Hmmmmm interesting.

The Good!

Johnny Depp has quite a nice singing voice and one does have to love all the throat slitting and revenge!
Sasha Baron Cohan is bloody excellent, his Italain twang is flawless
The Songs vary in quality but when they hit the high notes they really deliver

The Musings!

Jesus H Christ Tim!! I swear this man lives in some freaky Universe where everything is a shade of dull shitty grey, I get it me you are a non-conformist bravo here let me give you a medal but I needs to see at least some colour or ill go batty!!
Somebody please list me a film where Helena Bonham Carter doesn't look like a crack addict?

The Meh!

The first 20 minutes are to slow and most of Carter's numbers aren't great
WTF is with all the random slaughter???? Yes I know its needed to justify the title but the change in Depps character is way to sudden.

Still thou I did enjoy the film and from a style point of view it deserves praise, plus I'd have this in the BP race over Juno anyday.

Yay, lists!

1. Edward Scissorhands - A+
2. Beetlejuice - A+
3. Batman - A+
4. Batman Returns - A+
5. Pee Wee's Big Adventure - A+
6. Nightmare Before Christmas - A+
7. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - A+
8. Mars Attacks! - A+
9. Ed Wood - A+
10. Sweeney Todd - A
11. Sleepy Hollow - A
12. Big Fish - A-
13. Corpse Bride - B
14. Planet of the Apes - D

Planet of the Apes is actually pretty good..


less than a week to see this.

You're a mad man Snrub. MAD MAN!

Planet of the Apes has some interesting ideas and it's designed beautifully, but it's dragged down by annoying characters, a silly story with a Hollywood ending, and a nonsensical twist. I would've loved to see a non-blockbuster Burton Planet of the Apes.

Top-notch art direction and visuaLs, added with fantastic musicaL and acting performances by Depp and Carter. Sacha "Borat" Cohen stoLe the show though with tight bLue pants. And the gore... sooo freakin' disgusting that it made me giggLe (dunno why) at some of the sLaughter scenes. One of the greatest of Last year.

A-

Why didn't anyone tell me this was a love story soaked in blood?!??

I LOVED Sweeney Todd. I didn't know anything about the story. But I do lile Tim Burton, and I guess you always have to see what johnny depp does for a character. But this movie was beatiful, in look, in execution, in music, and in theme. I have a very weak spot for movies that take on the muderous angle of love. Bram Stoker's Dracule and Natural Born Killers are two of my all time favorite movies because of that. Mr. T has now joined that club.

It had everything I love. I can see why this is not everyone's cup of tea though. But that's ok. It's a gem in my book. So for 2007, I gotta figure out which is my favorite movie: Bourne, No Country, or Sweeny Todd.

A+

Well, I think I really loved it. I've never seen anything quite like this (never seen the play), with the guts to combine the musical with gallons of blood, though I agree it's not only dark but also cold at times. Anyone expecting an emotional response on the level of Edward Scissorhands or Big Fish (which I don't get the hate... must be those Forrest Gump connections ) is kidding themselves, I'll give them that. But I guess that was exactly the point? It's pretty close to that masterpiece status many are saying it is. It ends perfectly. The music numbers are great and the acting even better. I didn't know these actors could sing so good...? Tim Burton's direction might have been more creative in the past, but it's still pratically flawless.


And since everyone is doing it...

1. Edward Scissorhands
2. Big Fish

3. Sweeney Todd
4. Batman Returns
5. Sleepy Hollow
6. Beetlejuice
7. Mars Attacks!
8. Ed Wood
9. Batman
10. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
11. Planet of the Apes
12. Corpse Bride


Need to watch Nightmare and Pee Wee in its entirity

Again, it's not exactly on the level of Edward or even Big Fish, but few movies are. Corpse Bride is a movie I ended up admiring more than truly loving it. And I still think Planet is a really good blockbuster (one of the few I have on DVD!). So yes, I'm a total fan of his.

I didn't hate Big Fish, I enjoyed it a great deal, but it certainly hasn't stayed with me over the years like other Burton films have.

WOW. I was amazed by Sweeney Todd. I've always been a fan of Burton, and I can say this is his best film yet. The story is fantastic, the characters are all very fleshed-out and unique. All the actors do spectacular jobs, especially the little boy, Depp and Bonham Carter. The visual style is stunning and goregous to look at. And the music...absolutely amazing. This is the best musical I've ever seen, with tons of memorable songs (and I had no idea Depp could sing that well!). The film is also quite entertaining despite the dark tone, and the ending is unpredictable and will leave you shocked. It's a pity the Academy only gave this 3 noms, because Sweeney Todd is the best film of 2007, and it has found a place in my Top 20 of all-time.

A+

Yow! Talk about yer damning with faint praise...

Loved it. Give it a B. Tim Burton + Johnny Depp = Great Deeds

Saw this today. I was a bit reluctant to see a musical, but it's a Depp/Carter/Burton movie, so. I knew it should be good. But I didn't think it would be this good! I think I loved the singing the most. Really enjoyed that more than I ever thought I would.

I'm not big on reviews anymore, so... yeah, I just really, really enjoyed it. I've seen some great movies in the last week (No Country, Atonement, Sweeney Todd).

Grade: A (maybe A+...)

Its just pure greatness. Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter were brilliant.

A

Depp was good, nothing extraordinary there. I was impressed with his singing, I expected worse. Bonham Carter was solid too, though her singing wasn't. Alan Rickman was just plain awful during his songs. My favorite song was probably the Johanna one. Overall the movie was mildly entertaining with a story that would have worked much better in a normal movie. C+

B-


Color me disappointed, though I really should have seen this coming. First of all, I need to say that I found myself recently liking musicals more than I had ever thought I would. I love Moulin Rouge and have a great liking for Chicago and Hairspray. Even The Producers had its fun moments. Sweeney Todd, however, failed to engage me. For one, I think the material would have been better off not being a musical. I know, it is based on one, a very popular one. I also think there's a really good story somewhere in there, but it could have been better conveyed if told and not sung.

The acting is decent all around, but I must say that I was a bit disappointed by Depp. He had his moments, but all that he did most of the time was looking pissed off and grim. Helena Bonham Carter to my surprise outdid him by far as far as the acting goes. The only other standout was Sacha Baron Choen's short appearance as Pirelli. He garnered the most laughs in the film obviously. Rickman was somewhat wasted here, though.

The singing was alright. I thought in particular Depp and Cohen did their jobs very well as well as the young boy, Toby. Carter was alright, while Rickman's singing was very iffy. The problem with this film for me was that usually when I have seen a musical, there are a couple of songs that just get stuck in myhead. That usually means the musical has worked well. In Hairspray it was "You can't stop the beat", in Chicago "All that Jazz", in Sinin' in the Rain there are actually several ones that I can still hum after having seen it months ago. n Sweeney Todd, there were no really memorable songs, maybe except for Johanna, but I didn't find it to be great either.

Now to the positives: Tim Burton, obviously once again nailed the look of the film. The art direction is top-notch. Yeah, I see the complaints about this being too one-sided and grim, but it fit the story well and looked simply breathtaking, especially when contrasted to the few brighter scenes (like Mrs Lovett's imagined life with Todd). The costume design was aces as well and I loved the cinematography. So, overall, as far as the technicals go, Burton really perfected his trademark look once again. Moreover, I loved the tragic twist at the end of the movie. I uessed it once the beggar said that she remembered Sweeey from somewhere, but it was still a nice surprise and the tragic ending in the basement really fit the whole film. Too bad that the rest wasn't as good.

6/10 -> C

Dear Tim,
You're not without your faults. But Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street might be your biggest one yet.

First of all why was this a musical?!?! OK, it's a Broadway musical. But Broadway loves its musicals. You can make a shitty Broadway musical about Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz and people would flock to see it. Oh, wait. They actually made that crap. Nevertheless I find that this movie would work much better as a regular movie. The musical angle doesn't really bring anything to make this movie an unforgetable experience.

While there were other musicals that I really thought would work much better in the drama form at least they had a very memorable song or two. This one has nothing. The only song that's stuck in my head is the dreadful I feel you Jonanna... and only because it was sung over and over again. The singing in the movie is OK. Never great, but always tolerable. And when the most important part of the musical, the songs, go wrong - nothing can make the movie good. Not even good to great acting.

I found Johnny Depp to be great. Until I realised that although his eyes and his stiffness really do make Todd creepy and gloomy, that shouldn't be the only way of portraing your character. Though for the most time he wasn't able to do much more than that because he was singing possibly the worst songs I've ever heard in a musical. Helena Bonham Carter surprisingly gave the best performance in the movie. But that could also be because Mrs. Lovett is the best character in the movie easily. All of the other characters, including Mr. T, aren't that multi-dimensional.

Rickman and Spall are OK. Though Rickman brings too much of Snape in his portrayal of Turpin. There was a scene where he pronounced Todd just the same as he pronounces Potter. I was amused at that though. Almost a cameo-like performance from Sacha Baron Cohen was easily one of the finest and most interesting part in the movie. Other actors and actresses did their job OK, but one horrible miscast was made. Jamie Campbell Bower as sailor Anthony should've have never stepped on the set.

The bloodiness of the movie baffles me. The first time he cut a customer's throat was awesome. The blood was spattering everywhere for ten seconds or so and the scene was great. Then it was repeated almost the same just a few moments later. I thought they did it for those who really got into it the first time. But then he was just cutting the throats and the blood was everywhere. It got pretty monotonous.

Visually the movie is great and it's probably the most atmospheric movie of last year. I'll give it props for that. Also when I walked out of the theater I though I was sitting for merely an hour and 20ish minutes. Then I realized it almost two hours had passed. Burton feels the movie and nobody can deny him that.

Storywise, it's never an awesome story. It was an awesome plot, but they turned it into somewhat boring and twisted love story. Though I knew the old beggar was Mr. T's wife when Mrs. Lovett was telling the boy to get her out of the restaurant I loved the final setup of him holding her and his slit throat "crying" over her. It felt like some twisted version of Romeo and Juliet. It actually made the movie for me. It's the sole reason why I would see it again. Also the last dance of Mr. T and Mrs Lovett is great too.

SWEENEY TODD - 6/10 (B-)

Other than a couple of songs or so the music sucked. The song for "Johanna" was one of the most annoying, atrocious songs I can recall hearing in a musical. And even though I love musicals, I think this would have been better if it weren't one. It doesn't translate well to film and the music is just bad. It could have worked better if they translated the story into one using dialogue instead of songs. Maybe one or two songs could have been included, but this film was overstuffed with them and they quickly get sickening.

Johnny Depp gives an overrated performance. He's not very good. Helena Bonham Carter is the best but I think a lot of my liking her so much in the movie had to do with the fact that I like her a lot in general.

The movie gets off to a very rocky start, but gets better as it goes along, which is a good thing because I wasn't liking it at all for a while. Still, even though it improves, it doesn't end up being anything great. Were we supposed to care about any of the characters at all? Because the only one I cared for was Mrs. Lovett. I hated Sweeney, and Johanna and her suitor were annoying. The movie just didn't have a heart (I'll admit to being somewhat touched by one scene involving Mrs. Lovett), IMO, and because of that it left me kind of cold.

Ok, I'm going to raise my SWEENEY TODD rating to a 7/10 (B-). I was torn between a 6/10 (B-) and 7/10 (B-), but originally went with the 6/10 (B-). But now I think I'll go with the 7/10 (B-). I did like it, and after listening to some of the songs from the movie I've realized there were a few more of them that I liked than I originally thought. The movie was flawed, but still pretty good. Helena Bonham Carter makes the movie. I still don't think Depp was very good though.

As for the songs:

In the movie I didn't like "The Worst Pies in London" that much, but I like it on the soundtrack. The same goes for "Poor Thing," which I like quite a bit now. In the movie I enjoyed "Pirelli's Miracle Elixir," "A Little Priest," "God, That's Good," "By the Sea," and "Not While I'm Around." I hated "Johanna," "Green Finch & Linnett Bird," and "Pretty Women."

Instead of Depp or Clooney they should have nominated Hirsch for BA.

The other Sondheim musical that has been made into a popular film (A Little Night Music does not count). The film is extremely well made. Burton directs it ridiculously well, he knows just how far to go with it. Depp is very strong and very deserving of the Oscar nomination. I wasn't as big of a fan of Helena Bonham Carter. She was better here than in Les Miserables. Her singing voice isn't bad, but it is weak and lacks power. The music here is very good, but it is not as nice to listen to on its own as it is as part of the film. I may be in the minority, but the score might be the weakest part of the film. I can only remember Johanna, Not While I'm Around, Worst Pies in London and My Friends off the top of my head by name. There is nothing here as catchy as say "Into the Woods duh-duh duh-duh duh-duh duh-duh duh-duh duh-duh". It is very obvious why this is not a popular pick for high schools like Into the Woods is. I've never actually seen the stage version all the way through, but if it is anywhere near as good as the film is, I'm sure I'd love it.

A