Friday, January 18, 2008

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

OK, I've not posted anything of my own for some time, so I hope you're interested to hear my humble opinion of Sweeney Todd. It's intensely tempting to gush and say IT'S GREAT! OMG! GO SEE IT! YOU HAVE TO SEE IT!!!... it's what I'm bursting to tell you. Let's see if I can come up with an actual review.

I haven't been in a theater for years. There hasn't been anything that looked interesting enough for me to spend $15 on seeing. Seeing once. (Plus popcorn and soda etc.) $15 can buy a DVD. So I usually wait. But this was worth it.

Previews are a pain. Snake things burrowing under people's flesh and crawling around is hardly my sort of movie. And I misread the title... It was The Ruins. Not The Runs.

A fog rolling in with the credits was nicely meshed with the opening scene. The first song was average. But Johnny Depp's rendering of it was intriguing. (A few moments later, there's an amusing lyric) The effects were marvelous. London in all it's cold, gritty indifference to Todd. Also to Mrs. Lovett; maker of The Worst Pies in London. It wasn't the bloodshed, but Mrs. Lovett's bug squashing that made me cringe! (The costumes were gorgeous too.) Later, the special effects are put to work creating shudder-worthy scenes of slaughter, revenge and baking.

Romantic, tragic, thrilling; a mesmerizing musical not for the weak stomached.

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