Sweeney Todd

[ET]

I really liked this movie. Then I realized that I was enjoying watching Johnny Depp sing. He was in 21 Jump Street. I think that makes me a homo now. :(

[YoungRemy]

true, sir, true...

[ms.peachy]

I really can't wait to see that.

[YoungRemy]

all the philistines at the screening in Texas walked out ten minutes into it because there was "singing"

:rolleyes:

as I was saying in another thread, its too bad Danny Elfman didn't participate in this, but Sondheim's haunting score stayed intact

[Nygel]

i wonder how much post production had to be done to his voice to make it sound half decent.

I person call fail on the movie but thats due to my personal hate of anything Tim Burton OR Johnny Depp, and since Burton only has two friends (his wife and depp) they were obviously the main two. also, the blood looked like shit, like authentic stage shitty, when it got upgraded from theater to ...movie theater, they should have upgraded the gore.

also sacha cohen stole it.

[AceFace]

i can't wait to see this movie, for pretty much the opposite reasons as nygel. i heart burton and depp. but mostly, our local theatre did this show last year and it was really cool. i'm excited to see it in movie from.

i'm glad to hear YoungRemy say that the creepy sondheim score stayed in tact. the music of this show REALLY makes it.

[abcdefz]

Yeah, I don't get it. I don't like musicals as a form, and I could probably count on one hand nthe number of musicals I've honestly enjoyed.
But this made me curious, so I listened to some of the CD. The music sounded pretty shapeless, and the singing was mediocre at best and
bloody awful at worst. But I still figured I'd give it a try, so I dipped into the theater for a bit while I was waiting for another movie to start.
I watched some sort of courtship scene -- a girl singing about wishing she could sing, while some boy was drooling at her from the
street, etc. It was just... bad.

I don't get it.

[AceFace]

i don't know about the movie, but the play is pretty disjointed and cryptic. it's supposed to throw you off on every account and make you feel uncomfortable the whole time you're watching it. it makes the ending that much more freaky.

it's DEF a weird show. but that's why i liked it.

[YoungRemy]

it creeped me out indeed. I was only familiar with a few of the songs, but the whole meat pie plot gave me and my family goosebumps. my dad asked if there would be alot of blood and I told him to remember how in Little Shop of Horrors they chopped people up.

this was no Little Shop of Horrors...

the boy who played Tobias Ragg was amazing, the ending left an open window a la Friday the 13th for the next generation...

I had never known the mythology behind Sweeney Todd. it was an old tale passed down in many forms... the characters have been altered and updated by many writers

[ScarySquirrel]

I don't see how this version can possibly compare to anything with Angela Landsbury in it... but I think I'm going to eventually see it anyway.

I mean, come on though, ANGELA LANDSBURY! She was in 'Murder She Wrote'! You can't top that!

[Documad]

I don't see how this version can possibly compare to anything with Angela Landsbury in it
In all honesty, I was afraid that it wouldn't be as good without Angela. But Helena Bonham Carter was terrific. I quite liked the movie. It has some of the problems inherent in all movie musicals and I wasn't a fan of the sappy sailor kid, but I liked it overall. I'm glad I saw it in a real theater too.

[afronaut]

I got really angry with this film, as evidenced by my own thread about this movie.

Tim Burton has just stopped having an imagination. I mean, it certainly looks like a Burton film. Like, every single other Burton film ever fucking made. The only difference is, this one wasn't magical, or imaginative, and it didn't transport you to some weird alien expressionism-land full of imagination like his older, good movies did. His visual sense has become a crutch, especially since he's stopped being an imaginative filmmaker and started pandering to the Hot Topic crowd.

And Helena Bonham Carter, is it just me, or does she too play the exact same character in every Burton movie? Down to the hairdo and clothes. Does this stuff just not bother other people? Are people ok with just seeing the same movie over and over again with the same characters and the same backdrops? Are my standards just too high? Have I been spoiled by watching too much good cinema, or whats the fucking deal here?

And let me tell you something else, Murnau and Wiene are spinning in their fucking graves right now. Burton has pretty much ruined that once unique visual sense for any future filmmaker. And I mean, these guys made films that looked better and creepier than Burton's over 80 years ago. Are you telling me that Burton is incapable of outdoing these guys? At least visually? I mean, they weren't even able to work with sound, these were silent movies. With all this new technology today, Burton can't outdo some silent films? All this fancy CGI technology, and all he's able to do is make really cheesy shitty looking opening credits that would have looked like shit back in 95? Fucking dogshit. Anger! Fuck!

And don't get me started on the fucking story. It may have worked on Broadway, but it's obvious something really important has to be missing in this adaptation. Any suspense is just completely sapped by the limp performances and clumsy story. That had to be the shittiest climax I have ever seen. I don't know who's responsible, Burton, Wheeler, or Sondheim (the songs were bland as well,) but somebody fucked up.

If this movie is any evidence, the commies have stopped sapping our precious bodily fluids through fluoridation and have started sapping our precious imaginations through Hollywood.

See full list of complaints here: http://www.beastieboys.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=84918

[Documad]

I don't see every Tim Burton film. I only saw a few scenes from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory because to me Gene Wilder is the man and I didn't want to see a remake AT ALL. In Sweeney Todd, it did bother me a few times when Johnny Depp cocked his head and reminded me of Edward Scissorhands, but those were fleeting thoughts. I don't see every Johnny Depp movie either, but I have seen a lot of Helena Bonham Carter movies. Not the Tim Burton ones though. I see all the English ones. I didn't see the Planet of the Apes movie because it seems pointless to make a serious remake of a movie that is only remembered for its very cheesiness. I rented Big Fish but I only saw about 10 minutes of it and then I decided to return it for something else. I knew Jessica Lange was going to be in it and that's a big strike against any movie.

Anyhow, I guess I haven't seen Helena Bonham Carter in other Tim Burton movies. I was glad that she could sing (and certainly better than Depp).

I liked the general look of the movie but I wish it wasn't quite so gray--especially in the indoor scenes. The black circle makeup was a bit distracting, but again only because it reminded me of Edward Scissorhands. I liked that it looked recognizable as London.

Sondheim's musicals are always a bit difficult to take. My friends who love broadway musicals don't like his musicals. I like Sweeney Todd better than most, but I am rarely willing to pay full price to see any broadway musical and I think that they're difficult to adapt to the screen. Movies like Chicago do it more successfully because they basically throw out the staging and turn the plot on its head and make something pretty different from the original. It worked for Chicago (even though I prefer the broadway version and definitely prefer the broadway soundtrack with Bebe Neuwirth) but it failed miserably for Dreamgirls.

I think that I'm cutting Sweeney Todd a lot of slack because it's the kind of movie that wouldn't have been made at all if Johnny Depp hadn't been willing to be in it. That's not something that makes me recommend it to others or want to give it a bunch of awards or buy it on DVD. But I had a nice night out.

[g-mile7]

i dont think ive heard enought of what afronaut has 2 say on the subject i hope he postes again

[afronaut]

If it gave you a good night out, it's done it's job, for you at least. There were just so many things preventing it from having any positive impact on me though. I went it expecting to see a pretty cool movie, Johnny Depp playing a singing serial killer who cuts hair? That can't be too bad. I didn't go in already expecting it to suck. I was hoping for Burton to pull it off. I didn't hate Chocolate Factory, though it, along with Corpse Bride, revealed a trend towards artistic limp-dickedness. I was hoping Burton to pull himself away from that trend with this movie, instead of simply confirmed what his other recent movies suggested.

Everything about it seemed far too drab to be any real fun. But the fact that it was a musical and certainly attempted to have comic elements, which stopped it from being truly sinister. I mean, it's a musical about a serial killer. It should be fucking fun, right? Instead, you know how it kept on showing Depps face, and he always had that same lifeless expression? That expression sums up this movie perfectly for me. Just, drab. Lifeless. Sweeney never seemed to express any true torment, he just sulked a lot and killed people. So, it firmly establishes Sweeney as an unhappy person, but doesn't go far enough to establish any true emotional core to the character. His backstory was depressing enough. The movie just didn't make me give a shit about him. The scene where he finally gets his revenge should have been fucking cathartic. Instead, it didn't seem any different from any of the other killings.

I suppose that could have been an attempt at some kind of message, as the true climax happens a few minutes later. His revenge was completely anti-climatic and no-one really gained anything from it; if treated right, that could have been somewhat thought provoking. Instead, just like his expression, it just added to the drabness of the movie. As for the real climax, I already kinda figured out it was going to end like that, and didn't have any real effect on me. Just some more blood.

The blood was alright, I thought. It was gory enough without being too realistic. The blood was fun. And thats what the movie should have been: bloody, but fun.

But thats just the effect it had on me. If you enjoyed it, well I suppose you win, because you certainly had a better time than I.

[afronaut]

i dont think ive heard enought of what afronaut has 2 say on the subject i hope he postes again

Well how about you add some of your insights to the film? You're obviously an incredibly intelligent person with excellent grammar skills. It's not like the majority of your posts are spent hitting on internet women or anything. Please, if you have any thoughts, articulate them, because you're so good at articulating yourself.

[g-mile7]

aw cum on man im jus ROFLing wit u not at u

[afronaut]

aw cum on man im jus ROFLing wit u not at u
ROFL my ass.

But seriously, I am very long-winded and pretentious sounding. No harm meant.

[g-mile7]

ive always liked u man :( remember thos rhymes i wrote 4 u? no hard feelinz?

[afronaut]

Friends forever.