Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

The tasty meat of Burton’s previous films ground to a pulp and flavored with visual spices, which unfortunately lacks the sharpness and surprise of Tim's best films. In the middle of the first a monotonous musical, in the middle of the second finally a captivating portrait of a monster, which, in a liter of blood, sees for a moment a reflection of what it used to be. Excellent Depp and Carter. But for Burton, the film has very little content under the sharpened form. Disappointment of the year, I have no doubt. [7/10] (08/02/2008)

Depp is not a flawless singer, the almost incessant barrage of songs is a bit of a shame and the eternal depression may be a bit too desired, but still a weight has been lifted off my chest. Burton took on a huge challenge that could have caught him off guard many times - to navigate through it with great bravura. And that's despite working with very unambiguous characters like a vengeful barber or a wicked judge. The master of charming oddities has decided to discard issues of accessibility and lets blood splatter, razors fly, and characters die in slums. And the increasingly tragic taste of it leaves feelings so enjoyable and stirring that I would push Tim towards another art immediately. Because handling it with the heart like this is something only a few can do. (24/02/2008)

Cruel and sadistic, which is why it will appeal to the era of today. It's just that sometimes I don't fit into the era of today, so I guess that's why I wasn't as impressed with Sweeney as I thought I’d be. And I was looking forward to it so much. I was expecting something different, which is fine, my ideas are always "romantic". I guess what disappointed me the most was that the story was so readable, his actions so predictable. Such a pity. But even my favorite actors and their performances didn't can’t make me give more stars... Sometimes love is cruel, but why prove it with a razor and forget it? (21/03/2008)

After a second viewing, I have to stick with three stars. Sweeney Todd simply lacks heart and its witty ending doesn’t salvage it in this sense. The violence is cold and hateful, lacking Burton’s narrative poetics (like in Sleepy Hollow, for example). Todd’s decision to become a serial killer is unjustified and doesn’t make sense. And I don’t think that the singing Johnny Depp was a good choice for the title role. The other actors, however, were superbly cast and the set designs and music are great. (30/01/2008)

"Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd, his skin was pale and his eye was odd..."... thus begins the stage version of Sweeney. However, like many other songs, you won’t hear this one because it was cut from the movie. Which wouldn’t have mattered. But what Tim Burton gets up to really does matter. You couldn’t even call this copying your own ideas. But you either have to grin and bear it, or join in with his game. In terms of acting, no objections, but in terms of singing, I have a couple. I certainly wouldn’t say that Depp can’t sing (the only one I could claim that about is maybe that tragically ridiculous Spall). He proved on a few occasions that he can handle that discipline too. But the problem is that the role of the close-shaving barber is considered in musical circles to be the most difficult of all. And it can be painfully visible in the result, like it or not. Sometimes it shows a lot. Especially if you have ever seen a professional production of Sweeney. The tragedy of this character lies in the fact that he stands at the beginning of the autumn of his life. Unfortunately, the “whippersnapper" Depp can’t act this convincingly. And that applies to the entire cast, in fact. With the exception of Helena Bonham Carter and some supporting roles. Thanks to insensitive cutting, at the beginning it is a little disjointed, about nothing and almost boring. A change in the wind in favor of quality starts around the song Epiphany about half way through. Then the final twenty minutes drag the musical Burton back into the waters of solid above-average. Only just, but he’s there. (08/02/2008)