|

Now Playing
Critics & Publications
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search
Upcoming Release Calendar
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

34
10,000 B.C.
55
Baby Mama
62
Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, The
36
College Road Trip
82
Dark Knight, The
31
Deception
41
Drillbit Taylor
57
Forbidden Kingdom, The
67
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
54
Get Smart
49
Hancock
34
Happening, The
57
Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
78
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
71
Horton Hears a Who!
61
Incredible Hulk, The
65
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
79
Iron Man
57
Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D
35
Jumper
73
Kung Fu Panda
24
Love Guru, The
37
Made of Honor
52
Mamma Mia!
43
Meet Dave
58
Mist, The
48
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
55
Nim's Island
22
Postal
69
Redbelt
44
Ruins, The
53
Sex and the City: The Movie
76
Shine a Light
37
Shutter
35
Space Chimps
37
Speed Racer
61
Stop Loss
47
Strangers, The
55
Street Kings
33
Superhero Movie
93
WALL-E
64
Wanted
36
What Happens in Vegas...
54
You Don't Mess with the Zohan
93
WALL-E
82
Dark Knight, The
79
Iron Man
78
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
76
Shine a Light
73
Kung Fu Panda
71
Horton Hears a Who!
69
Redbelt
67
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
65
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
64
Wanted
62
Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, The
61
Stop Loss
61
Incredible Hulk, The
58
Mist, The
57
Forbidden Kingdom, The
57
Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D
57
Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
55
Street Kings
55
Nim's Island
55
Baby Mama
54
You Don't Mess with the Zohan
54
Get Smart
53
Sex and the City: The Movie
52
Mamma Mia!
49
Hancock
48
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
47
Strangers, The
44
Ruins, The
43
Meet Dave
41
Drillbit Taylor
37
Made of Honor
37
Shutter
37
Speed Racer
36
College Road Trip
36
What Happens in Vegas...
35
Jumper
35
Space Chimps
34
Happening, The
34
10,000 B.C.
33
Superhero Movie
31
Deception
24
Love Guru, The
22
Postal
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

83
Alexandra
39
August
80
Band's Visit, The
76
Beauty in Trouble
79
Before I Forget
47
Bella
80
Bigger, Stronger, Faster*
60
Blind Mountain
55
Bra Boys
61
Brick Lane
70
Caramel
49
Children of Huang Shi, The
83
Chop Shop
82
Chris & Don. A Love Story
78
Counterfeiters, The
75
Days and Clouds
48
Death Defying Acts
54
Diminished Capacity
47
Doorman, The
64
Dreams with Sharp Teeth
73
Duchess of Langeais, The
85
Edge of Heaven, The
27
Eight Miles High
54
Elsa & Fred
81
Encounters at the End of the World
62
Expired
64
Fall, The
54
Felon
51
Finding Amanda
57
Flawless
86
Flight of the Red Balloon, The
63
Foot Fist Way, The
60
Fugitive Pieces
72
Full Battle Rattle
45
Full Grown Men
31
Garden Party
55
Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
69
Go-Getter, The
73
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
59
Gunnin for that #1 Spot
10
Harold
68
Heartbeat Detector
36
Holding Trevor
68
Honeydripper
55
Irina Palm
66
Jellyfish
58
Jihad for Love, A
66
Kabluey
62
Kiss the Bride
63
Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
80
Last Mistress, The
38
Life Before Her Eyes, The
74
Lou Reed's Berlin
70
Love Songs
67
Mad Detective
xx
Man Named Pearl, A
64
Married Life
30
Meet Bill
33
Miss Conception
53
Mister Lonely
74
Mongol
52
Mother of Tears, The
52
My Blueberry Nights
71
My Brother Is an Only Child
85
My Winnipeg
61
On the Rumba River
69
Operation Filmmaker
61
OSS 117: Cairo - Nest of Spies
70
Outsourced
83
Paranoid Park
72
Priceless
51
Promotion, The
55
Quid Pro Quo
29
Red Roses and Petrol
79
Reprise
71
Roman de gare
77
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
56
Sangre de mi sangre
51
Savage Grace
76
Shotgun Stories
66
Son of Rambow
70
Standard Operating Procedure
57
Stone Angel, The
61
Stuck
72
Surfwise
25
Take
81
Tell No One
56
Then She Found Me
xx
Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic
71
To the Limit
54
Tracey Fragments, The
69
Transsiberian
71
Trumbo
71
Tuya's Marriage
83
U2 3D
56
Unknown Woman
86
Up the Yangtze
59
Very British Gangster, A
79
Visitor, The
61
Wackness, The
37
War, Inc.
65
Water Lilies
66
When Did You Last See Your Father?
55
Without the King
72
Woman on the Beach
64
XXY
67
Year My Parents Went on Vacation, The
75
Young@Heart
86
Up the Yangtze
86
Flight of the Red Balloon, The
85
Edge of Heaven, The
85
My Winnipeg
83
Chop Shop
83
Paranoid Park
83
Alexandra
83
U2 3D
82
Chris & Don. A Love Story
81
Tell No One
81
Encounters at the End of the World
80
Bigger, Stronger, Faster*
80
Band's Visit, The
80
Last Mistress, The
79
Reprise
79
Visitor, The
79
Before I Forget
78
Counterfeiters, The
77
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
76
Shotgun Stories
76
Beauty in Trouble
75
Young@Heart
75
Days and Clouds
74
Mongol
74
Lou Reed's Berlin
73
Duchess of Langeais, The
73
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
72
Woman on the Beach
72
Full Battle Rattle
72
Priceless
72
Surfwise
71
Tuya's Marriage
71
Trumbo
71
To the Limit
71
My Brother Is an Only Child
71
Roman de gare
70
Standard Operating Procedure
70
Love Songs
70
Outsourced
70
Caramel
69
Transsiberian
69
Operation Filmmaker
69
Go-Getter, The
68
Heartbeat Detector
68
Honeydripper
67
Year My Parents Went on Vacation, The
67
Mad Detective
66
Son of Rambow
66
Jellyfish
66
When Did You Last See Your Father?
66
Kabluey
65
Water Lilies
64
Married Life
64
Dreams with Sharp Teeth
64
XXY
64
Fall, The
63
Foot Fist Way, The
63
Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
62
Expired
62
Kiss the Bride
61
Brick Lane
61
Stuck
61
OSS 117: Cairo - Nest of Spies
61
Wackness, The
61
On the Rumba River
60
Fugitive Pieces
60
Blind Mountain
59
Gunnin for that #1 Spot
59
Very British Gangster, A
58
Jihad for Love, A
57
Flawless
57
Stone Angel, The
56
Unknown Woman
56
Then She Found Me
56
Sangre de mi sangre
55
Quid Pro Quo
55
Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
55
Irina Palm
55
Bra Boys
55
Without the King
54
Diminished Capacity
54
Felon
54
Tracey Fragments, The
54
Elsa & Fred
53
Mister Lonely
52
Mother of Tears, The
52
My Blueberry Nights
51
Finding Amanda
51
Promotion, The
51
Savage Grace
49
Children of Huang Shi, The
48
Death Defying Acts
47
Doorman, The
47
Bella
45
Full Grown Men
39
August
38
Life Before Her Eyes, The
37
War, Inc.
36
Holding Trevor
33
Miss Conception
31
Garden Party
30
Meet Bill
29
Red Roses and Petrol
27
Eight Miles High
25
Take
10
Harold
xx
Man Named Pearl, A
xx
Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Paramount Pictures
FILM:
MPAA RATING: R for graphic bloody violence
Starring
Johnny Depp,
Helena Bonham Carter,
Alan Rickman,
Timothy Spall,
Jamie Campbell Bower,
Jayne Wisener,
and
Sacha Baron Cohen
From the dark, gothic imagination of director Tim Burton comes Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, a bloody tale of music, murder, melodrama, meat pies, and one man's desperate desire for revenge. (Paramount Pictures)
| GENRE(S): |
Crime
|
Musical
|
Suspense/Thriller
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Christopher Bond (musical adaptation)
Hugh Wheeler (musical)
Stephen Sondheim (musical)
John Logan
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Tim Burton
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: April 1, 2008
Theatrical: December 21, 2007
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
117 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
100
Newsweek
David Ansen
Depp is such a soulful presence he gives you a glimpse of this maniac's pain and pathos. Bonham Carter is extraordinary. She reinvents Mrs. Lovett from the inside out.

100
The New York Times
A.O. Scott
Something close to a masterpiece, a work of extreme -- I am tempted to say evil -- genius.

100
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Keith Phipps
Burton brings his signature visual style, and a pair of stock players for his stars, into this film adaptation, but he wisely follows Sondheim's lead, letting the music and spirit of the original piece show the way.

100
Washington Post
Peter Marks
Admirers of Stephen Sondheim who have wondered whether a riveting movie would ever be made from one of his stage musicals can put aside their doubts and worries: Tim Burton has finally accomplished it in his ravishing Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

100
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
Helena Bonham Carter may be Burton's inamorata, but apart from that, she is perfectly cast, not as a vulgar fishwife type but as a petite beauty with dark, sad eyes and a pouting mouth and a persistent fantasy that she and the barber will someday settle by the seaside. Not bloody likely.

100
Premiere
Glenn Kenny
The result is one of the odder and, certainly the most compelling of the short stream of Broadway-to-Hollywood transplants of recent years. The interweaving of the music and the visuals casts an unusual, restive spell of delight and unease.

100
Time
Richard Corliss
A final word for those of you who just don't care for musicals: The movie's true lyricism is less in its score than in its visual and emotional palette, and in watching Depp rise to the majesty of madness. So give Sweeney Todd a try. Even Victor, when he finally saw it, agreed: it's bloody great.

91
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
The impact is hypnotic.

90
Film Threat
Pete Vonder Haar
I know a lot of people with no knowledge of Sondheim’s musical (much less Bond’s play) are going to buy tickets for a cute holiday movie starring that handsome Johnny Depp and end up experiencing something else entirely. Bon appétit.

90
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
An elegant horror film, starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, that takes pleasure in its own theatricality, gives pleasure with caustic wit, trusts the power of Stephen Sondheim's score and exults in flights of fancy that only a movie can provide.
90
The Hollywood Reporter
Kirk Honeycutt
Teaming with Depp, his long-time alter ego, Burton makes Sweeney a smoldering dark pit of fury and hate that consumes itself. With his sturdy acting and surprisingly good voice, Depp is a Sweeney Todd for the ages.

90
LA Weekly
Scott Foundas
Tim Burton has taken a hallowed classic of the modern musical theater, hemmed in the narrative from well over two hours to well under, cast confessed nonsingers in the principal roles, and somehow managed to make something magical out of it

90
New York Magazine
David Edelstein
Burton, bless him, constricts the space and concentrates the melodrama; he finds the perfect balance between the funereal and the ferocious. Above all, he treasures these ghouls: He digs both their bloodlust and their melancholy.

88
New York Post
Kyle Smith
Mighty entertainment that makes you feel sorry for the saps next door in the multiplex.

88
Chicago Tribune
Michael Phillips
Sweeney Todd may haunt you in ways you’re not used to with a movie musical. At least not since “Mame.”

88
USA Today
Claudia Puig
Mesmerizing and highly entertaining.

88
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
This Sweeney is a bloody wonder, intimate and epic, horrific and heart-rending as it flies on the wings of Sondheim's most thunderously exciting score.

88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Liam Lacey
Though Burton's version is faithful, the filter of his sensibility has turned it into another of his necrophilic creepshows.

88
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
Burton has found a vehicle sturdy enough to indulge every facet of his imagination: His great visual flair, his sense of whimsy and humor, his fondness for horror and his love of music.

88
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
Tim Burton's grand guignol fantasy transforms Stephen Sondheim's 1979 musical-theater piece into a cheerfully gothic morality tale.

83
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Andy Spletzer
Sometimes jaunty, often dark, and very stylized. In other words, it's a perfect fit for director Tim Burton.

83
Christian Science Monitor
Peter Rainer
A considerable achievement even if, on balance, it's more of a Tim Burton phantasmagoria than a Sondheim fantasia.

83
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
The movie is so finely minced a mixture of Sondheim's original melodrama and Burton's signature spicing that it's difficult to think of any other filmmaker so naturally suited for the job.

83
Portland Oregonian
Shawn Levy
They've made a movie-movie of Sweeney Todd, and if you've got the stomach and ear for it, you'll be grateful.

80
Empire
Kim Newman
Whether horror fans are ready for high-notes or musical buffs will appreciate Dario Argento levels of gore is an open question, but this is a rich, demented experience.

80
Variety
Todd McCarthy
Both sharp and fleet, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street proves a satisfying screen version of Stephen Sondheim’s landmark 1979 theatrical musical.

80
Slate
June Thomas
Burton's overall restraint is a welcome surprise. Shorn of his usual camp trappings, the director evokes a sadness beneath every uneasy smile he draws from the audience.

80
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Well-crafted if relatively impersonal adaptation.

80
Village Voice
J. Hoberman
No Greek tragedy, this Hollywood Sweeney is a FUN creepy-crawly. If nothing else, Burton has learned that the successfully gruesome is its own reward.

80
Los Angeles Times
Carina Chocano
It's not entirely surprising that Burton's Sweeney Todd feels heavier on style than on substance -- so much that the style almost subverts the story. Still, it's a gorgeous artifact and pretty enjoyable in all.

75
New York Daily News
Jack Mathews
Depp may not be a trained singer, but his voice is more than passable, and his presence - his Sweeney is Edward Scissorhands gone bad - is perfect. Bonham Carter sings well, too, and young Ed Sanders, as the pie shop's Dickensian apprentice, is a delight.

75
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
Sweeney Todd comes as close to raging at normalcy as Burton has dared. It's no coincidence that the rage is borrowed from a greater artist.

70
The New Yorker
Anthony Lane
The whole work drips with a camp savagery (hence the presence of Sacha Baron Cohen as Pirelli, a rival barber and faux-Italianate fop), which in turn relies on the conviction that death itself, like sexual desire, exists to be sniffed at and chuckled over.

63
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
In the end, the real problem with the Demon Barber of Fleet Street is that he's not as bloody fun as he should be.

63
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
With Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Tim Burton gives new meaning to the term "director's cut."

50
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
The picture throws off no feeling, not even the misanthropic kind; at best, it manages a dull, throbbing energy, as if Burton were dutifully pushing his way through the material instead of shaping it.

50
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
What does it say about a picture when the highest praise must go to impressive scenery?

50
San Francisco Chronicle
Steve Winn
What looks good on paper contracts doesn't guarantee results. Stylized but spasmodic, this "Sweeney" seems more interested in distancing than captivating an audience.

40
Austin Chronicle
Josh Rosenblatt
Burton's gorgeously grim film (his sixth with Depp) is loyal to Sondheim's original, both in spirit and structure; it's dark and gothic and drenched in blood, and it forgoes excessive dialogue in the name of getting quickly to the next murky, malevolent, yet strangely forgettable tune.


The average user rating for this movie is 7.3 (out of 10) based on 239 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Read more user comments...
Discuss this movie in our forums |
|