SWEENY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET

Musical

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Johnny Depp: Sweeney Todd one nasty barber
Alan Rickman: Judge Turpin
Timothy Spall: his assistant Beadly Bamford
Helena Bonham Carter: Mrs. Lovett, proprietor of a meat shop
Sacha Baron Cohen: Signor Adolfo Pirelli

REVIEW
The first thing that strikes you is the desaturated colour, just shades of black and grey throughout except for a couple of minutes right at the beginning. It’s really very depressing but sets the mood oh so beautifully. This is not a fun experience unless you are enjoy watching throats being sliced and are not put off with such things as cockroaches crawling in meat pies served to unwitting customers.

This dark, humourless, gory, gruesome, creepy, icky film about a cruel, scheming, serial killer runs for almost two hours and includes too many interminable musical numbers that are not upbeat nor particularly pleasant listening. What a combination.

I like movies that are entertaining and\or informative. This is neither.

CLASSIFICATION
for graphic bloody violence.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
 Sweeney Todd has some white hair which changes from a measly 1” wide patch to a swatch three times that.
 Pirelli’s assistant Toby takes two bites out of a meat pie then we see a heads and shoulders shot of Mrs. Lovett. When the camera returns to Toby the meat pie only has one bite in it.
 The blood on the chin of Joanna’s potential suitor is sometimes two streaks, other times just one.
 From the looks of it these events took place around the time of Jack the Ripper, in 1888. The Italian flag at that time had the Savoyan coat of arms in the center of the white band whereas Pirelli is flying the one adopted some 80 years later with the unification of Italy.
 The sign up on Pirelli’s stage claims he is the barber to the King of Naples. The kingdom ceased to exist some 70 years earlier with the formal union of Naples and Sicily in 1816.

I AM LEGEND

Action adventure

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Will Smith: Dr. Robert Neville, a brillant scientist
Alice Braga: Anna

REVIEW
It has all the requirements of a “blockbuster sci-fi” movie. There are elaborate special effects sequences, speeding cars and frightening scenes: two right up there on the top end of the scary scale where your neck hairs stand on end and your heart stops briefly, several others of the “saw it coming” sort.

But the thin story line provides no opportunity to develop beyond the repetitive daily routine of our hero until nearly three-quarters of the way through when a stranger appears. By that time it’s possible you’ve lost interest in the outcome. Speaking of which, the ending seems like something of an afterthought.

CLASSIFICATION
for intense sequences of sci-fi action and violence.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
 In the opening sequence Neville and Sam are driving around in a red Mustang. Neville opens the passenger side window and Sam sticks his head out (as dogs are prone to do). The scene shifts to inside the car and the window is closed.
 Neville is wearing a head-cam to provide streaming video while he checks some cages in his private lab. The view shown on the monitor does not always correspond to where he is looking.
 Posted on the door of a taxi cab is the current drop (the initial fare) of $2.50 but in 2009 when the cab was last used the fare would definitely reflect the higher inflated cost of gas of 663 a gallon (as posted on a sign at the gas station).
 During his daily recorded radio message Neville says he’s at the South Street Seaport every day at noon “when the sun is at its highest” but Sam’s long shadow belies that statement.
 Neville gets injured with the result he has a blood on the shoulders of his white T-shirt. The blood on the left-hand side looks like a splayed hand but it disappears from time to time only to reappear again before he leaves.
 Neville hurtles up a ramp in front of Grand Central Terminal, which has a wide swath of bright sunlight in front of it. He gets out of the car and walks toward the terminus but the bright patch is gone.
 Neville, Anna and the kid leave the dinner table loaded with dishes and things. While talking with Anna in the background you can see the table is completely cleared with only a small vase in the middle of it.
 When Neville and Anna return to the dinner table to pore over some papers it is devoid of anything at all.
 Neville makes no mention of any world-wide devastation of humanity when he tells Anna there were 6 billion people in the world in 2009. We passed the 6.6 billion mark in July 2007.
 Futhermore population growth based on a well-known formula projects the world population to be at least 7 billion in 2009.

THE POINT

Drama

REVIEW
Some movies are best left for others. This is one of them.
Set in Pointe-Saint-Charles (better known simply as The Point) a group of teenagers living in one of the poorest neighbourhoods of Montreal basically do their thing: hanging out, making out, getting drunk, shoplifting, sassing the cops, selling and/or using drugs, the girls preening, the guys playing pickup basketball.

The acting is really amateurish because that’s what they are: none are professionals and it shows.

After 45 minutes or so I walked out.

CLASSIFICATION
for drug use, offensive language.

BREAKFAST WITH SCOT

Family comedy

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Tom Cavanagh: Ed McNally, former professional hockey player
Ben Shenkman: Sam, a sports lawyer
Noah Bernett: his brother's stepson 11-year-old Scot
Colin Cunningham: Sam’s brother Billy

REVIEW
There is a lot to be said for making a movie about relationships, self respect, dealing with adversary and intolerance. But trying to make it funny at the same time is a lot less effective (despite being done in a respectful manner) because several situations really lack credulity and consequently are not comical.

The acting for the most part is pretty standard stuff except for Scot who does quite a good job of it.

CLASSIFICATION
for mature matter and brief sport related violence.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
 Eric offers Scot a variety of drinks including Mountain Dew. Health Canada regulations restrict the use of caffeine to 'dark-coloured' varieties of soft drinks such as cola and root beer. Since Mountain Dew is clear in colour like 7-Up it is unavailable in Canada.
 At the end of the day Sam and Eric are laying in bed. The scene shifts to show Scot entering the room and back to them but now they are both sitting upright.
 Sam tells his brother he is concerned that Scot has missed September schooling in Brazil. In fact he’s missed October, November and most of December as evidenced by the fact Christmas decorations are already up in the shopping mall.

ATONEMENT

2008 Best Original Score


Romantic drama

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Saoirse Ronan: 13-year old Briony Tallis, an aspiring writer
Kiera Knightley: her older sister Cecilia
James McAvoy: the housekeeper's son Robbie
Patrick Kennedy: Leon Tallis, the older brother
Benedict Cumberbatch: Leon’s wealthy friend Paul
Romola Garai: 18-year old Briony, a nurse in training
Vanessa Redgrave: the much older Briony

REVIEW
Right from the opening scene this period piece is beautifully photographed and nicely edited and so the two-hours do not seem that long. As with all beautifully made films the lighting is bang-on, the costumes are just right, the performances are uniformly excellent. What sets this one apart is the effective use of sound: time and again whether it is the music or the clattering of the typewriter or whatever, what is heard adds an element to the viewing experience that is solely lacking in so many movies.

The technique of replaying scenes first seen from Briony's perspective and then from someone else’s point of view allows us to appreciate how her imagination sometimes distorts things. It is left for us to judge which is real.

CLASSIFICATION
for disturbing war images, language and some sexuality.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
 During the summer of 1935 Robbie is laying on his back and sees a bomber fly over. Throughout the 1930s, the Royal Air Force was interested primarily in twin-engine bombers. The first four-engine British bomber made its maiden flight in 1938.
 When Robbie leaves in the black car standing behind Briony quietly watching him go are Leon and Paul. When seen again from Robbie’s point of view Paul is missing.
 The British Expedionary Force fighting in France was manned by volunteers not by conscripted prisioners.
 During her interview on television the Older Briony refers to “the evacuation to Dunkirk”. The evacuation FROM Dunkirk (not TO Dunkirk) by a hastily assembled fleet of seven hundred boats took nine days and saved the lives of some 300,000 soldiers.

P.S.
If they ever give an Academy Award for “the longest takes in filmmaking” the one of the beach at Dunkirk would be a real contender. It must be 3 minutes long.

I’M NOT THERE

Biography

BACKGROUND
Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman), May 24, 1941 is an American singer-songwriter, author, musician and poet who has been a major figure in popular music for five decades. Much of Dylan's most celebrated work dates from the 1960s, when he became an informal chronicler and a reluctant figurehead of American unrest. A number of his songs, such as “Blowin’ in the Wind” and “The Times They Are a-changin’” became anthems of the anti-war and civil rights movements.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Marcus Carl Franklin: a young African-American musical protege calling himself Woody Guthrie
Christian Bale: Jack Rollins, the early Dylan
Heath Ledger: Robbie Clark, the Dylan that gets married
Charlotte Gainsbourg: his wife Claire
Ben Whishaw: the talking-head Arthur
Cate Blanchett: Jude at the the top-of-his-career
Richard Gere: Billy the Kid

REVIEW
Those of you who are regulars readers know I purposely go to a movie knowing as little about it as possible (even to the point of going into the theatre only after the trailers are shown so not to "contaminate" future viewings) relying mostly on the ratings of a few critics (but ignoring their reviews entirely) to decide whether to see a movie or not. In this way I hope to replicate the experience of the average moviegoer who pays his/her ticket and sits down to watch what unfolds. Unfortunately that does not always work because sometimes unless you are “clued in” beforehand you find yourself in the wrong movie for you or simply totally lost.

This film falls into the latter category: I never figured out that the six story lines had anything in common. Only now having gone to the official website and watched two of the trailers did I find out that these six people reflect the different personas of one man, Bob Dylan. It’s a novel idea but one that was never made clear from either the brief ramblings of some fellow at the start or any other means such as an on-screen label “Bob Dylan, the wanna-be Woody Guthrie young, black, sassy kid” or something similar.

Now I can understand why the film begins with a 11-year-old black boy who tells his travelling companions he’s already been singing and writing music for years then proceeds to demonstrate his talent and then we jump to someone else (“Bob Dylan, the wanna-be Jack Rollins type of up-and-coming troubadour”) and never see the kid again.

But for reasons I have yet to figure out, they don’t even use the name of the singer being portrayed. Instead he’s called Jude. And played by a woman rather than a man. Why?

Frankly the whole thing is such a mess it’s not worth the effort of trying to sort it out. In addition it is long, running over two hours and lacking any linear time-line means these characters frequently reappear which just adds to the confusion. Switching from black-and-white to colour and back doesn’t help either. Nor does the weird Billy-the-Kid in a carnival setting.

It’s a wonder I didn’t walk out.

CLASSIFICATION
for language, some sexuality and nudity.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
 The reflective glass behind the music producer on the left-hand side allows you to see the camera tracking in for a close up.
 While performing in someone’s living room the strumming by the Woody Guthrie character is out of sync by at least half a beat to the music being heard.
 And his first vocal rendition is off by twice that to the words being heard.

P.S.
The title comes from one of Dylan’s songs.

ENCHANTED

Romantic comedy

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Amy Adams: Giselle, a beautiful fairytale princess
James Marsden: the handsome Prince Edward
Susan Sarandon: the Prince’s wicked stepmother Queen Narissa
Timothy Spall: the Prince’s manservant Nathaniel
Rachel Covey: six-year-old Morgan
Patrick Dempsey: her father Robert, a NYC divorce attorney

REVIEW
It starts off like most Disney movies as an old fashioned animated cartoon but quickly becomes a live-action type film with real people. Well as real as they can get in a Disney movie.

Although geared to kids it is still an entertaining outing for all since it has some great music and dance numbers along with some pretty goofy humour. Giselle’s bright and cheerful outlook sets the tone and the colourful sets match her disposition.

Computer generated images (CGI) is used sparingly except near the end when they go a bit overboard with the dragon stuff which gets them the PG classification.

CLASSIFICATION
for some scary images and mild innuendo.

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY
 While strolling in Central Park Giselle gives an old lady some money which she holds in her hands as Giselle continues on. The scene shifts to Giselle looking back at the old lady who has her hands in the air with no money to be seen until it once more reverts to the original view of Giselle skipping away with the old lady firmly holding the money.
 When Robert and Giselle are in the Italian restaurant, the number of breadbaskets on the shelf behind them varies from one scene to the next although no one approaches them. Sometimes two piles, usually just one, sometimes piled six high, other times just four.

P.S.
Unlike most films geared to kids, there is but one instance of the requisite crude, vulgar bodily noises. Goes to show you, even Disney has to make some concession to meet the expectations of their younger audience.