Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) or, Tim Burton's Bloody Theatrics

♥

+ Most Overrated Movie of the Year

Crimson and dark colors and Johnny Depp with death-like makeup and hair are the main ingredients on this poster for Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Sweeney Todd returns vindictive to London, where his mistress lost her life to an evil judge, whom Todd now wants to see suffer...!

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is written by John Logan (Rango (2011)), with Christopher Bond handling musical adaptation, based on the same-titled 1979 stage musical by Hugh Wheeler (Meet Me in St. Louis (1989)) and Stephen Sondheim (Follies (1971)), and directed by Californian master filmmaker Tim Burton (Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985)), whose 13th feature it is.
The extremely meager story is clasped around Burton's perhaps most unappealing film: Sweeney Todd spends most of his time either running around a hyper-animated version of 19th century London or in grey, dark, sad rooms.
Johnny Depp (Public Enemies (2009)), Alan Rickman (Quigley Down Under (1990)), Helena Bonham Carter (A Merry War (1997)) and Sacha Baron Cohen (Madagascar (2005)) are propped up with ridiculous hair and costumes while singing forgettable songs. - Except, perhaps, the one on the wretched pies in the beginning of the film, which is at least a bit amusing.
The film is excessively vulgar in its grisliness; it mixes British theatricality with dull characters and songs in an artificial, ghastly design, blended with a couple of androgynous but still boring beauties. It is a dreadful and enigmatically overrated picture.

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2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Alice in Wonderland (2010) - Wasikowska is the perfect lead for Burton's visual wonderland 
2007 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 
Corpse Bride (2005) - Impressive, loud, hollow, dark doll fairytale 
Ed Wood (1994) - Burton's sticky biopic with strenuous Depp
Batman Returns (1992) - Burton gives us the ultimate, Gothic spin on Gotham City and its sinister characters
Top 10: The best action movies and TV-series reviewed by Film Excess to date
Batman (1989) - A huge, glitzy, empty joker
Beetle Juice (1988) - Burton and team serve one of the best horror comedies ever    

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 50 mil. $
Box office: 152.5 mil. $
= Box office success (returned 3.05 times its cost)
[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street premiered 3 December (New York) and runs 116 minutes. Burton saw the musical on the stage in London several times as a young man and had wanted to make an adaptation for decades. Depp took singing lessons to prepare for the role. Shooting took place in England, including London, from February 2007 - ?. The film opened #5, behind fellow new release National Treasure: Book of Secrets, holdover hits I Am Legend and Alvin and the Chipmunks and another new release, Charlie Wilson's War, to a 9.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd week and grossed 52.8 mil. $ (34.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 21.7 mil. $ (14.2 %) and Japan with 19.6 mil. $ (12.9 %). The film was nominated for 3 Oscars: It won for Best Art Direction and lost Best Actor (Depp) to Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood, and Costumes to Elizabeth: The Golden Age. It also won 2/4 Golden Globe nominations, was nominated for 2 BAFTAs, a Grammy and won 2 National Board of Review awards, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to 5 notches higher than this one. It sold in excess of 1.8 mil. copies at the domestic home video market, accruing an additional 38 mil. $, which, if added into the calculation, would change its status to that of a big hit. Burton returned with Alice in Wonderland (2010). Depp returned in SpongeBob SquarePants (2009, TV-series) and physically and theatrically in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009). Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is certified fresh at 85 % with a 7.71/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street?

Seraphim Falls (2006) - Great stars Neeson/Brosnan command striking revenge western

♥♥♥♥

+ Best Revenge Movie of the Year

The two stars look dangerous on this simple - bordering on uninspired - poster for David Von Ancken's Seraphim Falls

 
A man and his posse are hunting another man through various landscapes, both of them carrying a heavy heritage in the recent horrors of the American Civil War.


Seraphim Falls is written by Abby Everett Jaques and co-writer/director David Von Ancken (Box Suite (1997)).
It is a really good western with handsome photography (by John Toll (Jack (1996)) that's full of highly saturated images with striking colors.
Liam Neeson (Taken 2 (2012)) and Pierce Brosnan (The Match (1999)) are both excellent in the leads, and they enjoy the help of a strong supporting cast that among others features Tom Noonan (The Pledge (2001)) and Anjelica Huston (50/50 (2011)) in a mysterious devil-in-the-desert role.
Maybe due to the introvert nature of the two leading characters, Seraphim Falls never becomes a grand emotional journey or the most memorable of westerns. But it runs well on its simple, very well done hunting/revenge plot; it has a great ending plus an inventive use of animal stomachs.

 

Related posts:

 

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

Brosnan is interviewed about the film here

Cost: Reportedly 18 mil. $
Box office: 1.2 mil. $
= Box office disaster (returned 0.06 times its cost)
[Seraphim Falls premiered 13 September (Toronto International Film Festival, Ontario) and runs 115 minutes. Richard Gere dropped out in the part played by Brosnan. Shooting took place in Oregon, California, Arizona and New Mexico for 48 days from October 2005 - January 2006. The film opened #42 to a 155k $ first weekend in 55 theaters in North America, where it only diminished from there, grossing tiny 418k $ (34.8 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 236k $ (19.7 %) and Mexico with 151k $ (12.6 %). Von Ancken has not returned to cinemas since, but he has been and is a prolific TV director. Neeson returned in Taken (2008); Brosnan in Shattered (2007). Seraphim Falls is rotten at 55 % with a 5.71/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Seraphim Falls?

Out Stealing Horses/Ut og Stjæle Hester (2019) - Moland's vivid, nature-set adaptation drama

♥♥♥♥

+ Norwegian Movie of the Year

Evocative characters and snaps from Hans Petter Moland's nature-set Out Stealing Horses adorns this poster for the film

Trond is a widowed man settling into old age, making a hermit's life for himself in the countryside, when he realizes that a neighbor of his out there has a close tie to the fateful summer of his 15th year, when he last saw his father.

Out Stealing Horses is written and directed by Hans Petter Moland (Secondløitnanten (1993)), adapting the same-titled 2003 novel by Per Petterson (In the Wake/I Kjølvannet (2000)).
It is a story that is very much backwards turned, looking towards a distant past; the protagonist's life that summer more than 50 years earlier. Stellan Skarsgård (Good Evening, Mr. Wallenberg/God Afton, Herr Wallenberg (1990)) is the old man, whose face is an exceedingly slowly communicating window into him: Words are scarce, but his face shows pain and the urge towards isolation. Fittingly, his actions take place in the deep of winter.
The flashback section of the film, which has more action and pregnancy than the old man scenes, are summer-set at the boy's alienated father's forest abode in Sweden. Rich with nature's details and the wildness of outdoor life and interaction with the elements, the scenes are a joy also because of great acting from young Jon Ranes as the lovely young Trond but also fine work from Tobias Santelmann (Congo (2018)) as his individualist father, Danica Curcic (Silent Heart/Stille Hjerte (2014)) as the mother of his friend Jon, whom his father becomes involved with, and others. The sensual photography is done by Thomas Hardmeier (Thelma (2001)) and Rasmus Videbæk (A Royal Affair/En Kongelig Affære (2012)).
SPOILER There is serious drama at play that summer, as Jon fails to babysit his younger twin brothers, and one accidentally shoots the other with Jon's riffle, leading to trauma and a deeper rift between their parents. More than a few scenes are intensely suspenseful, helped along by expert editing and sound work. For Trond the summer leads him to a long disappointment in his father, whom he so loves, as he never returns to his son, - but apparently favors life with Jon's mother and her sons.
The drama is affecting and compelling, dealing with the long furrows that the formative years and relationship with our parents make in our memories and personalities, which includes our predisposition to repeat their traits and behavior.
Out Stealing Horses is tremendously well-made and engaging to watch, and it would have been a great film was it not for a couple of unexplained story points, which come out as inexplicable story gaps upon scrutiny: SPOILER Why does Trond need to become a hermit 3 years after his wife's tragic passing in a traffic accident? Is it pure - in that case utterly incredibly - coincidence, which leads Trond to once again become neighbor to the very man who 'got' his father due to his mother's loveliness in that forest a half century earlier?

Related post:

Hans Petter Moland: 2019 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

2019 in films - according to Film Excess

Here is a video from the film's premiere in Berlin

Cost: Reportedly 4.1 mil. €, equaling approximately 4.5 mil. $
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertain
[Out Stealing Horses premiered 9 February (Berlin International Film Festival) and runs 122 minutes. The producers have regrettably not reported details of its production or theatrical performance openly yet. But it is a Danish-Swedish-Norwegian co-production with popular actors from each country, which should help it reach substantial audiences in its producing countries at least. (It is already done playing in Norway and Sweden.) It is set to open in Hungary and Germany later this fall, and in the US and Netherlands in early 2020. The film has been chosen as Norway's official entry for the Best Foreign Film category at the coming Oscars. It also won 5/10 Amanda award nominations (Norway's Oscar), the Silver Bear in Berlin and other honors. Moland is announced to return with psychological drama Elskede Poona. Skarsgård returned in Chernobyl (2019, TV-series) and theatrically in I'll Find You/Music, War and Love (2019); Ranes does not have a next project announced yet; Santelmann returned in The Love Europe Project (2019), and Curcic in Sjalú, Dagur Kári's new film. 498 IMDb-users have given Out Stealing Horses a 6.8/10 average rating.]

What do you think of Out Stealing Horses?

Honeyland (2019, documentary) - Captivating, demanding observed life

♥♥♥♥

+ Best Hero of the Year: Hatidze + Best Nature Documentary of the Year 

The main character of Tamara Kotevska and Ljubomir Stefanov's Honeyland works with the bees in a striking light on this captivating poster for the film

Hatidze is a bee hunter in the rough, mountainous Macedonian countryside, caring for her old mother and working with a respectful 'take half, leave half' philosophy, as a nomadic family becomes her new neighbors and disrupts the precarious natural balance.

Honeyland is an observed life documentary by debuting Tamara Kotevska (Free Hugs (2015, short)) and Ljubomir Stefanov.
Hatidze is a remarkable and strong person to follow: Her teeth and nose are a mess; she is past her prime as a marriage item, and she knows it. Still there is something beautiful about her, which no doubt stems from her exuding spirit and intelligent humanity. SPOILER Her caring for her invalid mother is touching and funny, but the story sees her lose the only family she has left, just as the new neighbors' exploitative efforts at bee-farming breaks her own little honey factory. But in the face of death, wintry cold, loneliness and financial ruin, Hatidze perseveres, keeps moving, engages with nature and thinks ahead to the coming spring.
Before this end, the neighboring family's interaction, two workhorse-like adults and their big litter of kids, are also a sight to behold; shouting, screaming, running, falling, fighting and doing what they can to keep the skins on their noses, it is hard to blame them much for the consequences of their failed farming attempts and rummaging Hatidze's surroundings; and the film doesn't vilify them. But it shows how different attitudes to making use of nature has different consequences, whether the involved parts are big or small, rich or, as in this case, all poor. - We share the same land, and consequences don't respect our borders.
Paradoxically, big, expensive nature documentaries free of people, - and usually with faster editing, - are often more readily relatable for modern city audiences as myself than a sojourn with people such as the ones we meet in Honeyland, simply because their everyday lives are so different from those of us watching them in cinemas, (a cultural luxury which they have likely never tried.)
It is therefore a demanding but captivating trip to a kind of life most will not have known of prior to Honeyland.

Related post:

Tamara Kotevska, Ljubomir Stefanov: 2019 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

2019 in films - according to Film Excess

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 660k $ and counting
= Uncertain
[Honeyland premiered 28 January (Sundance Film Festival, Utah) and runs 87 minutes. The project was started in 2016. Shooting took place in North Macedonia, including Skopje. The filmmakers have bought Hatidze a 10k € house with electricity, an oven and a refrigerator, nearer the city, as well as clothes for the nomadic family's children; and they have launched a campaign for the sale of local honey. The film opened #40 to a 31k $ first weekend in 2 theaters in North America, where it is right now peaking at #36, and has peaked previously theater-wise on 56 screens, grossing 650k $ there to date. It won 3 prizes at Sundance, - and is likely to become a Best Documentary Oscar contender. The film has screened at numerous festivals and is set to continue opening in new markets into 2020. Kotevska has since made two shorts; House on a Rocky Road (2019) and Paw Law (2019), and is announced to helm a drama entitled Man vs. Flock. Stefanov does not have an announced next project yet. Honeyland is certified fresh at 99 % with an 8.35/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Honeyland?

The Secret in Their Eyes/El Secreto de Sus Ojos (2009) - Campanella and Sacheri's refined thriller

♥♥♥♥

+ Best Argentinian Movie of the Year + Best $ Return of the Year: 16.95 times the cost

A rich tapestry of incidents and drama is hinted at in this poster for Juan José Campanella's The Secret in Their Eyes

  
A newly retired police investigator intends to write a book about the rape and murder case of a 23 year-old beauty, which has haunted him for 25 years. His writing also reopens an old romance.

The Secret in Their Eyes is written by Eduardo Sacheri (Underdogs/Metegol (2013)) and co-writer/co-producer/director/editor Juan José Campanella (The Boy Who Cried Bitch (1991)), adapting Sacheri's novel La Pregunta de Sus Ojos (2005).
It is an excting and good romance thriller with a good deal of welcome humor as well as technical excellence involved: It has a five minute-long chase scene at a packed football stadium in the 1970, which is downright virtuoso. (Cinematography by Félix Monti (Northeast/Nordeste (2005)).)
Periods of The Secret in Their Eyes is so suspenseful, it provokes goosebumps. The story deals with themes of guilt, doubt, judgement - and secrets. It is well-acted - but long; the romance takes center stage in the film's third act, and it never becomes too interesting, which hurts the overall good work.

Related post:

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: Reportedly 2 mil. $
Box office: 33.9 mil. $
= Mega-hit (returned 16.95 times its cost)
[The Secret in Their Eyes was released 13 August (Argentina) and runs 129 minutes. Shooting took place in Buenos Aires, Argentina from October - November 2008. The stadium scene reportedly took 3 months of planning, 3 days to shot and the use of 200 extras. If the 2 mil. $ budget is accurate, which seems highly unlikely, the film was completed at an impressively low cost. 11 companies and support bodies were involved in its making. It opened #30 to a 167k $ first weekend in 10 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #14 and in 160 theaters (different weeks), playing for 27 weeks, grossing 6.3 mil. $ (18.6 % of the total gross). North America was the film's 3rd biggest market: Biggest was its main production country Argentina with 9.2 mil. $ (27.1 %), 2nd biggest co-producing country Spain with 7.9 mil. $ (23.3 %). At the time of its release, the film became Argentina's 2nd highest-grossing film ever. The film won the Best Foreign Film Oscar for Argentina, the country's second such win, a first for a Latin-American country. It was also nominated for a BAFTA, a César award, a David di Donatello award, a European Film award, won 2/9 Goya award nominations and 13/17 Argentinian Academy awards. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to two notches higher than this one. IMDb's users have rated the film into the site's Top 250 at #141, currently sitting between Come and See (1985) and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998). Campanella returned with episodes in 4 TV-series before his next theatrical film, animation Underdogs (2013). Ricardo Darín (XXY (2007)) returned in The Dancer and the Thief/El Baile de la Victoria (2009). The Secret in Their Eyes is certified fresh at 91 % with a 7.74/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Secret in Their Eyes?

The Science of Sleep/La Science des Rêves (2006) - Good ideas buried in taxing whimsy, off romance

♥♥

+ Most Overrated Movie of the Year

A deliciously made, evocative, dreamscape-depicting poster for Michel Gondry's The Science of Sleep

Stéphane gets a job at an office that makes calenders, and he falls in love with his neighbor, who refuses his advances and is very troublesome.

The Science of Sleep is written and directed by great French filmmaker Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)), based on a bedtime story written by 10 year-old Sam Mounier.
Gael García Bernal (Babel (2006)) acts about as childishly as an actor can here, playing a character with a hard-to-believe, silly job across from Charlotte Gainsbourg (Nuremberg (2000, miniseries)), who is unattractive as the inexplicable object of his enamorment in this highly eccentric, goofy film.
The Science of Sleep has a few funny moments and ideas that it wins on for me. But overall it is a fairly taxing experience, because it is just too much, an accumulated feeling of too much overwhelms me when watching it. It awakens my private Franco-phobia, which beats red with much higher alarm at a cutesy whimsical French romance film like Amélie (2001). But The Science of Sleep is similarly unbearable for me.

Related posts:

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2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2006 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 6 mil. $
Box office: 15 mil. $
= Box office success (returned 2.5 times its cost)
[The Science of Sleep premiered 11 February (Berlin International Film Festival) and runs 106 minutes. Shooting took place in France, including Paris. The film opened #25 to a 347k $ first weekend in 14 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #15 and in 243 theaters (different weeks) and grossed 4.6 mil. $ (30.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 3.7 mil. $ (24.7 %) and the UK with 1.2 mil. $ (8 %). The film won a European Film award. Gondry returned with 8 short and video projects before his next theatrical engagement with Be Kind Rewind (2008). Bernal returned in Soy tu Fan (2006, ministeries) and theatrically in Babel (2006); Gainsbourg in Golden Door/Nuovomondo (2006). The Science of Sleep is fresh at 70 % with a 6.62/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The Science of Sleep?

Sand Serpents (2009, TV movie) - Syfy's trashy dump on the Afghanistan War

[ZERO]

+ 2nd Worst Movie of the Year

A monstrous sand serpent springs from the desert on this dramatic poster for Jeff Renfroe's Sand Serpents

A group of US soldiers in Afghanistan are taken hostage, but they escape when giant sand serpent monsters eat their Taliban enemies, - but later turn out to be undiscriminating in their tastes.

Sand Serpents is written by Raul Inglis (American Heist (2014)) and directed by Jeff Renfroe (Cardinal (2018, TV-series)).
It is a TV movie that shows soldiers socializing without a shred of credibility to it. The immensely poorly written script also belittles the war effort in Afghanistan, - while the war was still red-hot, mind you.
On the technical side, Sand Serpents is also a piece of trash: The shaky-cam effect is so prevalent that it induces headache; the CGI and practical effects are dreadful, as are the sets. 
Overall Sand Serpents is a complete waste of time, utterly void of qualities.

Related post:

2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

Watch a minute from the TV movie here

Cost: Reportedly 1.8 mil. $
Box office: None - TV movie
= Uncertain
[Sand Serpents was first broadcast 11 July on the Syfy channel and runs 90 minutes. Shooting took place in Bucharest, Romania. It is the 19th film in the Syfy channel's Maneater TV movie series. Renfroe returned with Stranger with My Face (2009, TV movie). Jason Gedrick (Dare to Love (1995, TV movie)) returned in Lie to Me (2009, TV-series). 1,137 IMDb users have give Sand Serpents a 3.8/10 average rating.]

What do you think of Sand Serpents?

She Hate Me (2004) or, Champion of the Lesbians

♥♥♥♥

+ Worst Dollar Return of the Year: 0.18 Times the Cost

Star Anthony Mackie has a deer-in-the-headlights kind of vacant look on his face on this brightly colored poster for Spike Lee's She Hate Me

Jack Armstrong works for a medical company, which manipulates the value of its new HIV-drug. He decides to blow the whistle on the scam, is consequently fired and instead begins impregnating lesbians for money. - Which ends him up in court.

She Hate Me is written by Michael Genet (Talk to Me (2007)) and great Georgian co-writer/co-producer/director Spike Lee (She's Gotta Have It (1986)). 
There's runs a tongue-in-cheek line from Lee's great theatrical debut She's Gotta Have It to She Hate Me almost 20 years later, - possibly implicitly saying something about the filmmaker's own private experiences with women? The latter film is way less youthful, fresh and vibrant than Lee's early work. Implicitly, again, She Hate Me is in favor of gay families, which are at the film's center, but it soaks its pro-LGBT politics in a heavy bath of vinegar, which seems always to be aware of these family constructions as being 'wrong' in some unexpressed way, which is weak and uncool of Lee.
She Hate Me still works as an off-center late-night watch with plenty of New York aroma to it. It has a sex idea at its core, - call it smart or fun, - that forces Armstrong to have actual sex with the lesbians, although this also comes off possibly male-chauvinist, as the lesbians are wildly excited about both the male body and sex with a man. (The very thing lesbians by definition are not traditionally interested in...)
What lifts this flawed conception, in the end, and gets it flying enjoyably still, are the performances: Anthony Mackie (We Are Marshall (2006)), Kerry Washington (Sin (2003)), Woody Harrelson (Wildcats (1986)) and John Turturro (Margot at the Wedding (2007)) are all good, the latter in a mafia part that has him as the father of Monica Bellucci (The Apartment (1996)), who is 7½ years younger than him in real life, a bit of a stretch. Despite all these problems, I still liked She Hate Me.

Related posts:
 
Spike Lee:  The day after the day after ... the 2019 Oscars

2004 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 
Top 10: Best crime movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
25th Hour (2002) or, Taking a Second Chance

Listen to 4 minutes of the film's soundtrack here

Cost: 8 mil. $
Box office: 1.5 mil. $
= Box office disaster (returned 0.18 times its cost)
[She Hate Me premiered 20 July (New York) and runs 138 minutes. Shooting took place in all of New York's 5 boroughs and in New Jersey from March - May 2004. The film opened #55 to a 55k $ first weekend in 11 theaters in North America, where it never achieved a higher rank, although it spread out to 28 theaters, grossing 366k $ (24.4 % of the total gross). The film's biggest market was France with 653k $ (43.5 %). North America was the 2nd biggest, and 3rd biggest was Italy with 226k $ (17.7 %). The film is the 2nd lowest-grossing of Lee's career, behind Red Hook Summer (2012). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3/4 star review, equal in rating to this one. Lee returned with a TV movie, 2 episodes of a miniseries, a short and a movie segment before hitting cinemas with a proper work of his own again with Inside Man (2006). Mackie returned in Haven (2004); Washington in Ray (2004). She Hate Me is rotten at 19 % with a 3.93/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of She Hate Me?