Movie Reviews and Celebrity interviews

The Perfect Holiday is seasonably pablum partially redeemed by a smart (if wasted) cast and at least one unusual holiday bit. Directed by co-written by Lance (The Cookout) Rivera, the film mostly flounders through contrived meet-cute scenes and some “what were they thinking” scenes (such as one involving a 300-pound “elf” trying to put on a fat suit). The romantic/family comedy also demands a major suspension of disbelief in having the lovely Gabrielle Union portraying a woman (Nancy) who wishes a nice man would pay her a compliment.

Union plays the ex-wife of an obnoxious rapper, J. Jizzy (Charlie Murphy—Eddie’s older brother—who gets the most laughs in the film). The divorcee’s kid helps steer her to a handsome department-store Santa named Benjamin (Morris Chestnut) who also happens to be a songwriter. What’s more, he’s pitching his tunes to J. Jizzy. Much of the film involves Benjamin trying to keep Nancy and Jizzy from finding out about his romantic and business (respectively) arrangements with each of them. The problem is that there’s no logical reason why he should care—or lie to Nancy about his “true” vocation.

Much of the movie involves Nancy discussing life with her gals pals (Jill Marie Jones and Rachel True), Benjamin chumming around with his best bud, Jamal (Faizon Love); and J-Jizzy interacting with his spacey manager, Delicious (Katt Williams). This offers scenes of soul searching, self revelations and some strained comedy—but little of it is interesting.
There’s also little reason for Queen Latifah and Terrence Howard (who seems to have appeared in 95 percent of the films released in 2007) playing competing angels (or perhaps that’s angel vs. devil). Latifah breezes through her role, but Howard just seems embarrassed to be here (and who can blame him?).

One of the brightest parts of The Perfect Holiday is one of its most understated: a department store hires a black Santa and black elf helper, kids of all colors line up to visit Ol’ Saint Nick and no one questions it. It’s a sweet, hopeful set-up that offers a counterpoint to the otherwise pedestrian, plodding antics of The Perfect Holiday.
The Perfect Holiday is rated PG for brief language and some suggestive humor. Running time: 96 minutes. Macsimum rating: 4 out of 10. You can check out the film’s trailers on the QuickTime movie trailer site.

A group of students discover that their dorm used to be an asylum run by a mad doctor, with a flair for inflicting pain and torture on his patients (as he believes this to be the cure for their illnesses). The spirit of the doctor is awakened, and is out to find new patients to “cure”.

I had expected something good out of this movie, prior to entering the movie house. Perhaps it was because of the intriguing poster, or maybe even the title. I didn’t get to view it right from the start (as I came in around 20 minutes into the movie), and I was planning to stick around longer just to get to see the start. However, right when I caught a glimpse of the cinematography, I knew I made the wrong choice. It was boring. It was draggy. The cinematography was something that a student could have done. There was too much dead air. The story is too predictable (like I’ve seen this slasher type of movie a million times)and it was too shallow. Even the peaks were futile efforts in trying to tickle the audience’s “scare nerves”. The ending was worse than the rest of the movie. I’ve never regretted watching a movie and felt like I wasted my money on watching a movie until this one. To sum it all up: this is a waste of money.

Having never seen the stage version of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, I can’t speak to the fidelity the film shares with the play. That said, let there be no doubt that Tim Burton has crafted a true piece of musical cinema from Stephen Sondheim’s bloody masterpiece. To their discredit, early previews have hedged a bit regarding the singing in the film. In them we only see Johnny Depp canting some recitative as he prowls the streets of London. While this scene is certainly in the movie, it’s barely representative of the actual film which contains at least a dozen fully-staged numbers and only intermittent dialogue.

As the former Benjamin Barker, Depp is magnificent as Todd. His voice may lack the thunder that would be expected on stage, but on the big screen it’s more than suitable. Purists may find it a little ragged and flat at times–Michael Crawford needn’t worry about Depp–but it’s an ideal manifestation of the corrupting anger and rotting vengeance that fill Todd’s soul. The same can be said for Helena Bonham Carter as the fiendish Mrs. Lovett. Sure she will occasionally descend into something approaching a hectoring screech, but consider for a moment that she’s a baker who grinds people into meat and serves them up in piping hot pies!

Voices aside, both actors deliver rich, complex performances. The focus and intensity that Depp brings to his role is riveting. Within minutes of the film’s opening there is no doubt that Depp will have his revenge and have it with gusto. Taking a step back from the film, realize that Todd is a thoroughly despicable character. He often kills indiscriminately, but Depp is so powerful as Todd that you eventually begin to relish his countless murders. Carter’s Mrs. Lovett is, perhaps, even more of a psychopath. Slicing a throat is one thing. Butchering a man and then serving him up for dinner is quite another. Nevertheless, you delight in her, too.

As for the killings, Burton stages them in spectacularly gory fashion. The phrase ‘geysers of blood’ is often used casually when describing a violent film. In Sweeney Todd the phrase is explicitly correct. Depp is often obscured under the high-powered jets of plasma that repeatedly erupt from his customer’s necks. Amazingly, these scenes aren’t even the most disturbing. Once Todd finishes giving a ’shave’, he dumps the corpse down a hole where it cracks loudly at the bottom as the skull splinters and the neck breaks cleanly. It’s all completely over the top and, of course, wonderful, hilarious, inspired.

The same can be said for the film as a whole. In Sweeney Todd, Tim Burton has found material that meshes perfectly with his artistic sense. You could call it a horror film or a screwball comedy and you’d be right both times. The design is, as would be expected from a Burton picture, lavish and spectacular. The supporting cast, especially Alan Rickman and Timothy Spall, are superb. Only the love story between Johanna and Anthony falls a little flat. It’s a minor quibble, though, in an otherwise outstanding film. Sweeney Todd joins Ed Wood and Edward Scissorhands as Burton’s finest work. It may eventually even be considered his best.