In 1752 Joshua and Naomi Collins moved from Liverpool, England with their young son Barnabas to start a new life in America. After working hard for 20 years, the Collins become extremely rich and powerful with their fishing business built a huge home named Collinwood Manor, and name the small Maine town, Collinsport. Barnabas (Johnny Depp) is now a rich playboy living the life, until he breaks the heart of Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green). Angelique is a witch, and she seeks to get revenge for being spurned by Barnabas. She turns him into a vampire and then has him buried alive. Two centuries past, and Barnabas is inadvertently freed from his tomb and emerges to find a whole different world in 1972. When he returns to Collinwood Manor, he finds that it has fallen from its once glamorous looking decor to now look in ruins. He meets with his family’s descendants and they are also not as regal as his family name once was. They all seem to have problems, and Matriarch Elizabeth Collins Stoddard (Michelle Pfeiffer) has hired a live-in psychiatrist named Dr. Julia Hoffman (Helena Bonham Carter) to help with her family’s troubles.
Elizabeth’s family members consist of daughter Carolyn Stoddard (Chloe Grace Moretz), who is a rebellious teenager, Elizabeth’s brother Roger Collins (Jonny Lee Miller), and his 10 year old son named David Collins (Gulliver McGrath). After learning that the family’s wealth has dwindled since having to compete with Angelique’s fish canning factory, Barnabas vows to bring the family back to the glory they once had, while also vowing revenge against Angelique for entombing him in that coffin for 200 years. Angelique also vows to keep the Collins curse going on, unless Barnabas agrees to be with her. Barnabas will need the help of his Collins descendants, if he is going to have any chance at defeating Angelique once and for all.
Now I have heard about the show that this movie was remade from, and apparently it was a huge TV “soap opera styled thriller” hit back in 1966 – 71, and as a re-make TV series in 1991. So being that Tim Burton and Johnny Depp were pairing up again for the eighth time to turn this television sensation into a full-length movie, I was intrigued. A few weeks before the movie came out I checked out some videos of the old show to see if it was interesting. I did not find it at all that entertaining, but it could have been because I never got into watching it before. So me going to see this movie was strongly based on the enjoyable movies Tim Burton has put out previously with actor Johnny Depp starring in them.
I was greatly disappointed this time around. I felt the movie was slow in its build-up. After only a few minutes of Barnabas coming on screen, I grew tired of the character. No matter how much I wanted to like this Johnny Depp character, I just couldn’t get into it. The movie is not that much of a comedy as it is more of a thriller mixed with comedic scenes. The story was boring and I was kind of anxious for the movie to be over with, I didn’t see it having a light at the end of the tunnel for me. I would say that this is a straight fan-based movie only. It’s not like The Addams Family movie that made new fans when they remade that 60’s television show into a movie. Only die-hard fans of this show will most likely enjoy this film, and I am not one of them. The bad thing was it offered nothing for me to even be interested in becoming a fan of it or the old show. I did not like this TB & JD pairing this time around, and I feel this must have been a heartfelt remake for the two of them. It must have been a childhood favorite of theirs when they were young. I gave this movie 1 bite out of 4. It could have been a lot more funnier, and there could have been more storyline about the problems that the two kids had. The movie runs 1 hour and 50 minutes. Its rated PG-13 for comic horror violence, sexual content, some drug use, language and smoking. It was directed by Tim Burton. It was written by Seth Grahame-Smith. The film was distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution
Some nostalgic TV shows, should stay nostalgic- Ezo
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