Bloody good fun if you can stomach the singing!

Rating: 8/10 (29 January 2008)

Tim Burton has had hits 'Mars Attacks', 'Big Fish' etc and misses mainly 'Planet of the Apes' but whatever you think of him you can not disagree that he is nothing if not challenging and is in everything he does a visionary. Sweeney Todd, based on Steven Sondheim's hit Broadway musical, is no exception its big, its bold, brilliant and dark its everything you have come to expect from a director like Burton but unfortunately what's with all the bloody (sic) singing. I hate musicals so it is with trepidation I watch this film but I love Burton and Depp so will that be enough to sway me? Well yes and no, to start with the singing which follows a typically inventive opening credit sequence does feel odd especially as Depp seems to be a Cockney David Bowie/Dick Van Dyke hybrid a camped up rocky horror scissorhands armed only with cutthroat razors and a Gothic sensibility. As the film progresses you kind of get used to the fact that the cast are singing everything and I even started to enjoy it a little, there is a great centre piece with Sweeney imagining himself stalking the streets plying his trade and there is also a very funny song in the pie shop as along with Mrs.Lovett (Bonham Carter) they discuss the fiendish fillings. But some of the songs did get on my nerves a bit and the ones the children sing are just plain annoying, the brief appearance of Sacha Baron Cohen seems a tad unnecessary and Alan Rickman is criminally underused. That said the sets are marvellous, the tracking shots around the city's grimy streets are great and the costumes really help to add to the overall feel. The transition from stage to screen has been handled effortlessly and because of the FX department the blood level have been hiked right up to maximum hence the 18 certificate. Quite simply Burton has dumb founded his audience again pitting musical lovers against the gore and gore freaks against the songs causing people to put up with the elements they don't like, the old ladies I've spoken to love Johnny and a sing song but the graphic throat slitting was a bloody bridge too far for most. Overall it is genius and adds to an already amazing but truly eclectic body of work. Fight your fears of the film and go see a master create spectacle like no one else, the question is what will he do next?