Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet street

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

Do you like singing? Do you like songs sung by people who can't really sing? Do you like singing a lot? I knew it was a musical. You don't really get that impression from trailers except for one little bit of Depp cutting loose in the streets. But Sweeney Todd is almost operatic in the amount of songs sung. And Depp and Bonham aren't that good at singing. Which if you are going to make a musical you kind of need singers. Oops. And don't blame Mr. Burton for Bonham. Stephen Sondheim chose her. yikes.

The story is too long. Once you know he's cutting up the people who sit in his chair, you want Todd to get to the Denoument. There are gallons of blood. It's almost like watching the black knight sketch in Python. The python's bit was funnier. There is one funny song in the middle to alleviate the melancholy, but alas it is gone to swiftly. I also think they used the make-up from Edward Scissorhands.

If you like unrelieved darkness and singing, this could be the film for you.

[scapino]

OK, I thought that some of the, "I feel you Joanna..." went on a bit too long, but I thought Depp and Carter did a fine job. Yes they are both more graduates of the Rex Harrison school of talking melodically rather than the true operatic voice, but that worked for me.
As for the gallons of blood, I thought it gave the film a festive holiday feel. Sweeney gets my vote for the perfect Xmas Movie. Much more enjoyable than endless repetitions of National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

I especially liked the bodies bouncing off the floor into the basement.

[scapino]

I am telling you, the movie is just good Holiday fun for the whole family!
Better than taking the kids to see a late night showing of Hannibal (which actually happened. Some model parents actually brought their three kids, ages about 15 months, 3 and 6, to a 10:30 PM showing. I guess it was a better alternative than reading them some Dr Suess before bed).

[The Queen]

I saw the orginal production, with Angela Lansbury, George Hearn and other actors who could actually sing. I was really looking forward to seeing a film version, this was just awful in comparison. I really, really tried hard to step back and just see it for what it was on its own and not compare it to what I saw on stage... but no, it's still awful. I was grateful that they cut parts of or entire songs or changed lyrics so that I didn't hear them slaughtered and simultaneously pissed off at how much they had to change the story to accomodate the missing plot that was incorporated in the music.

It made me think about the cast of Buffy and how great a job they did at producing a musical episode. None of them had much in the way of voices either, but they did a creditable job at a musical -- because the material was written for their specific and particular abilities. This material was NOT written for these people and they just couldn't pull it off.

This is an opera, not a monster movie. If he wanted to do a classic monster movie with these actors, he should have simply eliminated the singing altogether and done it as a straight story. That might have worked.

Stepping off my soapbox now.

[Drunk Monk]

1. Depp is the king of cartoonish caricature characters, but he CAN'T SING!

2. Carter is the queen of goth, but she CAN'T SING!

3. Snape will always be Snape and Wormtail will always be Wormtail, but they CAN'T SING EITHER!

4. Borat is an incorrigible scene stealer, and can actually sing.

5. The opinions of Greg and TQ should be trusted when it comes to show tunes.

6. scapino is tone deaf.

7. Carter is really hot when she's on fire.

[The Queen]

5. The opinions of Greg and TQ should be trusted when it comes to show tunes.

Well, some show tunes any way. Just don't get him started with Paint Your Wagon.

[Drunk Monk]

Mrs Dm thought the bad singing was part of the satire. She found that part funny (but she still wasn't that into the flick).

I want to see a youtube vid of Helena Bonham Carter in flames. There's this, there's the flue powder in HP, and there's that only scene that was any good in that horrible horrible Frankenstein flick with Deniro and Branaugh...

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

No Name City! Clint Eastwood sings Gold Fever!

I haven't looked, but is there a kick me sign on my back today?

[thatguy]

The rest of this thread ended up in the DVD section (I still think we need to merge these two...):

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I liked this version of Sweeny Todd better....

[youtube]thF1ryaj3dE[/youtube]

[youtube]60Msdg5jamQ[/youtube]

--tg

[Drunk Monk]

So for those of you who saw the show live, was it really that bloody?

[Greg_phpbb3_import1]

We've got to have a swirl of Anarchy somewhere

[Drunk Monk]

Depp was trying to do Bowie. They should just get Bowie to re-do the soundtrack. I mean the lip synching was bad enough as is. How hard would it be to synch Bowie? I couldn't even understand Helena's caterwauling. I had to turn on the subtitles just to understand wtf she was saying. I can understand the latest Tony Jaa flick which was completely in Thai, but I couldn't understand Helena when she wasn't on fire. They could have Siouxsie re-do Helena's part.

[The Queen]

So for those of you who saw the show live, was it really that bloody?

As compared to what? I don't think it was bad - certainly not stomach turning. When throats were cut, a stream of blood would pour down the throats, and when he killed the judge the blood flew across the stage. Personally I think the the judge self-flagellation/whacking off scene and the Lucy's rape were much more uncomfortable to watch than any of the violence. And the factory whistle to punctuate the murders was more startling than the blood.

[El Dingo]

When I saw the 1981 Angela Lansbury production at The Golden Gate Theater the front rows were given paper smocks.

Blood did seem to splatter into the audience but I was a few rows back so can't be sure...