SWEENEY TODD: A-
For those of you who don't know the general premise of the movie, do not expect to see the same lovable, charming personality of Jack Sparrow from Johnny Depp in this performance. It's part Ichabod Crane from Sleepy Hollow + Inspector Abberline in From Hell, then add a little more anguish and straight up crazy. Without giving out too much spoilers, Benjamin Barker (Depp) is a barber that seems to have finally settled down in life with his beautiful wife Lucy & new baby girl Johanna when Barker's world is turned upside down due to Judge Turpin's (Alan Rickman) lust for Lucy. After being deported for about 15 years, Barker comes back to London with his new identity as Sweeney Todd, with every intention to seek revenge upon Turpin and to be reunited with his family. With the help of Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter), Todd devises a plan to rid of Turpin by luring him into his newly opened barber shop; in the meantime, he practices his craft on unsuspecting customers.
When coming into this movie, you can't forget that this is a musical first and foremost. What Depp, Carter and the main cast lack in singing abilities they make up with the emotions that they bring to the songs; they carry the songs so well that you never really notice that they aren't of the same calibur as their counterparts on Broadway. I've never heard the soundtrack for Sweeney Todd before but I found some of the songs to be quite catchy and funny, despite the dark undertones. One thing that I did find annoying was that they recycled the same song about 3 or 4 times throughout the movie.
The visuals in this movie are on par with Burton's previous works. This version of London is ghoulish and dirty, which helps to set the tone from the beginning. Because of this, the blood and gore is easily highlighted against the drab backgrounds. The violence is very graphic, but done in a comical and over-the-top way to somewhat ease the viewer (I still had to squint through most of the throat slittings though). The sets and costumes are done with great detail as well, and overall the visuals really helped to make this movie.
As dark as the material may be, I really enjoyed this movie. I laughed a lot, felt for the characters, and was thoroughly entertained.
I AM LEGEND: B-
I'm not going to write a full review for this movie but mainly I just wanted to point out a couple things, especially some problems I had with the movie diverging too much from the book. I highly recommend, by the way, reading the original book by Richard Matheson.
I have to give it up for Will Smith for his performance in this movie. To carry about 75% of it either acting by yourself or with CGI "dark-seekers", I think he did pretty well. The tone of the movie was consistent, starting from the opening scene of a desolate New York city. The way a total lack of sound or music was used in the movie was also very effective in delivering this feeling straight to the audience. Now for my rant.
DO NOT READ the italicized paragraphs if you don't want to be SPOILED.
The only real things that the book and the movie had in common were the fact that there was a virus that was taking over the entire human population, and Dr. Robert Neville was indeed the last man on Earth still trying to find a way to eradicate this pandemic. The movie (at least I don't think) does not come straight out and say that those infected turn into vampires; this is a little odd to me since "I Am Legend" is arguably one of the most influential vampire novels, second to "Dracula". A main part of Neville's daily routine in the book is to go around during the day to every building and "kill" the undead. He does this by driving a stake through their hearts, then collects all of the bodies for that day and disposes them in this burning pit. Neville's family had been taken over by the virus, and he is even forced to kill his infected wife because she keeps tempting him to join "their" side. Robert does not start off with a dog companion either; he finds the dog at his doorstep one day and gains his trust after leaving food for him for a couple weeks. Each night, the vampires congregate around Neville's home because they DO know where he lives, and they shout his name and claw at his boarded-up windows until sunrise. The leader of the vampires is Neville's neighbor and former best friend, Ben Cortman. A couple times he is forced to fight his way into his home because he loses track of time or his watch dies.
I could go on but the main problem I had with the movie version was the ending. The whole reason for Neville being the "legend" is entirely different. In the book Neville captures a terrified girl he finds running in the fields who represents a glimmer of hope for him - she is the first human he has seen for a while now. This slowly develops into a friendship and what Neville hopes to be something more. The girl ends up being one of the infected, only she does not exhibit any signs of the disease. Neville finds out that there are others like her, who are infected, but during the daylight they appear to be vampires. To those who are still living, Neville has become a horror to them, being able to wander around in the daylight killing them, the still "living", along with the dead. The girl's initial intent of gaining Neville's trust works, and this leads to Neville's capture as she turns him into those who are still living. As he is being lead to his death in front of all of the vampires, he realizes that he himself has become "legend"; he the last of the human race, with vampires now taking over the world and humans being regarded now as legend, as vampires once were.
/End spoilers
That being said, I still gave the movie a B-. Being someone who has read the book, I tried REALLY hard to LOVE this movie, but it fell a little short of my expectations.
FOR THE MUSIC LOVERS
This concert DVD is pretty cool, I bought it for my dad for Christmas and I ended up watching the whole thing after Christmas breakfast. It has a little bit of everything for everyone: funk, soul, jazz, rock, you name it. I happen to be a big fan of both of these bands, but I'm sure everyone will find something to like, from one of the classic songs to the fun performances. I mean, Earth, Wind & Fire AND Chicago performing together?
Plus Philip Bailey of EW&F is phenomenal.
1 comment:
phillip bailey always likes to show off during the live performances of "reasons"...my goal for the past two years as a wanna be singer has been to hit that note at the 2:05 mark and I think I've lost half a testicle in the process.
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