DVDs out this week - 23/5/08

May 23 2008 Flintshire Chronicle

SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET (Cert 18, 111 mins, Warner Home Video, Musical/Horror/Romance, also available to buy DVD £22.99/Blu-ray £26.99)

Starring: Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, Ed Sanders, Laura

Michelle Kelly, Jamie Campbell Bower, Jayne Wisener.

FALSELY imprisoned for 15 years by nefarious Judge Turpin (Rickman), who steals his wife, Lucy (Kelly) and baby daughter, Benjamin Barker (Depp) returns to London in the guise of barber Sweeney Todd and sets up business above the ailing pie shop of Mrs Lovett (Bonham Carter).

Sweeney slices the throats of unsuspecting customers then grinds up their bodies as filling for Mrs Lovett's hot bakes.

The shop thrives and Mrs Lovett takes street urchin Toby (Sanders) under her wing to help serve customers. Meanwhile, the barber's travelling companion, sailor Anthony Hope (Bower), falls madly in love with Sweeney's teenage daughter Johanna (Wisener).

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street conjures a wonderfully pungent vision of the 19th century London of Stephen Sondheim and Hugh Wheeler's Tony Award-winning musical.

Visionary director, Tim Burton, goes for the jugular: the screen drips with arterial spray as freshly severed necks open wide, jettisoning more glistening blood than seems humanly possible.

Dante Ferretti's evocative sets, dripping with grime and vermin, and Colleen Atwood's costumes are soaked the deepest ruby red as the film builds to its haunting climax.

Sporting a streak of shocking white hair, reminiscent of Elsa Lanchester, in Bride Of Frankenstein, Depp is mesmerising as the much-abused barber.

His singing voice is impressive, with a deep, rich timbre that resonates during the songs My Friends and Pretty Women. Bonham Carter's singing voice is thin and reedy in comparison but she relishes the humour of her pivotal role as the buxom proprietor of a festering food emporium where cockroaches initially outnumber customers. Tuck in dearies.

DVD Extras: Director commentary, The Making Of Sweeney Todd featurette, Musical Mayhem: Sondheim's Sweeney Todd featurette, Sweeney Is Alive: The Real History Of The Demon Barber featurette, Sweeney's London featurette, Recreating Fleet Street featurette, Grand Guignol: A Theatrical Tradition featurette, behind the scenes sketchbook.

Rating: ****

BEE MOVIE (Cert U, 86 mins, Paramount Home Entertainment, Family/Comedy, also available to buy DVD £19.99/two-disc DVD £24.99/DVD box set £29.99)

Featuring the voices of: Jerry Seinfeld, Renee Zellweger, Matthew Broderick, Patrick Warburton, Chris Rock, Kathy Bates, Barry Levinson, Megan Mullally.

WISECRACKING bee Barry B Benson (voiced by Seinfeld) graduates from college with his best pal Adam (Broderick) but secretly dreams of flying high, away from the drudgery of the colony, with the so-called pollen jocks.

On a rare excursion from the hive, Barry meets New York City florist Vanessa Bloome (Zellweger) and is smitten.

While Barry's parents Martin (Levinson) and Janet (Bates) await his return, the bee explores the city with the florist and learns that mankind steals honey from his winged brethren, who are incarcerated in man-made hives.

Vowing to right this unspeakable wrong, Barry instigates a high profile court case that has devastating repercussions for the entire planet.

“When I'm finished with the humans they won't be able to say, 'Honey, I'm home,' without paying royalties!” he seethes.

Bee Movie buzzes along with enough energy and visual gags to sustain our interest for 86 minutes. Simon J. Smith and Steve Hickner's computer-animated adventure draws obvious comparisons with Pixar's A Bug's Life, but falls short in terms of the animation and the script, co-written by Seinfeld, which peddles obvious puns: “A perfect report card – all B's!”

Rating: ***