Grainfed cows.

I saw it yesterday (Christmas). It was a fine movie and also an ordeal to sit through. The whole fam. was going to see it but at the last minute, Wife decided to see another movie. Daughter and I decided that was a good choice.

I am really not into violent movies at all but I loved the music and the acting.

I was glad it was over, but glad I saw it, if that makes any sense.

Off topic, but Juno is pretty awesome if you want something smart, funny and well done.

You didn't think it was a musical despite all the singing in the commercial?

Well, the trailer I saw had just one moment of someone breaking into song, which seemed really out of place. So it wasn't entirely obvious if there were going to be loads of musical bits, or what.

Audience reaction makes it seem like a movie I might actually want to see despite the cast.

I adore Sweeny Todd and I will (and have) canceled/rescheduled weddings and mitzvahs just to see summer stock work.


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It just seems like the same scene over and over again.

Edward Scissorhands...

From Hell...

Legend Of Sleepy Hollow...

21 Jump Street...

(ok, last one's a stretch)

Do people really go see movies they know absolutely nothing about?

I did, once- I went with a few friends to "Monsters' Ball" (the one with Halle Berry). I think almost everyone in the theatre (there weren't many of us, but still) walked out on that one. I think when it comes to movies that are incredibly violent, it's very possible that you don't hear about those specific parts before hand (because they don't put them in the commercials or anything).

I went knowing absolutely nothing about it, only that my boyfriend wanted to see it (he has apparently seen it performed live). And I adored it, every minute. My coworker today said that he had wanted to see it, but then "found out it was a musical" and he's been put off by that.

My check hit. I may go see it tomorrow.

Just got back from seeing it myself -- I thought it was spectacular. Johnny Depp is a freaking genius, and he sings like Hunky Dory-era David Bowie. I also loved that Burton reined himself in, in certain ways -- he largely saved much of his gothy comic book visual curlicues for one big scene, and let the rest of it just be very, very dark, and very, very bloody.

I remember seeing the public TV adaptation of the Angela Lansbury version c. 1980, so I knew full well it was a musical. There were definitely people in the audience who didn't know what they were in for -- the mom with her 12-year-old daughter (obviously a Johnny Depp fan) in front of us seemed particularly shocked that it wasn't a Wonka-esque romp, and the group of teenage boys sitting behind us starting giggling nervously when the singing began -- but I didn't notice anyone walking out. In fact, there was a good smattering of applause when the credits rolled.

As for people going to see movies they know nothing about -- and, more to the point, bringing their kids to wholly kid-inappropriate films -- I am shocked by how much I see this. Last month, someone brought a toddler to No County for Old Men, and stormed out (complaining loudly the whole way) when the violence kicked in after, oh, about three minutes and the child (naturally) started crying hysterically. The one that I thought was particularly strange (though hilariously so) was when we saw Brokeback Mountain -- several months into its run, mind, so it seemed safe to assume that there wasn't anyone on the planet who didn't know what it was about -- and a family came in with several small children. They huffily bustled out in the middle of the first sex scene, loudly shocked -- shocked!! -- that a movie about homosexuality could possibly be playing in public, and that their children had been forced to experience such depravity.

People bring their kids to everything unless the theater's policy (sensibly)forbids it. I was at the GCC Beverly connection once for a midnight movie and some woman refused to remove her screaming baby..she had two other kids with her.

I think Johnny Depp does best with quirky roles.


Scody, did you get my email? I sent it to the address in your mefi profile.

I'm sorry--people didn't know that Sweeney Todd was a musical? Does no-one watch Bugs Bunny anymore?!?

Welcome to my shop, let me cut your mop

It's interesting that people were offended either by the blood or by the singing. Maybe that's now our society's true divide: realistic horror-flick imagery vs. unexpectedly bursting into song.

"I'll rip yer guts out and betas yiz ter death with 'em." vs. "Oh... tra-la-la, dude."

I can't WAIT to see it!

I haven't seen it yet, but knew it was a musical. It's been pointed out though that the ads really downplay this, so non-Sondheim fans that love either Tim Burton or Depp maybe suckered into it, though you think they would like a good musical now and then.

All hail 2007! The year that the musical returned in full-force! (Sweeney Todd, Across the Universe, Colma the Musical, Once, Hairspray...not to mention HSM2)

I saw "Sweeney Todd" on Broadway with Pati Lupone. I'll see the movie eventually, but I have to steel myself for it.

I love going to films that I know nothing about, but only if I'm fairly sure they're going to be good... which makes the whole process a bit hard. I like reading the headlines in the NYT film section and skipping the articles until after I've seen something.

But I don't have kids. The same rules would in no way apply if I were bringing kids to a film.

My family went to see I Am Legend yesterday. I actually had no idea it was a horror film until the day before we saw it, and that's only because my brother told me. I thought it was like Castaway, but urban. (I much rather would have seen an urban Castaway, actually.)

Do people really go see movies they know absolutely nothing about?

Oh yes. Some of my best movie experiences have been BECAUSE I didn't know anything about the movie. No preconceptions. Specifically Fargo. My sistar and I walked into the theater and sat down. Never saw a trailer, never saw an advertisement. Saw it on the marquee, bought the tickets, and sat down. What a trippy, trippy experience. No idea what was coming next - we just laughed our way all the way through it.
"Is that your friend in the woodchipper there?"

I actually saw the Matrix without knowing anything about it. I had some vague idea that it was about computer hacking and figured that it was going to be the same as the Sandra Bullock movie from a few years before. My girlfriend at the time just wanted to see Keanu.

A die-hard fundamentalist Christian who used to work for my dad came in one Monday all flustered (this was about 1990), saying that we wouldn't believe the horrible movie he and his wife walked out of on Saturday. The movie was "Wild Orchid," which you might recall had been all over the entertainment news because it was so full of bewbs and teh sexhay and general hommina-hommina stuff.

"Soon as they started all that dirty stuff, we walked right out!" he declared. We asked him why the hell he went in the first place, didn't he see any of the news stories or trailers for it? It was only then that he got embarrassed. "I thought it was supposed to be a Western or something," he said. "I was too embarrassed to ask for our money back."

I'm waiting for the TV adaptation.

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bmarkey, you are lucky I did not have a mouthful of coffee as I opened that pic.

Who do you think Sweeney Floyd got first? I am thinking Amos the Drunk, solely for the purpose of refining his technique. And, everyone would compliment Aunt Bea's meat pies, no matter the provenance.

The tipoff would be when Opie finds Barney's lone (severely oxidized) bullet in one of the pies and gets suspicious.

A friend just pointed out that the above reference is in fact the Barber of Seville. *smacks forehead repeatedly

The demon barber of Andalucia!

I always try to go see a movie I know nothing about. Sometimes that's a brilliant decision, like From Dusk Till Dawn. Sometimes it's dumb, like I Am Legend. Actually, in both cases the evil undead came as a surprise; it's just that one was a good movie and one wasn't.