December 22, 2007

Holiday Excitement Thy Name is Burton

Opening night of Tim Burton's adaptation of Steven Sondheim's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street has come and gone and this sci-fi/horror blogger wishes to take this opportunity to say - IN-FREAKING-CREDIBLE!! Burton has once again succeeded in elevating my cinema experience to include awe and amazement. Considering my one biggest complaint was that Anthony Stewart Head (better known as Rupert Giles to all you Buffyphiles out there) said one sentence fragment and didn't sing (Behind Blue Eyes, anyone?), I'd say all in all it was a good night at the picture show.

I was a little concerned, going into it, because there were rumors that it had been dumbed down to cater to Captain Jack's drooling teenaged groupies but that worry was sufficiently quelled with the effective, albeit rather unconventional application of a teapot to Sascha Baron Cohen's cranium. Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter were superbly terrifying in their completely aloof decision that Sweeney would slaughter and Mrs. Lovett, creator of meat pies, would ....ahem....dispose of the bodies. Alan Rickman's performance, however, was a trifle understated, when compared to those of Professor Snape and the Sheriff of Nottingham to Kevin Costner's Robin Hood, but still impressive.

In short, run, don't walk, to your local movie house and indulge in the blood shed that is Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd.

But that was not the end of my wonder and bemusement. Upon returning to the warmth of my home, I was greeted with the news that he has confirmed work on two new projects - a stop motion remake of Frankenwenie (gleeeeeeeeee) which will follow, hold on to your seats, Burton fans, a live-action/motion capture adaptation of Alice in Wonderland! Unfortunately, as of press time, neither the IMDb or Rotten Tomatoes has much to say about it. The IMDb has it slated for release in 2010 and Rotten Tomatoes hasn't even caught wind of it's existence. But he has publicly confirmed that he is working on both projects with Disney's assistance.

November 24, 2007

Burton Allowed to Realize Gorey Vision

The rumor, found in an article on RottenTomatoes.com, was that Warner Bros. Studios execs were asking Tim Burton to cut out some "excessively gorey scenes" from his film adaptation of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street. The reasoning behind this edit was to not lose box office bucks from the Disney crowd; i.e. those 14 year old girls swooning over Captain Jack Sparrow. The theory was that these girls would want to see the murderous tale simply because of Johnny Depp's lead but their parents would keep them away because of the amount of blood shed. The whole sordid affair was enough to make me weep openly into my Mini Wheats.

However, I caught the trailer on TV (saw it on IMDb.com several weeks ago without the rating stamp) and quite literally squealed with delight when the announcer guy spoke those magical words every girl longs to hear, "This film is rated R." I squealed and if not for a bad back, would have danced as well. Burton and Depp, 1... censorship and capitalism, zero. That's a big fat notch in the genius column.

Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, starring Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and Alan Rickman, opens in theaters December 21.

A Bloody Christmas to all and to all a Good Fright :)

November 22, 2007

30 Days of Night

When I first heard the concept of and premise behind these novels and the subsequent film, I said to myself, "Self, how could you have been so blind? Vampires in the Arctic, what storyline could have been more obvious?"

So I went to see the film. I had read a review on another blog and it was rave. The writer claimed that no good had come from the vampire genre in some sixty years but this film was stellar. I, unfortunately, must say that I was not as impressed as he. Perhaps it was all the hype that this fellow writer had placed on the film or perhaps it was my aversion to films that use shock and gore to make up for lackluster dialog and two-dimensional characters, but there was definitely something missing from my cinematic experience.

I'm not saying that it totally stunk. The make up was decent and I dug the way they made the vamps jaws unhinge. And if you aren't like me (a total elitest bastard about plot and characters and dialog) and you do go in for gore for the sheer sake of gore, you're in for a romp. To be completely frank, my favorite character had no dialog save for feral screaming. The love interest of the head vamp was Iris, played by newcomer Megan Franich, and for a character who never spoke, only devoured and screeched, she was, by leaps and bounds, the most terrifying aspect of the whole experience (the aforementioned blogger had given this title to Danny Huston, who played the leader's lackey, Marlow).

Josh Hartnett's portrayal of Sherriff Eben Oleson brought forth (in my own mind anyway) memories of Zeke... I can't quite explain why, I just know that all through the picture I kept flashing back to scenes from the Faculty, expecting him to suggest drugging the rest of the survivors so their blood would be tainted and the vampires wouldn't be able to feed from it.

All in all, my recommendation for those who have not yet experienced this celluloid wonder is as follows: If you like blood and gore and don't really care if all of the characters are created equally forgettable, run, don't walk to your local cinema. If you are seeking an innovative and terrifying approach to the vampire genre, save your eight bucks and rent the DVD.

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a literary collection devoted to showcasing works of new and established fiction in the SF/F/DF/H genres. Our blogspot is an extension of the magazine focused on reviews and rants regarding that which is new and exciting in the world of SF/F/H