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