HollywoodandFine.com Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods” arrives on the big screen 27 years after it opened on Broadway – and with the same second-act problems that have plagued it through the years. Adapted to the screen by Rob Marshall (for whom his first feature, “Chicago,” may end up as the …
HollywoodandFine.com There are so many potentially interesting elements swirling around Wally Pfister’s “Transcendence” – something old, new, borrowed and blue – that the disappointment when they don’t add up to a significant movie is acute. Written by first-timer Jack Paglen and directed by Pfister (Christopher Nolan’s go-to cinematographer), “Transcendence” trolls …
In seventh grade, I had a routine: go to my friend Katy’s house, do our advanced math homework, play Yahtzee and watch “Dark Shadows.” After the credits, I would run the three blocks to my suburban San Diego cul de sac under the bright Southern California sun in abject terror, …
Spooky or Kooky? Tim Burton’s Campy Dark Shadows By Armond White Gone are the days when Tim Burton films made you laugh first. Now Burton more likely makes you cringe as in Dark Shadows, his new film version of TV’s 1960s daytime soap opera. It retells the story of Barnabas …
HollywoodandFine.com 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.” Apparently no one had the stones to say that to Burton …
HollywoodandFine.com There haven’t been many movies based on the books by Nicholas Sparks that are much easier to swallow than Sparks’ prose. But a good director with a creative screenwriter can distill a touching romance out of even Sparks’ overblown best-sellers. Indeed, I’m sure there are those who will be …
HollywoodandFine.com Say “Jump,” and I’ll ask, “How high?” Say “21 Jump Street” and I’ll ask, “Why? Why? Why?” Why, indeed. The answer seems to be in the credits: because Jonah Hill, who was a preadolescent when the Johnny Depp TV show of the same name was on the air, apparently …
