Some ingenius rendition of the 24 paired with old-school technology and some really bad hair. To quote engadget, “How did Jack Bauer ever get by without his magical Treo? We figure it must’ve involved a whole lot more eyeball threatening than he usually manages to cram into a season of 24. Also, according to CollegeHumor’s “unaired 1994 pilot” episode, it involved a pager and some really bad early 90’s hair.
Category: Movies
I just want to share with everyone that I thoroughly enjoyed Stardust. One of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time. I highly recommend it to everyone.
IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0486655/
PS: I love Claire Danes
So today, I saw Sweeney Todd on the big screen, after much anticipation. As a musical lover, Sweeney Todd ranks as one of the best music in my humble opinion. A beautiful score, with heart-pouring difficult-to-sing vocal lines, combined with an ageless script/story, it makes the perfect combination for winning the Tony.
The story of Sweeney Todd, as summarized on Wikipedia:
Sweeney Todd, aka Benjamin Barker, is a fictional villain/antihero appearing in various English language works starting in the mid-19th century as a barber and an early example of a fictional serial killer. His weapon of choice is a straight razor, with which he cuts his victims’ throats. In some versions of the story Mrs. Lovett, who is variously his lover, friend, and/or partner in crime—and who is variously Marjorie, Sarah, Nellie, Shirley or Claudetta—bakes the corpses of his victims into meat pies, and sells them. He is also assisted by an unwitting servant lad named Tobias Ragg, who later aids in unmasking his crimes. In most versions of the story, Sweeney either helps or hinders (sometimes both) the love affair of a young woman, Johanna, and a sailor named Mark Ingesterie or, later, Anthony Hope.
I’m happy to report that Tim Burton’s adaptation was tremendously successful, and rather brilliant in his approach. As with any musicals-turned-into-movies, it remains a challenging task for the production crew, and particularly the director, to transfer the stage medium into film – one that is more fluid and dynamically multi-dimensional. Moving picture, particularly, allows for, say, the often sought-after extravagant scenes to be realized or otherwise physically impossible scenes to be made realistic. To that end, Burton’s take on the “By the Sea”, sung by Mrs. Lovett, was brilliantly done. The number speaks of Mrs. Lovette’s wish to escape the “great big pit” (London) with Mr. Todd to exotic places free from the evils of society. We see all the places that Mrs. Lovett wants to take Mr. Todd to; the scene changes in synchrony with the song. Such feat would otherwise be impossible to portray on stage.
In short, it gets my two thumbs’ up, and I would recommend it to everyone.
However, it is not without its flaws. As someone who has seen the musical 5+ times, and knows the music score by heart, I may at times be more critical than one who is only seeing this for the first time. Nonetheless, an interesting comparison between the big screen adapation and the musical production still stands.
Tomorrow: Part 2 of Sweeney Todd vs Sweeney Todd – A Comparison of the Screen Adaptation to the Stage Production