Phuck It’s the Phantom!

In the early 90′s I had the offer of tickets to see the Sydney production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera.   I took my mum along, as she was a huge fan and we had a great time.  The leads back then were Rob Guest and Marina Prior and it was showing at the State Theatre.  It was brilliant.  Even the tiny, uncomfortable seats weren’t enough to detract from the wonderful sets and performances.   I don’t normally go for musicals, but I went for this in a big way.

Ramin Karimloo as the Phantom

Recently, it was announced that for the 25th anniversary of the musical, there was to be a limited screening of the performance from the Royal Albert Hall.   It was to be shown in selected cinemas, and it was by chance that mum noticed it.   Not wanting to miss this opportunity,  we organised to go to the matinée session today.  This version of the show has Ramin Karimloo as the Phantom, Sierra Boggess as Christine and Hadley Fraser as Raoul.  All of them were great, but particularly Christine.  Honorable mention goes to Kiera Duffy and Liz Robertson as Carlotta and Madame Giry respectively.

The cinema version started with the seating of the audience, which went of for some time.  It was done as though you were actually in a the Royal Albert Hall and already seated.  You could see people playing with their phones and looking for their seats, and so on.  Once it started, several cameras took over and it became more like a film.  Having a run time of 210 minutes, there is a 20 minute interval halfway through, which took the audience I was with by surprise.  It was a good idea though, and a welcome stretch of the legs.

At the end of the musical, and the nods from the actors, Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber appeared and thanked various members of the production, and a short performance by several retired stars takes place.  Some of the familiar faces were nice to see, although it did feel tacked on, having just heard the same songs in the show.

It was well worth the price of admission to see on the large screen, and if you get the chance, see it.  It is a very limited run though, and it ends soon so check your local cinema times as soon as possible.   Should you miss it, the DVD & Blu-Ray will be released on the 7th of December in Australia.   You can check for your region at the official website.

Cinemassascre’s Monster Madness 2011

It’s October again and that means Halloween for our friends in the States. Being Australian, I don’t celebrate Halloween, but that doesn’t mean I can’t love a good horror film.

Every year since 2007, James Rolfe aka The Angry Video Game Nerd, does a series of horror movie reviews on a particular topic. Every day for October he reviews one film, and this year it seems he’s chosen to take a look at a group of films in their series. So far he’s starting out with the Universal Frankenstein films and moving on to Hammer’s Dracula movies from the 70′s.

Being a great fan of the Universal movies in particular, I’ll be sure to visit Cinemassacre every day to see what’s up next.

True Blood

Finally, I got around to watching True Blood. I am not a big fan of the modern take on Vampires. Rather than being sexy and metro, I prefer them to be cool and scary and lurking in castles somewhere in Romania. However, I’d heard pretty good things about it, so I decided to give it a go.

Bill, Sookie & Eric

Season one was the best, with the introduction of the main characters and the vampire mythology within the True Blood universe. The story involves the ‘reveal’ of the vampire race, following the invention of a blood substitute dubbed “Tru Blood.” Since the vampires no longer require the drinking of human blood, they decide to come out of the coffin and live among us. The series starts in a small bar in Louisiana, the employer of Sookie Stackhouse (Anna Paquin), a young girl working as a waitress. In comes vampire Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), and the two connect instantly.

Sookie has the involuntary power to read the thoughts of others, and is fascinated by the fact she cannot read the mind of “Vampire Bill.” Bill is a decent vampire who doesn’t feed on humans, and he and Sookie begin a tenuous relationship with one another.

Other main characters include Sookie’s brother Jason (Ryan Kwanten), her friend Tara (Rutina Wesley) and the various bar staff Sookie works with. Later, another vampire named Eric (Alexander Skarsgård) competes with Bill for Sookie’s love.

Over the four seasons the show develops the relationships between the characters and mythology, but I found that by the end of the fourth season there was just a little too much going on with each person. It seemed to me that when they started to introduce more mythical creatures, the show began to lose it’s focus and direction.

The culture and workings of the Vampires was interesting and well layered, with local rulers and ‘kings’ governed by various higher tiers of vampire power. Later introductions of werewolves, witches and ghosts just watered down the power of the vampires and once season three had passed, it seemed as though every character had some tie to some weird power they were keeping secret. By the beginning of season four I really wanted to fast forward the parts with Tara’s cousin Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis). His story arc just became more and more ridiculous with him being possesses by any random ghost that happened to be floating through the area.

My favourite character is Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll), a teenage girl bitten by Bill Compton as punishment for his crimes. She has trouble controlling her desires and has some of the funniest parts in the series. I started out enjoying the Tara sections, but later she got a little whiny and annoying. Sookie is pretty constant throughout all four seasons.

One character I instantly hated was the ‘big bad’ for season four.  Marnie Stonebrook (Fiona Shaw) is a witch who is out to kill all vampires.  The actress playing her is just so damned annoying I almost stopped watching.  I can’t even really explain why, I just really hate her.

I’ve never seen Twilight or any of the other new vampire shows, so I can’t really compare to those. I guess if you’re looking to watch True Blood, I can say the first two seasons are a decent way to pass the time. If you’re still enjoying it mid season three, then you’ll probably enjoy the rest. If you’re getting bored around that stage, skip season four entirely and you won’t be missing a thing.