Went out to see Shadow of the Vampire last night after I got off work. Not bad at all, though not quite as good as I’d hoped it would be. The previews had made it out to be a little more creepy than it ended up being — while it wasn’t strictly played for laughs, it wasn’t as much of a ‘horror’ film as I thought it might be. Definitely worth seeing at some point, though — Willem DaFoe just seems to relish has part as Max Schreck. They also occasionally do an incredible job of taking film stock from today and altering it to look as if it had been filmed on the equipment of the day for certain scenes.
One of the few downsides of the movie for me was actually Carey Elwes. Even though I’ve been a fan of The Princess Bride for years, and think that Carey did a great job as ‘The Man in Black/Wesley’, almost nothing I’ve seen him in since then has impressed me in the least, and I’m afraid this is another one. My main curiosity with his character for most of his screen time was actually just what sort of accent he was supposed to have…it certainly didn’t come across as German to me. Ah, well — a good matinee flick, but I can’t quite recommend a full-price show, and it won’t be a keeper once it hits video.
In other news, I just got a call from Suncoast that a movie I’d ordered has come in — Kenneth Branagh‘s Love’s Labours Lost. I’m all sorts of excited to see this one…I think that Branagh consistantly creates some of the best screen adaptations of Shakespeare, and when he decides to present this one as an almost Busby Berkely-style musical, complete with 40’s style dance numbers, I’ve just gotta see it. Besides…I’m still working on building up my collection of Shakespeare adaptations. Ones I know I’m missing that are on DVD at the moment are the recent stylized Romeo + Juliet, and the production of Othello with Laurence Fishburne. If only Branagh’s full 4-hour long version of Hamlet would come out!