Christopher Lee and several other characters have been cut from the Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter fueled “Sweeney Todd” feature film planned for release later this year. The ghost characters from the film – including Lee’s “Gentlemen Ghost” – have been cut from the film according to a Dreamworks Representative. The “Gentlemen Ghost” character did not appear in the play that the film is based on.
Lee isn’t too heartbroken, however, saying: “It would have been worse if I had done the scenes, but I never got to film them. It’s a shame as the lyrics were wonderful, but these things happen.”
“Todd” is filming now, and is scheduled for a limited release on Dec. 21st of this year.
The Nightmare Before Christmas
The Nightmare Before Christmas is one of those movies I can see a million times and still never tire of it. A testament to the beauty of stop-motion animation as well as the lasting power of good musicals. Whether you watch it on Halloween or on Christmas, the Nightmare Before Christmas should be a holiday tradition for everyone.
Skeleton Jack, the Pumpkin King, is adored by fans all over Halloween Town. However, Jack feels empty inside, longing for something more. While wandering depressed through the woods, Jack stumbles upon the nexus-point of the holiday worlds. Quite by accident, Jack winds-up in Christmas Town and is amazed at the sights and sounds of the holiday. He returns to Halloween Town, determined to bring Christmas to the world in his own special way. However, Sally, a ragdoll created by the mad Dr. Finklestein, has a vision of Jack’s Christmas going terribly wrong. Jack cannot be reasoned with, unfortunately, and sends three trick-or-treaters, Lock, Shock & Barrel, to kidnap “Santy Claws” from Christmas Town so he can relax during this year’s Christmas. However, the trio delivers Santa to Oogie Boogie, the Boogeyman, leaving Santa in great peril.
The Nightmare Before Christmas is a work of art. It takes the classic Rankin-Bass stop-motion holiday films from the 70’s and warps them in a way only Tim Burton knows how. The imagery is dark and ghoulish, like it stepped right out of Beetlejuice, yet beneath all the monsters and grim settings is an innocent sense of humor which keeps things from getting too scary. It’s a great family film, with a sense of wonder and imagination that will appeal to children, and animation and direction that’ll suck in adults as well.
The musical numbers are orchestrated by, take a guess: Danny Elfman. If it’s a Tim Burton flick the music will *always* be done by Elfman. And he does a marvelous job with the Nightmare Before Christmas, creating some of the most memorable and beautiful musical sequences I’ve ever heard. Additionally, all of Jack’s songs are sung by Elfman-himself. I never knew the guy could sing, too. The music melds with Henry Selick’s direction perfectly, making just about every moment a memorable one. My favorite song is the Halloween Town theme from the very beginning. Gotta love that bit with the monster hiding under my bed, ready to rip me to pieces at a moment’s notice.
I, personally, prefer to watch the Nightmare Before Christmas as a Halloween movie, as the imagery is just so dark and spooky, even during the Christmas segments, that it just oozes “Halloween” from start to finish. Still, it’s perfect for both holidays, and you can never have too many excuses to watch this movie.
In a day and age when every animated feature film has to be CG-animated, the Nightmare Before Christmas is something wonderfully different. It’s scary, it’s moving, it’s beautiful…it’s perfect. It’d be a crime not to give this film an A. A decade later it received a sequel in spirit, called the Corpse Bride, which is also worth checking out.
Grade: A
Rock & Rule
A forgotten animated classic from the 1980’s, resurrected by the power of DVD. Most people don’t seem to remember this movie, and with good cause. It went in and out of the theater with a whimper, despite the loud music, and was soon filed away into obscurity on Blockbuster Video shelves, doomed to forever be overlooked solely because it was alphabetically located next to Robocop. Rock & Rule isn’t going to be for everyone, there are a few prerequisites: you have to like animation, you have to be an adult, you have to like 80’s rock and you have to like post-apocalyptic B-movies. Talk about a niche market.
In a post-apocalyptic future of some sort, animals have been mutated into anthropomorphic humanoids and co-exist with everybody else. Oh, and they like to ROCK! Omar is the lead singer of an up-and-coming rock band that just can’t seem to catch a break. Luckily, his lovely girlfriend, Angel, who has an even lovelier singing voice, is there to support him. The villainous Mok, a rockstar of legendary proportions, has devious plans to open a gateway to another dimension and summon a monstrous demon. However, rock & roll music is the key to opening the gateway and the only person with the proper angelic voice is…Angel! Mok kidnaps Angel and spirits her away to Nuke York for the ritual. Omar and the rest of the band head out to her rescue.
Right away you should be able to tell that this is a silly movie. I mean, “Nuke York”? But Rock & Rule’s sense of humor is one of the more charming aspects of the film. Of course, in keeping with the rock n’ roll trends, this movie contains the typical contempt for authority (cops are portrayed as power-tripping imbeciles) as well as a loathing for bubblegum music and girly pop. As a fan of heavy metal and rock n’ roll, I couldn’t agree more.
Now, perhaps the biggest draw of the film would have to be the music. You’ve got a nostalgic soundtrack featuring the likes of Iggy Pop, Cheap Trick, Lou Reed, Debbie Harry, Blondie and Earth, Wind & Fire. Quite an A-list of musical contributions, or at least it was at the time. Can’t say I appreciate all the bands featured in the movie, but I do like most of them. Mok’s song will stick in your head for the next twenty years, particularly the chorus of “His name is Mok, thanks a lot!” Gah!
The animation was produced by Nelvana Studios in Canada, the same people that did the animated segment of the Star Wars Holiday Special and the Beetlejuice cartoon series. The animation is actually really good, considering this was produced in 1983. The action sequences are rather impressive and the “music videos” are done with some flare. The summoning of the demon at the finale is probably the best part in regards to the visuals.
This film isn’t for the younger kids, as it contains a lot of adult humor, but it’s got an accurate PG rating. Save for some skimpy outfits, a few swears, scary demons and loud rock, it won’t traumatize any youngsters. They’ll probably like the music, at any rate. Rock & Rule is deserving of a B-. It’s a nostalgic trip down memory road, but it will only appeal to a select market and even then it’s not entirely memorable.
Grade: B-
Rock n’ Roll Nightmare
You know, I think this is my favorite “worst movie of all-time”. It’s exhaustingly terrible in every conceivable department, from the direction, to the acting, to the special effects, to the writing, and so on. Little known fact: each video cassette is infused with a small Gremlin-like monster which steals a small portion of your soul every time you watch this movie. And to make things worse, you’re going to be watching this movie more than you could every possible want to, as immediately after seeing it, you’ll want to show it to all your friends. Because watching Rock n’ Roll Nightmare is the only way to appreciate how awesomely awful it really is.
As the tale is told, Jon-Mikl Thor (played by John Mikl Thor) and his band, Triton, have holed themselves away in a remote Canadian farmhouse/recording studio so they can finish their latest album. Little do these imbeciles know, the farmhouse was the location of a grisly murder several years back, and in reality, is the nexus between Hell and Earth. But that’s okay, because all these guys wanna do is SUCK! Er, I mean…ROCK! As the troop of ridiculous stereotypes have disgusting sex every other minute (these people aren’t attractive-enough to warrant gratuitous sex scenes) and obliviously maneuver around rubber puppets that vomit in their coffee, a malevolent force picks them off one-by-one. In the end, the only one who can stop the rampaging “Bub” (short for “Beelzebub”) is the archangel Triton (played by Jon-Mikl Thor). But can he withstand the onslaught of Bub’s demonic starfish? They are pretty sticky, after all.
About every 10 minutes or so, they break-up the monotony of terrible acting and terrible special effects with terrible music videos. Jon-Mikl Thor leaps around in glittery outfits, howling cheesy hair metal into a microphone as the brain-dead female characters either play the keyboard or dance around like poorly-trained strippers. The “music” might be the only borderline-tolerable aspect of this movie, provided that you have a taste for late 80’s hair metal. If a soundtrack to this movie ever existed, I might be willing to buy it as a convenient means of atoning for my sins while I drive to the grocery store.
The acting isn’t just poor, it’s bankrupt. The drummer begins the movie with a (terrible) Australian accent, then graduates to a (terrible) British accent, and finally settles on a (terrible) American accent, after he gets possessed by one of those finger-puppets. I seriously wonder what nationality this guy really is, as he most-certainly wasn’t from any of the countries whose accents he tried to imitate. It’s quite possible he just had autism. Then there’s the band’s manager, a guy who looks like the President of the Ducky Fan Club (Pretty in Pink reference!). You’ll be thanking multiple deities that he dies first. Then there’s the Canadian groundskeeper. I’ll get to his big contribution, later. And, finally, there’s the writer, Intercessor, star and lead vocalist of Triton: Jon-Mikl Thor. He may very well be the most talented actor in the film…and that’s just sad.
The director (John Fasano) isn’t particularly coherent when it comes to developing tension. In one scene, the Canadian groundskeeper tells the manager about the recording studio and then gives him the keys. After the manager walks away, the groundskeeper looks sinisterly at the camera and says “You’ll see”. They then play some striking, overly-dramatic orchestrational music which then whimpers out into an “eerie” silence as the camera pans away into a bird’s eye view of the farm. And what does all this lead to? The groundskeeper standing around and then eventually getting a wheelbarrow. And before you ask, no, the wheelbarrow does not play some significant role later in the film.
The special effects budget appears to have come in at a rough total of $13.76…Canadian. The rubber puppets, demonic turkey legs, evil starfish and monster masks all look like the sort of thing you’d find in the bargain bin of a Halloween store. To give them a more “realistic” appearance, they slather the puppets down with clear goo. Yeah, that’ll do it. The ending battle, where the wobbly “Bub” puppet hurls starfish at Jon-Mikl Thor (clad only in a cape and metal-studded G-string) then clasps both his enemy’s hands and engages him in a power-struggle for 15 minutes…is the stuff of legend.
Oh yeah, and those gratuitous sex scenes? There’s far too many of them. Honestly, one would have been too many, but they pad this movie down with at least seven or eight, just for good measure. I think Jon-Mikl Thor made this movie just so he could get laid. The atrocious intercourse finally comes to a climax with Jon-Mikl Thor and some curly-haired nightmare having a gratuitous shower scene. The entire sequence makes me feel so disgusting I have to go take a shower…but then I have second thoughts. Jon-Mikl Thor might be in there.
It’s quite obvious that this film was intended to be a vehicle for Jon-Mikle Thor’s band, Triton. However, thanks to divine intervention, that vehicle crashed and burned shortly after pulling-out of the driveway. I feel it would be a crime to give this movie anything greater than an F-, but I have to admit, I love to hate this movie. I find myself watching it more times than any human being was ever intended to. I think that Gremlin has a good 45% of my soul, by now.
Grade: F-
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: Review
Johnny Depp and the Chocolate Factory
Yes, Johnny Depp acts like Michael Jackson.
If that is all you wanted to know, then there you have it.
Despite this strange departure from the classic Gene Wilder portrayal of Willy Wonka, the movie stands as a great source of entertainment on so many levels. I have never seen the original Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, so my view of its latest treatment will be devoid of old school nostalgia. As you may know, the movie’s premise is quite simple: billionaire confectionist Willy Wonka goes into seclusion after he is betrayed by his employees and reemerges some years later with the enticing prospect of allowing 5 lucky people to visit his chocolate factory. 5 golden tickets are stashed away within the wrappings of 5 ordinary Wonka bars and 5 children wind up discovering them. One of these children is poor young Charlie Bucket (played by Freddie Highmore), a little goody-good with just the right optimistic attitude to make it through his fairly impovershed life. And so the movie begins.
The movie delivers what you would expect from an end-of-summer release tooted as a summer movie: the visuals and cinematography are impressive, breathing a Disney-esque sense of wonder into Wonka’s chocolate factory. The music as well is Danny Elfman as his best, harking back to the goofy rhythms of Beetlejuice while setting foot into other genres during the Oompah Loompah scores. Oh, those Oompah Loompahs. If I were to pick one reason to justify the price of admission to see this movie, the Oompah Loompahs are most definitely it. Played individually by Deep Roy (yes, that is his name), the Oompah Loompahs are an ingenius use of digital and camera trickery and act as musical moralists during each of the children’s exit cues. Speaking of children, don’t let the presence of tykes dissuade you from seeing this movie: they’re not the annoying brats that one would expect to see in a movie such as this. The 5 children (with the exception of Charlie) act as dimunitive versions of every jerk, slob, and cynic that you may have known, whether in childhood or in your current state of growth. The casting of the movie is perfect.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was a welcome end-of-summer dessert that is pleasantly enjoyable at any time, just like Wonka’s world-famous candy.
Grade: A