Sweeney Todd - Review

Well, I went on Saturday to the cinema to watch the film. Going back next Saturday for another viewing, provided the cinema is still showing it.

For those of you who are not familiar with the story: this story is about a villain appearing in various English language works starting in the mid-19th century as a barber and an early example of a serial killer. Wikipedia has an article on the subject. Fifteen years after having been transported to Australia for a crime he did not commit, Todd comes back to London to find his dreams of rebuilding his family life in ruins. Consumed by hatred for the man who wronged him, he goes back into business and plots his revenge. He teams up with Mrs Lowett, the owner of the pie shop downstairs as a means to get rid of the corpses (it being that the price of meat is so high and alternatives are getting harder to come by). I will not go into much more detail if you have never heard of the story, because that might spoil the film when you get round to seeing it.

Yes, it was an excellent film, the songs are so much part of the story that you stop noticing they have launched back into song again. Johnny Depp does an excellent work as Sweeney; Helena Bonham-Carter is a wonderful Mrs Lowett and Alan Rickman does a wonderful Judge Turpin. The support cast is also wonderful, with Sacha Baron Cohen playing a wonderful rival to Mr T in Signor Adolfo Pirellli, and Timothy Spall as Judge Turpin's lackey Beadle Bamford.

Now, the film has shed quite a lot of stuff from the original play by Stephen Sondheim the film was based on, and has also added a few bits here and there. There will be some puritans out there that will be up in arms about this. To them one thing must be said: Mr Sondheim himself approves of the film, Tim Burton (on his interview on Film 2008 with Jonathan Ross, 26/01/08 BBC Two) comments on how the approval of the film by Sondheim was crucial, and he got that. Beyond that he is not worried about the die hard Sondheim fans nitpicking the film. You can find this interview on YouTube, however, whoever put it up there somehow managed to get the video out of sync with the voices, so it makes for difficult viewing.

Do not be mistaken, this is a bloody film, it might be a musical but it is a dark musical. The cinematography is beautiful, the colours are wonderful, it is beautifully shot. And the ending is just perfect.

I can only say that I feel for the people who will have the film dubbed, because they will miss out on all the hard work the actors put into their roles. They will not hear their real singing voices and will not be able to immerse themselves in the film. They will miss on the acting, because they will not be able to hear the inflection and characterization the actors gave their parts in the original film. To all you who will be subjected to this I say: try and get hold of the original film with its original soundtrack and enjoy.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

The Golden Globe awards have been and gone. This is supposed to be a forerunner of the Oscars. Not that you can set much scope by who wins the Oscars since it has been more about politics than cinema in the past few years, but you never know.

Anyway, Sweeney Todd won on the category of Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy, and the wonderful Johnny Depp won Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy.



Now here is to the hope that they will also appreciate such a great film adaptation when it comes to the Oscars and Tim Burton and Johnny Depp get the recognition they deserve. And also for the gorgeous Helena Bonham Carter, who was also nominated for the Golden Globe, that woman knows how to wear a corset...

Flights from London Gatwick to Granada (Spain)

Last November, Monarch Airlines decided that flying from London Gatwick to Granada was not as profitable as they would have hoped. They had been reducing the number of flights to and from that destination through the year, but in November they decided to call it a day and cancelled all flights to and from Granada in Spain.

It was a big disappointment, because they insist that their flights were not attracting as much custom as the ones to Malaga, but everytime I flew with their company their planes were full to the brim, so something here does not quite add up.

I understand Ryanair flies to Granada from Stansted airport, but we all know what Ryanair are like: only 15 kilos of baggage can go in the cargo hold of the plane; they will take your child's pushchair free of charge, but their car seat/booster seat, travel cot, etc, you have to pay for them to take (at a fiver a shot, does not seem much, but it adds up). They force you to have your just under two-year-old child sitting on your lap, even if their birthday falls within your short holiday abroad, so you cannot book a seat for your under two both ways (these guys obviously have never have had to share a seat with a young child in a small plane, there just isn't enough room for both of you without kicking in the seat in front) These are the people that threatened the government with legal action for forcing them to put all their passengers' baggage in the cargo hold instead of allowing them to carry it onto the plane because they "lost" money, even though I've heard that they had charged these customers for the privilege of being forced by emergency measures to put all their stuff in the cargo hold of the plane.

Now I have found a webpage with a petition to request the company to reconsider and reinstate this route. I fear that what they really need is to set up a publicity campaign together with Granada's Council in order to promote the route. I mean, there is sun, there is sea, there is a ski resort, and all within half an hour to an hour's drive from the city of Granada itself. More and more people are growing tired of the holidays in Malaga/Marbella/Fuengirola/Torremolinos, and are now looking at other alternatives. Granada has beautiful mountains, a wonderful ski resort, beaches...

So please, follow this link and sign the petition. Let's try together to have a proper airline flying to Granada.

New link

Well, that took some time to get a new entry, didn't it?

Well then, forget about this one, because he has gone and changed the contents of the blog. I will have to write an update to the new contents of this link, but just so that you know, this page no longer has anything religion connected.

Anyway, I just got this link and had to post it because I find reading this site most interesting and eye opening. No, you do not have to agree with everything the writer of these articles says, but you have to admit that they are well written.

Even if you do not agree with these articles, I have found they do incite thinking and understading. We should not take everything that we are told as true, therein lies our main mistake. We should not follow as sheep but think for ourselves, and it is articles like these that make us stop and think and question our beliefs, our stance on life and everything that we are supposed to follow because somebody interpreted it that way instead of delving deeper and trying to find the possible mistakes, the mistranslations, the errors, the mere changes made to accommodate the prevalent train of thought and politics of the time when they were written or translated. This always puts me in mind of a joke I heard a long time ago:

There is this abbey dedicated to the copying and illuminating of sacred books. One of the scribes has a damaged "original" copy and requests of the abbot that he goes and looks for the original book in the library so that he may make a new copy to replace the damaged one they are using. The abbot comes out of the library a little while later cluthing a manuscript in his hand and crying. All the monks surround him very concerned wondering what is wrong. The abbot points at the scroll: "It says celebrate, celebrate not celibate..."

In the beginning

Well, here it is. This blog was mainly created to share with the rest of you guys my love for webcomics. If you follow the links on the side you will be directed to some of the greatest I have ever seen. Most of them only make sense if you have ever been a role player or a GM/DM.

Order of the Stick is a wonderful ongoing work by Rich Burlew. The adventures of this group of adventurers is onto its 521st strip, and it is still going strong. If you really enjoy this I would recommend buying the books, which include strips never seen on the online comic. There are also two more books, both prequels, giving us an insight into both sides of the story: Xykon and Red Cloak's background as well as that of the members of the Order of the Stick.

DM of the Rings is a finished webcomic well worth the read. Done by Shamus Young it is spot on what many of my fellow players and I have done when presented with certain situations.

Darths and Droids is an ongoing project which attempts to span all six Star Wars films. So far our "heroes" have just taken off from Naboo with the queen on board...

Both these comics work on the premise that the group of players have just been presented with a world to play in (Lord of the Rings or Star Wars) but the books and films were never made. As Shamus Young himself says on the first of his DM of the Rings comics:

Imagine a gaggle of modern hack-n-slash roleplayers who had somehow never been exposed to the original Tolkien mythos, and then imagine taking those players and trying to introduce them to Tolkien via a D&D campaign.

The same applies for Darths and Droids, in the words of its creator:

The whole thing is the invented campaign of the GameMaster, and the players don't know anything about the story or the setting in which it happens, until it arises in the course of the game

Chainmail Bikini is what came after DM of the Rings from Shamus Young. It is a collaboration with Shawn Gaston. I find in this comic so many paralels with stuff that we have done as a role playing group that it hurts...

The Unspeakable Vault of Doom is out there for all you Lovecraft lovers. If you have never is heard of Lovecraft, it's time you went out there and find a book shop and bought some of his works. All of Lovecraft's writings are not about the Cthulhu mythos, he also wrote poetry and essays. Just follow the link on the side for his stories. The same website contains lots of interesting informaton about this author, his poetry and his essays.

Of course, all this stuff aside, I might one day feel inclined to post some other stuff just because I feel like it. But, for now, just follow the links and enjoy. If you know of any other good webcomics send me a link and I'll see if I find them interesting enough to add them to my collection.