Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)

Film of 2012 #12
Some Spoilers

The Tim Burton directed musical starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter as Sweeney Todd and Mrs Lovett who sing and slice their way through London killing people making pies out of the bodies. I had not heard many good things about this film but i thought that I enjoyed Tim Burton and what he does with Johnny Depp and his wife but after viewing this film and really not liking it at all I am beginning to wonder if I just do not like Tim Burton's style or if it is the fact that the Gothic look has been done by him so many times it is just boring.

The story itself is not one I was aware of but appears to be a historically fictional character that has been adapted into film and Musical previously. It involves, Johnny Depp being imprisoned wrongly by a judge that fancied his wife and when he comes out of jail believing that she is dead he decides to take his revenge on those that wronged him. Now why he then decides to kill everybody and make them into pies is strange to me and a twist at the end was so obvious even though I was not paying that much attention and the overall ending I just thought What was the point of that?

Overall I can not recommend this film at all and give it a meagre 1 star, the singing is fine and the acting is comparable but nothing stands out, even though there is a great cast with Timothy Spall and Alan Rickman filling some of the other roles, on the whole very disappointing film and not worth seeing.

Pirates of the Caribbean 3:At World's End (2007)

I watched this film as part of catching up on the series after seeing number 4 at the cinema and I was not looking forward to it as I had watched it before and been unimpressed with it. I wonder if going in with such low expectations helped when watching this as I actually quite liked it, there is a lot going on and it is about 30 minutes too long. The story throughout still follows the love story of Keira Knightly and Orlando Bloom and you have Johnny Depp escaping and surviving throughout as Captain Jack Sparrow.

You have Bill Nighy and Geoffrey Rush back as their characters and you have all of the rest of the cast coming back again. Overall it is not a bad film but it is fairly hard work and the ending is sort of a mixed based on the fact that it is a Disney film.
I think this is 3 stars for me, it is not watchable without having seen parts 1 and 2 and you should only watch this if you have endured the 2nd part. 

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006)

So onwards I went and watched part 2 of the Pirates series and this is at least the third time I have seen this film and sometimes on multiple viewings you get more from a film. However I did not get anything from this it is obviously a filler film to get to the third film as there are a couple of stories that do not have a conclusion at all. You have Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightly back and have Bill Nighy and Stellan Skarsgard stepping in as Davy Jones and Bootstrap Bill respectively and they are all fine.

It seems to be the story that is a struggle, they have about 3 plots going on from the opening with Captain Jack in a coffin and Will and Elizabeth getting married and then Jack on an Island as a chieftain and none of it really matters, it makes the whole film very long and if you think about the film and the point there are so many thoughts are what is the point questions raised, it is not obvious or needed.

I cannot fault the actors but this is 2 stars, there are some cool scenes and set pieces but overall it is not enough to save this from being a waste of time.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

So after seeing the 4th film at the cinema I decided to view the original 3 again and so I started with the original as you would, you can see my original review of it here. This time was a bit muted for me, I didn't enjoy it the same as I have before as I know now where it goes and that just depresses me. The acting and story are still pretty interesting with Johnny Depp stealing the show.

The music in this series is brilliant and stirs you every time you hear it and it gets you involved in the action but I have to say that had this series ended at 1 I would have had a lot more respect for the original. You can see what they wanted to achieve with this film and they did achieve that and leaving it at that would have been fine.

This is actually only 3 stars for me now, it is worth seeing to see what Captain Jack is like and the love story between Keira Knightly and Orlando Bloom but stop it here.

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971)

The original film that is so much better than the Tim Burton remake with Johnny Depp, the original is very close to the Roald Dahl book which is awesome, you have to love Roald Dahl and his stories. So this film is from 1971 and is probably one of Gene Wilder's best known performances as the eccentric chocolatier. I would hope that everyone will have seen this film or at least read the book. It is a child's dream the idea that it portrays a world of edible chocolate and sweets.

The film itself does have some flaws it is very childish as per the story written by Dahl and the Dahl names are very descriptive and as a classic film it ticks all of the boxes, being 40 years old and it still stands up to close inspection, also the Oompa Loompas are awesome with their songs.

This is a classic film that I can re-watch all of the time so it is a 5 star film for me that I think everybody should watch at least once.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011)

I loved the first of this series, I suffered the second and the third was absolutely dire so I went to see this with quite low expectations. Johnny Depp is back as captain Jack Sparrow with a couple of the original cast including Geoffrey Rush as Barbosa and Kevin McNally as Smith. You have new characters with Penelope Cruz and Ian McShane, I felt there was a lot of character development that did not seem to go anywhere with them and what happened at the end was actually pretty obvious. But back to my thoughts and my low expectations, I was not overly impressed with it, the idea was very simple but was really hard for them to get to, the fountain of youth get there and become young.

They seemed to want to take for ever getting there and I was actually quite bored with it, there is only so much of Captain Jack going 'savvy' that is entertaining. It was not truly terrible the performances and cameo role are entertaining and some of the action scenes were interesting but there were 4 or 5 other bit players that had quite large parts but not enough time to fully explain who they were or develop them so you really didn't care that much about them, overall it could have done with being trimmed down by about 30 minutes and 3 or 4 of the characters either cut out or slimmed down so you were not left wondering about them.

Overall I am going to say 2 stars, mostly they are for the performances and the production values which as always were excellent but it is no masterpiece and really not worth seeing.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

Format - BluRay
Date Watched - 9 January 2010
Director - Gore Verbinski

Pirates of the Caribbean is a sweeping action-adventure story set in an era when villainous pirates scavenged the Caribbean seas. This roller coaster tale teams a young man, Will Turner, with an unlikely ally in rogue pirate Jack Sparrow. Together, they must battle a band of the world's most treacherous pirates, led by the cursed Captain Barbossa, in order to save Elizabeth, the love of Will's life, as well as recover the lost treasure that Jack seeks. Against improbable odds, they race towards a climactic confrontation on the mysterious Isla de Muerta. Clashing their swords in fierce mortal combat, Will and Jack attempt to recapture The Black Pearl ship, save the British navy, and relinquish a fortune in forbidden treasure thereby lifting the curse of the Pirates of the Caribbean.

Thanks to IMDb for the plot summary.

An film from 2003 that is based upon a ride at Disneyland of the same name, now I have no idea if there is a plot to the ride so if there is any correlation between the film and the ride. However you basic story is Man loves woman, woman loves man, but they do not tell each other. Woman kidnapped by pirates, man goes to rescue woman with Pirates old captain, turns out kidnapping pirates are cursed, and hilarity ensues.

I like this film it is a solid family film with some excellent laughs some good effects and a fairly coherent story. It is a fairly straight forward film with some nice little sub plots and characters and it is a really good ride. The biggest drawback to the film is that it is nearly 2 and half hours long and they made 2 more, third sequel is apparentley in the making. The sequels are terrible in my opionion and at least Pirates was made in a time when sequels while common were not guaranteed therefore you get a nice finish to the story, it is open for a sequel but not needed.

So it is a huge film with a large cast your main players are Johnny Depp playing Captain Jack Sparrow and he has spawned a phenomenom as he is a much loved character with his quirkyness and the way he plays it. He apparantly based his performance it on Keith Richards from the Rolling Stones, a very good impression from what I have seen. Your loving couple from the film are Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Swann and Orlando Bloom as Will Turner, they are adequate, they are pretty enough to make a good couple but their acting skills while not great are good enough for the family fun that this film is. Geoffrey Rush plays Captain Barbossa and he is immense in my opinion he plays the bad guy with humour and campiness but when he threatens someone you actually believe that he is dark enough to be a feared Pirate Captain. The supporting cast are good enough with some good comedy between McKenzie Crook and Lee Arenberg as 2 bumbling pirates. The effects are impressive, no less than you would expect from a Disney film, the obvious CGI that is required to pull off what they required is very good, you know it is CGI but it is good enough that you can see past that fact.

If you have not seen this film, I would recommend it, it is family entertainment at the best Disney can produce live action and the music will run around in your head for days afterwards, the quality on the BluRay is impeccable and well worth viewing. However do not bother with the sequels, I may re-watch them at sometime but the twice I have seen the second it did nothing for me at all and the third is only memorable for the reasons I do not like it.

I give this 4/5 swashbuckling pirates.

Let me know if you have seen it and your thoughts on it.