Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
DreamWorks SKG | Release Date: December 21, 2007 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
83
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 39 Critics
Positive:
35
Mixed:
4
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
NewsweekDavid 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
100
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
Something close to a masterpiece, a work of extreme -- I am tempted to say evil -- genius. Read full review
100
The A.V. ClubKeith 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
100
Washington PostPeter 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
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger 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
100
PremiereGlenn 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
100
TimeRichard 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
91
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
The impact is hypnotic. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterKirk 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
90
L.A. WeeklyScott 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
90
Wall Street JournalJoe 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
Film ThreatPete 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
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)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
88
Rolling StonePeter 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
88
New York PostKyle Smith
Mighty entertainment that makes you feel sorry for the saps next door in the multiplex. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael 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
88
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Mesmerizing and highly entertaining. Read full review
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. Read full review
88
Miami HeraldRene 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
88
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Tim Burton's grand guignol fantasy transforms Stephen Sondheim's 1979 musical-theater piece into a cheerfully gothic morality tale. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa 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
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
A considerable achievement even if, on balance, it's more of a Tim Burton phantasmagoria than a Sondheim fantasia. Read full review
83
Seattle Post-IntelligencerAndy Spletzer
Sometimes jaunty, often dark, and very stylized. In other words, it's a perfect fit for director Tim Burton. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianShawn 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
80
VarietyTodd 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
80
Village VoiceJ. 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
80
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Well-crafted if relatively impersonal adaptation. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesCarina 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
80
SlateJune 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
80
EmpireKim 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
75
New York Daily NewsJack 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
75
Boston GlobeTy 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
70
The New YorkerAnthony 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
63
ReelViewsJames 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
63
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
With Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Tim Burton gives new meaning to the term "director's cut." Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleSteve 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
50
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
What does it say about a picture when the highest praise must go to impressive scenery? Read full review
50
SalonStephanie 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
40
Austin ChronicleJosh 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
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