I went out to see
Dark Shadows, a film I've had some apprehension about...
Tim Burton is a director I like sometimes and dislike at others. After having seen the trailer to
Dark Shadows, I had the lowest expectations for this one. I thought, "Oh God, fish-out-of-water jokes. Silly-'70s jokes. Easy laughs, been done a thousand times. Why would Burton think that was a good take on
Dark Shadows? Especially if, as claimed, he was a fan of the original series?" And the critical commentary I've read seemed to confirm the worst. Well, happily, my misgivings proved to be unfounded. It's a good one. Not the best Burton-
Depp collaboration (that would be
Sweeney Todd; 2007) but a good one. Yes, there are a few little fish-out-of-water asides. But why not? Given the story of a man coming back into the world after 200-- well, 198-- years in confinement, the original TV series could have used a little of that too. (I haven't seen it since the '60s, but I don't remember any such joking.)
The overall story itself is relatively serious, pretty close to the original (as I remember it anyway), and as respectful to the original material as it could be while being comedic. The humor is affectionate towards the story, rather than broadly satirical. I'd feared the cheap, sneering, "Weren't they stupid / Aren't we clever," kind of mocking of another time period that often passes for comedy. Instead I found the reconstruction of the '70s to have a touch of the wistful, nostalgic quality which Burton's better films sometimes have. Actually the plot's problems stemmed from this faithfulness-- there was too much plot crammed into too short a film, almost as if Burton couldn't bear to let go of any of the original. These storylines were stretched out for weeks in the TV series. Burton was merciless in cutting out extraneous material in his screen adaptation of the musical
Sweeney Todd, to the good of that film.
Dark Shadows could have used a similarly brutal eye for editing. And a minor quibble: I wish the advertised cameos by four original cast-members (including the late
Jonathan Frid) had been more than just a quick walk past the camera. I caught Frid, but there wasn't enough time to see
David Selby,
Kathryn Leigh Scott and
Lara Parker. This will require use of the pause button when it comes out on DVD. I also wish they could have used some of
Bob Cobert's original music, which was quite popular during the run of the TV show. It even had its own album release which was pretty rare in those days. The opening strains of the score did seem to make passing reference to the TV show's main theme, but that may have been my imagination anticipating it... Anyway, some good points, a few bad points, overall a respectable Seven stars out of Ten from me.
I remain on my
Boobpedia editing freeze-out because I have no screenshots prepared for the next ALB- articles I want to start. Through Google Images, I located decent screenshots yesterday at the
Munekyunkissa site, but I can't access that site this weekend, so I will have to download them later-- probably Monday, then start back to work Tuesmorn. I know I could start working on another BP-project, or start the articles on the Munekyunkissa actresses (which will be the next step in the ALB- project anyway), but then there's no rush. This is a leisure hobby. And by doing it slowly, methodically and with pleasure, I won't get screwed up and forget where I was. Instead I'm spending the online time today polishing up, finishing and publishing some posts here at "Hail, Hail Boobpedia!"... and rather enjoying it... My searches around the 'Net today turned up
this site, which provides the new images you see at left and right, of the lovely but elusive
Erika, who appears in DVDs by
IZM.
There were rumors at that Japanese babble-site (2channel?) asserting that Erika and the cosplayer
LUU were the same person. I think we can lay those rumors to rest now. LUU has (in my opinion), a prettier face. Even more damning, Erika has (in indisputable fact), a much heftier arse. LUU's sit-upon is rather skimpy for a big girl. We'll have to do a comparison some time to lay this malicious scuttlebutt to rest once and for all. The rumor continues that Erika (and by extension LUU) are also "Megaton Mami" of the DVD "巨女痴犯 ビックマウンテン女 メガトン魔美" (IZM; IKD-10). I haven't yet investigated this work thoroughly, but this whole controversy calls for some investigative journalism to be tackled in a later post.
I went out to see Dark Shadows, a film I've had some apprehension about... Tim Burton is a director I like sometimes and dislike at others. After having seen the trailer to Dark Shadows, I had the lowest expectations for this one. I thought, "Oh God, fish-out-of-water jokes. Silly-'70s jokes. Easy laughs, been done a thousand times. Why would Burton think that was a good take on Dark Shadows? Especially if, as claimed, he was a fan of the original series?" And the critical commentary I've read seemed to confirm the worst. Well, happily, my misgivings proved to be unfounded. It's a good one. Not the best Burton-Depp collaboration (that would be Sweeney Todd; 2007) but a good one. Yes, there are a few little fish-out-of-water asides. But why not? Given the story of a man coming back into the world after 200-- well, 198-- years in confinement, the original TV series could have used a little of that too. (I haven't seen it since the '60s, but I don't remember any such joking.)
The overall story itself is relatively serious, pretty close to the original (as I remember it anyway), and as respectful to the original material as it could be while being comedic. The humor is affectionate towards the story, rather than broadly satirical. I'd feared the cheap, sneering, "Weren't they stupid / Aren't we clever," kind of mocking of another time period that often passes for comedy. Instead I found the reconstruction of the '70s to have a touch of the wistful, nostalgic quality which Burton's better films sometimes have. Actually the plot's problems stemmed from this faithfulness-- there was too much plot crammed into too short a film, almost as if Burton couldn't bear to let go of any of the original. These storylines were stretched out for weeks in the TV series. Burton was merciless in cutting out extraneous material in his screen adaptation of the musical Sweeney Todd, to the good of that film. Dark Shadows could have used a similarly brutal eye for editing. And a minor quibble: I wish the advertised cameos by four original cast-members (including the late Jonathan Frid) had been more than just a quick walk past the camera. I caught Frid, but there wasn't enough time to see David Selby, Kathryn Leigh Scott and Lara Parker. This will require use of the pause button when it comes out on DVD. I also wish they could have used some of Bob Cobert's original music, which was quite popular during the run of the TV show. It even had its own album release which was pretty rare in those days. The opening strains of the score did seem to make passing reference to the TV show's main theme, but that may have been my imagination anticipating it... Anyway, some good points, a few bad points, overall a respectable Seven stars out of Ten from me.
I remain on my Boobpedia editing freeze-out because I have no screenshots prepared for the next ALB- articles I want to start. Through Google Images, I located decent screenshots yesterday at the Munekyunkissa site, but I can't access that site this weekend, so I will have to download them later-- probably Monday, then start back to work Tuesmorn. I know I could start working on another BP-project, or start the articles on the Munekyunkissa actresses (which will be the next step in the ALB- project anyway), but then there's no rush. This is a leisure hobby. And by doing it slowly, methodically and with pleasure, I won't get screwed up and forget where I was. Instead I'm spending the online time today polishing up, finishing and publishing some posts here at "Hail, Hail Boobpedia!"... and rather enjoying it... My searches around the 'Net today turned up this site, which provides the new images you see at left and right, of the lovely but elusive Erika, who appears in DVDs by IZM. 
There were rumors at that Japanese babble-site (2channel?) asserting that Erika and the cosplayer LUU were the same person. I think we can lay those rumors to rest now. LUU has (in my opinion), a prettier face. Even more damning, Erika has (in indisputable fact), a much heftier arse. LUU's sit-upon is rather skimpy for a big girl. We'll have to do a comparison some time to lay this malicious scuttlebutt to rest once and for all. The rumor continues that Erika (and by extension LUU) are also "Megaton Mami" of the DVD "巨女痴犯 ビックマウンテン女 メガトン魔美" (IZM; IKD-10). I haven't yet investigated this work thoroughly, but this whole controversy calls for some investigative journalism to be tackled in a later post.
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