Movie Review: "Sweeny Todd: Demon Barber of Fleet Street"

Johnny Depp and Tim Burton team up once again to present a movie based on a Broadway play of the same name. Johnny Depp stars as barber Sweeny Todd. After a long exile for a crime he did not commit, Todd returns to 19th century London to set up a barber shop on Fleet Street. He finds his wife dead and his teenage daughter held captive by an evil magistrate. Todd uses his barber shop to exact vengeance on English aristocracy for his wrongful exile and loss of family.

The cinematography and sets are dark, but not flamboyant. The musical score and performance are worthy of the original Broadway hit. The story line and character development are sophisticated, but somewhat predictable. This movie would have earned a PG rating and been much more enjoyable but for the unnecessarily graphic and repeated throat slashings.

Movie Review: "Enchanted"

This newest Disney release features a fairy tale princess, Giselle, who is betrothed to handsome Prince Edward. Giselle is banished to current real world Manhattan by Edward’s evil step mother Narissa (played by Susan Sarandon). Innocent, idealistic Giselle is befriended by Robert Phillips, a handsome, but cynical divorced divorce attorney. Giselle searches throughout Manhattan in search of true love. The story incorporates elements of Cinderella, Mary Popkins, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty & The Beast, The Littlest Mermaid and King Kong. The excellent choreography, musical score and story line will probably lead to a run on Broadway. Patrick Dempsey and Timothy Spall gave exemplary performances as Robert Phillips and Nathaniel, Queen Narissa’s assassin.

Movie Reivew: "I Am Legend" by L Dormois

As I thought about the movie on the way home,it was the typical movie plot with redemption at it's core.
Will Smith was first made to be a hero. We see him loose his wife and his only daughter while following his higher calling to save the world and remain on his watch. We are made to sympathize more with him when he looses his dog. The dog gives his life protecting his master. The villians are demonic like creatures who live in the dark, attack humans, are drawn to blood.

In the end he gives his life to save the mankind.

What is the means of their salvation???? Blood.

What a legend.

Larry D

Movie Review: Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

Dustin Hoffman plays Mr. Edward Magorium, a 243 year eccentric old man who owns a toy shop in NYNY. Edward Magorium is on the cusp of retirement and “departure” i.e. voluntary death. Natalie Portman portrays a young female composer, Mollie Mahoney, who manages the toy shop for Mr. Magorium. Having writer’s block, Mollie’s life is at an apparent standstill. The bulk of the plot involves the interplay of Edward Magorium’s final plans for his Magic Emporium and Mollie’s quest to recover her musical creativity.

Dustin Hoffman’s acting versatility shines in his role as the elderly eccentric. Natalie Portman’s acting is lackluster. The basic plot had much promise, but really did not connect very well at movie’s end.

Movie Review: "Lars and the Real Girl"

The stories centers around Lars, a shy delusional young man in a small northern Midwestern town, who purchases a sex doll. Lars lives a quiet life working at a mundane office job and lives in a garage apartment next to his brother and sister-in-law. In his intense search for intimacy, he constructs a fantastic platonic relationship with his doll “Bianca.” In an attempt to not offend Lars, friends and family pretend to interact with his doll. The concepts of intimacy, maturity and mercy are slowly developed through the film.

Ryan Gosling and Nashville native Paul Schneider give better-than-average performances as Lars and his brother Gus. The movie is comical and inciteful.

Review of "Pissarro: Creating the Impressionist Landscape"

Camille Pissarro is known as “The Father of French Impressionism.” Most of the landscapes on display are from the decade of 1864-1874. During this decade, Pissarro developed his impressionist style. Representative works include his early years at Louveciennes, his seven months of London exile during the Franco-Prussian War, his return to Louveciennes, Pontoisse and his final years in Paris.

Throughout the procession of paintings, you can see Pissarro’s gradual transition from the use of black and dark colors. His depiction of snowy scenes become more sophisticated as he develops more loosely painted landscape and cityscapes.

My favorites were “The Farm on the Grounds of the Château of Marly” and “The House in the Woods.”

Admission includes a personal audio guide, a thirty minute video by art historians and thirty nine of his paintings. This exhibit is running at the Brooks Museum of art through January 6, 2008.