Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever

Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

Ariella Broughton It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

lastliberal I loved the story of Sweeney Todd after seeing Johnny Depp do the musical number. I loved it so much I am looking for other versions. This one is outstanding.Unlike Depp's version, this one with Ray Winstone (The Proposition, The Departed, Sexy Beast, Beowulf) is a truer picture of the dark and grimy London of the 18th Century. It is so bad, that you have to cover your nose with a handkerchief when you approach the beggars in the jail to give them a penny.Sweeney did not set out to kill anyone. He was visited in his barber shop by a jailer that brought back old memories. He killed him without thinking and each time got easier. He becomes attracted to a pie maker Mrs. Lovett (Essie Davis - Charlotte's Web, Maggie from The Matrix sequels). In the course of that relationship, we are introduced to abortion, spousal abuse, and atheism. She is married at the time, but as barbers were also surgeons (without anesthesia, I might add) he dispatches her husband in the process of removing a stone.They become friends as he is unable to perform, and he sets her up in her own pie shop. She has a steady stream of lovers which he dispatched and presents to her as meat from his brother. She is clueless as to what is going on. This is a far different version than I have seen before and you are really hooked to see what is going to happen. There are some side stories involving a policeman, and Sweeney's father that really added to the mystery.Winstone and Davis were superb, as was David Warner as the local Magistrate.The only complaint I had was not really every seeing Mrs Lovett's pies. As Sweeney peeked in on her trysts, we just got to see the guy on top. They could have given us a little peek.This was slightly better than the Ben Kingsly version, but there are more to see, including another musical.

Andrew Pelechaty While most people know 'Sweeney Todd' from the Stephen Sondheim musical, this UK production depicts the original story of Sweeney from the 18th century melodramas, adapted from 'The String of Pearls' newspaper serial and various other penny-dreadfuls at the time, with one major difference. While the early plays and penny dreadfuls painted Sweeney as a stereotypical, melodramatic villain, who the Victorian audience took delight in booing, Ray Winstone's version is closer to the musical. Winstone plays Sweeney as an honest barber who slits the throat of a Newgate Gaoler who boasts of mistreating kids (earlier Sweeney had given money to some kids hanging out the window), haunted by memories of his own twenty years spent in Newgate. Once he tastes that first kill, he can't stop ("I did it because I could...then, I couldn't not"). Along the way, he meets Mrs. Lovett, and saves her from an abusive relationship, and an infection which threatens to kill her, though he repels her advances. Eventually, he buys a shop for Mrs. Lovett's pie business - next to his barber shop - and comes up with the perfect way to get rid of the bodies stockpiling under his shop and help Mrs. Lovett; use the flesh of his victims for her meat pies. However, the plan comes unstuck when the nearby church is engulfed by the stench of the dead. By the end of the movie, Sweeney is a shell of a man, tortured by guilt over his crimes.While arguments exist over whether Sweeney actually existed, this film give an interesting account of Sweeney the man and why he became the demon barber.

lost-in-limbo 18th century London is a rottenly decayed and scummy city that has a horrific secret. The stoutly quiet Sweeny Todd is a well renown barber of London. Supposedly the best, as customers come and go with nothing but high praise for his fluent skills. One day, he basically loses it after some childhood memory triggers a reaction to slit a customer's throat. He cuts up the body and chucks into the river. Then he goes on as if nothing as happened, but these sudden outbursts soon become a pattern. Mrs Lovett has caught his eye and they form a relationship, where he helps her start up a bakery shop near his shop. So now, Todd is providing her with the meat, unknown to her that they are his leftovers.Fact or fiction is the question of this horror figure? This legendary serial killer figure is the central attraction in this boldly inventive and refreshing British TV feature of the grisly exploits and humane reactions of Sweeny Todd. What could have been just another formulaic story, treads the very well because the thoughtfully encouraged script is brought to life by sensationally characterised performances and a richly atmospheric Victorian setting that reeks with an grimly morbid discharge. The ugliness and the earthly dour colours of it only enhances the cold nature and violently graphic carnage that awaits. It could have gone over board with its unpleasantness, but in the long run the killings do actually play second fiddle to the bustling characters and their complex inner goings. Largely Todd's past. These moments of violence are no more than short and precise bursts that maintain brute force in their confronting depictions.Giving more weight to the black and white premise are the actors themselves. Their textured performances would go on to help those harrowing examinations become truly stimulating and the ingeniously plotted story strikes up a provocative script (by Joshua St. Johnson), which they shape off and morph expertly. Streaming throughout is an claustrophobic build up in the film's hardboiled direction by David Moore and the tension he does orchestrate is plain nerve wrecking. Ray Winstone's scarred performance is emotionally powering and increasingly deep, despite his understated take of the character. He plays it humbly calm, but when the cracks appear Winstone does it with great integrity and menace. Essie Davis' upfront and igniting performance is nothing but excellent as the whore Mrs Lovett who desires any sort of companionship she can get. There seems to be a strong (and at times surreal) sexual charge between the two that's interestingly displayed. The compelling supporting cast do their jobs. David Warner is professionally solid in a strictly mild turn and Tom Hardy is sincerely perfect in his role as an up-and-coming police officer. The film is stylishly photographed and can become intrusively lingering when it wants to capture that scummy tenor with visual punch. The trance-like musical score is beautifully harmonious and demonstrates some otherworldly cues that only adds more to the brooding nature."Sweeny Todd" the director's cut is an exceptionally high quality TV presentation, which is meaningfully acted, unpredictably written and daringly directed. Highly recommended.

Lily Ross I watched this when it first aired on BBC television and, coming from London and having grown up with the Sweeney story, I was quite excited at the prospect of this version. It seemed a good idea because Sweeney began as a Victorian comic book story anyway,so dramatising it for a modern audience is the logical next step.When I saw it, I thought it was very good. It did not, however, recapture that youthful, dark fairytale quality that I loved (and all children love) but it did create very real characters. The story is actually disturbing in the sense that Sweeney, who is himself the murderer, is character you feel sympathy toward. This television production is as a previous reviewer said 'not for all tastes', but if you get caught in the story and put it into the context that a Victorian London was actually reading this amazing tale, then this film will get you snared in it web like Sweeney got his victims in the barber's chair. For fans of this programme: You'll probably remember that this was billed as a 15 or so certificate for BBC 1 when it aired, but an 18 certificate directors cut is on release and is supposedly very good so watch out for it!