'Cloverfield' does horror right
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By G. Michael Dobbs
Managing Editor
A horror opera, a science fiction hit and a fun serial are all in this week's DVD review column.
Sweeney Todd: Two-Disc Special Edition
I've been a big Tim Burton fan for years, but I have to admit I didn't rush to the theater to see his adaptation of the 1980s Broadway hit "Sweeney Todd." Granted, I'm not a big musical fan and the concept of transforming a near iconic horror legend into a song and dance film just didn't interest me.
"Sweeney Todd" under Burton's hand as director is a stylish, beautifully realized film. It is perhaps his best produced film as Burton, while having a great eye for the visuals, has had trouble telling his stories effectively. "Sweeney Todd" wraps every little story point up very neatly.
If you've not heard of the Sweeney Todd legend, something that originated in penny dreadfuls of 19th century England, then you need to know Johnny Depp plays "the demon barber of Fleet Street," a man who is seeking revenge against the judge who wronged him. His disgust with humanity, though, leads him to start killing just about anybody who comes off the street looking for a shave.
Todd has formed an alliance with an impoverished baker, Mrs. Lovetts (played by Helena Bonham Carter), who needs meat for her meat pies. Need I say more?
Murder, cannibalism, sexual perversion and bloodthirsty revenge are at the center of Burton's film which brings a revised version of Stephen Sondheim's musical to the big screen.
While I admire the film for its look, I really couldn't get into it. While there are several sympathetic characters in the movie, they are relatively minor ones. Without some sort of conflict between good and evil there isn't any real suspense. We know Todd will eventually kill the judge and we know that generally things must end pretty badly for all of the central characters.
The result then is a very bloody ride to a predictable conclusion.
There is a whole DVD's worth of extras including a very interesting one on the origins of the Sweeney Todd character and another on the legendary Grand Guignol Theater of Paris that specialized in gory melodramas.
For more information log onto www.dreamworks.com.
Cloverfield
Although the idea of telling a story through "found" footage is not new the modern trend for this style of storytelling originated with "The Last Broadcast" and was popularized with "The Blair Witch Project" "Cloverfield" is still quite a singular movie experience.
Everyone who has ever sat through a giant monster movie has seen scenes in which the creature is stomping through city streets raising havoc and inevitably squashing victims just trying to get out of his way. What if the story was told from the perspective of those hapless city dwellers people who have no real idea of what is happening except there is something very big and inexplicable trying to kill them?
Producer J.J. Abrams and director Matt Reeves take this approach to the story. A group of young people is at a party. One of them is taping the event. When all hell breaks loose he keeps taping it. What we see is the tape that has been recovered.
While the first 15 minutes or so of the film seem a little long as the characters are introduced, once the monster makes his debut the film rolls along a quick clip. There are plenty of scares as the group we are following make their way to midtown Manhattan to attempt a rescue of a friend.
What I loved about this film is even when we get a clear view of the monster, the beast's design is so original I still did not truly understand just what I was seeing. And the subway tunnel sequence in the film goes down in my book as a modern horror classic.
The extras include the now standard "making of" featurette, which in this case, is actually quite interesting. There are two alternative endings to the film presented as well, but neither actually makes narrative changes to the film.
"Cloverfield" is an original, very scary and relatively bloodless fright fest.
For more information, log onto www.paramount.com/
homeentertainment.
Jungle Queen
Ah, the relentless silliness of a 50-plus year-old serial is the balm I frequently seek after a day of laboring in the media vineyard and "Jungle Queen" surprisingly took care of my chapter play jones.
I say "surprisingly" because of the three studios that produced these action films aimed at juvenile audiences, Republic Pictures made the best, Columbia Pictures made the loopiest and Universal Pictures made the talkiest. If a sequence could be made in which characters spoke about something rather than showing it, the folks at Universal would do so.
What makes "Jungle Queen," a 1945 13-episode serial, so interesting is its mixture of actual action, implausible plotting and a level of respect for supporting characters one seldom saw in serials. In a nutshell, two American agents are racing around the unexplored jungles of central Africa in 1939 trying to thwart Nazis from taking over the continent. The Nazis are manipulating tribal politics for their own goals, while the mysterious Lothal, "queen of the jungle," is helping the good guys.
What fascinated me was the treatment of the African characters who are portrayed as intelligent and as both good and evil. One doesn't see this kind of characterization very often in American films as of the time.
Will Lothal save the day? Will the Nazis succeed? Log onto www.vcient.com to get your copy and find out yourself.
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