Sweeney Todd

[Maulrus]

Any other Sondheim fans going out to see it? It looks amazing. I'm just sad because nobody in my area is showing it for a while.

[Mr. Mud]

I might go see it soon. Not a Sondheim fan though. Don't dislike Sondheim though... just... haven't seen most of his work.

[Daze]

I think Depp is excellently cast for this, should be interesting to see him singing.

[Maulrus]

Yeah, he was a good choice.

Sacha Baron Cohen will be an excellent Pirelli.

[Daze]

Tim Burton has the tendency to be a bit hard boiled and overdone... but for this, I think he might do a good job. So long as he keeps "himself" from taking over..umm himself. ;)

[DomaDoma]

Oh, yes. I am anticipating this like you wouldn't believe. It makes me sad that they took out the chorus numbers, but I suppose it had to be done. The opening and closing numbers in particular only work on stage. Sniff.

Toby as a child is a casting decision I haven't seen before, but I think they may really have hit on something there.

George Hearn will always be the One True Sweeney, but Depp will be all right, methinks.

[Maulrus]

George Hearn? Why not Len Cariou?

[The Extinguisher]

I'm looking forward to this. It's well casted, and I must admit, even Helena Bonham Carter sounds good.

Though my biggest complaints are that they took the joking out of A Little Priest, and that Cohen doesn't really have the body shape for the line "what a nice plump frame..." though I suppose that's been a problem since the beginning.

[Seraph]

I suppose it looks okay, but my days of working next to a hot topic makes me hate the Tim Burton subculture so very much. I doubt I could stand going into the theater.

[DomaDoma]

George Hearn has a gloriously rich voice, and - frankly - emotes more when he sings. Len Cariou might be the original, but he's not the best.

[Keris]

I've been hideously looking forwards to this for some time now, even to the extent of taking a day of work to go and see it. I mean, it's a musical about a serial killer! Starring Johnny Depp!

[Swordguy]

Saw the midnight showing - just got back.

It's great. The chorus numbers are taken out, and Turpin lost his solo. Other than that, it's a pretty darn faithful adaptation. I can't honestly find much wrong with it.

3.75/4.

[Maulrus]

Yeah, I caught an afternoon showing today. It was amazing. They took out the bits that actually showed the love between Johanna and Anthony, but I'm okay with that (though I do like Kiss Me). Depp was very good, Helena Bonham Carter was a great Mrs. Lovett, and the kid who played Toby was good. I loved the desaturated filming. I'm glad they took out the choral pieces, because I can't imagine they'd work off-stage. The end was considerably more depressing than in the show, though.

My problem was that Depp was on the verge of a pop-star kind of voice at several points. Also, I thought that the guy who played Anthony was a woman. He is very effeminate.

9.5/10

[Vella_Malachite]

I so want to see that!! It hasn't come out for us, but I so want to see it!!

"These are the worst pies in London...."

[Premsyl]

Having never seen the original production, I enjoyed every minute. So many of my favorite names in Hollywood in a dark R-rated musical was quite a treat.

[Pensive Pine]

I saw it the other day (took the man with me, but he didn't appreciate it), and I thought it was okay, but really, Sweeney isn't my favorite musical to begin with. Still, I thought everyone was awesome at the characters they played, if not the best at singing (I'm looking at *you,* Helena "I got outsung by a ten-year-old" Bonham Carter).
I don't know why Timothy Spall singing surprised me, because I've seen him in Topsy Turvy where he does a lot of singing. And there was something about the camera angle that just seemed to emphasize his nose...

[The Extinguisher]

Pensive, to be fair, the kid who plays Tobias is a singer, as apposed to Carter, who is an actor.

[JadedDM]

I work at a movie theater, and people kept asking for refunds on it. It turns out, the general populace had no idea it was a musical...they thought it was just a really gothic horror flick.

[DomaDoma]

I can see why people who'd never seen the stage musical wondered about the point of Anthony and Johanna, because their foil-ness wasn't emphasized, the edge was taken off the ultimate madness of Sweeney, and obviously, they didn't appear for the final curtain call. Johanna's voice was much, much nicer than it was in the George Hearn version I saw on Netflix, though.

Apparently, they played Mrs. Lovett as a tragic figure. This works surprisingly well. Still not as good as Angela Lansbury's rendition, but she is getting on a bit, and it isn't as though there are any "Angela Lansbury, but younger" types waiting in the wings.

Yes, child!Toby was every bit the stroke of genius I thought it would be.

This would sum up to make it a very good adaptation, but for one thing: LAY OFF THE SPURTAGE, BURTON. CHRIST. I mean, I loved Braveheart, and Pan's Labyrinth, and even Peter Jackson's King Kong, but the gore and arterial spray in this movie is just a tad much. If you want to know what throat-slitting should look like on the big screen, I refer you to the first example I gave of a tastefully gory movie.

[Swordguy]

I can see why people who'd never seen the stage musical wondered about the point of Anthony and Johanna, because their foil-ness wasn't emphasized, the edge was taken off the ultimate madness of Sweeney, and obviously, they didn't appear for the final curtain call. Johanna's voice was much, much nicer than it was in the George Hearn version I saw on Netflix, though.

Apparently, they played Mrs. Lovett as a tragic figure. This works surprisingly well. Still not as good as Angela Lansbury's rendition, but she is getting on a bit, and it isn't as though there are any "Angela Lansbury, but younger" types waiting in the wings.

Yes, child!Toby was every bit the stroke of genius I thought it would be.

This would sum up to make it a very good adaptation, but for one thing: LAY OFF THE SPURTAGE, BURTON. CHRIST. I mean, I loved Braveheart, and Pan's Labyrinth, and even Peter Jackson's King Kong, but the gore and arterial spray in this movie is just a tad much. If you want to know what throat-slitting should look like on the big screen, I refer you to the first example I gave of a tastefully gory movie.

Burton had an NPR interview where he pointed out why he did that. Basically, he said, if you're going to be entertained by murder, you're going to have to watch what it looks like. And a severed throat does, in fact, spurt.

[Maulrus]

The spurtage was a nice, grisly touch, I thought, but it was WAY overdone in some places.

Helena Bonham Carter: a good Lovett, an okay singer, but no Angela Lansbury.

I work at a movie theater, and people kept asking for refunds on it. It turns out, the general populace had no idea it was a musical...they thought it was just a really gothic horror flick.

Yeah, I was expecting that. Some of the people in my school went to see it, expecting Saw, but afterwards they're like, "WTF, it was Mary Poppins with some blood." I laughed.

Aaaaaaand then there's the matter of By The Sea. That's always been my least favorite song in the show, and I loved what he did with it. It was a lot more interesting than it could have been in a theater.