Sweeney Todd comes out in three days omg

[recursivelyenumerable]

The less positive reviews from Sondheim snobs still say it's at least a semi-decent adaptation of the musical, which means it's awesome.  I might have a date for it too

[recursivelyenumerable]

and again, where the fuck are the Gayming-age/evilgay brigade on this one?!  aren't you all supposed to love Broadway shit?  or is it only shitty musicals like "Mamma Mia" or "Grease" or whatever that you like, leaving the good ones to us ramrod straight alpha males?

[Mandark]

I don't think EB is big enough to have a gay sub-community.

It's TVC, demi, and PD, and that's it.

[Phoenix Dark]

This movie looks awesome, although I will admit Depp's voice doesn't sound that hot. But he's got enough swagger to pull it off. I'm definitely looking forward to this

[TVC15]

and again, where the fuck are the Gayming-age/evilgay brigade on this one?!  aren't you all supposed to love Broadway shit?  or is it only shitty musicals like "Mamma Mia" or "Grease" or whatever that you like, leaving the good ones to us ramrod straight alpha males?

Despite generally decent word so far, my policy is to take a wait and see approach with modern day Burton releases.  He's only made one good movie in the past eight years or so.

[Bloodwake]

Burton is the most overrated director of all fucking time.

Still, I will go see this Friday. There's a possibility it will be good. I mean, he's adding blood to the same tired fucking art style he's placed in the majority of all of his movies since Beetlejuice (Batman and Batman Returns included). Maybe that will spice things up, some red to the black and white world that Burton continually paints in his films and never really changes it up, knowing that it will bring in tons of money to pad his fat wallet from the scene/emo/gothic wannabe poser commercialites from the past 20 years. And when he doesn't paint this world, his movies fucking suck worse (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Planet of the Apes, Mars Attacks), although Big Fish was at least halfway decent and I hear Ed Wood is worth watching. I just hope the blood isn't dark red so that it blends in with the black well.

Still, after seeing the musical numbers in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, I have a feeling that Sweeney Todd is going to fucking blow chunks that once resided in my ass, but left there after I took a massive shit after eating a bowl of chili mixed with about three days' worth of Taco Bell. I would like to be proved wrong, but that probably won't happen. Johnny Depp will continue to look like some type of gothic idiot, except this time, Helena Bonham Carter joins him, basically wearing her Marla Singer make-up from Fight Club.

Saying this, I'm not familiar with the musical. I hope it doesn't suffer from the fate of most musicals, which basically means "let's stop the entire plot progression in this film and sing a pointless song for about five or ten minutes and add dancing and shit to it in an attempt to be interesting" Movies like Moulin Rouge had shit happening during the songs. Movies like Across the Universe had shit happening during the songs. They were fucking part of the fucking plot, and they actually PROGRESSED THE STORY. Maybe Sweeney Todd will do this, and maybe someone can enlighten me on if the stage version does or not.

Please prove me wrong, Tim Burton. I doubt you will, but give it your best shot.

[recursivelyenumerable]

Movies like Moulin Rouge had shit happening during the songs. Movies like Across the Universe had shit happening during the songs. They were fucking part of the fucking plot, and they actually PROGRESSED THE STORY.  Maybe Sweeney Todd will do this, and maybe someone can enlighten me on if the stage version does or not.

ST is the poster child for this.  Most of the story progression happens through the songs --- there's not much spoken dialogue anyway.  It's almost an opera.  You can listen to the soundtrack (which contains the songs with a line or two of dialogue here and there) and follow the whole plot through the song lyrics without reading the liner notes, at least if you're paying attention.

[Joe Molotov]

Classy stuff like Sweeny Todd and Charlie Wilson's War plus popcorn stuff like Walk Hard and National Treasure 2 all in one weekend. Spread that shit out Hollywood!

[Tauntaun]

Def going to see this movie, looks awesome. 

[Gay Boy]

Burton's next movie is a live action Alice in Wonderland. 


It's being done for disney so I expect it to be more like charlie & the chocolate factory than gothy. Choclate Factory was pure shit...

[Solo]

I dont like Burton, think Depp is woefully overrated, and dont like musicals. Yet I find myself desperately wanting to see this. Perhaps 3 wrongs will make a right!

[Gay Boy]

Is it just me or did something happen to Burton after Ed Wood? I liked all of his films from Pee-wee through Ed Wood to a certain extent. But all his post-Wood films starting with Mars Attacks generally were vastly weaker movies, some even were just plain really really bad. The only exceptions being Sleepy Hollow and Big Fish but even then they didn't come close to his early work.

[recursivelyenumerable]

This is a Sweeney Todd thread.  All talk of irrelevant non-Sweeney Todd Burton projects must cease.

is there really no one else here familiar with Sondheim's musical itself?  That makes me sad.

[Eric P]

i don't like the sondheim telling of the tale because it essentially becomes the count of monte cristo with recipes and dancing.

[Gay Boy]

Kevin Smith did Sweeney Todd better. His version was Liv Tyler, Ben Affleck, and George Carlin!


[youtube=425,350]xkLSFdvrhq0[/youtube]

spoiler (click to show/hide)

no, I'm not serious

[close]

[demi]

I don't think EB is big enough to have a gay sub-community.

It's TVC, demi, and PD, and that's it.

No bear, no care

[abrader]

I dont think ill watch this.

I just dont like the core sweeny todd story - nothing against burton.

[recursivelyenumerable]

i don't like the sondheim telling of the tale because it essentially becomes the count of monte cristo with recipes and dancing.

Plotwise, Sondheim (+Hugh Wheeler)'s version is pretty much Christopher Bond's.  so blame him?

but the appeal of ST the musical of course isn't the plot, it's the awesome songs.  which are awesome in large part because of, um, how well they carry the plot.  er don't ask me how this works, but it does.  might be a use of a fixpoint operator to tie the knot

[Eric P]

i'm going to see it, no doubt, but it just never really sat well with me.

inono

but then my favorite musical by andrew lloyd weber, so i don't think i get a vote really.

[Mr. Gundam]

and again, where the fuck are the Gayming-age/evilgay brigade on this one?!  aren't you all supposed to love Broadway shit?  or is it only shitty musicals like "Mamma Mia" or "Grease" or whatever that you like, leaving the good ones to us ramrod straight alpha males?

My wife is a bigtime Sondheim snob and a musical fangirl in general, she's really excited to see Sweeney Todd, but is very apprehensive about it being faithful to the source material, or any good for that matter.

[lordmaji]

It's good, because Johnny Depp is hot... 

You bet he has a huge cock huh?  

[abrader]

It's good, because Johnny Depp is hot... 

You bet he has a huge cock huh?  

Probably not.

[Gay Boy]

Depp acts too flamboyant to be a manly man.

[recursivelyenumerable]

My wife is a bigtime Sondheim snob and a musical fangirl in general, she's really excited to see Sweeney Todd, but is very apprehensive about it being faithful to the source material, or any good for that matter.

The negative reviews I've read from knowledgeable reviewers haven't been that negative.  It looks like it at least won't be a travesty.

[lordmaji]

Depp acts too flamboyant to be a manly man.

He's beyond manly.

[Bloodwake]

Movies like Moulin Rouge had shit happening during the songs. Movies like Across the Universe had shit happening during the songs. They were fucking part of the fucking plot, and they actually PROGRESSED THE STORY.  Maybe Sweeney Todd will do this, and maybe someone can enlighten me on if the stage version does or not.

ST is the poster child for this.  Most of the story progression happens through the songs --- there's not much spoken dialogue anyway.  It's almost an opera.  You can listen to the soundtrack (which contains the songs with a line or two of dialogue here and there) and follow the whole plot through the song lyrics without reading the liner notes, at least if you're paying attention.

Thanks. This is a good thing. Hopefully this will translate into a Burton film I might actually LIKE for the first time since... Batman (1989)

[Tauntaun]

^  Corpse Bride was awesome, great songs in that. 

[Gay Boy]

Movies like Moulin Rouge had shit happening during the songs. Movies like Across the Universe had shit happening during the songs. They were fucking part of the fucking plot, and they actually PROGRESSED THE STORY.  Maybe Sweeney Todd will do this, and maybe someone can enlighten me on if the stage version does or not.

ST is the poster child for this.  Most of the story progression happens through the songs --- there's not much spoken dialogue anyway.  It's almost an opera.  You can listen to the soundtrack (which contains the songs with a line or two of dialogue here and there) and follow the whole plot through the song lyrics without reading the liner notes, at least if you're paying attention.

Thanks. This is a good thing. Hopefully this will translate into a Burton film I might actually LIKE for the first time since... Batman (1989)

You didn't like Ed Wood? That was the high point of his career and it was out after Batman.

[Phoenix Dark]

^  Corpse Bride was awesome, great songs in that. 

LIES. Corpse Bride was the most disappointing movie since The Village...to me. The songs fell flat, it was boring, etc

I love Burton so I have high hopes for Sweetney Todd. But there's no way I'm seeing a musical in theaters alone. If vamp girl doesn't want to go, I'm not seeing it

[Mr. Gundam]

Dan Savage's review of Sweeney Todd:

Sometimes I wish I wasn't such a great, big taco. If I were less of a cigarillo, I wouldn't have the original 1979 Broadway cast recording of Stephen Sondheim's Sweeney Todd on my iPod. If I were less of a cigarillo, I wouldn't have watched the 1982 Emmy Award–winning television broadcast of the national tour of Sweeney Todd—featuring Angela Lansbury and George Hearn—seven or eight thousand times. And if I were less of a cigarillo, I wouldn't have flown to New York City last year to see Patti LuPone and Michael Cerveris in John Doyle's acclaimed Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd (which should have won the Tony for Best Revival, but was robbed by The Pajama Game).

In short, if I weren't such a great, big, huge, fucking taco... I might have enjoyed Tim Burton's new film version of Sweeney Todd more than I did.

Like Chicago, Sweeney Todd was before its time. When Chicago opened in 1975, audiences weren't all that interested in seeing a musical—a musical—about corrupt lawyers who manipulate the media and turn a murder trial into a circus (literally), not only getting a guilty person off but turning her into a celebrity, too. When Chicago was revived on Broadway in the mid-'90s, in the cultural wake left by the O. J. Simpson trial, audiences were ready. The revival scooped up a bunch of Tony Awards, and a film adaptation won the Oscar for best picture.

Sweeney Todd, like Chicago, got a cool reception when it opened on Broadway in 1979. A musical starring a serial killer? A musical comedy with cannibalism? Sweeney Todd opened long before Silence of the Lambs, long before Saws I–IV, long before Hostel, long before Dexter. In short, long before the serial killer became our reigning pop-culture antihero. But audiences are ready now.

For a fan of the musical—a rabid fan—it's hard to overlook what Burton got wrong and enjoy what Burton got right.

So let me quickly tick through the wrongs. Helena Bonham Carter can't sing—which is a big problem, as Mrs. Lovett has almost as many songs as Sweeney in Burton's version. And so many songs have been omitted or scaled back that anyone familiar with the score—you know, big fegs like me—is going to leave feeling cheated. (I particularly missed the "Kiss Me" quartet.) And some of the violence—particularly a certain immolation—is so over- the-top gruesome that it draws attention to the filmmaker and away from the barber.

And Burton, even with Sondheim hovering over his shoulder, somehow manages to blow two of the show's most devastating moments: When the corrupt judge who raped Sweeney's wife and stole his daughter informs Sweeney (whom he doesn't recognize) that he now intends to marry his daughter... Sweeney, razor in hand, doesn't react? Not a twinge? Not a twitch? Nothing? Then, when Sweeney's rage and the action reach their bloody climaxes, Sweeney suddenly pardons one of his intended victims?

So what did Burton get right? The first two-thirds of the film transport you into a thoroughly hellish vision of early 19th-century London. Sacha Baron Cohen is a brilliant choice for Pirelli, a rival barber, and the rest of the supporting cast—mostly unknowns—is equally strong. (Although it seems odd that the actor playing Anthony is 500 times prettier than the actress playing Johanna.) The music, as much as was used, is beautiful and (when Bonham Carter isn't singing) beautifully sung.

Johnny Depp's Sweeney is a bit too mannered for my tastes—and too dark. When Mrs. Lovett accuses Sweeney of always "brooding on his wrongs," it's a self-serving exaggeration; Depp seems to have built his performance around it. Still, Depp has the charisma to carry the film and to make us sympathize with a monster.

And two numbers redeem the production entire. During "A Little Priest," Mrs. Lovett and Sweeney leer out of the windows of Mrs. Lovett's meat-pie shop, picking out the Londoners they intend to pick off. It takes the song to a darker place without losing any of the song's humor. And Bonham Carter, who can't sing (have I mentioned that?), can act. You can see her heart breaking—a heart you didn't think Mrs. Lovett had—when she decides, during "Not While I'm Around," that the child who completes her macabre little family is destined to be pie filling.

If you're a big cigarillo like me, you'll have issues with this Sweeney Todd. (Here's another one: Mrs. Lovett's oven is too small to bake all those pies, let alone get rid of all those bodies.) But if you're not a big cigarillo—if you're not overly, faggily familiar with this show—skip Saw V and see Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd instead. It was made for you. recommended

[recursivelyenumerable]

Like I said, the relatively negative reviews have only been mildly negative.  I guess I'm a big cigarillo  though since I've listened to the original cast recording at least a couple dozen times.

[lordmaji]

man, Chucky & the choco factory was awesome... 

[recursivelyenumerable]

Erik Henriksen trolls Sondheim fans in the Portland Mercury.  What a wanker.  Why do the papers here all suck so much?  Even St. Louis has better.

[etiolate]

Bloodwake saying Mars Attacks sucks...

and Burton has only one color theme...(he has two =p)

tsk tsk

This movie will rock.

[Gay Boy]

Mars Attacks was fun but one of Burton's weaker efforts.

Pee-wee, Beetlejuice, both Batmans, Edward Scissorhands, Ed Wood, & Big Fish are better than it. I never saw Sleepy Hollow so I dunno about that.

[etiolate]

Mars Attacks is one of his best I'd say. I didn't like it as much the first time I saw it, but it gets better. What movie kills Jack Nicholson not once, but TWICE?

[Gay Boy]

Eh. If I was to throw down a Burton ranking of the flicks I've seen I'd go:

1. Ed Wood
2. Pee-wee's Big Adventure (nostalgia plays a big part in this)
3. Batman
4. Beetle Juice
5. Batman Returns
6. Edward Scissorhands (I enjoy it despite the hate, but how it can be seen as better than Beetle Juice I am amazed)
7. Big Fish
8. Mars Attacks
9. Charlie & The Chocolate Factory
10. Planet of the Apes

Never saw Corpse Bride or Sleepy Hollow.

[lordmaji]

I saw a making of lastnight, it does look like it'll be cool.

A lot of people hated Sleepy Hollow. But I personally love that movie. It's kind of a love/hate thing w/ people.

[Gay Boy]

I was excited for about 19 seconds of seeing the trailer for this until I saw Helena Bonham-Carter.   :'(

She is the mother of Burtons kids, she'll be in everything.

[recursivelyenumerable]

yeah, the reports that she can't sing are pretty unsettling considering that if it's reasonably faithful to the musical, which apparently it is, like 40 percent of the running time will be spent on her singing. 

still, Sondheim was always more interested in acting than technical singing ability.

[Phoenix Dark]

I was excited for about 19 seconds of seeing the trailer for this until I saw Helena Bonham-Carter.   :'(

wtf dude, she's HOT

[Gay Boy]

still, Sondheim was always more interested in acting than technical singing ability.

Eh? It's Burton's movie. Not Sondheim's lol. Even if Sondheim was hell bent against Bonham-Carter she would be in it. The fact she sleeps with Burton insures she'll be in every picture of his.

[recursivelyenumerable]

Sondheim supposedly had casting approval.

With the premiere of Sweeney Todd approaching, Bonham Carter knows she’s in for a barrage of innuendo about nepotism, having scored a lead role that show-tune fans on chat boards had envisioned for a more seasoned singer-actress like Meryl Streep. ”I’m sure people will think, Aah, it’s because I’ve slept with Tim,” she says. ”But I didn’t sleep with Sondheim. And he ultimately chose me.” The composer says he watched a dozen or so audition tapes and insists that Bonham Carter’s performance was the best. ”Even in a recording studio, wearing a schmatte, she is as beautiful and sexy as they come,” he says. ”She knew what she was doing, more than the others.” Sondheim is equally pleased with Depp. ”There are very few people who can act and sing at the same time,” he says. ”He’s one.”

Maybe Burton made sure the other eleven auditions were all terrible, I dunno.

[Gay Boy]

Sondheim supposedly had casting approval.

With the premiere of Sweeney Todd approaching, Bonham Carter knows she’s in for a barrage of innuendo about nepotism, having scored a lead role that show-tune fans on chat boards had envisioned for a more seasoned singer-actress like Meryl Streep. ”I’m sure people will think, Aah, it’s because I’ve slept with Tim,” she says. ”But I didn’t sleep with Sondheim. And he ultimately chose me.” The composer says he watched a dozen or so audition tapes and insists that Bonham Carter’s performance was the best. ”Even in a recording studio, wearing a schmatte, she is as beautiful and sexy as they come,” he says. ”She knew what she was doing, more than the others.” Sondheim is equally pleased with Depp. ”There are very few people who can act and sing at the same time,” he says. ”He’s one.”

Maybe Burton made sure the other eleven auditions were all terrible, I dunno.

Yeah, but still Burton would get her in the movie. Burton wouldn't do the movie if he said no to her or Depp I'd expect. She's been in every Burton movie since PotA, aka every movie he has done since they met.

[bud]

does depp sing his own songs or did someone else record them?

[Gay Boy]

does depp sing his own songs or did someone else record them?

He sang.

[bud]

awesome

i'm not really into musicals, but i'm giving this a try.

[Phoenix Dark]

Depp has a weak voice; sounds like he can't hit high notes to me.

[Joe Molotov]

Depp has a weak voice; sounds like he can't hit high notes to me.

He was the better singer than HBC. Her voice just seemed overwhelmed by the instrumentals.