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REVIEW: Dark Shadows [2012]

2012/05/082014/05/14 Jared Mobarak

“You’ll have to imagine us on a better day” At present, the Tim Burton discussion can be answered in two ways. One: I’ve become too old and jaded to ‘get’ the farcical nature of the auteur’s darkly comic worlds anymore. The satiric tongue-in-cheek tonality he so brilliantly cultivated in grotesque-lite universes either doesn’t have the same effect on me that it did in my youth or just isn’t as good. In that vein comes number Two: Burton has lost a step and now languishes in a perpetual self-parody desperately trying…

REVIEW: Alice in Wonderland [2010]

2010/03/062016/05/24 Jared Mobarak

“Off with your head!” With a knack for creating imaginative worlds that can be both dark and colorful simultaneously, director Tim Burton seems like a natural fit to adapt the Wonderland of Lewis Carroll’s novels. However, for every inventive Big Fish or Edward Scissorhands come the atrocious re-envisionings of Planet of the Apes and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. So, let’s just say I was scared going into Alice in Wonderland because, while the setting and art direction seemed perfect, I couldn’t help remember how bad his work from pre-existing…

REVIEW: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street [2007]

2007/12/272011/08/24 Jared Mobarak

“May I have your attention, puh-lease!” Stephen Sondheim’s musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is not your run-of-the-mill Broadway spectacle. This thing is dark, gory, and bleak to the end with little in the way of joy and hope seeping through. I had seen the staged production featuring George Hearn and Angela Lansbury a couple years back, so I was familiar with the story before sitting down to experience Tim Burton’s vision. I guess by knowing Sondheim’s other musical Into the Woods, he is accustomed to darker,…

Top 25 Films of 2003

2004/01/272020/03/31 Jared Mobarak

(short and sweet and to the point; culled from watching 85 releases. constantly updated as i catch up to those i missed. click poster for review if applicable) #25: American Splendor directed byShari Springer Berman& Robert Pulcini #24: The Lord of the Rings:The Return of the King directed by Peter Jackson. #23: Pieces of April directed by Peter Hedges.. #22: Master and Commander:The Far Side of the World directed by Peter Weir #21: Code 46 directed byMichael Winterbottom #20: Big Fish directed by Tim Burton. #19: Dirty Pretty Things directed…