Monster Specials

I finally got roped into watching the movie Dark Shadows despite the reviews I've seen condemning the movie as a fan project by Timmy and Johnny that didn't quite know what it wanted to be. After seeing it, however, I will say this: as someone who hasn't seen the original series, I don't know how much it actually remains true to the source material. The movie as a whole feels like they were trying to have it be a horror-comedy but it fell flat in some areas and were far too graphic in others (I blame Twilight for certain aspects of that and Tim Burton for others). As it takes place in Maine, you can combine the Tim Burton and Stephen King drinking games and come out worse than Helena Bonham Carter's character by the end of it. I like Elementary, but it was weird seeing Johnny Lee Miller like this. I'm not opposed to vampire Depp, but I am hesitant to see any more of his performances trying to portray other classic characters (though I know I'll get roped into seeing The Lone Ranger as well eventually).
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein was released on DVD. I used to borrow this and Hold That Ghost from the library a lot when they had them in VHS form. Now that it's on DVD, I got to watch behind-the-scenes bonus features. I remember reading some things about the history of the duo as well as their issues, but not really a detailed movie-by-movie account of their careers like the book I read about Laurel and Hardy. Apparently the two stars had to be paid a lot of money to agree to do this movie as neither one thought it was written that well (though they had faith in the director). It was a few years into their career and Universal was betting everything it had on them as well as its line of monster movies, so they thought why not combine them? This movie features Lon Cheney Jr as the wolfman, Bela Lugosi as Dracula, and Glenn Strange as the titular monster (because Boris Karloff didn't want to do it but would later spoof himself as well as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in two of their other horror-comedy movies). It was met with mixed test reviews, the actors hated it, but somehow it became a cult classic all the same.
Minding the Monsters was Jeff Dunham's most recent special, airing last October for Halloween despite him specifically saying that he meant it to be a monster special and not a Halloween special. As I have said before, Christmas and Halloween are my favorite holidays and The Nightmare Before Christmas tops both my lists. I still think Jeff's Christmas special was the best of the bunch (if only for the musical stylings of Brian Haner and Achmed's "Jingle Bombs"), but I will give this one credit for trying. The model graveyard features headstones of retired dummies, including Melvin and Sweet Daddy D. Their old jokes were recycled and given to other characters, like Peanut dressed as a Batman-type super hero. While I can appreciate that Dunham has gotten technologically savvier, I would have liked to have more fresh jokes or at least more classic humor done in-character. Even his personal stories aren't that hilarious anymore (he admits in the bonus features that some of them are exaggerated or flat-out untrue), though I am happy that he has moved on with his life.