Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street A Movie Review	MPAA Rated - R It's 1:57 Long A Review by The Dude on the Right

Now, to my written review.

"Sweeney Todd: TDBoFS" is a film adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim’s Broadway musical, and for this movie we get Johnny Depp as Sweeney, and Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett. It seems that about 15 years ago, in the happiest days of his life, Sweeney was Benjamin Barker, a great barber with a hot wife, Lucy (Laura Michelle Kelly), and new daughter, Johanna. But the evil Judge Turpin (Alan Rickman) wanted Lucy so he sent Ben away for a bogus crime, Lucy poisons herself, the Judge takes Johanna for his own, and then Benjamin returns, thanks in part to Anthony (Jamie Campbell Bower), with Ben changing his name to Sweeney Todd. He discovers Mrs. Lovett, a creepy woman serving crappy meat pies, and he is now looking to accomplish only a few things, especially after finding out his wife poisoned herself, namely get his revenge on the bad Judge and reunite himself with his daughter. Now in cahoots with Mrs. Lovett, who needs cheap, fresh meat to expand her meat pie business, Sweeney, with the help of his trusty straight razor, starts killing off lots of folks who won’t be missed, yet constantly keeping his eye on his prize – killing the bad Judge.

In the meantime Anthony has fallen in love with the older Johanna, who, at 15ish years old, has a large rack (sorry, I couldn’t help but notice, and the older Johanna is played by Jayne Wisener who is actually 20 years old now, so I don’t feel that bad), and the Judge, being creepy, decides he wants to marry her as well. Ramped up in his revenge mode so Turpin can’t have Johanna, Sweeney, using Anthony, comes up with a plan to free Johanna and trick the Judge to his barber chair, and as things go, they don’t always go as planned, thanks in part to the youngin, Toby (Ed Sanders). Boo hoo! This movie, which is really a tragedy in theatrical terms, does not have a happy ending.

And you know what, all of this happens, and more, as a musical.

Yup, everyone in the movie sings, some of them dance, and for the most part it takes a lot for me to like a musical on the movie screen, and "Sweeney Todd: TDBoFS" didn’t do it. In fact, I really didn’t like the movie at all.

What didn’t I like? Well, for starters, the musical thing. If Tim Burton and the movie folks would have booted the singing and kept the movie as a straight-laced, creepy, horror film, I think I would have loved it. Sure, Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, and the rest of the folks sang nicely and all, but for me the singing just took away from the story. Also, I didn’t like the over-the-top gore for Sweeney’s killings. Fine, I’ve never witnessed a throat slashing with a straight razor, but the blood looked fake, the spurting blood came across as waaaaayyyyyy excessive and not realistic, so for the me the killings looked, well, fake. And as much the Anthony in love with Johanna plotline was necessary to get the bad Judge back into the barber chair, it just seemed stupid.

What did I like? The movie looked great, in the Tim Burton fashion we love. It was dark, it was creepy, it brought in color when needed, but for the most part kept most things in shades of gray. And even though they sang a lot, I did think Johnny Depp and the rest of the cast did great, especially when they weren’t singing.

In wrapping up I look at the many accolades being bestowed on "Sweeney Todd: TDBoFS," and this is one of those movies that makes me wonder what might be wrong with me because as I am writing this review, on the Rotten Tomatoes website, the movie is 87% Fresh with an average rating of 7.9 out of 10, or 4 stars out of 5 on my scale, and over on IMDB it’s got an average rating of 8.5 out of 10. But for me I can only squeeze out 1 ½ stars out of 5 for "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street." Maybe it’s just me, but I still have a hard time transplanting musicals from the stage to the silver screen. Had I seen the thing on Broadway I probably would have liked it, but on my movie screen I just didn’t like it.

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!