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Film Gecko

Sweeney Todd: Review & Trailer

by Jane Boursaw on April 18th, 2008

DVD: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street: 2-Disc Collector’s Edition	On DVD:	April 1, 2008
Runtime: 116 minutes	In Theaters:	Dec. 21, 2007
MPAA Rating: R for graphic bloody violence	Gecko Rating:
Buy It on Amazon.com	Official Site

You know, there are some movies that should never be transferred from Broadway to the big screen. Sweeney Todd is one of them. This opinion won’t make me popular with the folks who give out the Golden Globes, since it won for Best Picture and Best Actor, among other awards.

Directed by Tim Burton, it tells the story of Benjamin Barker (Johnny Depp), a barber on London’s Fleet Street whose wife and daughter were stolen away by Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman), who sent Barker away for many years of imprisonment.

But now Barker is returning to London — this time with the name of Sweeney Todd — and he’s out for revenge. He seeks out his old barber shop and finds that it’s now Mrs. Lovett’s Meat Pie Shop, where Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter) makes “the worst pies in London.”

More after the jump, including a trailer…

Todd aims to kill the judge, but to get some practice in, he starts killing his customers, slicing their throats and sending them down to the basement, where Mrs. Lovett grinds them into food. Wouldn’t want to waste all that good meat now, would we?

It’s a crazy plan that inches Todd closer to Turpin, but things get off track when Todd realizes that his now-grown daughter Johanna (Jayne Wisener) is caught up in the romance of a young sailor (Jamie Campbell Bower), who helped Todd get back to London.

It’s a grisly tale — way too grisly for anyone the least bit faint of heart — and although the actors have lovely voices, I got a little bored with the singing. Much of the story is told via songs, and while that might work on Broadway, it just doesn’t work in a movie. At least, not this movie.

And I kept thinking that the trio of Depp, Carter and Burton need to branch out a bit. I know they’re known for making dark, macabre movies and all, but I’m just bored with it, quite frankly.

There’s also something weird with the sound on this DVD. It’s really loud during the songs, but soft during the talking. I kept having to mess with the volume all the way through the movie.

DVD EXTRAS: Behind the Scenes, featuring footage from rehearsals, recording sessions and more; The Real History of The Demon Barber; Musical Mayhem: Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd; Sweeney’s London, The Making of Sweeney Todd; Grand Guignol: A Theatrical Tradition; Designs for a Demon Barber; A Bloody Business; Moviefone Unscripted with Tim Burton and Johnny Depp.

Theatrical Trailer: