7 reviews

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Roo January 28, 2008

Good god. One can't but wonder if Tim, Helena and Johnny are having some kind of devilish menage-a-trois on the weekends, there's so much mutual masturbation going on in this camp, childish piece of rubbish. Looking like a reprise of Michael Keaton and Geena Davis in Beetlejuice, Depp and Bonham Carter creak stiffly through their wafer-thin roles, the former at least managing to make a good job of the singing (and the latter just about managing it in an endearing sort of way).

There's no pace at all, the relentless darkness of the empty pie shop and barbers alternating with a sickeningly vacuous love story which would surely only appeal to exactly the kind of emo kid who will be too young to go and see it due to its 18 cert. Then suddenly, you're in a real-life manga cartoon, as blood the colour of uv paint coats the walls, and no customer gets out of Todd's place alive. Which seems odd, doesn't it, given that he must have left some people alone in order to keep the trade coming through and the police from the door. However, I doubt you're supposed to use your brain to think this much during the film, as you're clearly supposed to stick your disbelief so far up your arse whilst watching it that it needs no other suspension.

I regret ignoring my gut instinct and not giving up on this film after the first 10 minutes.

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Simon Tavener January 21, 2008

This film is one that has been eagerly awaited by the legions of fans of Mr Depp and Mr Burton and also by fans of musicals and Stephen Sondheim in particular. I honestly feel that no-one will feel disappointed by what, in many ways, is a triumphant piece of cinema.

As with all of Tim Burton's films, the visuals are incredible. Never one to shy away from the grotesque and the stylized, this is a treat for the eyes. For the majority of the film, he restricts himself to a colour palette of blacks, greys and whites. This only heightens the impact of the arrival of blood red - which, understandably, makes a significant contribution to the film. It also throws into relief moments when we do get more colour - such as in the 'By the Sea' sequence and in the early flashback moments. It is rare for me to be so struck by production design but this should win awards, it is that spectacular.

The film is rated 18 - which may shock some. How can a musical be rated an 18? The answer is blood. There is lots of it. It is about someone who slits throats for pleasure - there is going to be blood. There are other moments of violence - some very shocking. Don't let this put you off - it is handled with care. It does shock you but not in a gratuitous way.

Many, myself included, questioned the casting of Mr Depp in the title role. On stage the role has been taken by people with a proven track record as singers - most recently by Bryn Terfel in London. Johnny Depp performs admirably as a singer - tackling the complexity of Sondheim's writing with aplomb. Helena Bonham Carter is equally comfortable in what, to my knowledge, is her first singing role. The music is excellent - everyone bringing character and clarity to a difficult score.

In many ways, this film marks a culmination in the work that Burton and Depp have done together. There are witty references back to Edward Scissorhands and Nightmare Before Christmas which will please the fans without alienating newcomers. Depp fully deserves his Golden Globe award for Best Actor. I hope the Oscar voters think the same.

It is a film that I long to see again in the cinema and will get the DVD the second it comes out! I hope that audiences react positively to it - it is well worth your attention.

I really wanted to like this movie. Honestly. I tried. Really, really hard. After all everybody else including film critics liked it. A lot.

I didn't. I hated it with a passion. Loathed it and found it so tedious I came to hope I was going to be next in that Barber's chair . Having my throat slashed might have been infinitely more satisfying than having to sit through this poor excuse of a film. Visually ravishing, it has sadly gone once again Hollywod-style for style over substance.

I hate musicals and was not familiar with Sondheim's piece and all my prejudices against the genre came to the fore. I loathed the music and the lyrics made me want to retch.

This movie is a stunningly pretty concoction of nothing, Saccharine, boring, tedious beyond belief and just bad. Really, really bad. Worse than that. Awful. Atrocious. Terrible.

I had expected better of Johnny Depp and Alan Rickman but even Johnny's cool performance did nothing to save this sinking ship full of rats. Alan Rickman was a parody of himself, Helena-Bonham Carter a disaster ( if there was ever an actress who should not play a working class role with a London accent it is her). It looked all very pretty but was as empty headed as a cheerleader on speed. I loved the Sepia-ish tones of the production but it was about the only interest I found in this exploitative piece of rubbish.

Considering the subject matter it could have been a dark and subtle movie with intelligent overtones, and an analysis of revenge and a descent into madness but ended up as nothing more than a bad parody of a cheap romance novel.

The blood looked so much like gloss paint, I spent the whole movie trying to think of a name on the Dulux chart for it. I will be generous and assume Tim Burton wanted it to look like anything but blood for aesthetic reasons but seeing how awful the movie is I'm not sure. It reminded me of a bad graphic novel and had all its appeal.

Slow, boring, mind-blowingly, achingly dull beyond belief. Save yourselves.

Pamplemousse 19 Feb 2008

I hate musicals with a passion, but I rather liked this. My usual objection to musicals is that people in real life simply don't stop talking and start to sing for no reason, and therefore when they do so in a film or play, it destroys any absorption one has into the realism of the prose story.

But in this case the prose story is so utterly surreal from the outset that the music seems simply fitting. Set in a gothic caricature of London, as you might expect, Sweeney Todd dismisses all possibility of realism and concentrates on style. And if you are to enjoy it, style is what you will have to enjoy. We know the plot, after all, so any suspense will have to come from waiting to see how it happens, rather than what happens.

And, well, it seems it will either push your buttons or not. I could repeat much of the praise from Lindsey's review below, but to what end? I will just add that I particularly enjoyed the song where the two principals list their potential ingredients by profession as they see them walk past the shop.

And, if we're going to be picky, you do see at least one customer leave alive: the camera pans back to show the reason - his family waiting in the corner. That scene could have been repeated for the inattentive, just to convince them that the plot was reasonable, but why should Burton bother? It doesn't need to be reasonable - the film is a galloping great fantasy. Was anyone really expecting otherwise?

Meaty Goodness 28 Jan 2008

Culmination of the Burton / Depp partnership this may be but I thought the film was dire. It's a pleasure to hear Depp sing so well and I'm sure he makes his children's bedtimes all the better for it. However, he was wasting his time here: quite apart from being too long and getting in the way of the story, the songs are musically feeble and have risibly bland lyrics.

I don't care how self-referential Burton's films have become, this one had me gnawing my arms off in boredom. The only thing worth watching was Timothy Spall's repulsive turn as Alan Rickman's sidekick and he (Spall) wasn't on screen long enough to stop me from hating this with a vengeance.

One last thing: if you've ever wondered what critics mean when they say that a stage production suffered from being transferred to the screen, watch this film. For far too long, the scene flits between two drab, cardboard cut-out locations, lending the whole thing an insipid predictability.

Grumpy 28 Jan 2008

Burton signals from the outset that this will be different from the vivid fusion of colour in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The opening credits recall those to Charlie, but with a macabre difference: instead of a production line making candy, this is one pumping out Mrs Lovett's famous 'meat' pies ... And we all know how dubious vaguely deeming something 'meat' is don't we?!! What follows is a film shot almost entirely in sickly greenish greys - apart from the blood and an inspired dream sequence midway through the film.

Depp is on top form as Sweeney Todd, obsessed with murder to the exclusion of all else. He's actually quite unsettling at times! Although at first Depp's singing recalls the Flight of the Conchord's Bowie parody, you get quite used to it and he aquits himself well. Helena Bonham Carter is the real star though. She is wonderful as Mrs Lovett - crazy and sardonic, she pulls in the most laughs and looks amazing. She and Depp are well cast and the line between Burton's stop motion figures in The Corpse Bride and the actors here is very blurred. They seem the physical embodiment of Burton's drawings. Depp and Carter have a great rapport and the scenes set to the song 'By the Sea' are hilarious. These are the only full colour scenes and include some very amusing expressions from Depp, who can elicit a laugh with the smallest tic of his beautiful features. Timothy Spall is cartoonishly creepy as Beadle Bamford and there's a marvellous cameo from Sacha Baron Cohen as the flamboyant Signor Aldolfo Pirelli, Todd's barber nemesis complete with comedy Italian accent. All are over the top enough to retain the sense of this being a Broadway musical and the songs themselves are deliciously overblown and melodramatic. Whilst other cast members sing wonderfully, this is at times at the expense of the acting, but not so much as to ruin the film.

What was so great about Sweeney Todd is that Burton is now at the stage where he can be self referential. He alludes to Edward Scissorhands - Sweeney Todd wielding a blade saying 'At last my arm is complete’- and there is a smidge of the ghoulish Penguin's lair to the sets. This is definitely Burton's darkest film since he created Gotham City. The London he depicts is a fantasy, an idea of a gothic London rather than historical fact. As with all his work, the environment created is a dark fantasy world which employs dramatic license that the audience gives in to willingly. The film is demented and beautifully ghastly and whilst it may not have quite the same memorable scenes as Edward Scissorhands, its lively camera work and uncannily catchy songs result in another successful outing from Messers Burton and Depp.

Lindsey Davis 28 Jan 2008

This vacuous, pallid, fifth rate excuse for a musical was forty minutes (I walked out, along with my partner) I'll never recoup, an utter, utter waste of time. The musical numbers were as weak as steam soup, and too many in number. I longed for any small respite from the ghastly songs to continue, but alas, they were relentless - the spoken dialogue pieces were few and far between. I hated, and will always hate, this awful film.

B&K 27 Jan 2008