Dark Shadows (**1/2 out of ****)

Tim Burton has this ease it seems in making films. He's done so many at this point that even his weaker films are still entertaining. Dark Shadows is classic Burton but is not his best. It's a fine film but drags a bit until you ask yourself "well there can't be too much left until this ends".

Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp, his 8th collaboration with Burton) is the heir to a fishing industry in the 1760s. He's rich, handsome, kind and intelligent, not a bad way to live. His serving girl Angelique (a fun and sexy Eva Green) falls in love with him, but when she doesn't return those feeling she curses him (don't piss off a witch apparently). Barnabas become s vampire and is imprisoned for nearly 200 years. When he escapes the year is 1971 and the world is not what he remembers. He reunites with his surviving family (the always lovely Michelle Pfeiffer, Johnny Lee Miller, Gulliver McGrath and Chloe Grace Moretz) as well as some other charming characters played by Jackie Earle Haley and Helena Bonham Carter. Barnabas seeks to restore his family's glory but his vampiric curse won't make it easy. Angelique won't let him nor his family succeed.

Dark Shadows is fun often and a tad boring others. If it weren't for this mix the better scenes would radiate more instead appearing to just picking up the slack. Helena Bonham Carter and the always beautiful Eva Green are the saving graces to the film. They along with Depp provide this sense of looniness that made Burton's Beetlejuice so wonderful. This isn't Burton's best work but as a director that is so comfortable behind the camera you won't see him ever make a really bad film either.

**1/2