Sweeney Todd

I recently came across a movie review from the great Roger Ebert at rogerebert.com on a movie I just watched, Sweeney Todd the demon barber of fleet street. This movie was directed by Tim Burton, and I was reminded of "The Nightmare before Christmas" while watching it.

In his review, Ebert writes; "The bloodiest musical in stage history, it now becomes the bloodiest in film history... But we know that going in and are relieved that Burton has played true to the material. Here is one scenario that is prove against a happy ending." I had heard that this movie was extremely violent before watching it, so it definitely didn't come as a surprise. Although, it was a little strange that the blood in the film had a pinkish tint. My only guess was that it wasn't intended to look like a horror film.

This was more a story of revenge. They didn't want you to feel scared while watching it, they wanted you to feel satisfied with him exacting his revenge. I wasn't sure I would like this movie, I don't think I have ever watched a musical all the way through. I really only watched it because one of my co-workers has been raving about it since she watched it in the theater. The first ten minutes, I almost turned it off. I guess it' s just hard for me to focus on the movie when you learn the entire plot from songs. This movie is literally 90 percent songs. Knowing that my co-worker was going to ask me how I liked the movie, I continued to watch.

After getting past the fact that there were going to be so many songs, I actually became really interested in the story, and began to care about the characters. The songs were brilliantly written and composed, and if you were paying attention, described what was going on, and what the characters were thinking and feeling. I became intrigued and wanted to know the ending.

When Ebert writes that the scenario is prove against the happy ending, he means that by all standards this movie does not have a happy ending, but you don't feel sad and disappointed at the end. All of the main characters end up dead, but only after there is nothing left for them, and you feel like maybe it's better then if they lived.

What would you do?

The Mist, another Stephen King novel turned into a screenplay, was not what I expected. If it weren't for the shocking ending, I would of hated this movie. Luckily, the ending was so sad and unexpected that I will at least remember this movie. I watched the special features on this movie, and the director actually went with a company with a lower budget so that he could have the movie end this way.

When I heard the title "The Mist," I assumed it would be somewhere along the lines of The Fog. To my surprise, it was actually a movie about science fiction creatures coming out of the mist and killing people.

The first monster you see is a giant creature with tentacles that eat people. You later come across spiders with acid spray, giant locusts', dragon-like things, and something that resembles the aliens from War of the Worlds (It even makes the same sound.) A bunch of people get trapped in a supermarket, not able to go outside because the creatures in the mist will get them. There's a crazy religious woman who keeps telling everyone this is god's will, sacrifices need to be made... blah, blah, blah. People keep trying to leave, and keep getting killed.

Eventually a small group of people (the main character, his young son, a woman who has been helping take care of the son, an old woman, and an old man) somehow make it to a car in the parking lot (even though everyone else who tries dies) and decide to drive as far as their tank of gas will get them, hoping to drive out of the mist. They eventually run out of gas, and their still in the mist.

They all look at each other, and I guess silently decide they would all rather kill themselves then let the mist get them. There is only four bullets, and five people. The main character states, "don't worry, I'll figure something out." As his son wakes up and looks at him, the camera angle backs up, giving you an overhead view of the car. You hear four gunshots, see the blood, and the bodies slump over, and know that he just killed everyone in the car. He gets out of the car, attempting to get the monster to come kill him. Right at that moment, the mist clears, and the military comes and saves the day.

The movie ends there with him crying on his knees in the middle of the street. Maybe this wouldn't of been so sad to me if he wouldn't of killed his five year old son, especially because he could of just waited another five minutes and they all could of lived. Anyways, definitely a disappointment for a Stephen King fan.

Oscar Winning Blood Fest/ Nuclear Bombs

No Country for Old Men was bloody, violent, and surprisingly interesting. I say surprisingly because I don't normally care for action movies. I watched it because it won the Oscars, so I assumed it must have been pretty good.

It's a story about a poor man who lives away from civilization. While out hunting one day, he stumbles upon the remains of a bloody shootout. He goes to investigate, and discovers a few million dollars, and a truck full of heroine. My first thought was, walk away, obviously you don't want to mess with these people. Alas, that's easier said then done. Of course he takes the money.

He sends his wife to her mother's for her safety, then embarks on a heart-pounding cat and mouse chase. In the meantime there's a ruthless killer you are witnesses walking around killing people with his silenced shotgun. He also has an air tank that might be something used to euphenize cattle which shoots a rod out of the end at an incredible speed, puncturing you brain and killing you instantly. He also uses this air tank to blow out the locks on door handles. You hear a split second of a noise, and he's inside your house. This completely terrifying guy is of course who goes after our main character.

The acting, directing, and filming of this movie was superb. I don't think I have ever seen a more terrifying hired killer. I loved every minute of this movie until the last ten minutes where all the drama and suspense they had built died out. They spent the whole movie having this guy outwit the people sent to kill him, then had him killed without even showing him die. There was a quick scene where they showed the police finding what had been a bloody shootout.

Either way, still a great movie. What should we have learned from this movie? If you find a bunch of cash surrounded by dead men who have been shot, leave it alone! You know someone is going to come after that money.

I just started watching the extremely addictive television drama, Jericho. It takes place in the small town of Jericho, somewhere in Kansas. There is a nuclear bomb dropped over Denver, and the town people later find out that numerous places across the United States have been bombed. The police force is very small town, and don't really know what to do. There is a mysterious black man who seems to have all the answers. They keep showing scenes where he is doing something you know is wrong, but you don't know why, or what exactly. The townspeople are in fear of radiation poisoning, and of some unknown force that bombed the United States. This was a great idea for a T.V. show, something I had wondered about before.

What would it be like if nuclear bombs were dropped in the U.S.? Scary thought!

Love, Lies, and Betrayal/Loss and Revenge

Atonement was beautifully dark, heartbreaking, and intriguing. It was filmed and played out intelligently and creative. This was a story about jealousy, lies, and love. When a young master story teller witnesses another young girl being "raped", she is blinded by her jealousy for her older sister, and completely misconstrues the situation.

The story is about a prominent, wealthy family who have a housekeeper who lives with her son on a separate house on the property of the mansion. The older sister and the housekeeper's son fall in love, but at the same time the woman's little sister is pining for the same man. One night while having a party at the mansion, everyone goes out onto the property to search for two little boys who had disappeared from the house. In the midst of this, the young girl walks upon her teenage female cousin being "raped" in a field.

Her feelings of disappointment, betrayal, anger, and jealousy lead her to assume that the young man raping her cousin is in fact the housekeeper's son. Being poor, and this movie being set in the late 1930's, the authorities take the little girls word for it, and take the man to jail. He spends a few years in jail, then is offered the chance to serve in the military(it being the beginning of world war two) instead of jail time, which he accepts.

You find out later that what the young girl saw in the field that day was concentual. The man was a friend of the older brother, and he and the cousin end up getting married. Even after the younger sister finds this out, she doesn't tell anyone until she is an old woman. The older sister resents and blames her sister forever, the younger sister never forgives herself, and the man spends the rest of his days serving in the military.

In the end, the woman dies in a tunnel when a bomb goes off and every drowns in this tunnel, the man dies from an infected wound in the military, his last thoughts of the woman he loved and never got to be with, and the young sister becomes an author. Her final novel is the story of what happened to her sister and her man. This story was so impactful and heartbreaking to me. You didn't realize that the two never got to be together to the very end. It goes to show how damaging a little story telling can be.

The Brave one was a powerful, moving story about one woman's revenge. A happily in love, engaged to be wed couple are walking their dog through a park one day when a group of drunk hoodlums steals their dog and beats them repeatedly, killing the woman's fiance. She is unsatisfied with the authorities response, and decides to take matters into her own hands.

She illegally purchases a gun, and proceeds to exact her revenge on the dregs of society plaguing New York. These are the people who rob, rape, and kill. Meanwhile, there is a dedicated cop on the case of the unsolved vigilante killings, who eventually figures out it's the woman. It ends with her killing the men who killed who killed her fiance, and the cop letting her get away with it. I guess because he thought those people deserved it.

I'm sure there are people who have lost loved ones similar ways, and can relate to wanting some kind of justice. Not to say that I agreed with what she did, but you could really feel her anger and pain in this movie. You had no remorse for the people she killed.

Introduction

I am a 23-year-old college student working on a degree (Psychology?). In the meantime, I am employed by Blockbuster Video. Blockbuster allows their employees five free movie rentals a week, incidentally, I watch a massive amount of movies.

Some make me laugh, some are shocking, some are deeply heart-wrenching, and some are just down right ridiculous, and I can't believe someone actually spent the time to make them into a movie. Some movies I forget about as soon as their over, while others leave an impression that I carry with me for days, sometimes even weeks after word.

I spend so much time thinking about movies; at work (where everyone assumes I've watched every movie in the store), and at home (where I watch all the big titled movies that I know I'm going to get asked about the following week). I write this blog now because movies are such a big part of my life, and I sometimes wonder if everyone has the same opinion as me. Some movies are so profound and brilliant that they deserve a moment of pondering. As for the movies that should have never happened, well that is as much a part of our culture as fast food.

So, from the Blockbuster employee, these will be my thoughts.