How could I resist a Tim Burton musical movie? Especially one with Johnny Depp and Alan Rickman singing. Actually these two have a duet that is now stuck in my head. The film is of the dark Burtonesque variety (as opposed to the saturated, lighter tones of Big Fish or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). This is probably the goriest of Burton’s films I’ve ever seen, but as usual, it was very stylized. I do not really watch horror movies, and Burton’s films are more artistic than gratuitous violence and blood. This is still essentially a horror story with a murderer as the central protagonist so it’s not exactly for the faint of heart. Aside from the direction and stylized setting, this film’s other strength is the performances. Depp actually has a good singing voice and his creepily intense in this too. Dark film, but fun overall when you consider the musical aspect of it.
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28 Days Later
I never watch horror movies. When I got this movie last month, it was on a whim because it was around the time of the release of the sequel, I had heard good things about it, and Christopher Eccleston is in it. Since I don’t generally care for horror or scary movies, I can’t say if it was a good movie of its genre, but certainly an entertaining film overall. The beginning was pretty slow, but I noticed the nice soundtrack which only got better as did the plot, characters, settings, and scariness of the film. Yes, it reminded me of Shaun of the Dead a lot, but not in the psychologically scary parts surrounding Christopher Eccleston’s character. It was the fear of what happens to people in post-apocalyptic and dystopian worlds, not of the zombies. As usual, I’m pleased with CE’s work here even if the character was sometimes both dimensional (his psychology) and flat (bit stereotypical). The equally attractive Cillian Murphy really carries the film because slowly, his and the other characters are revealed to us and shown to be resilient capable survivors. There’s actual character growth. The screenplay is quite good then. Even though I haven’t seen any horror movies, I have a feeling the writing is better than most of the genre. I like that it was an original screenplay rather than adapted from novel, short story, graphic novel or comic book which often happens in science fiction. Director Danny Boyle said the writer Alex Garland cited The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndam as an inspiration for the book which I mentioned the other day. I liked the ending which I read was the original one. The sequel does not have any of the original cast, and there is apparently to be a third. I’m not quite sure I will seek out the sequels in the near future even if I did like this one. All because I liked this movie doesn’t mean I’ll make a habit of watching more horror films.—
On a lighter note, here is a hilarious interview Time interview with George Clooney, Matt Damon, Ellen Barkin and Brad Pitt. I really want to hang out with these people.