I am Legend

Rated PG13 for violence and terror

Starring Will Smith

Imagine there was a cure for cancer and every cancer patient was given it. Then imagine if that cure backfired later, wiping out the majority of the human race and the only ones left were either immune to the disease or turned into zombie-like monsters.

So is the premise of I am Legend.

Robert Neville (Will Smith) was a Lt. Colonel in the military and doctor working to cure the mistakes that the cancer cure created. He appears to be the only survivor and has been living alone in New York City with his dog, Sam. Everyday at high noon he waits for other survivors and attempts to hunt the overpopulated wildlife running through the city. By night, he hordes himself up in his house with a gun, as the infected monsters only come out when the daylight is gone. He spends his free time experimenting on lab rats, and eventually on one of the infected, to try and find a cure for the cancer cure gone wrong.

We really see what it would be like to be completely isolated and how one can attempt to keep sanity.

The end was a bit cheesy and definately not the typical zombie/infected type ending we're used to (everyone is supposed to die, damnit!), but the rest of the movie was pretty good...

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Rated R for violence, overexaggerated gore, implied rape

Starring Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, and Sacha Baron Cohen

Originally a Broadway musical, Tim Burton's take on this dark tale is quite well done!

Barber Benjamin Barker had it all - a successul job, a beautiful wife and a gorgeous baby girl. That is, until his wife catches the eye of Judge Turpin, who has Barker sent off to an Austrialian prison for false charges, gets the missus intoxicated and takes advantage of her, having his way, which in turn, we learn, causes the poor thing to seek poision to end her pain. The judge adopts their daughter, keeping her locked up in the house to keep her from 'the dangers of the outside world', spying on her regularly.

Fast forward 15 years, Barker has escaped from prison and is heading home to London, Fleet Street to be exact, where he takes up the name of Sweeney Todd and opens shoppe above Mrs. Lovett's dirty ol' meat shoppe. Learning of what has become of his wife and daughter, he seeks revenge and his sights are set on Judge Turpin, with plans of giving him 'the closest shave he has ever had.'

It's a great tragic story of what can happen when someone focuses solely on revenge and how it can destroy them and those around them.

Mrs Lovett's idea for a secret ingredient to boost the sales of her meat pies was a bit odd... one of the more humorous numbers in the movie was when they're having a picnic on a hillside, looking completely without color. Mrs Lovett (who had a silent crush on Todd/Barker back when he was married, as she was his landlord back then as well) is completely overwhelmed with the idea of living happily ever after with Todd - imagining them at the beach, enjoying a day on a porch, getting married at a cute little chapel, strolling along on a boardwalk, etc - although we can tell he's only got one thing on his mind - Judge Turpin's revenge.

It was a bit over the top with the exaggerated bloody murders (think "Kill Bill") and especially in the number where he's slitting throats left and right and Mrs Lovett's making meat pies with their 'secret ingredient' but in this day and age, it's not that uncommon in films of this nature to have it as such (I've seen worse).

*hopefully* Johnny Depps gets an Oscar nom for this one or Pirates this year and maybe he'll finally win one, as he definately deserves it. I've said it before, and I'll say it again - he's one of the greatest character actors of our time! Why the hell has he not won an Oscar yet?!

On that note, Tim Burton was recently signed on to do Disney's 3D verison of Alice in Wonderland - I can't wait! If we thought Lewis Carroll's story was trippy and messed up enough, I can't wait to see Burton's take on it! Especially if it's gonna be in 3D!

AVP-Requiem

Rated R for violence, gore and lots and lots of carnage!

I'm not too familiar with the Predator series and out of the Alien series I've only seen the first one and Ressurection, but for this one, all you need to know is that the Predator, while not exactly 'the good guy,' is solely after the Aliens - whether or not humans get in his way is a different matter.

Our characters are typical - there's the optimistic sherrif, the ex-convict just out of jail and his younger brother who is headed on the same path, the younger brother's crush, the army woman just home from duty as well lesser characters that the film don't really focus much on. Why they spent so much time in the first half of the movie setting everything up is beyond me - I was a bit bored there til the action finally kicked in.

Looking back, it sort of reminded me of Resident Evil: Apocalypse with the whole premise of the city getting quarentined after multiple residents mysteriously go missing and later turned up mutilated and the survivors trying to make it out toward safety.

Lots of blood, lots of gore. Predator was pretty cool though when fighting the Aliens. Pregnant women and babies are not safe when it comes to those two!