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Last updated: November 20, 2009, 9:10 pm

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street [Blu-ray] Customer reviews:

Average Rating: 4.0 Total Reviews: 391

(Mary Jorgensen, 2009-10-24) I had heard a great deal about how frightening this movie was. I guess the concept is a bit scary, but in this day and age, it's not nearly as scary as a madman with nuclear weapons, or people walking into shopping centers or classrooms with automatic weapons. I know that the play was a musical, but it would have been a great deal more frightening if the characters hadn't burst into song periodically. On the plus side, this proves that Tim Burton can sing.

(John McClung, 2009-10-20) Tim Burton has directed some scary movies before, such as Sleepy Hollow and Corpse Bride (both starring Johnny Depp), but his adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's award-winning musical Sweeney Todd is by far the most violent, morbid, and disturbing thing he has ever done. Johnny Depp plays the title character, the 'Demon Barber of Fleet Street', who only becomes a murderous mad-man after life has been 'unkind' to him. The first several songs in the movie explain in detail how a man named Benjamin Barker became Sweeney Todd. Benjamin Barker was a simple London barber with a beautiful wife and new-born daughter who would never dream of bringing harm to anyone. But soon the jealous and villainous Judge Turpin takes it all away from him. First he places a false charge on Barker and has him deported, and then makes the young girl his own, leaving her mother to become a beggar on the streets. Barker learns of his wife and daughter's fate when he returns to London 15 years later, with the new identity Sweeney Todd, upon meeting a woman named Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter). Mrs. Lovett is a lovely but lonely woman struggling to run a meat-pie restaurant amidst the city's poverty, who happens to be an admirer of Benjamin Barker. Sweeney Todd vows his revenge and Mrs. Lovett vows to help him. Together they begin to run a business where Todd slits the throats of men who come to get a shave, while Lovett grinds these men's dead bodies into meat pies to be served to the unsuspecting public. This systematic murder and cannibalism will obviously repel many people from wanting to see the movie, but the rest of us can appreciate it for the beautiful music and strong message it contains. Not all of the songs are about revenge and murder; some are actually quite pleasant. Also, there is a love story subplot between Todd's daughter and his young friend. The New York Times proclaimed the film as "A work of extreme genius" and it won the Golden Globe Award for Best Picture - Musical or Comedy. Johnny Depp also won the Golden Globe for Best Actor and was nominated for Best Actor at the Academy Awards. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is a superb film for adults who can handle it and appreciate it and therefore I highly recommend it. It is a movie you will understand and enjoy more each time you watch it.

(MarlowesMom, 2009-10-05) Hard to say whether this would have seemed better had I not seen it in such close proximity to the touring production of John Doyle's drop-dead-amazing, even-better-than-the-Angela Lansbury-version revival. Sweeney Todd is a Sondheim show, near operatic. Sondheim shows require hard-core singers. Johnny Depp is not a bad singer. He'd be an acceptable front man for any number of today's alt-rock bands. Helena Bonham-Carter tries gamely. Sadly, they lack the technique and gravitas to put the material over as it should be done, and as you know it can be done if you are lucky enough to have seen Judy Kaye on stage as Mrs. Lovett. And how can you have Sweeney Todd without "The Ballad of Sweeney Todd"? I understand they did not want "show stopper" songs that work on stage to slow the narrative drive of a film, but they could have at least played it over the credits. A disappointment given the talent involved and the quality of the source material. I did use Helena Bonham-Carter's look as the inspiration for my Halloween costume last year.

(Nir Shalev, 2009-10-03) Tim Burton is a visionary genius, there's no doubt about that and he prefers to showcase his vibrant imagination through practical special effects, rather than CGI. He's a rare director that prefers powerful performances and atmosphere over style and with Sweeney Todd, this is his grandest gesture yet. Benjamin Barker is a barber who has a beautiful wife and daughter but is naive. The most powerful judge in all of London city is jealous of barker's life and decides to incriminate him on a false charge. Locked away for 15 years, Barker returns to London with a grim look on his face like that of a ghost and a white streak in his dark hair, here Tim Burton channels The Bride of Frankenstein. Barker calls himself Sweeney Todd and secretly opens another barbershop exactly where he used to live. He overhears that his wife had killed herself and that his daughter had become the judge's ward and grows homicidal with rage. He begins his bloody, murderous mission of developing a popularity, being an expert barber he is now the best barber on Fleet Street, and he slits many throats on the road to having the judge in his chair. Johnny Depp was rightfully nominated for an Oscar because his performance is frighteningly ferocious and he pulls off the Buster Keaton "Great Stone Face" effectively. Tim Burton's use of blood is similar to that of the blood seen in his previous masterpiece "Sleepy Hollow (1999)", a slightly faded orangey red and the violence is gruesome in an appropriate Grande Guignol manner. This is a great musical written by Stephen Sondheim, being famous mostly for West Side Story (1961). Tim Burton's traditional (as in old-school) direction and cinematography, and a creepy atmosphere are developed expertly throughout this gruesome and intriguing tale of revenge. This is Burton's greatest masterpiece since Ed Wood (1995) and it stand alongside "Sleepy Hollow" as a visually grande retelling of classic tales of the creepy and awesome. - Nir S.

(Cassandra Reeder, 2009-09-23) This is one of my favorite movies of all times. Johnny's voice is spectacular. If you're a fan of Tim Burton or Johnny Depp, and definitely if you're a fan of both, this movie is for you!!!

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