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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

EMAILPRINTParamount Pictures

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street reviews
83
7.4 User Score:

Movie Info

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:
Theatrical: December 21, 2007
DVD: April 1, 2008

Running Time: 117 minutes, Color

Origin: USA

Summary

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)

What The Critics Said

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.

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100

The New York Times A.O. Scott

Something close to a masterpiece, a work of extreme -- I am tempted to say evil -- genius.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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91

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

The impact is hypnotic.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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88

New York Post Kyle Smith

Mighty entertainment that makes you feel sorry for the saps next door in the multiplex.

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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.”

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88

USA Today Claudia Puig

Mesmerizing and highly entertaining.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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80

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Well-crafted if relatively impersonal adaptation.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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."

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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.

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50

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

What does it say about a picture when the highest praise must go to impressive scenery?

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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.

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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.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 7.4 (out of 10) based on 262 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Navdeep S. gave it a1:
To say the least this movie would be the last on the list i would like to watch(even if its a Johny Depp movie).The reason i didn't like this movie was was not made for normal people.....i mean how can a person serve burgers having human organs.......and to add to the woes ending of the movie was ridiculous.

Mary M. gave it a10:
One of my favorite films and seems to get better each time I view it. Johnny Depp is a wonder. The music, ah, Sondheim! The costumes and cinematography are wonderful and it's why it got an Oscar for the later. It's a musical if you don't especially like musicals. Bloody good!

Nicholas G gave it a7:
I felt that scenes which did not involve Johnny Depp or Helena Bonham Carter were much more interesting. The exeption to this is the shaving competition which was only good because of Sacha Baron Cohen, who by the way was my favourite character and probably sung the best.

Lauren s gave it a9:
Blood curly, sad, melodramatic sensastion combined with Boham Carter, Depp and Burton to create one of the biggest motion pictures of 2007. Defiently on my favorites list. Loved it! Wonderful movie, btw: NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH.

Pooria gave it a10:
The best musical of all Cinema History !

Rodrigo M. gave it a7:
I Think that was a good movie, but that's all. The acting was great, the screenplay was incredible, but the singing was annoying. If the film werent a musical, i'd love it , and i'd give it a 10. Sorry for the bad english.

Matt H gave it a6:
I didn't entirely dislike the film but I felt there were a lot of plot avenues that were left unexplored which rendered a lot of the motivations of the main characters somewhat ambiguous. I enjoyed the visuals but only the first few times they were shown! A bit more variety in the depictions of the sets, characters and actions would have gone a long way. I thought the singing performances were great but the songs were structureless and dull which is not a good thing in a musical with more singing than speaking. As the music was already in place it was not a symptom of a poor film but in fact the root cause of a film that misses it's marks - it was an obstacle that the director nor the cast could possibly overcome.

Read more user comments >

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