What a perfect, somber, vehicle for Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. They both rock in Sweeney Todd.
In the movie, Johnny is unjustly imprisoned by this nasty judge -- when he's out of the joint all he wants is revenge. Helena helps him out.
Again, the acting is superb, but I didn't really like the songs. The movie is good but could have been much better. I think the plot should have us see more of Johnny's perfect little life before his imprisonment so that we could better taste his revenge. As it is, the movie feels almost gratuitously gory -- revenge for revenge sake. Just my two cents...you should still see the movie.
Without the humor, this is a dreadful rendition of a magical musical. Really, really bad, and I love Sondheim.
Posted by: Jay | Oct 09, 2009 at 12:46 PM
I'm probably the only one who doesn't think they should have sown more of the idyllic life he had before. The stage musical only mentioned it -- just as in the movie -- and Sondheim would have had to write new music just for those scenes. To me, the movie is all about revenge for revenge's sake, glorying our fantasies about what would we do if we could.
It's dark, somber, unpleasant like life on Fleet St. at that time. but some of the music was a bit longwinded. And the cracking skulls and spurting blood gets to you after a while. thankfully, Depp and Bonham-Carter make this worth watching.
Posted by: Greg | Jan 17, 2008 at 06:45 PM
would love to see this movie,but you see the cinemark theatre here (clarksburg West Virginia) will not be showing it. This is the same as dreamgirls,and brokeback mountain. We will just have to wait and watch our movies (Gay content or not) on dvd actually i`ve been reading here and never heard of most of the films showing or shown you have reviewed,hum sounds a bit strange dont you think im not driving 45 minutes to the big citys to see any fuckin moviewhen i have a Cinemark Theatre in my own home town
Posted by: | Jan 16, 2008 at 10:55 AM