Quick Movie Reviews (June 3, 2008)

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008)
I had heard a fair amount of buzz about Prince Caspian and not all of it positive. I was also concerned about the running time – 2 hours and 20 minutes. You take that and throw in 20 to 30 minutes of commercials and previews and you’re talking about a long night at the movies. The good news is the movie is really good. As my daughter put it, there is no wasting time introducing the characters and what-not – you get right to it. The only drawback to that is if you haven’t seen the first movie (The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (2005)), then it might take you a few minutes to catch up. The acting, as you would expect in a movie carried primarily by younger actors, is spotty, but, all in all, it was entertaining. I had heard that some of the “magic” was gone from this one. I tend to disagree. The magic is there – just look for it. All that said. . .the movie is too dang long. I’ve complained about it before and I’ll complain about it again – where in the world have all the editors gone? Caspian would have gone from really good to terrific is someone had strategically edited about 20 minutes of it.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
Wow, what a huge disappointment. I love Johnny Depp. I love Helen Bonham Carter. I love Tim Burton. This movie put me to sleep – a deep, deep heavy-lidded REM-type sleep. I know this is heresy because we are talking about Sondheim, but one of the weakest parts of the whole movie is the music. I can’t think of one song that I enjoyed. After the shock of the first killing wears off, the other killings just become silly. The murders reminded me of those sketches on “Saturday Night Live” that feature fake blood spray. Be forewarned – this movie is absolutely not for the squeamish. There is a whole bunch of blood spatter, blood spray, blood gush, blood lust, and bloody death. Plus, there’s the whole thing with meat pies that I won’t even go into here. One bright spot – Alan Rickman. Ever since Die Hard (1988), he is absolutely one of my favorite bad guys. He’s just sooooooooooo slimy. If you’re really interested in seeing a good musical on the big screen, skip Todd and go for Moulin Rouge (2001) or Chicago (2002).