Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
76
(500) Days of Summer
60
9
17
All About Steve
37
Amelia
53
Astro Boy
66
Bandslam
45
Box, The
61
Capitalism: A Love Story
55
Christmas Carol, A
43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
29
Collector, The
23
Couples Retreat
80
District 9
61
Extract
39
Fame
xx
Fantastic Mr. Fox
30
Final Destination, The
34
Fourth Kind, The
60
Funny People
32
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
27
Gamer
41
G-Force
39
Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, The
46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
55
I Can Do Bad All By Myself
66
Informant!, The
69
Inglourious Basterds
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
66
Julie & Julia
34
Law Abiding Citizen
33
Love Happens
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
51
My Sister's Keeper
42
Orphan
28
Pandorum
63
Perfect Getaway, A
86
Ponyo![]()
35
Post Grad
48
Proposal, The
30
Saw VI
53
Shorts
24
Sorority Row
83
Star Trek![]()
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
55
Taking Woodstock
47
Time Traveler's Wife
96
Toy Story/Toy Story 2 3D![]()
35
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
28
Ugly Truth, The
88
Up![]()
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
58
(Untitled)
96
35 Shots of Rum![]()
56
Adam
72
Adela
39
Adventures of Power
78
Afghan Star
61
After the Storm
66
Afterschool
xx
All the Best
58
American Casino
72
Amreeka
48
Antichrist
73
Araya
62
Art & Copy
55
As Seen Through These Eyes
76
Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86
Beaches of Agnes, The![]()
13
Beautiful Life, A
70
Beeswax
35
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
71
Big Fan
66
Black Dynamite
51
Blind Date
xx
Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly
76
Bliss
35
Blue Tooth Virgin, The
26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57
Boys Are Back, The
45
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81
Bright Star![]()
70
Bronson
45
Burning Plain, The
xx
Carriers
55
Casi Divas
57
Chelsea on the Rocks
62
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
69
Cold Souls
59
Collapse
44
Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
82
Cove, The![]()
75
Crude
82
Damned United, The![]()
67
Departures
xx
Dil Bole Hadippa
71
Disgrace
xx
Do Knot Disturb
70
Earth Days
24
Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
85
Education, An![]()
55
Endgame
xx
Eulogy for a Vampire
xx
Everyone Else
xx
Fatal Promises
56
Fifty Dead Men Walking
62
Five Minutes of Heaven
74
Flame & Citron
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
28
Free Style
xx
From Mexico with Love
50
Fuel
25
Gentlemen Broncos
50
Give Me Your Hand
58
Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo![]()
52
Grace
66
Harmony and Me
81
Headless Woman, The![]()
xx
Heretics, The
63
Horse Boy, The
73
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
74
Humpday
94
Hurt Locker, The![]()
29
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16
If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75
In Search of Beethoven
83
In the Loop![]()
61
Intimate Enemies
42
Irene in Time
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
19
Labor Day
xx
Laila's Birthday
41
Little Ashes
41
Little Traitor, The
66
Liverpool
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
83
Maid, The![]()
xx
Ministers, The
59
More Than a Game
67
Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
xx
Mystery Team
48
New York, I Love You
73
Night and Day
66
No Impact Man
47
Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34
Other Man, The
xx
Painter Sam Francis, The
54
Paper Heart
xx
Paradise
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
44
Peter and Vandy
35
Play the Game
77
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx
Pretty Ugly People
65
Providence Effect, The
76
Rembrandt's J'accuse
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
40
Shrink
61
Skin
77
Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx
Skiptracers
46
Splinterheads
39
St. Trinian's
89
Still Walking![]()
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
55
Storm
65
Tetro
70
That Evening Sun
72
Thirst
xx
Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (re-release)
61
Trucker
xx
Turning Green
83
U2 3D![]()
66
Unmade Beds
66
Unmistaken Child
70
Visual Acoustics
55
Walt & El Grupo
67
Way We Get By, The
69
We Live in Public
64
Wedding Song, The
64
Where is Where?
xx
White on Rice
74
Woman in Berlin, A
69
World's Greatest Dad
70
Yes Men Fix the World
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx
You, the Living
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Universal acclaim
Based on 39 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 262 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
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)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Batman Beetlejuice Big Fish Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Ed Wood Edward Scissorhands Mars Attacks! Pee-wee's Big Adventure Planet of the Apes Sleepy Hollow The Nightmare Before Christmas
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site View The Trailer
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...
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.
Read Full Review >The New York Times A.O. Scott
Something close to a masterpiece, a work of extreme -- I am tempted to say evil -- genius.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
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.
Read Full Review >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
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >New York Post Kyle Smith
Mighty entertainment that makes you feel sorry for the saps next door in the multiplex.
Read Full Review >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.”
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Tim Burton's grand guignol fantasy transforms Stephen Sondheim's 1979 musical-theater piece into a cheerfully gothic morality tale.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Andy Spletzer
Sometimes jaunty, often dark, and very stylized. In other words, it's a perfect fit for director Tim Burton.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer
A considerable achievement even if, on balance, it's more of a Tim Burton phantasmagoria than a Sondheim fantasia.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
Well-crafted if relatively impersonal adaptation.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
With Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Tim Burton gives new meaning to the term "director's cut."
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
What does it say about a picture when the highest praise must go to impressive scenery?
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
