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I saw Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street earlier tonight, a musical about a vengeful barber who runs his place in a rather unorthodox manner, which serves as the basis for a successful partnership with the woman who owns the pie shop in the same building.

It's a very well-made film in many respects. Visually, it's your typical Burton film, with excellent production design and stylized, almost doll-like characters. It features a reputable cast - Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman and Sacha Baron Cohen among others - and thankfully, everyone delivers, both in song and presence. This is vital, as a mediocre cast could easily render the movie ridiculous. And most importantly for a musical, the music is brilliant. Far removed from the usual pop anthems, but captivating all the same, with very witty lyrics. I loved the way the songs were incorporated into the storyline, with comparatively little spoken dialogue, in contrast to most musicals were the song numbers almost feel like interruptions.

The only real criticism is that it is a rather superficial film. Great acting, great visuals, great music, but no real depth. It leaves little aftertaste. But it's entertaining if you have a macabre sense of humour, so I'd recommend it anyway.
 
Shadow said:
I saw Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street earlier tonight, a musical about a vengeful barber who runs his place in a rather unorthodox manner, which serves as the basis for  It features a reputable cast -  Sacha Baron Cohen
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Isn't she a figure skater?
 
I just remembered I watche dtTeam America last night. It's weird because the actors are all puppets...the whole movie is puppets and playdo reallly...it features ridiculous humor while making fun of America and its war on terrorrism.
 
The whole puppet thing is a throw-back to an old series in... the 60s I think called Thunderbirds, which was also done entirely with puppets.
 
Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Stingray, loads of em. I loved them when I was a kid. And Team America was total and utter shite. The kind of humour in it is "Pussy hurhurhurhurhurhurhurhurhurhurhurhurhurhurhur". Terrible, terribly unfunny film.
 
I disagree.  Just like any Parker & Stone film, there were parts where I went "Ew.  That's too far."  But the entire concept was downright hilarious.  Like how they "Saved" Paris by destroying it.  I think it's a slightly intelligent but mostly ridiculous satire on the attitudes of the Bush administration & America's various police actions.
 
This weekend I saw Legends of the Fall. I love this film. Every time I watch it it gets better, I'm resolved to get the book. The movie simply drops a lot of hints and it works amazing, but I know there has got to be more. For example, Tristan (Pitt) always comes home, drunk, beat up, late...etc. When at the dinning room table, his father and brothers quickly get up as Susana (his youngest brother's fiance), enters, yet he takes his sweet ass time in doing the same. He is bound by no one's laws except his own. Also you don't know who One Stab is telling the story too. He hands them a stack of letters, which the characters voice over during the movie.... A classic move in novel writing ( Frankenstein was a set of letters/Journals as was Dracula and others). At any rate a great drama of trying to escape modernization, passion, family and of course love.
 
Onhell, in case you didn't notice, our resident Japanese cartoon fan posted again... ;)
 
Perun said:
Onhell, in case you didn't notice, our resident Japanese cartoon fan posted again... ;)
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Oh I did, my rage was such I blacked out and when I came to it just wasn't there anymore, which allowed me to make my post... some sort of defense mechanism I guess.
 
I just got to see Charlie Wilson's War.  I thought it was great!  I really don't want to spoil any of the plot, since it is new, but the growth of the Congressman from the opening scene to the closing scene is amazing (IMO).  Tom Hanks plays a great role as a womanizing Congressman in the early 80's, drinking at all times on the job, an office full of attractive women as his assistants. 

Now, I know that it is 'based' on a true story, but I haven't had the chance to look up and see how accurate it really was.  However, it does show a great deal of how 'close minded' American law-makers can be.  I hope I'm not giving anything away by stating that this was about Russians in Afghanistan. 

The movie closes with this quote, and it is supposed to be accurate:

“These things happened. They were glorious and they changed the world... and then we fucked up the endgame.”
 
LooseCannon said:
It seems like Whitewolf's updated his post.

:innocent:
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You're going to drive away the newbie.

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I saw The Spiderwick Chronicles.  Valentine's Day was here and that means that a romantic movie was needed.  Personally, I thought Rambo had the qualifications of romance, but apparently my fiancee disagreed citing a quote that "the movie tried to see how high it can get the body count".  So my choices were Fool's Gold which seemed like a really cheesy love comedy starring Matthew Mac-Cona-Hay or Definitely, Maybe which at least had a real plot.  Luckily my (female) cousin, whose opinion my fiancee trusts, saw The Spiderwick Chronicles and said it was good.  I was spared a cheesy chick flick for now, even though I offered to go.  I usually find these movies too predictable and dull, but I wanted to make her happy.  For some strange reason, she decided that she'd rather see the fantastical movie, to which I now turn to.

The movie is along the lines of Harry Potter, but not nearly as complex, with more sequals made from books to follow.  Essentially, it tells a story of three young siblings and their mother who move into a dead great, great uncle's mansion in the middle of nowhere (where else?).  Their uncle's whole life's work is studying fantastical creatures, whose secrets he collected in a single book.  Without giving away the plot, which sounds a lot like a kid's story, there is a bad ogre who wants to get his hands on this book, but which also holds a key to destroying the ogre and saving the world from total devastation.  It is entertaining even though it is aimed at children.  The three kid actors all do a good job.
 
I saw Vantage Point this Friday for my birthday.

This movie has little bit of everything: drama, suspense, car chases, action, plot twists and a great story.

The setting takes place in Spain, where the US president (William Hurt) is addressing the world on terrorism.  Two Secret Service agents (Dennis Quaid and Matthew Fox) are watching him closely.  What transpires is a who-shot-the-president told from many perspectives, including an American tourist and newsreporter (Forest Whitaker and Sigourney Weaver respectively) as well as the agents.  The story takes many twists and turns including a perspective from the bad guys, which near the end of the movie, in a strange twist of fate, prove to have a touch of humanity that seals their fate.  The movie is a little contrived at the end, as if the makers did not know how to finish it. 

As I was watching the movie, I was thinking this is one of the best movies I've seen ever, but then the ending came, which basically managed to ruin the whole amazing spectacle in the last five minutes.  All scattered ends manage to tie up neatly.  What began as an somewhat innovative movie, using the Rashomon effect in a crime scene, turned into regular Hollywood sop.

Despite the anti-climactic ending the movie is still good.  Judging by the box office, many movie goers thought the same.
 
That was a really interesting film.  Scary as hell.  To elabourate, Nicholas Cage is investigating a snuff film, to try and figure out if the murder depicted is real or fake, and to try and find a missing girl.  In it, he crosses very much into the dark side of things while trying to come to the root of the "mystery".  It also stars Joaquin Phoenix.
 
Good movie indeed. it is the Americanized version of a Spanish movie called Tesis (Thesis) about a college girl that is investigating the link between suffering and arousal for her psychology class thesis and finds a snuff film that was taped at the university.... the killer knows she knows... she's next...

What's funny is that the movie is in the vein of the American "Thriller" and it was eventually turned into an American film LOL.
 
Powergirl81 said:
Yeah, you hit the nail on the head there LC. The info on the film said nothing about it before I decided to watch it. But I like Nick Cage movies. I like when he investigates into stuff. I watched one withn him in it last week where he was investigating into an assassination attempt on the president. The title escapes me right now, but it ended up being his best friend. (The Sentinel?)
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Ahem.  *Cough* spoiler *cough*. ;)
 
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