sweeney todd

ive been looking forward to this film for quite some time. im not at all familiar with the musical its based on (yes, this movie is a musical), but the prospect of any film by tim burton with jonny depp in it is always something to get excited about.

i went to go see it wednesday, and my general reaction was this: meh. im not sure why, but i was all together unimpressed. the story is dark and interesting, but i think it fell flat because of the fact that its a musical. it may have been great as a musical, but i felt the the songs themselves were quite bland as well. nothing really stands out as a memorable tune. the songs werent catchy, and there were many times where i just plain couldnt understand what they were singing. oh, and none of them could really sing that well, so that has a way of lowering the quality of the film. the story line has a lot of promise, but even that didnt pan out as being that interesting. the bit with the daughter and sailor boy was disjointed and disconnected from the major plot and never really played any important role in what was going on with the main characters, the bit about the poor woman was weak and very obvious, and the meat pie thing wasnt very well executed.

it saddens me to say this, but i think burton and depp missed the mark on this one.

the assassination of jesse james

now, that not exactly the full title of the film, but i figured i wouldn't be able to fit the whole thing on there. the full title is 'the assassination of jesse james by the coward robert ford'. a bit of a mouth full, huh?

tuesday i was sitting around my parents place and getting bored, so i figured i'd catch a movie. i saw that woodland theaters (the cheap second run and art house theater) was showing this movie and i had read a bit about it and wanted to check it out. so i did.

the film itself is a bit unusual as far as films go. its not so much a story as it is a character study. all the scenes don't necessarily tie in with each other so much as they all show different aspects of who these guys are. brad pitt plays jesse james as a tired, sad, and angry man who distrusts everyone (with good reason), and casey affleck plays robert ford as an insecure boy with a misplaced ego. the film itself is quite slow. it really creates the feeling of being there. the pace of the film helps us to understand the pace of life at that time, as well as the reality of the actions and events portrayed. it plainly shows the emotions of jesse james, a spent man accepting what evils have finally caught up with him, and robert ford, a desperate man blind to the truth that he will never amount to anything. its quite sad, really, but that's what makes it even more powerful.

oh, and the guy who plays dick liddil, paul schneider, is amazing. its difficult to admit, but i think he stole the show away from brad pitt. truly someone who will be making it big, and soon. keep an eye on this guy.

national treasure 2

monday i met up with jeffry lee at the mall and we figured we would catch a movie. there were a couple that we wanted to see, but werent particularly passionate about which one we should see. we ended up deciding to go see 'national treasure 2: book of secrets'.

now, its no big secret that i am not a nicolas cage fan, but for some reason i really enjoyed the first one. i think it was because i had just finished reading 'the da vinci code' and wanted to see a fun puzzle-based adventure movie. i saw it and really enjoyed it- it was certainly better than the really crappy da vinci movie that was eventually made. the first one was filled with a fun mix of history, conspiracy theories, puzzles, action, and adventure. it was completely over-the-top and left any sense of logic in its wake.

the second one is just more of the same (well, except less of the logic). the plot is loosely based on something or other to do with the lincoln assassination. the journey to find some sort of golden city takes them to paris, england, washington dc, and finally south dakoda (as all good adventures should...?) at many points you must actively fight your brain from working because the jumps in logic are so ludicrous that any sort of thinking would ruin the fun. but there are actually a few times where the characters themselves begin to question its absurdity, so they are obviously in on the joke. one of the funnies things in the movie is the fact that the only way a character is able to add emphasis to what they are saying is to repeat it ('is it? is it?'), which happens about ten to fifteen times throughout the movie. jeff and i got a great many laughs out of that, but it seems that the rest of the audience didnt quite pick up on it. the rest of the audience didnt quite pick up on it.

over all, im sure i will quickly forget the movie, but in a couple years when its on tv i will probably stop and watch it again for the laughs and the ridiculous ride it takes you on.

transformers

ive seen this one a few times now, and i figure i should say a few words about it. the first time i saw it was opening weekend in theaters, and i loved it! i had always intended to head back and see it again on the big screen, but the summer passed by faster than i thought it would. oh well.

a few weeks ago it came out on dvd. i, always a sucker for special movie packaging, had to get the two disc version from target. the case is so ridiculous that its actually quite impressive. they made the dvd case into a transforming robot. it looks really stupid as the case, and it doesnt really look much better as the robot. but thats not the point, the point is that its really outrageous and lame- which automatically means awesome!

i watched it when i first got it and is fun factor was still intact, even on a smaller screen. the film itself does a great job of bringing a back story to the robots. they did a really great job on optimus prime and the effect of all the robots changing. the human characters are passable for the most part (i still can not stand the girl with the australian accent, i know its real but it sounds totally fake!) the 'all spark' cube is a bit lame, but they needed a macguffin, and it did enough to serve its purpose. would have loved a few more fight scenes, but thats when a sequel is for, i guess... on top of a good movie was the second disc. the bonus second disc is worth the purchase alone, it goes very in depth about the production and everything that went into making it. some of the shots of how they filmed and then added in the robots was more interesting then i expected.

i just watched it a third time this week, this time with the director commentary on. and once again, i am impressed. having listened to many, many director commentaries, i was quite impressed with michael bays candor. usually the people doing the commentary end up kissing each others butt the whole time 'oh, you were so great in that scene', 'oooh, i loved the camera angle you used there' (im looking at you, kevin costner), or they become very technical or just plain nonsense (that you be you, tim burton). but on this commentary, bay is completely honest about what went right, what went wrong, how the transformer fans helped or were wrong about different stuff. it was refreshing, to hear someone tell it like it is and actually give some insight into the movie making process.

all in all, it was one of those rare things: a great movie, with even better dvd extras!