Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) or, Tim Burton's Bloody Theatrics

10/14/2019

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) or, Tim Burton's Bloody Theatrics

♥

+ Most Overrated Movie of the Year

Crimson and dark colors and Johnny Depp with death-like makeup and hair are the main ingredients on this poster for Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Sweeney Todd returns vindictive to London, where his mistress lost her life to an evil judge, whom Todd now wants to see suffer...!

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is written by John Logan (Rango (2011)), with Christopher Bond handling musical adaptation, based on the same-titled 1979 stage musical by Hugh Wheeler (Meet Me in St. Louis (1989)) and Stephen Sondheim (Follies (1971)), and directed by Californian master filmmaker Tim Burton (Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985)), whose 13th feature it is.
The extremely meager story is clasped around Burton's perhaps most unappealing film: Sweeney Todd spends most of his time either running around a hyper-animated version of 19th century London or in grey, dark, sad rooms.
Johnny Depp (Public Enemies (2009)), Alan Rickman (Quigley Down Under (1990)), Helena Bonham Carter (A Merry War (1997)) and Sacha Baron Cohen (Madagascar (2005)) are propped up with ridiculous hair and costumes while singing forgettable songs. - Except, perhaps, the one on the wretched pies in the beginning of the film, which is at least a bit amusing.
The film is excessively vulgar in its grisliness; it mixes British theatricality with dull characters and songs in an artificial, ghastly design, blended with a couple of androgynous but still boring beauties. It is a dreadful and enigmatically overrated picture.

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Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 50 mil. $
Box office: 152.5 mil. $
= Box office success (returned 3.05 times its cost)
[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street premiered 3 December (New York) and runs 116 minutes. Burton saw the musical on the stage in London several times as a young man and had wanted to make an adaptation for decades. Depp took singing lessons to prepare for the role. Shooting took place in England, including London, from February 2007 - ?. The film opened #5, behind fellow new release National Treasure: Book of Secrets, holdover hits I Am Legend and Alvin and the Chipmunks and another new release, Charlie Wilson's War, to a 9.3 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it left the top 5 in its 2nd week and grossed 52.8 mil. $ (34.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 21.7 mil. $ (14.2 %) and Japan with 19.6 mil. $ (12.9 %). The film was nominated for 3 Oscars: It won for Best Art Direction and lost Best Actor (Depp) to Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood, and Costumes to Elizabeth: The Golden Age. It also won 2/4 Golden Globe nominations, was nominated for 2 BAFTAs, a Grammy and won 2 National Board of Review awards, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to 5 notches higher than this one. It sold in excess of 1.8 mil. copies at the domestic home video market, accruing an additional 38 mil. $, which, if added into the calculation, would change its status to that of a big hit. Burton returned with Alice in Wonderland (2010). Depp returned in SpongeBob SquarePants (2009, TV-series) and physically and theatrically in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009). Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is certified fresh at 85 % with a 7.71/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

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William Friedkin has died

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10/14/2019

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) or, Tim Burton's Bloody Theatrics

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