Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
Average Rating: 7.7/10
Reviews Counted: 221
Fresh: 190 | Rotten: 31
Full of pith and Grand Guignol grossness, this macabre musical is perfectly helmed and highly entertaining. Tim Burton masterfully stages the musical in a way that will make you think he has done this many times before.
Average Rating: 7.4/10
Critic Reviews: 46
Fresh: 40 | Rotten: 6
Full of pith and Grand Guignol grossness, this macabre musical is perfectly helmed and highly entertaining. Tim Burton masterfully stages the musical in a way that will make you think he has done this many times before.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.9/5
User Ratings: 1,646,138
Movie Info
Stephen Sondheim's award-winning musical thriller comes to the big screen in this adaptation directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Sacha Baron Cohen, Timothy Spall, and Alan Rickman. Embittered at having been wrongly imprisoned and determined to seek vengeance against his accusers due to the grim fate that befell his wife and daughter while he was incarcerated, ex-convict Sweeny Todd (Depp) returns to his hometown and opens a modest barber shop. The one thing
Watch It Now
Cast
-
Johnny Depp
Sweeney Todd -
Helena Bonham Carter
Mrs. Nellie Lovett -
Alan Rickman
Judge Turpin -
Timothy Spall
Beadle Bamford -
Sacha Baron Cohen
Adolfo Pirelli -
Jamie Campbell Bower
Anthony Hope -
Edward Sanders
Toby -
Laura Michelle Kelly
Beggar Woman -
Jayne Wisener
Johanna -
ADVERTISEMENT
All Critics (221) | Top Critics (46) | Fresh (190) | Rotten (31) | DVD (32)
This is grand-scale studio-work at its most beguiling.
Top CriticA considerable achievement even if, on balance, it's more of a Tim Burton phantasmagoria than a Sondheim fantasia.
As unsettling as it is riveting. Even Sondheim aficionados will see the story with fresh eyes, unless those eyes are covered.
The movie may substitute Grand Guignol for laughs at times, but it's spectacularly stylized -- each throat-slashing exceptional -- persuasively sung, and imaginatively adapted for the screen.
It's as if Burton was born to direct it.
A thoughtful, sincere and moving film, buttressed by a fine, central performance by an actor at the top of his form.
This magnificently realized musical from Stephen Sondheim contains the right blend of emotional pathos, stunning visuals and accessible songs.
It's gross but will it gross? Burton and Depp's cannibal musical is an especially acquired taste - Oliver! reimagined by Eli Roth. Brave, brutal... ballads?
Looks incredible, like a moving painting, but it's absolutely mediocre...
Sweeney Todd may just be that rare musical with broad appeal to audiences who might normally say they don't care for the genre.
Elevates a rollicking gorefest into a dark work of art
This is a remarkable piece of work for people who like their genres all mashed together in a meat grinder.
Sweeney Todd is a throat-slasher of a motion picture. It creates a new genre -- the slasher musical. Adapted from the Tony-winning Broadway musical by Stephen Sondheim, it's the tuneful tale of cutthroat's revenge.
Filming a major Broadway musical has always been trouble for moviemakers; none of them seem to work.
[Burton's] vision of a dark and smoggy nineteenth century London, with muted colors, is perfect for the music and the story.
One of the best movies of his career.
Depp's staggering performance perfectly merges the story's humour, horror and romance into a serious punch to the gut.
Burton was born to film this strange and spooky chamber piece.
The film suffers from a relentless emphasis on bland, thoroughly forgettable musical numbers whose sameness inevitably lends the proceedings a distinctly oppressive quality.
Depp does about as well as anyone other than Len Cariou could with his one-note character. Bonham-Carter gives Mrs. Lovett a game stab, but she suffers from all that freaky makeup and lacks the voice of an Angela Lansbury.
In all honesty, neither Depp nor Carter possess stage-quality voices. Instead, both muster emotional performances that sell the parts without selling the music.
It is grand guignol with music that will bewitch the uninitiated -- and probably outrage those who know and love the score, especially when it's sung decently.
Audience Reviews for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
-
- Anthony Hope: Mr. Todd you have to help me! Mr. Todd, please!
- Sweeney Todd: Out.
- Anthony Hope: Mr. Todd!
- Sweeney Todd: OUT!!
- Sweeney Todd: No I had him! His throat was bare beneath my hand. No I had him! His throat was there and now he'll never come again
- Mrs. Nellie Lovett: Easy now, hush love hush I keep telling you - Whats your rush?
- Sweeney Todd: When? Why do I wait? You told me to wait - Now he'll never come again. There's a hole in the world like a great black pit And it's filled with people who are filled with shit! And the vermin of the world inhabit it. But not for long... They all deserve to die. Tell you why, Mrs. Lovett, tell you why. Because in all of the whole human race Mrs. Lovett, there are two kinds of men and only two There's the one staying put in his proper place And the one with his foot in the other one's face Look at me, Mrs Lovett, look at you.
-
- Sweeney Todd: And though I'll think of you, I guess, until the day I die, I think I miss you less and less as every day goes by.
-
- Sweeney Todd: I'll come again when you have judge on the menu.
-
- Sweeney Todd: There was a barber and his wife, and she was beautiful. A foolish barber and his wife. She was his reason and his life, and she was beautiful. And she was virtuous. And he was...
-
- Judge Turpin: Was he guilty?
- Beadle Bamford: Well, if he didn't do it, he's surely done something to warrant a hanging.
- Judge Turpin: What man has not?
-
- Beggar Woman: How would you like a little muff dear? A little jig jig? A little bounce around the bush? Wouldn't you like to push me parsley? It looks to me dear that you have plenty there to push.
Discussion Forum
| Topic | Last Post | Replies |
|---|---|---|
| What do you think of the singing? | 2 months ago | 1 |
What's Hot On RT
Pictures from a zombie nation
Woody Allen in San Francisco
See the Desolation of Smaug trailer!
Where does This Is the End rank?
Latest News on Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
August 3, 2012:
Five Favorite Films with Timothy SpallOne of the busiest and most recognizable British character actors in movies, Timothy Spall cuts a...
February 3, 2010:
Five Facts About Alice in WonderlandOver the past 20 years, director Tim Burton and his chiseled muse Johnny Depp have proved an...
February 4, 2009:
Exclusive: Inside Pinewood/Shepperton - A Photo TourEvery year, the BAFTA film awards present a trophy for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema....
Fresh Links
Featured
Movie: ID: 770672301 Title: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street Release Date: 2007-12-21 00:00:00.0 MPAA: 4 Status: 1
The Looks of Johnny Depp
To celebrate the star's birthday, BuzzSugar looks at the many faces of Johnny Depp.
10 Egregious Product Placements
Rolling Stone wonders if The Internship goes too far... then provides 10 examples of movies that did.
Horror Movie Mistakes
Moviefone offers up 8 of the most obvious glaring errors in popular fright flicks.
10 Bad Movies That Look Great
Sometimes even terrible movies can be beautiful; here are 10 of them, from HitFix.
50 Most Classic Movie Moms
In celebration of Mother's Day, TimeOut offers up 50 iconic matriarchs from the big screen.
Promos
Follow RT on Twitter!
Spice up your feed with hourly Tomatometer updates!
Featured on RT
- In Pictures: Zombie Nation! 0
- Video Interviews with Cast & Crew of Monsters University 0
- Digital Multiplex: 21 & Over, Quartet, and More 1
- RT on DVD & Blu-Ray: Jack the Giant Slayer and Quartet 23
- Box Office Guru Wrapup: Man of Steel Sets June Record 101
- Weekly Ketchup: Man of Steel Sequel In the Works 198
- Five Favorite Films with Joss Whedon 128
Top Headlines
Foreign Titles
- Sweeney Todd - Der teuflische Barbier aus der Fleet Street (DE)
- Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (UK)
