Depp/Burton DARK SHADOWS Is In Release!!

More critics unafraid to step up to profess their love of the Depp/DS film:

Take 2: Dark Shadows
(Boston Globe) Ty Burr and Wesley Morris express their enjoyment of Tim Burton's movie version of the television show 'Dark Shadows' in this edition of Take 2.

Very interesting comments - nice to hear!  And they seemed to be familiar with the original, so it wasn't just the impression of newcomers, but someone who could evaluate it in terms of original fandom.

Thanks to a DS-related article I've discovered these two quite interesting videos that I'd never seen before which feature interviews with Tim Burton, Michelle Pfeiffer, Bella Heathcoate, Chloe Moretz, Eva Green, Jackie Earle Haley, and Jonny Lee Miller. In the second the actors have particularly interesting comments about their characters, especially JLM.

Tim Burton on the "Dark Shadows" Big Screen Adaptation (03:24)

Tim Burton on Adapting Dark Shadows for the Silver Screen (07:47)
(For some reason, in this video only the audio is available on the actual clips from the film.  )



 

More critics unafraid to step up to profess their love of the Depp/DS film:

Take 2: Dark Shadows
(Boston Globe) Ty Burr and Wesley Morris express their enjoyment of Tim Burton's movie version of the television show 'Dark Shadows' in this edition of Take 2.

very interesting...


frankly there was been a remarkable lack of objectivity in reviews of the film since day one. most of the noise has been coming from disgruntled "fans" or critics hashing out vendettas with burton and/or depp over other things. it hardly gets critiqued on it's own terms which is how a "film review" is supposed to work.

Depp Shadows is showing on the "ABC Family" channel tonight at 8:15 p.m.  I would think there are likely to be some minor cuts to the movie since some of it is hardly what I would call "family friendly" (a phrase I detest, but if you're going to go that route, it means no hanky-panky at all).

Just in case anybody cares.

G.

Believe it or not, ABC Family's programming isn't totally "family friendly." And that's probably why the network is changing its name to Freedom in January - though I'm not quite sure how they think that new name will reflect their brand...

But anyway, thanks for reminding us that the film is on tonight because I'd honestly forgotten what night it's on this week. 

Actually, the new name is going to be "Freeform", according to Variety -- see http://variety.com/2015/tv/news/abc-family-freeform-rebranding-network-1201610697/

Still a puzzling name, however.  The target audience seems to be the 14-34 age group.  (And that in itself is puzzling!)

Actually, the new name is going to be "Freeform"

Can you tell that I really didn't pay all that much attention when the name change was announced a few weeks back? 

I just opened a Google Alert to a NYT article that says that apparently the Depp/DS film began on Freeform (formerly ABC Family) 30 minutes ago. Better late than never. 

What to Watch Wednesday

Though people on the West coast would probably still have an opportunity to catch the whole thing...

So without reading the first 119 pages I take it most people here liked it?

We once had a poll and the results were 87% Thumbs Up! and 13% Thumbs Down!, so I'd say your interpretation is correct. 

I have very conflicted feelings toward the movie. I love it, but am extremely disappointed by it. The cast, production design, photography, and music are phenomenal and there's very little in those areas that I would want to change. And I love most of the humor. (My favorite bit is when Barnabas hypnotizes Willie and bids him to "Tell me your innermost thoughts"--and Willie starts snoring. Well, Barn, you asked and you got!)

But parts of the story and the editing drive me crazy. A certain Barnabas/Angelique scene is totally over the top and unnecessary. The the foreshadowing for the Carolyn plot twist is way, way too subtle (you really only can see it on subsequent viewings)--and her big moment plays like it's breaking the fourth wall. The subplot about David's mother needs a lot more development. Barnabas' relationships with the characters need more development. Most of the deleted scenes shown on the Blu-ray are really important and should have been kept in the film.

But even with all its imperfections and wrong decisions, the film still has a lot of stuff to love.

Okay...without having actually watched the movie...let me say this about that.

Having loved the original series and tolerated the 1990 remake well, I was put off by images from the film and the idea of its being a comedy.  I absolutely didn't want to be trapped watching it in a theater so never went when it was playing.

The other night, when I was too tired to do anything but watch TV (I'm recovering from a severely broken leg and my activities are limited) and I'd been around every channel three times and there was REALLY NOTHING on, I decided to watch the beginning, as it was just coming on and I wanted to at least see the house.  I really enjoyed the way house and grounds were done!  Wonderful to see a large budget brought to Collinwood and not worry about things such as walls shaking when brushed!  All the photography and cinematography was great.

Barnabas was not only my favorite character but my first love so naturally I am touchy and protective of him.  Johnny Depp is a good actor I've always admired, but his hair and makeup were so over the top I was completely distracted as to whether his acting was any good or not.  Perhaps this was intentional, to start him off looking like a ghoul and then warm him up a bit after Dr. Hoffman had worked him over--I didn't watch for long enough to know.  I really feel Barnabas might reasonably start out pale after being in a coffin for 170-odd years, but he shouldn't look like some kid dressed for Halloween who did his own makeup or a silent film actor with a bad makeup man.  Ben Cross was not a patch on Jonathan Frid, but I never recall him looking like a monster except in sequences where he was supposed to, and don't recall cringing while watching him.  I like Johnny Depp 100 times more than Ben Cross but couldn't here, which was distressing.

I had the channel on for 45 minutes but can't claim to have watched that much of the actual film as the channel was mostly commercials.  I didn't stick around long enough to see if the workmen foolish enough to open Barnabas's coffin were injured, killed, or some combination.  Like Gremlins and Fargo, not really funny.  Of course if any survived they might have talked and opened a can of worms, which may or may not have figured in the plot.  As far as comedy, not funny haha but I chuckled a few times.

Anyhow, the best thing I took away was when Carolyn was playing the record and Roger made her shut it off.  Today I played "The Season of the Witch" all the way through while staring out my window at tree branches and got a truly awesome decorating idea for a wall which has stood blank for five years while I was hung up for an idea, so that made the whole thing worthwhile.  This is a movie I would watch if I were with fans who really wanted to watch it with me and discuss it but for myself would not watch alone.

But parts of the story and the editing drive me crazy. A certain Barnabas/Angelique scene is totally over the top and unnecessary.

KMR summarizes my feelings about this movie almost exactly. I gave it a thumbs up. I pre-ordered the DVD/Blu-ray combo. I have never been so conflicted over a movie. If you hooked me up to some machine that registered likes and dislikes you'd see extreme reactions to various scenes. I had to go thumbs up because I pre-ordered the movie and went to see it multiple times. I even made an excuse to spend a day in a town 150 miles away to see the movie on an IMAX screen. We did not drive all that way just to see it. We go at least once a year to Corpus.  We made a full day with other fun activities, but I've never done that for any other movie. When I first saw the movie I hated that scene KMR mentioned most of all. Looking back though the thing I really loathe is the fact that they got a central part of Barnabas' character wrong. Frid said over and over again the essence of Barnabas is the guy with a hangup. He's an addict and has the awful secret. There's not much that tie together all the myriad DS "universes." Prior to this, all the movies, books, comics, and other remakes shared several things in common.  They all took centered around Collinwood, Elizabeth Collins Stoddard was the matriarch, there was an Angelique (for my purposes, I'm assuming that HODS and NODS are the same universe), and they all have Barnabas. In all his incarnations, he's hiding a secret. Burton/Depp throw this out the window with him blabbing about being a vampire to anyone who will listen.

Yeah, Barnabas being my first love really started the whole theme of me being drawn to guys with at least hangups and even secrets.