'Dark Shadows' -- 2 stars

PG-13; 2:00 running time

The central joke of the picture -- that long-buried Barnabas Collins awakens from his 200-year hiatus to find himself in the strange new world of 1972 -- is good for a few bits, as when Barnabas is seen devouring a hardback edition of "Love Story." Few movie stars can add nonverbal detail or idiosyncratic comment, arched eyebrow or not, the way Depp can. (What's this frozen waffle you place before me?)

And yet I wonder if the ongoing Depp/Burton collaboration has its pitfalls. Johnny Depp often settles for posing and making droll faces, in reaction-shot mode, instead of building an eccentric comic portrait of any size. I long for the energy and invention of a performance such as Depp's Ed Wood in Tim Burton's "Ed Wood." But then, that wasn't a $125 million international export. -- Michael Phillips

Read the full "Dark Shadows" movie review

May 10, 2012