly the past week -- suggests an appropriate silver screen dreamboat for the role of Newt Gingrich: Johnny Depp. As Ed Wood.
Johnny Depp has a lot to answer for. The "mockney" drawl, the swagger and the healthy disdain for maritime authorities he perfected as Captain Jack Sparrow lent a cachet to piracy that had eluded the profession for centuries.
While Hill, writer Michael Bacall and directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller want to spoof cop procedurals, they also want to make an actual cop-action film. That blend of comedy and action is a tough one, almost as tough as romantic comedy.
For movie dialogue to be memorialized it needs, first and foremost, to be short -- short enough to be easily recalled and repeated (which is unfortunate because that's going to leave some very clever material at the starting gate).
There is a copious amount of controversy surrounding a video that actor Johnny Depp has helped put out recently. But what's the big deal?
