Welcome to the club, we have membership badges.

Where do i register to get one? I was really hoping this would bring me my first A+ of the year, but i left with the same old B feeling as with No Country, American Gangster, and Gone Baby Gone as well...

Already in the mail to you.

SWEET!!!

I think I could have gone with every character knowing each other so intimately if I had seen the play version, but here I felt like all the connections were Haggis-like. But if you can forgive the film for being thoroughly implausible in most every aspect of the story, there is a whole lot to savor here. The music in particular really struck me as being quite good, though only the kid really impressed me with his singing. Johnny Depp didn't impress me, but Helena Bonham Carter was quite good. Very enjoyable overall, but like so many other Burton films, it lacks depth. I will say that critiquing the film for being "cold" seems quite silly with the subject matter in mind.

I meant "cold" in terms of any sort of connection to it. A movie can be dark and gloomy and still not be "cold" in that respect.

This movie is flat out bad.

The repetitive old school songs are barely distinguishable from one another, let alone memorable. The simplistic revenge story line held no surprises nor emotional draw. Even Burton's hallmark exemplary dark style in make-up, lighting, and set design is getting shopworn from overuse.

El stinko filmo.

1 out of 5.

I expected the much ballyhooed violence to be creative rather than repetitive.

I expected the songs to be good. Or at the very least I expected there to be one good song.

I expected to care about the character of Sweeney Todd and his revenge wish.

I expected that if Burton was going to steal the fast forward shot through the streets of the city from Moulin Rouge!, that at least he would do it well.

I expected more than this most simplistic of storylines.

I expected to see at least a variation on the goth look Burton has already used in so many of his films.

I expected that a musical resurrected from all the way back in the 70's might be, you know, worthwhile. This crap even starts to make Andrew Lloyd Webber look good.

I expected to be at least slightly entertained, not bored to tears.

I expected to see a second great musical this year. I'm a huge musical fanboy, and film musicals have easily leapt onto my top ten lists in previous years (qv: musicals from my years' top ten lists: Moulin Rouge!, Chicago, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Rent, Mulan, Beauty and the Beast, Les Triplettes de Belleville, Dreamgirls (actually only #11 on my 2006 list), Walk Hard, Hairspray. )

I expected Sweeney Todd to be a good movie.

I can see how one can fall in love with this movie and also how one can be totally indifferent. I was in the latter for a while, but the film began to pick up as it reached its tragic endgame. The music is excellent, but the actual songs our almost undone by the fact that the lyrics come so fast and muddled, leaving me a little lost at times. However, the set design is far and away the best I've seen this year, so it's a film where I can live with being more style than substance. I do want to see it again, if not in theaters (Mainly because there's so much more to see this time of year it's best to save my money).

***/****

This was kinda great.

A

The little boy, for me, stole every scene he was in. His voice was beautiful, especially for someone so young (I'm guessing 13/14? Although I could be entirely off). He had the best voice in the movie, I'd say. Helena Bonham Carter wasn't bad, either, although he voice sounded a little thin in comparison to the orchestra. I didn't really like Johnny Depp's voice at all. It worked for the character, I suppose, but in general, I wasn't much of a fan. Didn't expect to like it as much as I did -- and it gets even better on a second viewing. One of my favorite of the year.

Well, it's not out over here until January 25th, and there aren't any torrents online, so it looks like I'll never get to review this here, being as I'm leaving and all... I'll miss this section of the site... *strokes wall*

You guys... *sniffle*... keep on arguing, ya hear?

Too bad it wasn't as great as The Great Debaters.

Why the hell is there STILL no torrent online for this anywhere?

It's good though, then you see it on the big screen instead and can appreciate it more. They are doing you a favor.

Don't get me wrong, I plan on seeing it at least 3 or 4 times on the big screen as well (about on par for a new Burton film)... I'm just an impatient sod.

I wanted to love this. I really did. Alas, I only liked it. It has a lot of good in it (the acting, most of the musical numbers), but I still felt that something was missing from it. I can't quite place my finger on it, but whatever it is, it causes you to watch the movie and, once it ends, simply say "that was pretty decent" and then forget it. Also, I have never seen the musical and knew nothing about it other than the basic plot going into this movie, but I saw the ending coming a mile away and it kind of soured the movie a little for me. Seriously, a twist ending? I suppose it was partly due to me sort of wanting Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett have some kind of warped happy ending (BTW: the "By the Sea" sequence is great). I probably need to rewatch this at some point, but right now I'm giving it a B.

Also, to anyone that saw the musical on stage,

The kills are not elaborate on stage. A sudden red spotlight generally indicates a throat has been slit.

I'm wondering if a real problem has been that people are expecting something epic when they walk in, spoiled by Tim Burton's last few years spent making 150 million dollar would-be epics for the blockbuster crowd. This is a small, weird, straightforward story about a maniac.

yoshue and I talked a lot about this the night I saw it. I've cooled down on my hatred of the last third a little since I've seen it.

I really, really, really loved part 1 and part 2 and Carter and Spall, but was just really let down by the resolution. Not the fact that it had a MacBeth type ending, yeah that was obvious, just in the final meet up between Sweeney and his daughter, and the way the songs fell a bit flat in the last half hour and how I would have really loved to see (in such a fantasy filled film) a final meet up between Johanna, the sailor and the kid.

To borrow one of yoshue's brother's thoughts (that I agree with) Depp goes from being a likeable anti-hero to just plain unlikeable and there's nobody to fill the void of the hero/anti-hero because they didn't really do enough in the second half to build up the sailor/Johanna/kid story to what it needed to be (the shining light for the future at the end of this bloodfest).

Everything after the song between the kid and the Carter (which is like the best part of the film in my opinion) just doesn't seem to work right for me. Perhaps this is true to the play and a fault of the play, but I have no reference.

I usually don't grade, but would give this a B+.

So is there some director or actor secretly selling off screeners to internet nerds or something? Always wondered about that.

According to David Poland, the screeners went out on Friday. Shouldn't they be up by now? SHOULDN'T THEY?!!

twas pretty good.

Damning with faint praise, much?

I'm with andaroo...I was really with the film until the 3rd act, when it slit is own throat (pun intended). Up until that point it was taking its grand old time getting to the next plot point, and then suddenlly all hell breaks loose and characters start turning on each other for no viable reason. It all gets so haphazard & confused - unlike the other B-graders I was connected w/ the film and then everything I thought I knew about the characters & the story shifted rather drastically. The resolution also felt half-assed since the subplot gets left out in the cold.

Johnny Depp broods and squints his eyes a lot. He does it well, but it gets a tad tiresome after 2 hours. Bonham Carter shows the most depth in acting, even though, curiously enough, for a main character I didn't really understand who she was & what drove her. Her singing is good, but not quite on the same level w/ the other actors (particularly the little boy - who was awesome - during their duet). Cohen, complete with his Princess Leia buns, really brought his A game to this one - I think their Shave-Off was the best scene of the film. I wish someone would have knocked the old beggar woman down the stairs though, DAMN was she annoying.

Like others I did enjoy the By the Sea scene, largely due to the cinematography. It really felt out of place with the rest of the movie, probably would've fit more in Across the Universe. And Sondheim's songs, well, I wish I could've understood half of them. I really found a lot if it nearly incomprehensible. The directing is decidedly Burtonesque, which isn't exactly surpising - I would like to see him switch it up a bit at some point in his career. It's nice that we know what we're getting going into a film of his, but come on man do something totally out of left field. Or maybe color inside the lines for once.

In any case I give it a B overall.