Sweeney Todd review

Off the bat I want to iterate my disdain for musicals as films. The reason musicals are powerful are the live performances they have and the songs sung right in front of you. When you can do as many takes as you want and dub over any mediocrity in tone I believe that the film is just a joke at that point. Never mind the fact that almost every musicals looks exactly like the theater version just on screen instead. I'm explaining this to make it clear how rare it is for me to really love a musical, as I did Sweeney Todd.
Sweeney Todd is about a barber who loses his entire family and loses his mind in the process. He returns 15 years later to get revenge and opens another barber shop. However, in this barber shop Sweeney slits the throats of all his customers and then there meat is served in his partners meat pie shop below.
This film is bloody, so if you are squeamish, be warned. The blood does look theatrical instead of realistic so that may helps some. One of the best attributes of the film is that Tim Burton didn't create obvious sets for the film. The film is done as a normal film would be except that most of the dialogue is sung instead of spoken. Tim Burton's touch really adds to the film and the flair he provides makes the film better because of it. Johnny Depp was very good, but I don't know if I would say Oscar worthy, as I really don't believe singing is acting.
This film is one of the best of the year and I believe it is more likely to get nominated for the comedy/musical slot than Juno. If you can stand the blood, go see this film, it's a breath of fresh air this year and you won't see anything like it. (SCORE: 9.4)

Juno Review

I was excited to go see Juno last night, the talk was there; most predicting this as a Best Picture nominee. But I left slightly disappointed after the film was over. Not because the film was bad, or even mediocre, this was a great comedy and probably the best comedy of the year. However, this is in no way a Best Picture quality film.
Juno is about a smart-assed, quick witted teen who gets herself pregnant. She decides to have the baby and give it to a family they found that wanted a child. Ellen Page plays Juno and she is magnificent. The Oscar talk for her is completely justified and she should easily be nominated and probably win (the only thing holding her back is her age). After that, there are no performances that stand out but all are strong and fit in very well with the film.
The reason I do not see this film as a Best Picture contender as many do is that the quality is not there. The early comparisons to Little Miss Sunshine were way off, this film is nothing like Sunshine in either story or quality. I understand everyone believing this film will get nominated, usually there is a comedy involved and this is the best comedy of the year, but the quality has to be there as well and it's just not.
If no one had ever labeled this as a Best Picture contender I would be much more enthusiastic about this film. The film is great and hilarious, I really enjoyed the whole thing, it's just not the quality it was made out to be and everyone should know that going in. You'll enjoy the film much more if you forget the expectations and just watch it for what it is...the best comedy of the year. (SCORE: 9.0)

Welcome to my new home

From now on all my film reviews, opinions and predictions will be posted on this blog instead of blogs.ign.com/mafia910. That site will continue with all the video game articles however. Welcome to The Road to the Oscars blog and I hope you enjoy my articles!