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Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street - Blu-ray
I went to see Sweeney Todd at the cinema on the back of some positive reviews and my enjoyment of previous Depp/Carter/Burton movies, but I came out of the theatre feeling largely under whelmed. I've never been a huge fan of musicals and for this reason I knew it would need to be something special to win me over - it wasn't.
Sweeney Todd tells the fairly simple tale of Benjamin Barker, a barber who is set up for a crime he didn't commit and exiled to Australia. Years later he returns with one thing on his mind - Vengeance. With the help of a woman who runs a pie shop Barker reinvents himself as the murderous Sweeney Todd and sets in action a plan to lure the man who ruined his life into his barber shop.
There are a few twists and turns along the way, but this is essentially a basic story held together by some great performances - Depp, Alan Rickman and Sacha Baron Cohen deserve particular credit. It's really bloody too and there are moments which will make even the most hardened of movie goers feel a little squeamish.
So to the marmite - Sweeney Todd is a musical. While on the whole well performed, the songs simply didn't win me over in the cinema and I was left convinced the story of the Demon Barber of Fleet Street would have been more successful as a straight up revenge flick.
A strange thing happened though. In the months building up to the movie's release on Blu-ray the soundtrack was played almost every day by Simon - co-star of the VideoGamer Show - and while initially highly irritating the movie's many musical numbers began to wear me down. I found myself humming the tunes.
So by the time I got around to watching Sweeney Todd for the second time the experience was entirely different. My new found taste for the musical numbers meant that whenever Depp and co burst into song I wasn't sat there waiting for it to end.
My enjoyment of the film a second time around can also be partially credited to the wonderful presentation on Blu-ray, with Burton's recreation of 1840's London even bleaker than I remembered it. The disc also features all the extra contend from the DVD release, only now presented in full 1080p. The highlight is a 26 minute feature on the collaboration between Burton, Depp and Carter which really highlights how much input each had in the creation of Sweeney Todd.
It's hard to score Sweeney Todd. I've become a bit of a fan and it's certainly a grower of a movie, one which certainly should be watched more than once even if you weren't a huge fan based on the first viewing. The Blu-ray disc is top notch so if you're going to pick this up for home viewing it comes highly recommended.
Verdict: 4/5
Buy this movie from Play.com
Check out page two for reviews of Dragon Wars, In The Valley of Elah and Before The Devil Knows You're Dead.
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