Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)

"At last, my arm is complete again." Sweeney Todd as he admires one of his efficient razors after a long absence.

I'm not sure Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd is "grand," but I'm confident it's in the best Grand Guignol tradition of sensational stage horror given its name from that little theater in early 20th century Paris that specialized in sensationally ghoulish productions. I am also sure that no one in film is better able to play the titular butcher than the shape-shifting, ever-naughty Johnny Depp.

The opening song "No Place Like London" hints to Anglophiles like me that it won't be my usual tour of West End theaters, rather a seedy, dangerous place where Mac the Knife would be more at home. Throughout the musical, Steven Sondheim's lyrics expressively revel in the amoral, throat-slicing world that Sweeney and his adoring meatpie lady, Nellie Lovett (Helena Bonham-Carter), wallow in as he prepares to take revenge on the equally amoral Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman), who dispatched Todd to prison early on to get his beautiful young wife. Hence Sweeney's revenge inclination.

Sweeney's lyric best expresses the wildly murderous world, hardly the usual province of musicals: "Alright! You, Sir?/No one's in the chair come on, come on/Sweeney's waiting/I want you bleeders./You sir! Too sir?/Welcome to the grave./I will have vengeance./I will have salvation . . . ." Yes, it's Sleepy-Hollow, Corpse-Bride Tim Burton's movie with blood spouting like red paint from a pressure gun contrasting the somber, almost black and white underside of London. When one of the children bites into a pie with a finger in it (shades of our contemporary law suits!), the audience doesn't even gasp, given the omnipresence of bloody bodies.

There is no more interesting musical this year, even considering the enchanting Once. In the end, it is unsettling, unsavory, and unusual. Burton does better than anyone else in juxtaposing horror with innocence.

Fmovies: And this conventicle has brought us a glistening and irresistible nightmare. There are delicious Dickensian overtones throughout, and the look of the film itself is poetically potent. The entire mix is shockingly seductive with an unforgettable ending. Burton's humor is part and parcel of his sheer brilliance, as always, and, as always, the great Johnny Depp is intense and positively unforgettable. All performances are electric, the pace and length are perfect, and the film draws us deeper and deeper with every moment into its stunning blend of the grotesque and the undeniably beautiful. Analysing the power of a film like this is no simple matter. The whole is dazzlingly disturbing. You don't want to miss a second of it, even though the film is merciless to us and to its protagonists. It sings, it glows, it enchants, it horrifies. I want to see it again. And again. It's a brutal and shattering masterpiece.

Good dark fun.

I knew nothing of this movie except Tim Burton and Johnny Depp had something to do with it, and that, as the executive director put it, there was "lots of blood". I don't think of myself as liking musicals, although I should probably reconsider now.

I had a moment of dread when the movie started and there was a mention of Sacha Baron Cohen being in it. However his performance was in fact quite good. While his acting has a few things in common with his over-the-top Borat character, it somehow fits rather well within the movie.

Some elements of the plot are rather predictable, in a Greek tragedy sort of way, but it doesn't really detract from the movie. We get to enjoy the downward spiral even though we know its shape.

All in all, the movie was awesome, filled with damned and hopeless characters that still made you laugh at every turn.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street fmovies. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is one of the year's most talked about films, it's getting big Oscar buzz and of course, what could be better than Tim Burton taking on this dark musical? With Johnny Depp starring along with beautiful Helena Bonham Carter by his side, this movie just screams terrific. My mom and I saw the movie today and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street lived beyond to my expectations. Tim Burton hasn't exactly released a classic lately that would be remembered for all time, but Sweeny Todd is sure to make it's way into one of the most memorable films of 2007. Johnny Depp and Helena both have incredible voices, they were so hauntingly beautiful and magical together, it's like these roles were made for them. Along with an equally strong cast as Alan Rickman and Sacha Baron Cohen who were also incredible, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a new memorable musical for years to come.

Sweeney Todd has come to London on a mission, a mission for revenge! His wife was taken by the evil judge for his own pleasure's with her and Sweeney's daughter. Now Sweeney's daughter is grown and is being held by Judge Turpin and he has been informed by his lover, Mrs. Lovett that his wife has died. "At last my arm is complete!" Sweeney says as he raises his faithful razor and wishes to kill the vermin of the world as well. Mrs. Lovett comes up with the clever idea to create a tasty meat pie of the victims and makes quite the popular business. But Sweeney is determined to find his daughter who is being wooed by his young friend, Anthony, and kill the judge who has taken everything from him.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street was so beautifully shot. The reason why I love Tim Burton so much is because he knows how colors and contrasts work in a film. He knew how dark Mrs. Lovetts and Sweeney Todd are, in a picnic scene where everything is supposed to be bright, Sweeney and Lovetts are the only dark figures in the lovely setting. The music is triumphant, the songs were so memorable and almost hypnotic, I felt like was in a real Broadway audience. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is one of the best films of the year, I guarantee it, this was a terrific musical that was a bloody good time! Tim Burton is back and he's better than ever with Johnny.

10/10

As a fan of the original stage version of this grimly Gothic tale, going into Sweeney Todd was bittersweet in my hopes and expectations. However, I'm pleased to announce that I did find Burton's latest effort impressive and intentional. Fans of the original won't be disappointed with a top-notch cast and the wonderfully dark overtures that haunt every minute of Sweeney Todd. Tim Burton, one of the masters of ambiance, sets his atmosphere in the grisly streets of a depressed London and his artistry punctures through every scene of screen time. I would have to clarify that, while Johnny Depp is a skilled actor, fans of the original will find it hard to believe that Depp has the ability to transform into the George Hearn "Sweeny" we've come to know. This is in fact true and recognized by Burton. In this respect, the character of Depp is not played as the same manner as the deep-voiced, towering Todd from the musical adaptation. Depp's is more of a less boisterous and thoughtful one. The vocal performances are great but have a different approach and feel to them. It was a refreshing adaptation and I feel a triumph on the part of Burton for making a stage-to-screen experience that captures you from it's bloody introduction.

I approached Sweeney Todd with trepidation, having been underwhelmed with most of Tim Burton's recent output and every screen musical of the last decade. The biggest problem I have with Burton's films is that his screenplays rarely manage to pull their disparate elements into a satisfying whole. Here, despite adapting the material to his own sensibilities and shortening the play by an hour, he adheres closely to Sondheim's book, resulting in the most dramatically satisfying film Burton has ever made.

I liked the adaptation of the off-off Broadway Hedwig and the Angry Inch, but have been left underwhelmed by all the recent big budget film musicals, so I'm glad to say that Sweeney Todd, wipes the floor with every major screen musical of the last decade, including the likable if over extended Hairspary. Most surprising is how shockingly gruesome the the film becomes in the second half. This must be the most blood drenched film since Shogun Assassin, with arteries spurting blood like like fountains as throats are cut, with the violence escalating towards the end leading towards a climax that is exhilarating, heartbreaking and satisfyingly bleak.

Unlike the dreary dirges Danny Elfman supplied for Burton's stop frame musicals, Sondheim's score is a joy to listen to from beginning to end, its dark romanticism sometimes reminding me of Bernhard Herrmann, perfectly fitting what is both a musical and a horror film in equal measures.

Depp and Bonham Carter are both excellent and it's down to their performances that I never quite lost sympathy with them in their descent into madness, blood lust and cannibalism.

Musical haters may not be converted as 75% percent of the dialogue is sung, but this completely dispatches any notion of cloying sentimentally the genre is often associated with.