Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Pros: fascinating, fun, dark musical; cast; music; presentation

Cons: well, I don't eat meat of any kind or like the sight of blood...

The Bottom Line: I'm going to go watch this movie again! On DVD...

Review: NOTE - Dr. Freudine is a fictitious psychiatrist and my alter ego who sometimes helps me to review books, movies and music. Last time she had fun with the book Legs Diamond. **************** No sooner does Dr. Defiance storm out of my office than my ...

Pros: outstanding cast, vocals, arresting visuals

Cons: so... much... blood...

The Bottom Line: Gruesome. Grotesque. Gory. And grand.

Review: Ever since my brother Nathan decided he was a theatre enthusiast, he's been introducing us to some rather unusual fare. One of the shows he's been gushed about the most is Steven Sondheim's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. When I ...

Pros: Acting, direction, adaptation from stage play to film

Cons: Brace yourself for lots of blood

The Bottom Line: Tim Burton's movie of the stage play does it justice, and even tightens up the plot a bit. The movie is well-acted by Depp, Bonham-Carter, and Rickman.

Review: Ingredient #1: a barber, falsely imprisoned by a corrupt judge who subsequently raped the barber’s wife and kidnapped his baby daughter. The barber arrives back in London fifteen years later to find his wife poisoned by her own hand and his ...

Pros: Lively and funny, dark and dreadful, and always hits the right note.

Cons: None.

The Bottom Line: This movie adaptation has been 25 years in the making. See why it was worth the wait.

Review: Sweeney Todd (2007) Directed by Tim Burton. Narrator: This is the tale of an ordinary man, who had everything…. Mrs. Lovett : Barker, his name was. Benjamin Barker. Narrator : Until a man of power stole his freedom, ...

Pros: The singing, plot, sets, the make-up and costumes were right on the money!

Cons: Warning…this movie ain’t for everyone!

The Bottom Line: A musical horror film, with the great Johnny Depp on lead? How can you go wrong?! Tim Burton and Depp get a standing ovation from me!

Review: What a beautiful, horribly grotesque film. I so wish I would have seen this one at the theatre. For months my husband has been anticipating the arrival of Sweeney Todd and when we didn’t make it to see it on the big screen , he was counting down the ...

Pros: Excellent acting, pretty good singing, stayed true to the stage play, visually stimulating.

Cons: Blood didn't look real, may be too intense/gross for some.

The Bottom Line: A vengeful barber with a straight edge, a meat pie bakery below, a bloody good movie.

Review: I don’t go to the movies very often. Only about once a year. The cost of the ticket annoys me, the cost of popcorn angers me, and sounds of people yapping, coughing, and crunching thru the whole movie and forgetting to turn their cell phones off ...

Pros: Excellent performances from a non-singing cast and oodles of black humour

Cons: Not a lot - perhaps the little urchin gets a shade too much screen time...

The Bottom Line: Orrible melodramatic fun in Old London Town

Review: After years of disappointing dabbles with big-budget productions – most obviously Planet of the Apes, but let's not forget quite large parts of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Mars Attacks! - director Tim Burton has gone back to his roots. ...

Pros: Tight scripting; beautifully rendered acting and singing

Cons: Cons? Er, a vengeful barber whose corpses are turned into meat pies? You tell me

The Bottom Line: Full-bodied moviemaking, and a terrific musical

Review: I came to Sweeney Todd with a clean slate, as it were. I'd never seen any of the previous stage or screen versions, and I'm generally adverse to the archly ironic style of Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim. All of that said, I was thoroughly ...

Pros: Lots of good special features, actors, music, beautiful tragic story.

Cons: Not for everyone.

The Bottom Line: Sondheim's musical masterpiece is transformed to become Tim Burton's masterpiece! A fantastic tragedy musical with some beautiful songs from a talented cast.

Review: NOTE: This review is for the 2-Disk Special Edition DVD of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. I first saw Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street in December 2007 when it was in theaters. I didn't know what to expect, but I really ...

Pros: The actors. The visuals. The absurdity of the plot. Everything.

Cons: Way too disturbing for some, what with the serial killing, cannibalism, etc.

The Bottom Line: Burton showing us in his uber-Gothic way that happy endings and safe plotlines aren't what all blockbusters are made of.

Review: I’m about the farthest thing from Mr. Musical. Just about any time people start singing in movies, I immediately begin the process of shutting down and tuning out. And that’s what makes it strange that I’d find Tim Burton’s Sweeney ...