Friday, December 21, 2007

The Whole Enchilada













Saw Sweeney Todd.

The sum of my expectations did not exceed the film's parts. The talents of Tim Burton, Stephen Sondheim, John Logan, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Sasha Baron Cohen, and Alan Rickman come together in a delicate blend of the lyrical macabre, a cuisine as deliciously grotesque as Mrs. Lovett's meat pies.

My only disappointment is that Alan Rickman's character wasn't exploited more but that's just me and it might have upset the balance of things. As for Johnny Depp's voice, anything MORE than the adequate job he did singing would have been too much for a Tim Burton film.

The movie simply works. Oh so well.

If you're a real Sondheim fan, Netflix has Sweeney Todd in Concert with George Hearn as Sweeney Todd, Patti LuPone as Mrs. Lovett (she's brilliant, BRILLIANT, I tell you!), and Neil Patrick Harris, Davis Gaines and Lisa Vroman. Awesome stuff. And, of course, you can always ask somebody to put the Broadway musical or movie soundtrack in your Christmas stocking.

6 comments:

Grubber said...

Hope you had a Merry Xmas Maryan! Did Santa bring you that fully completed Aquawoman script?

I agree, you can never have too much Rickman.

cheers
Dave

MaryAn Batchellor said...

Give it a rest! I'm working on it, already!! Okay, well, that and a couple of other ideas that are progressing a little more quickly than Aquawoman... She's nothing like you expect, I warn you.

Grubber said...

I'm seeing a modern Erin Brokovich type Aquawoman who was brought up on the wrong side of the contiental shelf, had a few tadpoles early after hooking up with the son of Neptune, who turned out to be gay(what straight prince of the sea wears his crown on an angle, I ask you!) and so she is trying to raise a dysfunctional family when she is hit with these extra superpowers after a run in with a nuclear sub and has to save the world and get the kids ready for nipper school.

Close? :)

Happy New Year Maryan!
cheers
Dave

MaryAn Batchellor said...

Spot on except you left out the part about her failed attempts to seduce the sea creatures whose statements are needed to prove the mycelia of mushrooms are killing the dolphins - the problem here being, of course, the semantics. She'll make it work. I have faith. "They're called boobs, Flipper."

Grubber said...

"you left out the part about her failed attempts to seduce the sea creatures whose statements are needed to prove the mycelia of mushrooms are killing the dolphins" And give away the hook on a public website!?

Great, now when the writers strike is over, there's gonna be like a hundred scripts with mycelia killing dolphins....damn internet! I blame Al Gore!
cheers
Dave

Grubber said...

forgot to add, boobies + flipper = hilarious line!