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Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
by Tim Burton
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Publisher: Dreamworks Video
Salesrank: 43
Released: 2008-04-01
Theatrical-Release: 2007
List Price: $29.99
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Media: DVD
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First taste of Sweeney… (2008-04-14)
I had never heard of this musical before the movie was advertised. I wasn’t familiar with the score, so I didn’t miss any of the songs they cut. I knew the basic story from commercials, but I had no expectations going into this film. I like Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter and that was my main motivation for seeing it.

I was delighted at how well Depp can sing. He imbued his songs with real emotion and his voice is surprisingly rich. This was especially true during the ode to his razors, “My Friends.” The look on his face as he cherishes them is scary as hell, and brought the character fully to life for me. This was my favorite song of the movie. Depp was also careful to enunciate clearly, so I had no problems understanding what he was singing most of the time. Unfortunately, the same is not true for Carter. Other reviewers have complained about how weak her voice was. I didn’t notice that so much; her voice was okay, and I thought she played the part well. However, most of the time I couldn’t tell what she was singing outside of the chorus. Since the songs convey a lot of the plot/storyline, this was a real problem. Luckily, she had a number of duets with Depp, and I could follow what he was singing and get the gist. Alan Rickman turned in a lovely performance as the sleazy “villain” Turpin, and his song with Depp, “Pretty Women,” was well done. However, his role was necessarily small due to time constraints (I think) and I wish it could have been more. The boy who played Toby had an excellent voice, and his role added some lighter moments to a dark story. As to the lovebirds - they were unremarkable. They sang their songs fine, but I didn’t really get much out of their characters. They were just there. I’m not sure if their characters had songs that were cut that would have fleshed them out more, but as it was I didn’t care about them in the least.

The story itself seemed a bit disjointed at times and this may be due to the missing songs. At a couple of points, I felt like it was just a series of songs strung together. No doubt this would be phenomenal on stage, and I would love to see Johnny Depp reprise the role live. He truly carried the film by the force of his character’s charisma. At all times he was the focus that kept the story flowing. I can honestly say this was one of his best performances and I truly enjoyed the film because of it. The costumes, make-up and sets were all great. Burton gave the film an ethereal feel. London didn’t look real, per se, it looked like I could be seeing this live on stage. The dirty streets and dark lighting captured the time period and gloomy atmosphere perfectly. And the R rating is more than deserved. This is not for children, or the squeamish. The gore was in your face - literally. Once Sweeney started murdering, the blood spatter practically hit the camera every time he slit a throat. And the music carries it out. “A Little Priest,” when Lovett and Todd decide to bake up the bodies, is simultaneously macabre and funny as they debate who would make a tasty pie (the priest is too fat, the poet might be diseased…)

As to this single disc edition, I was disappointed. There is only one extra on it. After watching the film, I realized that additional features would have made the experience better with insights into the adaptation, and possibly deleted scenes. I really regret not buying the two-disc special edition.

Overall, Johnny Depp carried this movie almost completely. Any shortcomings it has are likely due to adapting a long musical to film. It is very well done, and I highly recommend it.Excellently Directed (2008-04-14)
Burton did a phemominal job mixing vibrant color and washed out color throughout this picture. It was a little overboard on gore or I would have rated it higher. Johnny Depp gives another memorable performance as a mis-guided man who was wrongfully put and jail and who believed his wife was forced to commit suicide and daughter was murdered. This turns him dark and he seeks revenge on the men who did the deed as well as all the lonely souls of London.

Helena Bonhem-Carter is strikingly beautiful in an Elvira kind of way, is the baker who helps him perform his dirty deeds.Macabre Masterpiece…Just Wish I’d Known… (2008-04-14)
Burton and Depp have done it again with Sweeney Todd. A downright beautiful, macabre masterpiece in every sense of the word. However, feel free to call me uncultured when I was surprised that this was a MUSICAL. I’m glad I didn’t know ahead of time because I never would have given it a chance. The surprise was bloody glorious! High praise for this film!Never Forget, Never Forgive, Never Watch This Movie Again… (2008-04-13)
I hate musicals, I figured I’d go ahead and get that little tidbit of information out of the way early, but for some reason I thought that I might actually enjoy Tim Burton’s recently released “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” starring Johnny Depp (”Sleepy Hollow”), Helena Bonham Carter (`Harry Potter’ series), and Alan Rickman (`Harry Potter’ series). To clarify, in case anyone is curious I don’t consider Disney’s numerous animated films (which I am generally a fan of) to be musicals even though they contain 4 or 5 musical numbers, so those movies don’t count. I do know the reason behind my decision to view this movie; it was because I had heard that this musical was not like most musicals in that it didn’t contain choreographed movements in sync with the musical score, big song and dance numbers, and that it actually felt more like a normal movie. So, like an idiot I listened and thought that there was actually a chance that I would enjoy this movie, and I honestly did give it a chance even though I loath these types of films, because I am a fan of Johnny Depp’s and Tim Burton’s (to an extent), so I thought those two people alone may make this a more tolerable musical than most; however, I was wrong.

“Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” is the story of a talented barber (Johnny Depp) who is wrongfully imprisoned by a corrupt judge (Alan Rickman) who wants to steal his wife away. After spending 15 years locked up, the barber is released and has changed his name to Sweeney Todd, but his name isn’t the only thing that has changed over the years. Sweeney is no longer the sweet, charming barber he once was, in his place is a man consumed by darkness and a deep-seeded thirst for vengeance, and his thirst will be quenched and no one will stand in his way.

Let this movie be a lesson to me to never rent a musical again for myself, no matter how interesting it appears to be. Because no matter how hard the moviemaker tries to make the musical more mainstream and more like a normal movie, so long as they are staying true to the source material the annoyances will remain intact. I will say that I do respect the various filmmakers who tackle musicals for doing their best to remain as faithful to the source material as possible in a two hour film. If I was a fan of musicals and some hack director tried to adapt one of my favorites and butchered it or changed it too much, then I would be extremely frustrated and angry with Hollywood’s need for updating or changing what has worked so well in other mediums to better suit their needs. I only say this because as a comic book fan and video game fan, I hate it when some Hollywood hotshot deems himself worthy of changing and manipulating my favorite characters to what he/she believes they should be, regardless of the source material. So, take note all you directors out there looking to adapt comics, games, books, and any other media into feature films, fans enjoy the movies better when you stay true to the roots of the material you are adapting. Now, I understand that some things need to be changed for the translation on the big screen to be more believable; however, there is a limit to how much can be changed before any semblance of the material is lost and it no longer seems to be an adaptation but instead seems like a re-imagining that can not even hope to hold a candle to the quality of the source material.

What annoys me about musicals, which I alluded to earlier, is the way that musicals always seem to force the characters to choreograph their movements to the beat of the music throughout the scene. When this occurs it becomes so glaringly obvious and forced to me, that it tends to distract me; therefore taking away from the scene and my enjoyment in the movie. Now, thankfully Tim Burton didn’t allow this to happen too many times throughout the movie, but in the scenes it did occur in, they tended to be the ones I least enjoyed, not that there were too many that I found all that enjoyable to begin with. Another cause for complaint to me is during some of the big musical numbers some character can just walk in the room and instantly know the song being sung, and just join in as if they’d been there all along. This annoys me even further when it’s a song being sung by two characters that have not met prior, yet they each know the song perfectly and can sing in perfect harmony during the choruses. If this was a normal movie and someone came into a scene opposite a character he/she had never met before, and instantly knew what to say and what the other person may say, this would seem forced and poorly written, but in a musical it’s just accepted as normal. I just don’t get it. Now, I know you may be thinking that Disney’s animated films do this annoying kind of thing all the time by having numerous character join in on the big musical numbers and know all of the words to the song even though there should be absolutely no way they could possibly know them, and yet I enjoy those films; but, as I said before I don’t view Disney movies as musicals so I give them some leeway. Go ahead, call me a hypocrite, I admit it, when it comes to this kind of thing, I am. My final gripe is why in a musical does it seem like too much to ask for the characters to go more than 3 minutes without singing, just because it’s a musical film doesn’t mean there has to be almost constant music, a little more of a break between the big, and even somewhat smaller, musical numbers would have been much appreciated and may have let me enjoy the movie a bit more.

From an acting standpoint, the cast did a good job, and for a person who hates musicals they all handled their songs very well, which is surprising given that Johnny Depp has admitted that he had no idea if he could sing or not prior to accepting the role of Sweeney, and he actually had a decent voice. Helena Bonham Carter and Alan Rickman were very good as Ms. Lovett and Judge Turpin respectively, both had very good singing voices and both portrayed the underlying, duplicitous nature of their characters perfectly, though Rickman’s was more overt than Helena’s had to be. Regarding all the various actors’ appearances in the movie, I hate the way Tim Burton always makes his characters somewhat pale and looking as if their eyes are sunken in. This particular look makes Helena (who also happens to be Burton’s significant other) look somewhat ugly and unhealthy, not that she’s the most glamorous looking woman in Hollywood, but she does look better than he allowed her to look in this film, though I suppose her look did fit the character more than her natural appearance would have. Sacha Baron Cohen was alright in what was essentially a cameo role in the film as a rival barber, he did seem to be a bit over the top and annoying in his scenes, and maybe that was what his character was supposed to be like, but it just irritated me, and I couldn’t wait for his departure from the movie. The remainder of the cast was good, though not particularly memorable, and most seemed to be nothing more than fodder for Sweeney to practice on as he prepared for his ultimate goal of killing Judge Turpin.

I will give Tim Burton this, he knows how to make a movie all his own. From the cinematography, to the special effects, the make-up, even to the actors, you can always tell you’re watching a Tim Burton film the minute you see a scene or two, because his style is just so distinct that no other director seems remotely capable of copying it. So kudos to him for his innovative sense of style and direction, it’s rare for someone in Hollywood to be able to reach the level of success that he has without there being at least some copycats out there trying to do exactly as he does. Aside from Burton’s penchant for the semi-goth appearance for most of the characters in his films, I find myself generally enjoying his movies on some level, though they may not always be favorites of mine they are at least worth watching once, but I do believe that for me “Sweeney Todd” is pushing it. I am surprised that Tim stayed as true to the musical as he could, since he admits during the special features for the movie that he is not a fan of musicals, yet for some reason this one seemed to strike a chord with him. So I at least appreciate that he took great care to stay mostly true to the original material, which I’m sure made many fans and critics happy.

I’m sure by this point, you readers are not at all surprised to learn that I will not watch this movie ever again, and find it hard to recommend it to anyone. However, if you are a fan of musicals you will probably enjoy this film, though be warned it is extremely violent during the latter half of the movie, so if you are somewhat squeamish you may not like it as much. If you are someone like me who doesn’t enjoy musicals, but still find yourself curious to see if this one would be different, take it from me, aside from the violence (which was actually when the movie began to feel a bit more like a normal movie to me and become a little more tolerable), this musical is just like all the others, full of all the annoying qualities that one has come to expect from them.

“Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” is rated R for violence and brief language.A bloody time for all (2008-04-13)
Classic Tim Burton production with the macabre visuals. But it is loaded up with gore via Mr. Todd slicing and dicing the throats of his clients. We get to see the spewing of blood in all its glory. Tough to watch and in the end, a needless visual which takes away from what could have been a very enjoyable film. **Bnb Beatles Depot** 

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