Random update with some Sweeney Todd gushing

Believe it or not, I am still off-line (which is why I'm not writing on this blog at all) - all thanks to Tele2. The way things are going we're probably going to go back to T.P. S.A.
First they said that it would take 2 weeks at most to connect us up and probably less. Then they said they didn't say that, that it always takes 30 days. As the 30 days came to an end they phoned to say that it would take another 30 days. Under pressure from my mum who was being very aggressive with whoever it was that phoned, they admitted that they had fucked up. The courier who came to our house (4 days later than arranged) with the contract apparently got something wrong and because of that we have to sign a different agreement (one that involves paying 80zl for a modem we're not actually going to get) and wait another 30 days. Nice, huh?

Other than that, I saw Sweeney Todd yesterday and was not disappointed *grin* Of course as usual me and Kinga embarassed ourselves by being the only people in the cinema laughing (only that this time we were joined by Andreja, who was laughing even louder than us).
I don't think the film is as gory as the reviews I read made it out to be. A lot of the Hollywood reviewers wrote that the film would have been treated much better by the award ceremonies if it had less gore, but I really don't get what they wanted cut. Yes, the film is somewhat bloody, but to avoid that you have only two options really:
1) Make the throat cutting scenes more realistic with less blood flying all over the place.
2) Alter the plot of the film to include less throat cutting.
IMO neither of these would have been a good idea for the film.
If you did option one then (as Tim Burton himself put it) you're going to make the film a lot more heavy. You lose the humour and actually make the film a whole lot more shocking. On the other hand maybe the reviewers just didn't get the humour - clearly most of the people in the cinema didn't yesterday ;-P I on the other hand thought some of it was hilarious. How can you not laugh at a man singing an emotional song about how beautiful and lovely his daughter is whilst he's busy cutting the throats of his clients?
Option two would interfere with Sweeney's character - there's a point in the plot where he's supposed go crazy with his need for blood. Include less throat cutting and you don't get that through (which would ruin the culmination point of the film).

Anyway, I still stand by recommending this film ;-P Even if you're not that into gore, as long as you don't mind it I think it's fun to see for the acting alone. The whole cast is great - and I don't just mean the star names, but some of the younger, lesser known members of the cast were awesome too. The great thing about the film is that every character, however small the part, is memorable. My one disapointment is Timothy Spall who IMO is a way better actor than what he showed in this film. I don't think the Beadle should have been played as a villain, not really. This just isn't the sort of film where you need to have "I'm a bad person" spelled out about any of the characters - their actions kind of give it away very early in the film ;-P

My Internet Access Woes

Annoyingly enough I've been cut off from the internet (I'm expecting the situation to last for another 2 weeks), which is why I've already broken my New Year resolution of writing here regularly once per week ;-P
I do, however, have lots to write about and surprisingly enough a strong inner need to do so (I litterally *need* to start drafting a whole set of new posts, I will not attain any sort of mental peace until I can do so ;-P).

Tony Curtis and old Hollywood films finally seem to have made room for other fixations. In case you're wondering - I'm still in a fairly intense exam period which means I keep getting very strong and random fixations about things unrelated to what I should be doing ;-P (it's not that I don't have these normally, but they've been quite a bit more pronounced these last few weeks ;-P).
A trip to see The Golden Compass has provoked thoughts on the situation of Hollywood internationally (the thoughts have been there for a while, but they've clarified and strengthened quite a bit!). Less clarified, but I also keep thinking about female villains since seeing the film. Of course with my current lack of proper internet access I cannot research either properly and therefore feel ill equipped to even start drafting those posts :-/
Atonement which I saw today (and enjoyed way more than I was expecting to) doesn't quite want to leave me alone either and I'm confident there's a post in that too ;) I kind of have an inkling of where it might go, but I *need* normal, reliable internet access to "get there" grrrrr
I am also discovering a very freaky similarity of mind with Andreja, my Slovenian friend, who is now in Warsaw. We are yet to find an actor or actress about whom our feelings differ significantly. So far any actor or actress that annoys one of us annoys the other too and any actor or actress that one of us likes the other does too. We talked through something like thirty Hollywood actors and actresses and found no real disagreement! We had slight differences of opinion only when one of us had seen very little of an actor's work whilst the other had seen a more significant amount of films starring them. Atonement I think has highlighted it more than anything so far. It was the first time that I saw James McAvoy, who is Andreja's favourite actor at the moment and for me it was love at first sight lol I really want to see more of him. I'm holding my breath now about Andreja's reaction to Shahrukh ;) - she hasn't seen him yet (which I of course intend to remedy ;-P). I do have friends with whom my taste in actors and actresses is largely compatible, but this is bordering on the ridiculous ;)