Sweeney Todd (2006)

Sadly Over-hyped

Powerful

Just perfect...

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Sweeney Todd is one of those horror stories so rich in possible variations that there's no really definitive version--even the Sondheim musical has been done in many styles and all of them memorable in their own ways. This one succeeds where many other Hammer homages has failed, by not only imitating the look and quotient of violence and low-cut gowns of classic Hammer but by taking the source material and running with it in a completely different direction than the ones you're expecting. Like the best of Hammer it's gripping, ingenious, very adult and leaves you with a queasy awareness of the world's nastiness.

As a fan of Essie Davis I was curious when I watched the movie. and I have to admit that it was a wonderful discovery. The story is really great and the actors really good. The story focuses on a psychological aspect and it was disturbing to see Todd so remorseful. It changes from all the killers who seems cold like an ice. even if I hate murders we are captivated through the whole story, help by the love story.The two characters are great. Even if their fate is sealed, they are so convicted and we somehow wished for something we know won't happened. even though, we are caught by their personality. They are just human with their goodness and their blemish.It has really violent passage but never unnecessary : they just add some reality to the plot. The murders and the gruesome is inevitable.The soundtrack was really great even if i can't find it anywhere but nonetheless, it was a perfect match to the period. It has really creaped me out sometimes but some music were very beautiful.And as I already said, the story is blessed by two wonderful actors. I already liked Davis but she really amazed me, as did Ray Winstone. I have never been bored and I even with the god review that I had read, I didn't expected to enjoy it so much. Though I'm not fond of horror and bloody movies.So give it a try and don't think of the musical by Burton. just enjoy the story by it own. I think you won't regret it.

This is nowhere close to the spectacle and splendour of the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp horror musical, but it is certainly a good regular, British adaptation. It is pretty much the same story in Burton's version, except he isn't grieving over a dead wife (there's a twist to that in Burton's version), no victims are made into meat pies, and the lead character kills himself in the end instead of someone killing him. Basically Sweeney Todd (Ray Winstone) is your normal everyday surgeon and barber, and having flashes of a horrible childhood past he suddenly starts murdering his male customers. In amongst the slaughter he has a love for pie maker Mrs. Nellie Lovett (Essie Davis), who is okay not too long after finding out Todd's dark secret, and this certainly shows when she is not bothered about the state of her deteriorating face. Eventually he gets to the point where he was bound to be caught, and he is arrested by Sir John Fielding (David Warner), and sentenced to hanging. In the final sequence however, he gives himself a final shave, and then slices. Also starring Harry Potter's David Bradley as Todd's father, Paul Currier as Thornhill, Tom Hardy as Matthew Payne, Jessica Hooker as Polly and Ben Walker as Tobias. Winstone is pretty good, but obviously not more than Depp, the violence obviously is not as graphic and over-the-top as Burton's, but quite fun to watch. Good!

Sweeney Todd is set in London during the early 19th Century where a man named Sweeney Todd (Ray Winstone) runs a barber shop in Fleet Street, one night a jailer (Roger Frost) from Newgate Prison pays for a shave. The jailer reminds Todd of his childhood he spent in Newgate where he was abused by the jailers & in a moment of rage slits the jailers throat. After giving a woman named Nellie Lovett (Essie Davis) an abortion Todd falls for her & buy's her a shop from which she sells meat pies, Todd suddenly hits on the idea of slitting his customers throats, cutting them up & giving the meat to Lovett to turn into pies which quickly become very popular...This English production was directed by David Moore & was almost certainly made to cash-in on the then forthcoming Tim Burton musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) with Johnny Depp, some say the character of Sweeney Todd was based on a real person but I don't think there is any hard evidence that he was. The script by Joshua St. Johnston plays it straight as a grim drama rather than an over-the-top musical or horror, as one might guess a lot of this films duration is spent trying to get inside the mind of Todd & develop a real character who had real motivations & feelings. Despite this there's not much reason behind his killing, sure the first victim reminded him of his unhappy childhood but thereafter it's not quite so clear cut. The main focus is on the relationship between Todd & Lovett, it's fairly deep & the character's are well fleshed out but Todd's throat slitting activities were of more interest to me so I sort of lost interest in the film as a whole as it decided to concentrate on personal angst & drama. This is not a bad adaptation at all, it moves along at a decent pace, it's well written & tells a good story but it never really grabbed me.Made for British telly I was surprised to learn that Sweeney Todd was shot in Bucharest in Romania, I mean it was set in London & made by a London based company with British money so why film in Romania? Then again I suppose modern day London looks nothing like it did back in the 19th Century, maybe Romania is a closer match. This is quite gory for a TV production, there's a few gory slit throats, a rotted corpse, sliced up body parts, a severed hand, a tongue severing, a stabbing plus an operation to remove a gall stone & one to remove a bullet. I was disappointed with the way this looked, it just looked flat & cheap especially if you have seen Tim Burton's wonderful visuals on his recent version.Technically this is alright, I must admit the production design didn't impress me that much & it felt a bit cheap. The acting was fine, Winstone was an interesting choice to play Todd & puts in a restrained performance while it was nice to see David Warner in a small role.Sweeney Todd is a slightly above adaptation of the often told tale of the demon barber of Fleet Street, it's not bad for what it is but it's hardly life changing & I doubt I will remember anything about it in a week.