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movie review - Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Tokyo, 2008.01.07

No. Bad Tim Burton. Bad!

This is a movie featuring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter. You can bet that it's directed by Tim Burton. It's about a butcher who returns to London after being sent to Australia as punishment by a corrupt judge. When he gets back he starts slitting the throats of the awful people of London, and taking the bodies to his new wife who then makes meat pies. There's a fair bit of sizzle here but not a lot of steak. The plot was unengaging and somehow the two stars (usually very watchable) failed to either seem interested in one another or the story itself. I've known many people who think that Tim Burton can do no wrong. I wish.

This movie was a big disappointment. Not recommended.

rand()m quote

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.

—Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.