IGX

This is NOT a fun friendly musical. This is NOT a Christmas movie. The small audience barely made a sound. One chick behind us whined "this is depressing"

Fucking awesome movie/musical. I havent seen the Broadway production so I dont know how faithful the movie is to that but TIm Burton did a great job. Very dark, gloomy, scary, bloody movie. Some humorous places ( no one but us laughed) Depp did a great job and surpinglsy has a pretty good singing voice. Allan Rickman as usual as the bad guy did very well as did Helena Bonham Carter.

Overall great movie but not one for the kiddies. I think it will do well for a week until people hear about what it is really about, then it will die out & go to dvd quickly

Go see it!

"The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" isn't a kid's movie? Huh. I thought murder and cannibalism were hilarious when I was 5.

I think people see Tim Burton and believe that this is going to be a feel good kinda movie. I for one am excited to see it but will probably wait on the DVD. Going to the movies is not all it used to be when I was a kid. I prefer the Mitsubishi, a dark room, and a beer with my movies now.

drwillis wrote:I think people see Tim Burton and believe that this is going to be a feel good kinda movie. I for one am excited to see it but will probably wait on the DVD. Going to the movies is not all it used to be when I was a kid. I prefer the Mitsubishi, a dark room, and a beer with my movies now.

Who expects "feel good" from Tim Burton? There's always twisted scary shit in his movies, god bless him.

Nothing ever like what he has done with this movie. Yeah, the guy has some twisted shit in his movies but nothing that would scare any more than a 5 yr old.

Watched this film adaptation of Sondheim's "musical". I've seen it a few times on stage (the recent Broadway revival) and the original recorded production by the original cast along with some other recorded performances.

In short I love Sondheim's Sweeny Todd. Burton's films are always problematic to me because of his singular sense of style and forever casting of Johnny Depp and his domestic partner in every fucking movie. (Sasha Baron Cohen did a good job, but its hard not to see Borat making a cameo, poor casting.)

Those caveats aside, this would be an excellent introduction to the musical for anyone. It comes in at two hours, which is one less than the musical. Some pieces are discarded and others are shortened. But the cutting was done in a very smart and intelligent way to keep the plot and pacing moving for the typical expectations of a movie goer.

Strangely although the film is bloodier than any stage production I have seen, it comes off more beautiful and less gruesome and grotesque due to the enlarged orchestra and Burton's highly mannered style (a drawback IMO). (Depp does a great job of acting and trying to sing, but when he holds the razors its hard not to think of Edward Sissorhands.)

This is already too long for IGx standards, but I could go on longer.

Good primer for the musical (Sondheim's choral work is some of his most brilliant shit and is completely absent from the movie). Also since this is some of Sondheim's most operatic work, it is also a decent entry point in to 20th century opera. Britton might be something to take in after this. There was a thread a while ago on more contemporary opera and how to get into it.

FWIW.

EDIT: It had me blaring the original cast recording this afternoon while fucking around at home.

I watched five minutes and turned it off. Definitely an acquired taste.