Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[StaedlerMars]

This was brilliant.

As I understand it the voices left much to be desired, but since I'm basically tone deaf, this didn't really affect me. There was some amazing imagery. I loved it.

It also moved really quickly, and was a lot easier to follow than the actual musical.

But yeah, basically a Tim Burton love fest.

[SevenPinkerton]

mmm, a Tim Burton love-fest...taken literally that would be so incredibly sexy and disturbing all at once. And probably include a lot of necrophilia.

[captain zoe]

I'd watch it.

[Dimmukane]

Somehow I don't see a Tim Burton love-fest as having a lot of necrophilia.  Maybe some S&M, some old bones as sex toys, but no bodies.  That's not his thing.  There would be a lot of 19th century evening-wear, though.

[captain zoe]

I'd still watch it.

[bryanthelion]

I saw it again yesterday

[PacoSees]

Did anyone else have a huuuuge urge to eat pot pies after seeing this movie?

I'm gonna go see if AmPm has any...

[Trillian]

words...

I suppose I can see where you are coming from, but frankly I don't really agree with what you are saying.  I would say that the recent trends are more likely adopting Tim Burton's work because it suits the overall nature of what they are going for.  To say that Tim Burton is catering to that group of people is just...well wrong.  He has been doing his own thing for so many years, even when he was ridiculed as being too over the top.  He wrote a book of short stories called The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy (some of which can be read here http://homepage.eircom.net/~sebulbac/burton/home.html) and has been making movies since 1990.  I just think that to say he is making decisions based solely off of a certain demographic is silly, especially when all of his work is dripping with morbidity and is almost always macabre.  If his style took a turn toward these things later in his career after that sub-group emerged, then maybe I could see that as being more valid.  I am not "faux-goth" or whatever off-shoot of emo that might wear Jack Skellington merch whenever humanly possible, but I do appreciate Burton's morbid sense of reality.  Not everyone that enjoys Tim Burton's movies are going to be a part of that sub-culture, much like myself, so it is a fallacy to generalize to such an extreme.  Not only this, but his wit and sense of irony often are geared more toward people of a more "average" persuasion.  For example, with Edward Scissorhands.  Tim Burton was (very ironically) ridiculing conformity and pointing out that most of us are very insincere in our acceptance of that which is different. 

Todd is supposed to have a gruff, booming voice, he is supposed to be a somewhat larger man--not fat, but large, imposing. Johnny Depp is the exact opposite of all of that. Hearing him singing "Epiphany" in the trailer made me want to cut off my ears to stop the pain. The whole thing is bullshit, plain and simple.

I have seen several smaller men play Todd, and I don't think that the performance was lacking for it.  If you don't like his voice though, then there is no helping that.  I think my favorite portrayals of Todd have been those that show him as being an imposing man because of the way he carries himself, not because of physical size.  In any written depiction of Sweeney Todd I suppose I never saw a very physically formidable man.  Always a man that impressed everyone with his wit and his abilities as a jack of all trades.  Plus Ben Kingsley played Todd in a non-musical version of the story, and I thought he did quite a wonderful job.  Kingsley is not exactly a big dude, but he IS a fantastic actor.   

As far as Sweeney Todd the motion picture goes, I adored it.  Of course you always will have to take into consideration that the adaptation of a stage production to the screen is going to be a little wonky, but I think that it was executed rather well.  Particularly in this instance, as the music is rather difficult, especially for those that do not do this sort of thing professionally.  I must confess that I did not have very high hopes for Johnny Depp's singing voice, so I was definitely pleasantly surprised.  Plus I could not imagine better actors to work with Burton: Helena Bonham-Carter, Johnny Depp, and Alan Rickman (his speaking voice makes me swoon).  Overall, it is win.  I continue to appreciate Burton's contributions. 

[Liz]

Ah, it's finally coming to Fargo on Friday. I am a happy girl. Also I just got the soundtrack and would like to add that I think Johnny Depp's singing voice is surprisingly good. He'll never star on Broadway, no, but he could sing for me any day.

[captain zoe]

Plus Ben Kingsley played Todd in a non-musical version of the story, and I thought he did quite a wonderful job.  Kingsley is not exactly a big dude, but he IS a fantastic actor.   

Did he really?  On stage or on film?  If it's the latter I really need to check that out. 

[0bsessions]

What the fuck, guys?

This movie, which is getting an aggregate 86% on Rotten Tomatoes, has yet to even break even on production budget.

Given, there are some buts: But it's in relatively limited release, but it's yet to premiere outside the US, but musicals historically do poorly anyway (Sweeney Todd is actually just barely behind Annie in terms of box office gross), etc. It's still rather sad.

[Dimmukane]

I'm gonna go with option three.  The majority of movie-goers in America aren't exactly members of the Leonard Bernstein Fan Club (or in this case Sondheim).  Hell, I'm not seeing the movie, either.

[Trillian]

Plus Ben Kingsley played Todd in a non-musical version of the story, and I thought he did quite a wonderful job.  Kingsley is not exactly a big dude, but he IS a fantastic actor.   

Did he really?  On stage or on film?  If it's the latter I really need to check that out. 

It is a film, so I am sure you can find it somewhere.  And hey, if you have Comcast Digital Cable, it is free on demand right now.   

[Dasota]

I saw this around the week it came out, and my first reaction was "Is this some weird twisted Harry Potter flim in an alternate universe? I was pleasantly surprised by Depp singing abilities at times, mostly when he belted out that line about vengence. Other than that, I didn't really like the movie so much, mostly because Mrs. Lovett's character bothered me for some reason, and I really wanted to see more of Turpin.

Also, Rickman and Depp's duet? <3's for them.

[Liz]

All I could picture while listening to that was Professor Snape dancing around the dungeons of Hogwarts and singing.

[0bsessions]

I saw this around the week it came out, and my first reaction was "Is this some weird twisted Harry Potter flim in an alternate universe?

That was actually the same reaction Rachel and I had when we went to see it. Between Carter, Rickman and Spall, you've got three Harry Potter movie alumni in the film (Lestrange, Snape and Wormtail for those counting). As if that wasn't enough, I downloaded the 2006 BBC adaptation and lo and behold, the dude who played Filch was in it.

[Dasota]

What really made me think that was the fact that I saw OotF and the 3rd Pirates movie the week before, so it seemed like someone took Jack Sparrow, and then the bad guys minions of Harry Potter and made a really weird and messed up cross over fanfic and then filmed it. And I really want to see the version that the guy who plays Filch was in.

[captain zoe]

All I could picture while listening to that was Professor Snape dancing around the dungeons of Hogwarts and singing.

Me too.  I listened to the soundtrack before I saw the movie, and on one track Alan Rickman says "Mister Todd," nearly the same way he always says "Mister Potter," in the HP films.  Too funny. 

[Jimmy the Squid]

This comes out in Australia fairly soon (like within a month?) I'm seeing it.

[Ishotdanieljohnston]

Well it just came out in Australia, I just saw it, thought it was pretty great.

[Ladybug]

I just got back from the cinema, having watched this movie (yes, we get certain movies laaaate), and I just had to put down somewhere that I thought it was absolutely amazing, even though I don't really have much else to say. I didn't really know what to expect, except that I knew it would be morbid, because, honestly, I'm not familiar with the story from earlier - but I sat there grinning almost constantly.

Just fucking awesome.

[ImRonBurgundy?]

I saw a rather brilliant production of this play at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, in which the cast was pared down to the ten main characters, and instead of a pit orchestra, each actor had an instrument (or in some cases, multiple instruments) upon which they played the music for each song.  There were no set changes, and so working with these limitations, the production relied very heavily upon symbolism and creative staging, which brought the focus square upon not the set, or the production design, or any sort of grandiose spectacle, but squarely upon the words and the music, which, in a musical so rich with beautiful compositions and clever wordplay, is exactly where it belongs.

Later that night, while at a friend's house, I happened to catch a few minutes of Tim Burton's adaptation, and--let me preface this by saying that I am not the biggest fan of Mr. Burton's work anyway--it was terrible.  After seeing such a spot-on production, to watch it dashed upon the rocks of big-budget Hollywood convention and Tim Burton's own hackneyed stylistic conventions (everything is grey and dirty!  Everyone is pale and their hair is long and stringy for no discernable reason!) was extremely offputting.  I didn't see much of the movie, but what I did see--such as Helena Bonham Carter making it extremely obvious that there's only one reason she got the female lead, and Johnny Depp more or less rehashing his Captain Jack Sparrow routine, as far as facial and vocal cues went--made me not want to watch the rest.

Although my sister now owns it on DVD, so I'll probably have to at some point during the summer.

[Jimmy the Squid]

I quite liked the film actually. It was quite obviously a Burton film and a pretty Burton cast as well but all in all it was pretty enjoyable. I was a little disappointed with Depp's accent, it's obviously the only British accent he can pull off but again it was enjoyable. You have to keep in mind though that I've loved all of Burton's films even if they are mostly the same. It wasn't high art, it wasn't cinematographically amazing and sure the singing wasn't upto Broadway standards but what did you honestly expect from a Burton film?

[KvP]

I saw a rather brilliant production of this play at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, in which the cast was pared down to the ten main characters, and instead of a pit orchestra, each actor had an instrument (or in some cases, multiple instruments) upon which they played the music for each song.  There were no set changes, and so working with these limitations, the production relied very heavily upon symbolism and creative staging, which brought the focus square upon not the set, or the production design, or any sort of grandiose spectacle, but squarely upon the words and the music, which, in a musical so rich with beautiful compositions and clever wordplay, is exactly where it belongs.

I haven't seen Sweeney Todd onstage, but this was the interpretation that was put on during the Tonys telecast I saw back when the play was revived (I'm not gay I swear) and it was pretty impressive. Sort of highlighted how odd Johnny Depp's casting was (usually Todd is a hefty bass-baritone) but then like you say, with Burton you're either grotesquely thin or grotesquely fat, and it doesn't do to have a fat hero. Most theater geeks I know hated Depp in the role. He really does hang on those Ns, doesn't he?

[Aminal]

I saw it last night, and I'm really glad I didn't read this thread before I did.  I'm very impressionable.

First off: To the people who think Johnny Depp just reprised his Jack Sparrow accent and body language...  I don't know how else to say it besides "No he didn't?"  Maybe you haven't seen Pirates recently.  His Todd voice had less growl, less swing to it, as did his body language.  He kept his shoulders taut, but not hunched, and his movements were just different.  They were cutting.  I think he did a good job, if you're saying that his British accents weren't different enough for your liking that's fine.  I mean, they're both British and that's good enough for me.  (B is for British, that's good enough for meeeee...)

I hate Sondheim, I guess.  I didn't like Into the Woods, and I didn't really like this music either.  It wasn't bad, but it was too "I'm going to cram as many words as I can into a phrase because writing dialogue is somehow cheating."

I like the story.  I mean, I saw the big Surprise coming from the first time "Mad Hettie"* approached Anthony outside the Judge's house (I'm trying not to spoil it for people who haven't seen it yet) but I still enjoyed the rest of the story.  I do prefer a happy ending, but again, isn't the ending we got a classic Sondheim one?  Man, I do not feel like I am expressing much of this properly.  Please bear with me, I'm just hesitant commenting on musical things in general. 

I kept forgetting to dislike Alan Rickman!  God help me, he could probably dropkick a baby and I'd still like him.  As long as it wasn't my baby.  I just love his voice.  I liked everyone!  I even had sympathy for Mrs. Lovett, yet I still was glad to see her go.  I thought all the actors did well, and Johanna and Anthony made the best they could with what they were given.  I also don't blame Johanna for her shitty singing voice.  Did you see her nose?  Does she even have nostrils?  Bitch can't breathe.

Man I sure did spend an hour reading the true story.  Thanks a lot OP.

*Didn't she remind you of Mad Hettie from Sandman?

[bryanthelion]

Watching it again for the third time, it lost its luster.

[LucyStag]

A lot of this movie was amazing, but holy shit the ending.  Movies do not tend to make me feel sick and slightly faint and dizzy EVER. This one did.

I don't know if I'll be watching it again.