Sweeney Todd

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PlacentiaSoccerMom · #1 Post by **PlacentiaSoccerMom** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 8:33 am

Emma is sick and we had planned on using Jeff's time off to go to the movies. (Because of the car problems, we didn't go to Vegas.)

Since we couldn't go to the movies as a family, Jeff told me to take Maddie to see Sweeney Todd because she would't shut up about seeing it.

It was a very good movie, the best that I have seen in a long time. I thought that Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter were perfect in their parts. Alan Rickman was good, but he wasn't as nuanced in his performance as he usually is, coming across as entirely unsympathetic. The role of Tobias/Toby is usually played as an older child, but having a younger child in the role worked.

I knew that the movie was rated "R" and I knew it was because of the violence and a few swear words. Still, I was surprised by the level of violence and gore and at times it made me really uncomfortable. I think that Maddie is of an age where she can handle the gore, but Emma would have had a hard time dealing with all of the blood, so I am glad that she was sick and we didn't take her to see the movie.

gsabc · #2 Post by **gsabc** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 10:43 am

PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote:Emma is sick and we had planned on using Jeff's time off to go to the movies. (Because of the car problems, we didn't go to Vegas.)

Since we couldn't go to the movies as a family, Jeff told me to take Maddie to see Sweeney Todd because she would't shut up about seeing it.

It was a very good movie, the best that I have seen in a long time. I thought that Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter were perfect in their parts. Alan Rickman was good, but he wasn't as nuanced in his performance as he usually is, coming across as entirely unsympathetic. The role of Tobias/Toby is usually played as an older child, but having a younger child in the role worked.

I knew that the movie was rated "R" and I knew it was because of the violence and a few swear words. Still, I was surprised by the level of violence and gore and at times it made me really uncomfortable. I think that Maddie is of an age where she can handle the gore, but Emma would have had a hard time dealing with all of the blood, so I am glad that she was sick and we didn't take her to see the movie.

Judge Turpin IS entirely unsympathetic. He has no redeeming qualities in the musical, so that's how it should be played.

Even the musical on stage is a tad gory. Not surprising the movie ended up more so. It's a very dark story, and typical of the oddities that Sondheim ends up using for his musicals. Witness "Assassins".

This one is definitely on our "see in the theater" list. The casting just sounds fabulous, and the trailers have been really good. We saw Sweeney on stage with Angela Lansbury and George Hearn, and if CD's could wear out, our soundtrack album would have gone through multiple copies by now.

silverscreenselect · #3 Post by **silverscreenselect** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 11:13 am

The movie is doing very poorly, apparently in large part because it's not being sold as a musical, and some people are upset (as in demanding refunds level of upset) when they find out it's a musical.

Only three Christmas season releases have done well: I am Legend, National Treasure and Alvin and the Chipmunks. The others have gone into the tank big time and The Golden Compass shapes up as one of the biggest bombs of all time due to its huge budget and miniscule box office.

Bad weather held down attendance this weekend, but it's unlikely these movies will recover.

ulysses5019 · #4 Post by **ulysses5019** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 11:28 am

What? This movie is bloody? I'm never going to a barber again.....

PlacentiaSoccerMom · #5 Post by **PlacentiaSoccerMom** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 1:04 pm

ulysses5019 wrote:What? This movie is bloody? I'm never going to a barber again.....

I knew it was bloody, but it's really, really bloody.

OJ Simpson · #6 Post by **OJ Simpson** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 1:08 pm

ulysses5019 wrote:What? This movie is bloody? I'm never going to a barber again.....

Where was Sweeney Todd on the night of June 12, 1994?

AnnieCamaro · #7 Post by **AnnieCamaro** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 1:19 pm

silverscreenselect wrote:The movie is doing very poorly, apparently in large part because it's not being sold as a musical, and some people are upset (as in demanding refunds level of upset) when they find out it's a musical.

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, but I am in fact astounded. Sweeny Todd has been a musical stage hit in every major city of the world starting in 1979, and musical productions and excerpts from the Sondheim version have played on network television on many occasions. I must now recognize the depressing probability that if ever a cinematic remake of Oklahoma! is released, irate movie-goers will be pissed because it's not about football.

Edit: This is really me, silvercamaro, using Annie's laptop again. I do not speak for Annie, who apparently has no opinions about Sweeny Todd, movie-goers in general, or football.

PlacentiaSoccerMom · #8 Post by **PlacentiaSoccerMom** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 1:28 pm

silverscreenselect wrote:The movie is doing very poorly, apparently in large part because it's not being sold as a musical, and some people are upset (as in demanding refunds level of upset) when they find out it's a musical.

Maddie and I wanted to see it because it was a musical.

I don't like horror movies and if Sweeney wasn't a musical, I wouldn't have seen it.

Maddie would like to see it again, but she said that she would know when to cover her eyes.

MarleysGh0st · #9 Post by **MarleysGh0st** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 7:27 pm

AnnieCamaro wrote: Edit: This is really me, silvercamaro, using Annie's laptop again. I do not speak for Annie, who apparently has no opinions about Sweeny Todd, movie-goers in general, or football.

I can understand those other things, but since musicals are simply opera for less classical audiences, I'd think she'd be interested in Sweeney Todd, from a professional viewpoint.

Not that she'd ever want to take Guinefort in that gory direction...

macrae1234 · #10 Post by **macrae1234** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 10:27 pm

Mrs and I were in Vegas and it was cold. COming from a former Canadian resident to say Vegas was cold. We went to see the Cirque de Soleil show Love at the Mirage a Beatles tribute and it was incredible. We were in the 4th row and had some of the cast entering 10 feet away and the show 20 feet away. Tickets were over 300 for the 2 of us but well worth it

VAdame · #11 Post by **VAdame** » Tue Jan 01, 2008 10:30 pm

Keith & I saw Sweeney today -- pretty good! Of course, I'd probably watch Johnny Depp read the phone book, but still....! Helena Bonham Carter was great, Anthony & Johanna were pretty (Anthony looked a lot younger than I expected though.)

I was disappointed that

Spoiler

the Mad Beggar-Woman/Lucy wasn't funnier, & didn't seem to be a prostitute, only a beggar. In the stage show, when she hikes up her skirt & follows the men around propositioning them, it's hilarious in a horrifying way. They left that out, and she was only pathetic, no humor.

I mentioned that to Leah, who saw the movie the other day & hasn't seen the stage version. She said, "well, I figured she had to be a hooker -- look at the herpes around her mouth!" Yuck, & LOL

Next, for a complete change of pace, we want to see The Water Horse.

earendel · #12 Post by **earendel** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 6:55 am

silverscreenselect wrote:The movie is doing very poorly, apparently in large part because it's not being sold as a musical, and some people are upset (as in demanding refunds level of upset) when they find out it's a musical.

Three of my sons went to see Sweeney Todd and were surprised to find that it was a musical. They stayed to watch and enjoyed it, but felt that they had been misled. I told them that had they asked me, I'd have told them it was a musical (or I would have assumed it was) since it was a musical on Broadway.

PlacentiaSoccerMom · #13 Post by **PlacentiaSoccerMom** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 10:17 am

How can people not know that Sweeney Todd is a musical?

earendel · #14 Post by **earendel** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 10:24 am

PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote:How can people not know that Sweeney Todd is a musical?

My kids didn't know because they're not up on such things.

andrewjackson · #15 Post by **andrewjackson** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 10:31 am

I'll admit that while I was vaguely aware that Sweeney Todd was on Broadway I did not know that production was a musical until I read something about the movie.

Sweeney Todd as a character has been around for quite a while. Not all tellings of the story are musicals.

Appa23 · #16 Post by **Appa23** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 10:33 am

I wonder if many o f the same people who are shocked to find out that Sweeney Todd is a musical were the ones that were shocked to doscover the storyline in Bridge to Terebithia?

reeg2223 · #17 Post by **reeg2223** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 11:26 am

I thought Sweeney was doing fairly well at the box office. It's in a lot fewer theaters than the bigger movies, and keeping up pretty well.
I saw the movie and really liked it. Love the musical and thought they did a good job of making a semi-opera into a dramatic movie. Very powerful!

fantine33 · #18 Post by **fantine33** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 11:43 am

Maybe I'm jaded, but I didn't think it was very gory at all.

I've only seen parts of it on channels like PBS (I seem to recall Angela Lansbury on a bicycle), so I probably have this wrong. But wasn't Mrs. Lovett supposed to be crazy and she didn't really know what was going on at first? Helena Bonham Carter didn't seem crazy and it was sort of all her idea to make with the Farmer Vincent fritters.

My sister thought they could have accomplished a lot more without the singing, but she still liked it. Although I knew it was a musical going in, I could see her point. All I kept thinking during Borat's song was "Dude, you'd have a better shot at winning this contest if you wouldn't stop and sing an aria between each stroke." Same way with Alan Rickman, just slice him, get on with it and then you can carry on about all the pretty women doing nothing.

I did like the way it was filmed, it looked like a series of paintings. And the first thing we did after getting out of the theater was look at each other and say "What the hell did Borat having going on in his pants?" Ha!

PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote:How can people not know that Sweeney Todd is a musical?

If you don't live on a coast and don't watch the Tony awards or PBS, why would you know it was a musical?

silvercamaro · #19 Post by **silvercamaro** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 11:47 am

fantine33 wrote: Helena Bonham Carter didn't seem crazy and it was sort of all her idea to make with the Farmer Vincent fritters.

A Motel Hell reference!

Life is good.

MarleysGh0st · #20 Post by **MarleysGh0st** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 11:57 am

fantine33 wrote: I've only seen parts of it on channels like PBS (I seem to recall Angela Lansbury on a bicycle), so I probably have this wrong. But wasn't Mrs. Lovett supposed to be crazy and she didn't really know what was going on at first? Helena Bonham Carter didn't seem crazy and it was sort of all her idea to make with the Farmer Vincent fritters.

I haven't seen the movie, but I've been to a couple of local productions. Mrs. Lovett didn't start out crazy, from what I recall. She was merely down on her luck at her restaurant, developed a crush on Sweeney, and then found her morality (and her menu) to be somewhat flexible in response to his activities.

tlynn78 · #21 Post by **tlynn78** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 12:04 pm

If you don't live on a coast and don't watch the Tony awards or PBS, why would you know it was a musical?

I don't live on either coast and don't watch the Tony's, but I knew it was a musical because <cringe> I was one of the three people that watched (and liked) Jersey Girl. </cringe>

t.

Bob Juch · #22 Post by **Bob Juch** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 12:35 pm

tlynn78 wrote:
If you don't live on a coast and don't watch the Tony awards or PBS, why would you know it was a musical?
I don't live on either coast and don't watch the Tony's, but I knew it was a musical because <cringe> I was one of the three people that watched (and liked) Jersey Girl. </cringe>

t.

Make that four!

Rexer25 · #23 Post by **Rexer25** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 12:38 pm

tlynn78 wrote:
If you don't live on a coast and don't watch the Tony awards or PBS, why would you know it was a musical?
I don't live on either coast and don't watch the Tony's, but I knew it was a musical because <cringe> I was one of the three people that watched (and liked) Jersey Girl. </cringe>

t.

Confessing...I watched it too, but dint like it.

MarleysGh0st · #24 Post by **MarleysGh0st** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 12:43 pm

tlynn78 wrote:
If you don't live on a coast and don't watch the Tony awards or PBS, why would you know it was a musical?
I don't live on either coast and don't watch the Tony's, but I knew it was a musical because <cringe> I was one of the three people that watched (and liked) Jersey Girl. </cringe>

I don't get it. How does one learn that that Sweeney Todd is a musical from seeing Jersey Girl?

Bob Juch · #25 Post by **Bob Juch** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 12:51 pm

MarleysGh0st wrote:
tlynn78 wrote:
If you don't live on a coast and don't watch the Tony awards or PBS, why would you know it was a musical?
I don't live on either coast and don't watch the Tony's, but I knew it was a musical because <cringe> I was one of the three people that watched (and liked) Jersey Girl. </cringe>
I don't get it. How does one learn that that Sweeney Todd is a musical from seeing Jersey Girl?

You obviously haven't seen Jersey Girl!

She performs part of it in the film.

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