Dark Shadows (2012) - Movie Review

[caption id="attachment_325" align="alignright" width="263"] Official Score = 3 Devils[/caption]

One of the cool things that I have learned in Hollywood is that some of my favorite movies are movies that were made by great duos that have worked together before and since on some great movies!

A few examples of this:

A: Ben Stiller (Night At The Museum), and Owen Wilson (Meet The Parents), who did such classics as the, 'Night At The Museum' series, and the, 'Meet the Parents' series, and now it looks like they may be working on the sequel to the classic movie, Zoolander (2001) together!

B: John Carpenter (Halloween) and Jamie Lee Curtis (Terror Train)... Now I am only mentioning these two alone (the fact is, is there are more then a few people that have worked on many of Carpenter's best films), but I am mentioning just these two, because they started my favorite franchise (Halloween) a legendary franchise that has continued on in a remake series going all the way to the present!

The next pairing that I wanted to mention here is that of Johnny Depp (A Nightmare On Elm Street) and Tim Burton (Beetlejuice). Now these guys have done more then a few movies together, but the one that I wanted to talk about here is, Dark Shadows (2012)!

[caption id="attachment_2686" align="aligncenter" width="450"] Johnny Depp as, 'Barnabas Collins' in, 'Dark Shadows' (2012)![/caption]

Written by: Seth Grahame-Greene (The Hard Times Of RJ Berger), John August (Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle) & Directed by: Tim Burton. Starring: Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer (Batman Returns), Eva Green (Casino Royale), Helena Bonham Carter (Fight Club), Jackie Earle Haley (A Nightmare On Elm Street), Jonny Lee Miller (Hackers), Bella Heathcote (In time), Chloe Moretz (Hugo) & Gulliver McGrath (Lincoln).

This movie is a fun tale of Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp) who in the 18th century ends up sleeping with a servant (who turns out to be a witch) by the name of, 'Angelique' (Green).

Now at this time in the world, Barnabas and his family are filthy rich (having founded the small fishing village of, 'Collinsport' and having a huge and immensely successful fishing company!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="470"] Barnabas and his one night stand centuries later![/caption]

Well after Barnabas sleeps with Angelique, she ends up falling in love with Barnabas... The only problem is that Barnabas as it has it, doesn't love her!

So Angelique ends up being so angry that she casts a spell that kills Barnabas's family! When he still doesn't seem to seek her company, and ends up falling in love with a woman by the name of, 'Josette' (Heathcotte), Angelique decides to get the ultimate revenge!

You see, first she casts a spell to make Josette commit suicide and then turns the grief stricken Barnabas in to a vampire and has him buried in a a coffin so that he could be alone with his grief forever!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="512"] Barnabas in his tomb![/caption]

Centuries later the Collins family name has been turned to shit, the family itself is a joke, with Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Pfeiffer) who is trying to keep her daughter, 'Carolyn' (Moretz) and her looser brother, 'Roger' and his grief stricken son, 'David' together as they destroy the last of the Collins dynasty together!

But their savior is about to role in to the world, when while building a new road, a work crew comes across Barnabas's coffin and accidentally releaswa him!

Barnabas sets back home with the intention of bringing the family name back to prominence again... The only problem is that there is some one from Barnabas's past that still has a bone or two to pick with him!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="570"] Barnabas with the remnants of his once proud and family, and the few people they could afford to employee...[/caption]

The truth is, is that this movie is hilarious, I mean you don't expect Johnny Depp to play such a convincing Vampire (I think he got at least some of his influence from Max Schreck, who played, 'Count Orlok' in Nosferatu (1922) but when you see Johnny Depp talking with Christopher Lee (One of the most well recognized Dracula's of all time), you can't help but be impressed!

And as for the Barnabas's family in the future, the way they play the stuck up slowing bankrupting themselves type, you can't help but be overjoyed!

The only part that I really didn't like is the ridiculous over the top love interest that Angelique had for Barnabas (I mean I have seen obsession movies, but this went a little to far!)

Either way, this movie is a lot of fun, and is good for more then a few chuckles, and if you haven't checked it out yet but intend to, then you might find you like it as well!

http://youtu.be/wpWvkFlyl4M

The Main Mistake When Remaking Horror Movies...

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600"] The Last House On The Left (2009)... A great example of a remade horror movie![/caption]

As we all know, Hollywood, for about the last decade or so, has been remaking just about everything that has ever come out... With a special emphasis on remaking horror movies...

I have wondered why this is... I mean is it because they are out of ideas? Or maybe Hollywood in it's bid to continue to suck out every cent that they could out of some of horror's most classic horror movie franchises (like, 'Friday The 13th', or 'A Nightmare On Elm Street'... Just to name a few.)

Well for whatever the reasons that maybe, there is one thing that they have mostly done wrong when it comes to trying to remake these movies... In my opinion it is one of the biggest mistakes that they have made... It is a mistake that they don't always make... But they do often make... That is, the choices that the studios make for the people they hire to write the story for the remade masterpiece!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="165"] Fright Night (2011)... One of the more recent remakes that has had very mixed reviews![/caption]

Now you might be asking, 'why is that so important?' I imagine some of you are probably thinking, 'that's nonsense... The biggest problem is the fact that they over CGI everything!' Well, to that last one I will say that it is definitely one of the problems, but in my opinion the writing is the main problem!

As for the writers themselves... Well, for the most part, they are in-and-of-themselves not bad writers... I'm just not convinced that all of them are fans of the genre, or fans of the original movies that they are trying to remake... You have to have that if you are going to have a successful remake!

A couple of good examples of this are:

1. A Nightmare On Elm Street (2010)... Let's be honest here... This movie stunk, as far as a remake goes, this movie was virtually killed off a legendary series that had for itself created: 7 sequels, a TV series, helped launch the careers of a lot of A list celebrities, including: Johnny Depp (Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl), Breckin Meyer (Rat Race) and Patricia Arquette (True Romance) as well as having created tons of media in just about every venue... I mean Freddy Krueger was a house hold name... but when the remake came out that all pretty much has gone to pot, with no new, 'Nightmare' movies currently being released!

[caption id="attachment_2635" align="aligncenter" width="450"] With this one, you just have to ask yourself, 'Why?'[/caption]

2. Friday The 13th (2009), in all truth, I thought that this movie was better then the, 'Nightmare' remake, but again... This movie series was a house hold name because of it's popularity, and since the release of the remake movie, has not seen another, 'Friday' movie on the horizon!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="450"] Better then the, 'Nightmare On Elm Street' remake, but still... ya know?[/caption]

Now I have heard rumors of sequels coming out someday... But then again I have also heard rumors of Halloween 3 supposedly starting production since 2009 as well!

Either way, the main reason that I think that these movies tanked is because of the story! I mean don't get me wrong... If you are like me, then you probably had a hard time getting past the fact that Robert Englund (Urban Legends) was no longer, 'Freddy'... But, Friday The 13th, really did not have that excuse... And story wise was just not as good (I mean they tried to rely on the success of the, 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' remake for this movie scene wise... And they tried to change the basic makeup of, 'Jason' himself... To say the least... A big mistake!)

Now I have shown you the negative side... I wanted to show you the positive side as well with Rob Zombie (House Of 1,000 Corpses) did with his remake!

Before I go on... Let me say this, Rob Zombie is a true fan of the Halloween series, (he has mentioned it in a few of the interviews that I have seen him do about the, 'Halloween' movies,) with that in mind, it shows!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Rob Zombie with Tyler Maine as, 'Michael Myers'... A true fan of the original, 'Halloween' series, and it showed in his work with the remake series![/caption]

Mainly I say this because I personally believe that Rob Zombie took the story to such an extreme that not only was it fun, but I felt it really honored the original vision of John Carpenter (The Ward) and Mr. Carpenter's vision for the original movie!

Well if you haven't seen it yet, I won't say to much, just to say that, John Carpenter's original 1978 classic, 'Halloween' movie is my favorite movie, but I also thoroughly enjoyed Rob Zombie's version as well!

For more information on these movies, please enjoy the trailers for the movies that I have mentioned above:

http://youtu.be/Mra_Z3cpGCM

http://youtu.be/btH4tPwILg0

http://youtu.be/fpKdXnXl93s

http://youtu.be/polKMrfyK-A

http://youtu.be/rrdYC-YKkJs

Short Stories And Their Importance to Movie Adapations

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Shawshank Redemption... A great movie that was based on the short story, 'Rita Hayworth & The Shawshank Redemption' by: Stephen King![/caption]

One thing I am sure that you have noticed is that there are some truly great big screen adaptions of novels, and there are some truly depolorable big screen adaptions of novels... But no matter if they are good, or if they are bad, they are never as good as the original novel!

My thoughts on this is that it is almost impossible to properly squeeze a 500 -1,000 page story in to a 1 hr 30 min movie... As a matter of fact I think this maybe the reason why, 'The Stand' ended up being about a 3 hour mini-series, (for those of you who don't know, 'The Stand' was a large novel that was written by: Stephen King.)

So the question becomes... Well, if a movie is never as good as the novel that it is based off of, then what could be done to make a truly great movie based on a story in a book? Well there are various ways... But I think universally that you would get dramatically closer with movies that are based on short stories...

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="300"] A great novel on this very topic![/caption]

The reason that I say this is that short stories generally tend to have a significantly less amount of information to try and figure out how to turn in to a movie from the original written story.

A great example of this is, Secret Window (2004)... This movie which stars, Johnny Depp (A Nightmare On Elm Street) tells the story of a writer who after discovering that his wife is cheating on him, ends up having a nervous breakdown... And months after the incident... It is still occurring...

That movie is freaking awesome! I mean I really enjoyed that film, and I would say that it is pretty close to being on par with the original Stephen King short story, 'Secret Window Secret Garden'... A short story from a book of short stories basically called, 'Four Past Midnight'.
In then end, I don't know if I have convinced you guys yet, but if I haven't then give it a try... I think that you will find an interesting turn of events with this one!

A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984) - Movie Review

[caption id="attachment_415" align="alignright" width="300"] Official Score = 4 Devils[/caption]

A Nightmare On Elm Street.... Now this one I've loved literally since I was able to talk! You see, when I was young my Dad was a huge fan of horror movies, and one of the earliest horror movies (movies in general) that I can remember seeing is this one, (As a matter of fact the earliest movie I can remember seeing in general was, A Nightmare On Elm Street: The Dream Warriors).

And so it is with great pride that I am able to review, A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984)!

Written and Directed by: Wes Craven (Scream). Starring: Heather Langenkamp (Shocker), Johnny Depp (Secret Window), Amanda Wyss (Dexter), Jsu Garcia (Candyman: Day Of The Dead), Robert Englund (Dee Snider: Strangeland), John Saxon (Blood Beach), and Ronee Blakley (The Driver).

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="480"] Freddy near the beginning of his nightmarish career![/caption]

This legendary horror movie starts off the legend of, 'Freddy Krueger'...

You see, when Freddy Krueger was alive, he used to terrorize families in the town of Springwood by killing their children... Of course that is until he gets caught!

Now the problem is that after he is arrested by the Police, he ends up being released on a technicality! This ends up enraging some of the parents in Springwood. So the parents end up chasing Kruger down and torching him in the building that he used to kill children in!

Now the parents of Springwood can rest easy... Or so they think!

You see Nancy Thompson (Langenkamp), and her friends, Glen Lentz (Depp), Tina Gray (Wyss), Rod Lane (Garcia), are all being terrorized by horrible nightmares...

That would be cool if that's all that it was but, when the kids start dropping like flies when they are in bed... the question becomes, 'Is the curse of Freddy Krueger back to haunt the people of Springwood'?

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="449"] Nancy (Heather Langenkamp) in confronting Freddy (Robert Englund)![/caption]

This movie set the path for a lot of horror movie legends out there. A couple of examples of this of course being the work that Wes Craven has done for Dimension. Robert Englund's long time work in the horror genre, as well as to put New Line Cinema on the map in a major and long term way in the horror field, what with eventually picking up the rights to the Friday The 13th franchise from Paramount, as well as all of the other horror movies that they have produced since A Nightmare On Elm Street came out!

Now this movie would go on to produce six individual sequels, a remake, and the only crossover to date, in horror movie history when Freddy Krueger battled Jason Voorhees in Freddy Vs. Jason (2003).

For all of you new horror movie fans out there, this one would be a good one to introduce yourself to horror with! And for the rest of you guys, this one is a fun one to get back to as well!

http://youtu.be/jdb_HSvf2Zk