Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

If a group of actors can create a whole imaginary town with just a couple of ladders on stage in My Town, why do they need to spray fake blood to provide "realsim?"

Well, first off, rufnek is talking about the Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Our Town. Secondly, I guess I missed the PBS depiction of the Sweeney Todd play because it's always been a rather gruesome thing which left little to the imagination. However, I do think this is the most violent version yet, but that doesn't seem surprising in the least. rufnek, have you seen Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow?

One of the most interesting things to me was the formula for the "musical numbers" if you will. Most of the musicals I've seen have songs that the characters perform as part of the overall story arc but in this film they spent a good deal of the time just singing, what to me seemed like should be just regular spoken dialog. I again thought that was brilliant and perhaps that's the way it is in the play as well and if so, then I'm sure the play is a real treat to watch.

I've been reading this thread for a while now and not chiming even though this is one of my favorite films of last year. I kept wondering what I could add to the discussion but rufnek's discussion and the thoughts about Carter have got me a bit riled up.

First, I totally get why people don't think Carter is good here or that Lansbury was so much better. I love Angela Lansbury, but surprisingly, I'm in the minority about her performance as Lovett. It was entirely too manic for me. And while Carter mumbled, Lansbury sung too fast!

What I think Burton did was narrow the film down to strictly the obsession theme of the story and Carter played her obsession with Sweeney in a more quiet way than Lansbury did. I like Carter's performance because she expressed that obsession very well -- I thought her heartbreaking in the final song with Toby where she realizes that this boy who loves her needs to die because he's interfering with her obession with Sweeney. I thought the irony of the scene was so clearly communicated.

I really love this movie even thought I think it lacked the manic energy of the show. This is a more brooding tragic tale, imo.

I love the final shot. Love it.

And the blood was fine, but I really didn't need to see Lovett in the oven like that. I thought that was too much!

Yoda PM'd me, saying that I should review this film, that "there's a big ol' spot on the mainpage" for me.

Wanting all the glory, I jumped on the bandwagon.

For the record, I generally don't write reviews. I tried in the past and the flame went out for me real quick. Every once in a blue moon I will, and the reasons why I do them so rarely differs from time to time. One thing that's common in all my reviews though, is that I try and put a little story into on how it all went about. Usually film critics just state their opinion on the film (yes, one person's opinion, not fact. That's why I don't go by reviews), and that's that. I like mine to be different. But it's still my opinion nonetheless, and that's hypocritcal of me to say, I know, but oh well. You'll get over it.

Anywho, I got the sneak preview privledge of seeing this film when I went to go see Beowulf in 3D with my two other friends. They were handing out flyers for it, and the people at the theater said we would have to call up to RSVP ASAP (I like how that flows well), as the seats we're going out. Each flyer was good for two people to come.

After Beowulf let out (which I enjoyed - 9 out of 10, maybe because in junior year of high school in 2006, we attempted to parody it. See the trailer for it . Pardon the YouTube description for it - my friend wrote it, not I. That's not even my account, it's his), I called up and RSVP'd my seats to go see the film, which was to be shown Tuesday, December 4th, 2007 at 7:30. Naturally, the best part so far was that the screening was for free.

So, we roll in on December 4th to the Valley View Cinemark in Valley View, Ohio at 6:45 to check-in, as the flyer said for us to do. We walk right in and are sent to the proper theater, and a strange thing happened to us.

We were checked by security.

This is new, I thought. I only then realized they weren't checking for bombs - they were checking for little digital camera's to record the film with. I found it ammusing when the one guard used his detector he waved it to above me to see if I was carrying anything inside my brown Fedora.

Being ushered in, it was indeed a full house. Having an usher point us to some seats (there were four of us), we sat down and just chit-chatted. A representative from the company who handed out the flyers talked to me and my friends sat down, asked us some questions, and then asked if we'd be interested in talking after the film. We said sure, why not. When the time came, another representative came and told us hello, that we were the first audience in America to see the film (although I'm not too sure on that), and that to see if anyone by us had any hidden cameras to record the film with, as that conduct is illegal. (As a gag, as soon as he said recording film's in the theater was illegal, I let out a loud "WHAT?" and some people laughed) When that was said and done, the film began with no previews.

Going in, I had my expectations. It was another Tim Burton/Johnny Depp colaboration, and that brought in some good hope, seeing as how this duo produced my favorite film of all time, Ed Wood. I was obviously familiar with Burton's dark artistic style, as well as Depp's diverse acting, so overall, I had positive vibes for the film.

As soon as the film starts off, you see a ship coming out of a fog into the docks with Depp on board. I couldn't help but make a Pirates joke in my head. (Too bad I forgot it though ) The story picks up real well from this point on, taking no delays. The pacing was very well done, and the acting was phenomenal. Seeing Depp sing with a tinge of Jack Sparrow in his voice was no harm to the ears, but rather interesting. For those of you who don't know, this film is adapted from a musical, and being in theater in high school, I could easilly tell how each scene would have been made on a live stage and its transfer to film, which impressed my greatly. The camera work is profound, and the scenes with Sacha Baron Cohen were comical, both when he sang and his acting out of the character. He definently prooved that Hollywood won't be able to typecast him as another Borat-esque character, because this character in the film brought in new talents from Cohen.

The plot has it's twists and turns, but it's overall grim story of revenge intertwined with dark comedy makes it mark. Burton's directing style couldn't be more present in this film. My friend popped me the famous question, "Oscar worthy?" My answer? Yes. For set design and cinematography. The grim and gloomy depiction of the film, mixed with the bright red of blood was literally, beautiful. As for acting? I could see it happening, but there's more films to come for Oscar time, so I wouldn't hold my breath on it, but it would be nice to see Depp or Helena Bonham Carter up for one. Carter's role, by the way, was very well done. You grew attached to her in a grissily, sick way, as you did for Depp and the other characters.

"But were there any negatives about the film, you babbling moron?" some of you may ask. And to answer that, not really. The only thing that may not sell this film is the fact that it's a musical. However, the flipside to that is that it's Johnny Depp singing and slicing people's necks (which will make you cringe. I found myself holding my throat, and my friend sitting next to me would also put his head down to cover his. The violence in the film reminded me of the way Japanese portray people getting limbs cut off. For those of you who know what I'm talking about, then... you know what I'm talking about. For those of you who don't, you'll see...), not John Travolta flying into the sky in a car with Olivia Newton John. Big difference. And I know for a fact that Burton and Depp both have a loyal fan base that will show up December 21st to see the film, as well as a lot of people who are involved in theater and plays. I know this because, as I said before, I used to be involved with theater and plays. The one thing that surpised me, and this isn't negative, was that there was more singing than I expected. I thought the singing would be paced like a Disney cartoon, but I was wrong. But I'm not going to complain - I liked getting more than what I expected.

Going back to the violence factor, my friend and I found ourselves looking at each other and smiling when someone was in the barber's chair, knowing what was to come. We were much entertained by it.

When the film finished, the lights came up and everyone in the theater was handed a survey to fill out about the film. They were questions that revolved around what made us want to see the film other than it was free, what did you like best, what did you like least, etc. Then when everyone left, those who were selected to talk at the very end of the screening came down to the front two rows to do so. (When asked if we wanted to do so, they also asked for our ages - I'm assuming this was for statistical purposes) People generally shared their thoughts of the film, pros and cons. One thing that stook out was when the guy who was asking the questions (who looked oddly like Opie from the radio show Opie and Anthony) asked the men if they still would've came had they not known much about the film other than it was a musical, and when he asked the women if they still would've came had they not known much about it other than it was about a guy who slices throats. I found him to be asking racial stereotyping questions, but I figured this had to have been for statistical purposes. After everyone's final thoughts of the film was said, we left and went home, our night not being a bore.

So, my final thoughts? It's your typical Tim Burton film but with some new (and very well done) elements thrown in, one of the elements of course being his frequent collaborator Johnny Depp, who's acting and singing will not dissapoint. The plot is fresh for Hollywood to take in, everyone else in the film is marvelous (I forgot to mention that Alan Rickman never ceases to play a good bad guy), the imagery is just simply beautiful, the music is fantastic, and I'm sure the folks behind the Oscars will give it a good lookover. (I could've just said all those without having to write this novel-esque of a review. But then that would've made it boring now, wouldn't it?)