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The musical is back with a freakin’ vengeance, ready to slice your throat open and revel in the bloody geyser of crimson vomited from your newly incised second smile.

In a Christmas movie season peppered with National Treasures, Legends, and Old Men without Countries; Tim Burton and Johnny Depp slice through the competition like scythes through wheat. Their masterful Sweeney Todd is a movie that evoked horror, longing, murderous revenge and final cathartic release as it swept across the screen.

The story is not a new one. A barber’s wife is taken from him by a judge, who has him unceremoniously thrown into prison at some undisclosed foreign location. On his return, and upon discovering that his wife has poisoned herself and his daughter is now the unwilling ward of the judge, the barber decides to use his blades to a different end by providing shaves much closer than he had in the past. Eventually he is able to extract his revenge upon almost everyone who had wronged him (and a few others, of course).

However, in much the same vein as other movies made from well-worn and widely known stories, much is in the telling. The story is reinvented and resurrected from its freshly-dug grave by the talents of Burton, Depp and Carter.

Johnny Depp continues to prove that, without a doubt, he is one of the most talented, eccentric and visionary actors of his vintage. He plays Todd with a dark, brooding visage and shock of bride-of-frankenstein white hair amongst a forest of forboding black. Although not known as a singer, he appears to pull off the singing numbers very competently.

Helena Bonham Carter provides a darkly attractive but even more disturbing feminine mirror to Depp’s Todd. The ghastly chemistry between the two characters is effective and playfully sinister.

A wide supporting cast of excellent actors and actresses accompanies the dark duo, including Alan Rickman, Sacha Baron Cohen, Timothy Pall, Jayne Wisener and Ed Sanders. These provide almost uncriticisable excellence throughout the film.

The music and lyrics were, of course, written by the multi-talented Stephen Sondheim. The music is gorgeous, frightening, moving, veangeful, and excellent. During one particular number, entitled “Beautiful Girls” and sung as a duet between Todd and Rickman’s Judge, I found myself moved to goosebumps by both the beauty and co-existant salacity, enterwoven by Sondheim’s gifted hands.

A harmony of opposites is perhaps the best way to define this film. It is both beautiful and terrible, gorgeous and profane.

I give it *** 1/2 Jessicas out of 4. Almost perfect. . . .

EK

What if everything that you believed was wrong? What if there actually were WMDs in Iraq and VP Dick Cheney was a genuinely nice guy that you’d want to spend the day hunting with? But I digress. . . .

What if someone came up to you tomorrow and told you that the world was going to end in 30 days. Would you believe him/her? This is essentially what was told to the members of Rev. Jim Jones’ cult before they drank the kool-aid. Would you drink the kool-aid with them?

What if that person had a way to save humanity from utter destruction? And what if he walked up to you and calmly explained it to you and invited you to join a group of people destined to carry on the human race.

Would you believe him?

This is the question posed by this film. In a world of crazy belief systems, how do you respond to someone with yet another perceived crazy belief system?

There are no easy answers.

This film is one of the first from the Raw Feed production company, which was started by one of the creative minds behind the Blair Witch Project. It is smart, original, frightening and interesting; with relatively good acting efforts from its cast and limited but adequate special effects.

Given its relatively small production budget and time contraints, I enjoyed it thoroughly. I will not go into the plot to prevent giving away key plot twists. I will say, however, that it is worth a rental.

2 1/2 Jessicas out of a possible 4. Not perfect, but well done.

EK

Director Francis Lawrence’s latest film, I am Legend, is a study in contrasts. As a vehicle to explore maturing actor Will Smith it is well chauffeured. However, as an example of the current state-of-the-art in special effects imagery, it careens headlong off a cliff.

The story is an oddly appealing one. Robert Neville (played with maturity and depth by the increasingly remarkable Will Smith) is a military scientist who is, presumably, the last man on Earth. He spends his days hunting with his only companion, a german shephard, and renting movies from the local video rental store. He also continues to work on a cure for a viscious mutated measles virus, designed by an English scientist to cure cancer.

As part of his daily activities, he seeks out the few human beings left on Manhattan island, infected zombie-like creatures that for some unknown reason have developed dislocatable jaws and a voracious appetite for other human beings. The infected are unable to come out during the day, having developed a fatal sensitivity to sunlight. However, Neville is able to capture some of them, which he uses as guinea pigs in his attempts to develop a cure.

However, things are changing in Manhattan.

The zombie-like creatures are becoming smarter, and his time appears to be running out. The apparent leader of the zombies, who looks just like the other zombies but roars more, develops a trap to catch Neville. In the course of escaping, Neville loses the one remaining family member that is keeping him sane, which sets in motion a series of events that leads to the reason for the title of the movie. . . .

This film is the third variation on the 1958 original book by Richard Matheson of the same title. The book is substantively different from all of the movies adapted from it, being primarily the story of a scientist trapped by hungry vampires created by a viral infection. The book does not take place in Manhattan, although that makes for an interesting variation on the theme.

The first two adaptations, The Last Man on Earth (1964) and The Omega Man (1971), were hobbled by the special effects technologies contemporary to their productions, although both had many dedicated fans. This film is different both for the presence of Will Smith and the improved special effects.

However, while the static special effects that render downtown Manhattan a virtual national park are remarkable, the motion-capture special effects used for those infected by the virus are staid, unoriginal and much less frightening than the actor-based creatures seen in movies such as 2002’s 28 Days Later… and other recent films. I found myself at several points during the film asking why in the world did they computer generate the creatures rather than simply using actors for the same part?

As mentioned before, this movie is a study in contrasts. On the one hand, Will Smith’s remarkable performance was stunning in parts and reflects his ongoing maturity and skill as an actor. On the other hand, although the static effects were very well done, the creatures were, to put it simply, lame. . . .

I give it ** 1/2 Jessicas out of a possible 4. Worth renting or seeing at a matinee, but you might feel a little disappointed if you pay full price.

EK

The latest film inspired by the phenomenal success of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Golden Compass, is both complex and interesting, although without some of the magic that helped to make the Rings trilogy a classic.

The Golden Compass is the story of a courageous young girl, Lyra Belacqua (played with aplomb by Dakota Blue Richards). Lyra lives in an orphanage, and is cared for at a distance by her uncle, Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig).

During a visit from her uncle, she prevents him from being poisoned, but also overhears a presentation by Lord Asriel about “dust.” Dust is some sort of amorphous substance that passes between dimensions, but also, in some fashion, helps to bind humans to their “demons” (aka “familiars”) which are animal companions.

Lord Asriel gives Lyra an Alethiometer, which looks like a golden compass with pictographs around the rim. The purpose of the Alethiometer is to “tell the truth.” It allows the bearer to ascertain information, and eventually Lyra learns to interpret its signals.

Lyra also becomes caught up in a confusing political push by the Magisterium (a church- like institution that rules the “England” of this world). She is recruited by the lovely Marisa Coulter (MILF Nicole Kidman), who initially appears to Lyra as a confidante but is later revealed to be an agent of the Magisterium attempting to use both Lyra and her Althiometer for questionable purposes.

Kidman’s Coulter is a beautiful shimmering pillar of statuesque menace, reminding me of the less statuesque but equally menacing Suzanne Maretto in 1995’s To Die For.

In her quest, Lyra befriends and is helped by a cadre of witches led by Serfina Pekkala (Eva Green), a group of ‘Gyptians led by John Faa (Jim Carter), and an a**-kicking polar bear warrior named Ragnar Sturlusson (voiced by Ian McShane). The latter provides one of the coolest sequences of the film, a battle between armor-clad polar bears that is jaw-dropping in a very literal sense of the phrase.

The ending of the film, which leaves a huge amount of room for several sequels, is well done, but somehow left me feeling a little unsettled. I think that my biggest complaint about the film is that it did not provide enough exposition regarding the alternate reality inhabited by the characters in the film.

The movie is an adaptation of the book Northern Lights, written by Philip Pullman. From discussions with those who have read the book, the series is quite well written and provides an interesting alternate reality. Unlike some viewers, I had not read Northern Lights prior to seeing the film. As a result, discussions of “dust” and the alternate reality providing the framework for the film were conceptually strange and unnecessarily confusing.

The film was directed by Chris Weitz, previously known for his work on the movie About a Boy and (uncredited and uncomfirmed) American Pie. His direction is interesting and competent, but I did not have the same feeling of humanity and deep understanding of his subject matter that I had with Peter Jackson and the LOTR trilogy.

Although I enjoyed the film, it seems to be missing many of the movie elements which so richly filled the LOTR universe. I apologize for the repeated comparisons to Tolkien’s work and Jackson’s remarkable movie adaptation. I suspect, howevere, that similar comparisons will be made by almost all moviegoers who have seem both films. I look forward to the next installment from this series in the hope that it will provide further information about the interesting alternate world inhabited by the film’s characters.

I give it *** Jessicas out of a possible 4.

EK

I wanted to hate this movie for several reasons. It was the second in a series that I was not certain should have been continued. It was designed to be “family friendly,” and it had been produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. However, against my preconceptions, I actually liked this film.

For those unfamiliar with the National Treasure franchise, it is the story of a historian/treasure-hunter named Ben Gates (played with more convincing transplanted hair by Nicolas Cage), his father Patrick Gates (Jon Voight), and his techno-savvy but somewhat annoying sidekick Riley Poole (Justin Bartha). The series is a poorly disguised attempt to capitalize on the Da Vinci Code phenomenon, as was its predecessor, the original National Treasure.

Ben and Riley are fresh from the success of their prior escapade. Riley has written a tell-all book and Ben appears to be giving lectures on his historical pursuits. During one such lecture, a page from the diary of John Wilkes Booth is presented which appears to implicate Ben’s great-grandfather in the assasination of President Lincoln. His hair-transplant hackles raised, Ben tries to clear his family name.

In the process, however, Ben and Riley stumble across a plot by England to support the confederacy in the the Civil War by providing access to a fabled ancient american “city of gold.” In the process of searching for the city, Riley and Ben team up with Ben’s almost-ex, the rather hot Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger), Ben’s mother Emily Appleton (Helen Mirren), and a supporting cast peppered with the Hollywood elite.

The overal plot is fast-paced, intriguing and fun. In fact, some of the “clues” that Ben and Riley must unravel are fascinating to watch, including two tables that double as puzzle boxes, ancient Olmec pictoglyphs and the discovery of tunnels within Mount Rushmore. Although many of the “discoveries” stretch the boundaries of credulity, they are fun to watch if you can turn off your internal skeptic long enough to play along.

However, one of the central conceits of the story, that there is a book passed from President to President containing all of the “secrets” of the presidency, “including the truth behind the JFK assassination and Area 51″ is completely ridiculous. I am certain that documents relating to the two issues above are in existance, but I suspect they are widely scattered (if not shredded) and highly unlikely to be documented in a single book.

Overall the story was fun, exciting and had a certain Indiana Jones-like flair that I enjoyed. It is not a perfect movie by any measure, but it was fun and more enjoyable than I had predicted.

I give it ** 1/2 Jessicas out of four.

EK