Waxing nostalgia, I ended up at the opening of Dark Shadows over the weekend.
I remember the original Dark Shadows when it was on every afternoon after school. I think I only watched one season of the soap opera and was not quite that interested in going doe eyed over Quentin, nor was I that interested in the story line. The music was what I enjoyed.
I also was a bit amused by Barnabas as a vampire.
Between the old Bela Lugosi vampires and The Munsters, the thought of Barnabas being remotely frightening was laughable. Never mind that later on when Stephen King assaulted me with 'Salem's Lot I was scared silly and every slight noise was positively a floating freak of a vampire outside my window.
We won't even talk about the silly glittery vampires that stalk the woods in Forks, Oregon.
No, when we think of vampires, we think of Keifer Sutherland in Lost Boys. Now, that was a vampire. Although, Quentin Tarantino gave us a freaky vampires in From Dusk Til Dawn.
I confess that I have never seen the Anne Rice vampires, which includes the Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise blood suckers.
The movie version of Dark Shadows was too silly to pass up, I recently saw The Three Stooges too, so I headed to the movies to enjoy a fun tale with an outstanding cast.
With Depp and Burton teaming up again, it had to be a rocking good time. According to Michelle Pfeiffer, she had to beg Burton to let her play the part. Plus, I adore Helena Bonham Carter who I found so much fun in the Harry Potter movies, and then as an outstanding actress in The King's Speech. Since then I have seen her in a few movies, although I have not seen her in Wonderland.
The movie may have told the tale of the original soap opera, but since I was not that interested in the soap opera, I cannot say for certain. All I can say for certain is that this version of Dark Shadows was a lot of fun and almost as entertaining as I thought it would be.
Depp was not given as many humorous lines as I would have liked; he was adorable as Captain Jack Sparrow and I expected those types of lines from him. However, he appeared to actually be enjoying himself, as was the rest of the cast.
If there was any animosity amongst the cast at all, it was never visible and all participants gave entertaining performances. The minute I recognized Chloe Moretz was almost as the movie was ending, but it was a pleasant surprise. She has grown up tremendously since I saw her in Kick Ass, which was NOT a role for a little girl, but she still gave a fantastic performance as Hit Girl, playing the daughter of Nicholas Cage, a.k.a. Big Daddy. If it had not been for the way she held her mouth, I would never have recognized her. If you see Kick Ass, you will realize she wore a mask for most of the movie and all you saw was her mouth.
She also went unrecognized by me as the granddaughter, Isabelle in the movie Hugo. Hugo is another fun and fantastic movie filled with visual delights and great acting by Chloe Moretz and Asa Butterflied. Hugo was a Scorsese hit winning 5 Oscars and boasting 37 nominations across several film award presentations.
The family that Barnabas Collins finds when he is finally released from the coffin that holds him prisoner is not as dysfunctional as Burton would lead us to believe. We have seen the Connors on Rosanne; those are dysfunctional folks. The Collins clan is merely despondent over their lack of fortune and excess of bad luck.
Villains abound and the curse of the witch is never far from the family. The chase is on and Barnabas is up to the challenge of restoration of the family fortune. The family battles good versus evil.
There were a few hanging ends that really were never wrapped up, but they were overlooked by other veering plot lines. Like, what about Lara?
There was only one really semi-weak character/actor in the whole mix and he was not a real player in the scheme of things. Other than actually being the father of David played by Gulliver McGrath, Johnny Lee Miller as Roger Collins was totally unnecessary and a very weak character.
All in all, it was a fun movie and a perfect way to slip away for a couple hours.
By the way, what is it with all vampires being named Collins? Did Ms Stephanie Myers steal a name from an old forgotten soap opera?
I remember the original Dark Shadows when it was on every afternoon after school. I think I only watched one season of the soap opera and was not quite that interested in going doe eyed over Quentin, nor was I that interested in the story line. The music was what I enjoyed.
I also was a bit amused by Barnabas as a vampire.
Between the old Bela Lugosi vampires and The Munsters, the thought of Barnabas being remotely frightening was laughable. Never mind that later on when Stephen King assaulted me with 'Salem's Lot I was scared silly and every slight noise was positively a floating freak of a vampire outside my window.
We won't even talk about the silly glittery vampires that stalk the woods in Forks, Oregon.
No, when we think of vampires, we think of Keifer Sutherland in Lost Boys. Now, that was a vampire. Although, Quentin Tarantino gave us a freaky vampires in From Dusk Til Dawn.
I confess that I have never seen the Anne Rice vampires, which includes the Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise blood suckers.
The movie version of Dark Shadows was too silly to pass up, I recently saw The Three Stooges too, so I headed to the movies to enjoy a fun tale with an outstanding cast.
With Depp and Burton teaming up again, it had to be a rocking good time. According to Michelle Pfeiffer, she had to beg Burton to let her play the part. Plus, I adore Helena Bonham Carter who I found so much fun in the Harry Potter movies, and then as an outstanding actress in The King's Speech. Since then I have seen her in a few movies, although I have not seen her in Wonderland.
The movie may have told the tale of the original soap opera, but since I was not that interested in the soap opera, I cannot say for certain. All I can say for certain is that this version of Dark Shadows was a lot of fun and almost as entertaining as I thought it would be.
Depp was not given as many humorous lines as I would have liked; he was adorable as Captain Jack Sparrow and I expected those types of lines from him. However, he appeared to actually be enjoying himself, as was the rest of the cast.
If there was any animosity amongst the cast at all, it was never visible and all participants gave entertaining performances. The minute I recognized Chloe Moretz was almost as the movie was ending, but it was a pleasant surprise. She has grown up tremendously since I saw her in Kick Ass, which was NOT a role for a little girl, but she still gave a fantastic performance as Hit Girl, playing the daughter of Nicholas Cage, a.k.a. Big Daddy. If it had not been for the way she held her mouth, I would never have recognized her. If you see Kick Ass, you will realize she wore a mask for most of the movie and all you saw was her mouth.
She also went unrecognized by me as the granddaughter, Isabelle in the movie Hugo. Hugo is another fun and fantastic movie filled with visual delights and great acting by Chloe Moretz and Asa Butterflied. Hugo was a Scorsese hit winning 5 Oscars and boasting 37 nominations across several film award presentations.
The family that Barnabas Collins finds when he is finally released from the coffin that holds him prisoner is not as dysfunctional as Burton would lead us to believe. We have seen the Connors on Rosanne; those are dysfunctional folks. The Collins clan is merely despondent over their lack of fortune and excess of bad luck.
Villains abound and the curse of the witch is never far from the family. The chase is on and Barnabas is up to the challenge of restoration of the family fortune. The family battles good versus evil.
There were a few hanging ends that really were never wrapped up, but they were overlooked by other veering plot lines. Like, what about Lara?
There was only one really semi-weak character/actor in the whole mix and he was not a real player in the scheme of things. Other than actually being the father of David played by Gulliver McGrath, Johnny Lee Miller as Roger Collins was totally unnecessary and a very weak character.
All in all, it was a fun movie and a perfect way to slip away for a couple hours.
By the way, what is it with all vampires being named Collins? Did Ms Stephanie Myers steal a name from an old forgotten soap opera?
Dark Shadows Movie Poster
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