To Shavee-Da Face...

Rating: 6/10 (12 June 2008)

After a second viewing I enjoyed this a lot more, the first time around I was so caught off guard, it was a bit alienating. I hadn't expected the wall to wall classical musical theater that I got here, but for what it is, it works. Tim Burton does a good job of mixing in plenty of violence and black comedy, to keep the story moving along, but there are a few too many scenes that seem better designed for the stage than the screen.
I'm sure on stage signing in a solitary dilapidated building has a great emotional impact, on screen though it just gets kind of repetitive and boring. The songs translate best when at their are most onieric, whether Todd is fantasizing about running through the streets blades in hand or Mr. Lovett dreaming of their house by the sea, Burton's imagination is at it's most engaging and the film is too.
But aside from that it was good, it's a musical about a murderous barber slicing people's throats and his assistant baking them into meat pies. The film is at it's weakest when it goes for melodrama, I enjoyed it more than most musicals and I can see how fans of theater will get a definite kick out of it, but for me the campier "Little Shop Of Horrors" and "Rocky Horror Picture Show" will always hold the gold standard for musical horror/comedy theater.