Peculiar Reviewer

Tim Burton 's latest, Dark Shadows , sees him returning back to his classic comedy-with-a-shot-of-goth, reminiscent of his Beetlejuice days . A delightful relief from the mainstream, the film is loosely based on the Gothic soap opera that aired from 1966 to 1971, which has since enjoyed status as a cult TV show. The undead Barnabas Collins ( Johnny Depp ) is cursed to be a vampire in the year 1760 by a bitter femme of whom he did not return her request for eternal love. Released from his coffin to exist in a slightly different 1972, Barnabas returns to his mansion at Collinwood to become a part of the living Collins clan, who is a family that is just the right brew of strangeness I'd like to be undead with . Chloë Grace Moretz ( Let Me In , Kick-Ass ) is the David Bowie, T-Rex loving, angsty teenager living in her own created ambiance . Michelle Pfeiffer is timeless, gracing us with her Gothic stairway entrance. Helena Bonham Carter plays the pill-popping psychiatrist w...

From the very beginning, The Hunger Games had me enthralled with its eccentric storyline. The Fifth Element 's spawn, The Hunger Games is set in a future where the Capitol (the rich) pick boys and girls from one of the twelve Districts to fight to the death, while broadcasting the game on live television for all to see. The film critiques our reality obsessed nation, taking it further with spectators being engrossed with a game where young people are forced to kill each other. 24 will fight, and only 1 will come out alive and be able to return home. The filmmaker produces a raw tension that can cut like a bow-n-arrow. Don't be swayed by the reviews about the excessive shaky camera ala Blair Witch - because it is utilized only during tension-filled scenes, drawing you further into the action. You've seen Jennifer Lawrence kick ass before in 2010's Winter's Bone , and she's back with a vengeance as Katniss (the coolest name for a female heroine ever). Shown ...

Now in its fourth season on Logo , RuPaul's Drag Race is the only essential reality series on television- in the search to find America's next Drag superstar. America's Next Top what? Project who? If you're not watching this show, what the frock are you doing? Ladies, put down that busted brush and take ample notes from these ladyboys. Currently an upcoming spin-off All Stars: RuPaul's Drag Race is accepting fan votes to pick their favorite queens from the series. The chosen queens will return with a vengeance Fall 2012 in another chance to avert lip-syncing for their lives, and snatch the coveted crown. Did someone say Cher? Team Chad Michaels or bust! So fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy night on Monday @ 9/8c!

Hammer Horror rises from the grave with their latest horror-thriller The Woman in Black . Post-Potter Daniel Radcliffe is the young lawyer that travels to an unsettling village where he discovers the rancorous ghost (or undead?) of a scorned woman who is terrorizing the local living. Screenwriter Jane Goldman ( Kick-Ass , X-Men: First Class ) builds the horror slowly, killing us softly with her tone. The bleak atmosphere. The chasing shadows. The creepy score. (Mother) Mary Shelley would be proud. Hammer Horror history has been made with The Woman in Black being their highest grossing film yet, earning $20 million opening weekend. Remember the time when things on-screen were frightening for just being uncanny? There wasn't entirely a reason for them to be there, yet they just are, and that is what scares us. Expect the unexpected.

A brief playground fight leads to an awkward deliberation between the children's parents in Roman Polanski 's ( The Pianist, Chinatown ) delightful black comedy Carnage . Based on the play God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza, this film's bare bones dialogue and tense confrontation between the two couples is reminiscent of the masterpiece Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? , and Hitchcock's Rope. From the first glimpse of the credits zooming in on us, we know that all will be exposed, in due time. Kate Winslet ( Eternal Sunshine, The Reader ) perpetually delivers, and the perfectly cast John C. Reilly ( Cyrus, The Hours ) does classic-Reilly. Polanski, who is not shy with the up close(-up) and personal shots of his characters, has been able to capture perfect comic timing. I'm talking riotous. For a movie that takes place primarily in the same living room, you've got to have an absurdly talented cast to keep the audience interested. Carnage knows exactly what...