PLOT SYNOPSIS: Sweeney Todd (Johnny Depp) goes for revenge against the judge (Alan Rickman) who framed him (and took away Todd's daughter) and goes mad in the process as a mad muderous barber.

ANALYSIS: SWEENEY TODD continues the tradition of Gothic Fantasy that director Tim burton has used to great effect in EDWARD SCISSORHANDS, SLEEPY HOLLOW, and the two BATMAN films he diretced. SWEENEY TODD is a hit and miss picture. It may be visually beautiful with some dark humor moments and great acting all around, but some of the music leaves me cold. Then I will get to the script and characters in a moment. Also the amount of blood used was pure overkill. The film isn't on the same level as the musicals I loved in 2007 such as ACROSS THE UNIVERSE and ONCE.

Sacha Baron Cohen sometimes feels like he is channeling Borat for the conman barber he plays here. The ending also is very sudden. I wanted to see a better resolution to Johanna and Toby. Also I felt little emotional connection to the characters. It is like going through one tragedy after another, and see bad things happen to people by bad people. SWEENEY TODD is a downer. Perhaps Tim Burton feel too much in love with focusing on Depp as Todd (who probably won't be joing any barbershop quartets anytime soon) that a little just got mangled in the process. I think Tim should have told John Logan to rewrite the script a little bit before hTim directed this visually fantastic mess.

this movie review is (c)1-29-2008 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission. send all comments to lord_pragmagtic@hotmail.com  


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