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Movie Overview
Cast
• Johnny Depp
• Helena Bonham-Carter
• Alan Rickman
Director
• Tim Burton
MPAA Rating
R - for graphic bloody violence
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)

REVIEWS
NEWS
INTERVIEWS
OTHER
OFCS Rating: 79% Fresh
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5/5
"As the perfect marriage of maker and material, this dark, disturbing splatter-etta stands as the best film of 2007."  PopMatters  Bill Gibron

"Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, and Helena Bonham-Carter have made so many films together that they're starting to resemble each other."  Beyond Hollywood  Brian Holcomb

B
"Either audiences will lap up the exaggerated Grand Guignol theatrics with a nervous smile or they'll cower in their seats hoping to switch their tickets to the next available showing of Enchanted."  DVDTalk.com  Brian Orndorf

B
"Outstanding singing performances from its gifted ensemble cast contrast unfavorably with Burton’s trademark affinity for a monochromatic color scheme of white, blue, brown and gray."  ColeSmithey.com  Cole Smithey

"In Toby's story, even more than in Sweeney Todd's, the film observes the evolution of vengeance as ethos, the ways it can come to look like justice, a means to escape "living hells.""  Nitrate Online  Cynthia Fuchs

82/100
"The brooding gothic romanticism of the source material plays right into Burton's cinematic wheelhouse."  Apollo Guide  Dan Jardine

5/5
"Pairing his Burton's whimsy with Stephen Sondheim's witty lyrics and lilting melodies makes for a combination as engrossing as it is unlikely."  eFilmCritic.com  Dan Lybarger

A
"Burton delivers a less comic, more appealing Sweeney Todd in this Johnny Depp tour-de-force. Frankly, it's bloody great."  EDGE Boston  David Foucher

C+
"Isn't cannibalism and the slitting of throats a hoot!"  Ozus' World Movie Reviews  Dennis Schwartz

3.5/4
"It is rare for a film to achieve a feeling of unequivocal, breathtaking transcendence, but Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street does just that."  TheMovieBoy.com  Dustin Putman

A
"If there were a cinematic version of a harmonic convergence, it would look something like "Sweeney Todd.""  FilmJerk.com  Edward Havens

2/5
"Un musical soporífero y sangriento que parecía ideal para la macabra imaginación de Tim Burton, pero que resulta una verdadera decepción."  Uruguay Total  Enrique Buchichio

A
"A fantastically haunting tale, a nightmare musical ... that's gripping from the first minor chord on the organ to the bloody, inevitable resolution."  EricDSnider.com  Eric D. Snider

2.5/4
"Should have been a standing triple for Burton to hit off the wall instead of hitting it head-on until the guignol nature became less than grand."  eFilmCritic.com  Erik Childress

B+
"The sub-par singing detracts from the film, as it must. Then again, the whole point is that Tim Burton is smart enough not to make Sweeney Todd about the songs."  Film Blather  Eugene Novikov

A-
"Bloody good, a lusciously Grand Guignol excercise that's true to the composer's original vision but spectacularly cinematic as well."  One Guy's Opinion  Frank Swietek

4/4
"The imagery, music, and intoxicating blend of vengeance and madness%u2014with just a smidgen of Priest; you'll see, if you don't already know%u2014will linger long after you leave the theater."  Film and Felt  Gabe Leibowitz

A-
"What a terribly impolite Christmas movie."  Cinepinion  Henry Stewart

2.5/4
"In the end, the real problem with the Demon Barber of Fleet Street is that he's not as bloody fun as he should be."  ReelViews  James Berardinelli

3.5/5
"It may be too much for some, but for those who can appreciate the tastefully tasteless, it’s a feverish jolt to the senses to see such beautiful music and pathos paired with such horrid images."  Q Network Film Desk  James Kendrick

2/4
"Revenge is a dish best served cold, exactly how I was left after watching Helena Bonham Carter butcher a cheeky star turn in Tim Burton's cutthroat musical."  Palo Alto Weekly  Jeanne Aufmuth

8/10
"It's as if Stephen Sondheim's musical was meant to be a Tim Burton movie all along."  Window to the Movies  Jeffrey Chen

7/10
"While certainly not for all viewers, and even if it takes a bit to gain viewer engagement and traction, the film turns out to be, pardon the obligatory pun, fairly bloody fun."  Screen It!  Jim Judy

6/10
"Two hours of singing is going to bore the pants off of gore-starved viewers, and the last-reel gore is going to scare the pants of the foofy Broadway types. And that means a theatre full of people without pants."  Planet Sick-Boy  Jon Popick

3.5/5
"H panemorfi apeikonisi toy heiroteroy Londinoy tis istorias toy ap' ton Tim Burton, ap' to ena mati mpainei ki ap' to allo bgainei, prosferontas mpoliki ikanopoiisi tin ora poy ksediplonetai, alla elahista na pareis mazi soy ekso ap' tin aithoysa."  Movies for the Masses  Joseph Proimakis

4.5/5
"Musical-haters don't have to endure glorious kicklines (Hairspray) and opera lovers can focus on the leads' close-ups. If someone sees the movie and then goes to see a stage production, the enormity of this play will blow their brains open."  Cinerina  Karina Montgomery

3.5/4.0
"Murder, music, and monsters happily drenched in blood."  MovieCrypt.com  Kevin A. Ranson

A
"Here comes a Christmas musical that is not trying to warm the heart as much as rip it out while it's still beating. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is bloody perfect."  Reeling Reviews  Laura Clifford

3.5/4
"Tim Burton's grand guignol fantasy transforms Stephen Sondheim's 1979 musical-theater piece into a cheerfully gothic morality tale."  TV Guide's Movie Guide  Maitland McDonagh

2/4
"The material, a Gothic yarn of bloody revenge, seems specially suited for the macabre hand of Tim Burton, but alas, such is not the case."  Mark Reviews Movies  Mark Dujsik

7/10
"This version glories in the gory. Depp's singing limitations rob the character of Sweeney of his all-important contagious savage fury."  rec.arts.movies.reviews  Mark R. Leeper

"[A]ll operatic gruesomeness and cobblestones-and-fog moodiness, [this] is perfect. One of the most perfect movies ever, maybe, and sure to be pointed to for forever as the way to do a movie musical right."  Flick Filosopher  MaryAnn Johanson

3/5
"Sweeney Todd is exactly the musical Burton fans have wished him to make. It's a bloody mess of vengeance and lost love, full of throat-slitting mayhem."  Bronsonfive  Michael Ferraro

B+
"Working with Johnny Depp, his favorite leading man, and Helena Bonham-Carter, his off- and on-screen muse, Burton creates a vast world of Victorian gothic menace that ideally sets off Stephen Sondheim's grimly intricate lyrics."  Beliefnet  Nell Minow

B
"The perfect marriage of artist and material."  Lessons of Darkness  Nick Schager

4/5
"Resume perfeitamente as principais qualidades e os maiores defeitos de Tim Burton."  Cinema em Cena  Pablo Villaca

4.5/5
"[W]e haven't seen this much hemoglobin in a Johnny Depp film since the infamous blood geyser in A Nightmare on Elm Street."  Film Threat  Pete Vonder Haar

4/5
" Burton's work here is strong and self-assured and never allows the lavish production design to dominate the storytelling."  eFilmCritic.com  Peter Sobczynski

5/5
"This black cauldron of a film, with its spider-blood visual scheme, may be the purest example of imagemaking the movies have given us in far too long."  eFilmCritic.com  Rob Gonsalves

B+
"The most accomplished almost-remake of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari since the passing of the silent era."  Projection Booth  Rob Humanick

B
"It may not be Burton's best film, or his most innovative, but it always stays faithful to his uniquely haunted soul."  Flipside Movie Emporium  Rob Vaux

C
"Similar to watching a movie about cattle being killed and cut up at a slaughter house, but more entertaining."  Laramie Movie Scope  Robert Roten

"Another bizarre and beautiful excursion courtesy of one of Hollywood's most creative minds."  Movie Views  Ryan Cracknell

4.5/5
"It's awash in grimly gorgeous sights, mercilessly dark humor, oddly amusing tunes, and all sorts of strange goings-on ... Burton and Depp strike gothic gold once again."  FEARnet  Scott Weinberg

3.5/5
"for all its unmistakable faults, it casts such a complete spell that I'm chomping at the bit to see it again"  Filmcritic.com  Sean O'Connell

"This Sweeney Todd is all subtext and no substance. It starts off large and swaggering but doesn't know where to turn next: Burton seems fixated on serving up an event, to the extent that he neglects to dig into the story."  Salon.com  Stephanie Zacharek

10/10
"A cynical, chill-inducing, blood-splattering cinematic operetta! Forget about your preconceptions - and relish one of the 10 Best Movies of 2007."  www.susangranger.com  Susan Granger

8/10
"It has vision to spare, which is rare enough in the modern cinema, and it was made by a director clearly in love with his material, which is rarer. It is not the definitive version of the musical, but maybe we don't need a definitive version."  Antagony & Ecstasy  Tim Brayton

4/4
"Burton has made some great pictures--Sweeney Todd is the culmination of them."  Film Freak Central  Walter Chaw

2/4
"Tim Burton takes his trademarks and destroys one of theater's great musicals."  Oscar Guy  Wesley Lovell
OFCS Rating: 79% Fresh
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