pops
Jane Asher
Posts: 227
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Post by pops on Jan 28, 2008 18:49:20 GMT
The boy playing Anthony... it's like Tim Burton spliced together Scarlett Johansson and Keira Knightley to play him. It was quite mesmorising. I think he may have been cast because he's the only actor on Earth who could make Johnny Depp look grizzled by comparison. (Although I don't really agree with the people who think Depp is too young for the role - if he was a naive young barber with a baby daughter when he was transported, and he's been away 15 years, surely late 30s, early 40s is about right?) I loved this, so much so that I'm borrowing a friend's original Broadway cast recording because I want to hear the songs they cut out, but my boyfriend thought it was terrible. I think he had hoped that all the blood would distract from the fact that it was a musical.
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Post by pauliepoos on Jan 28, 2008 19:41:18 GMT
It was rather fantastic, wasn't it? Was anyone surprised by the "twist" that beggar woman was The First Mrs Sweeney? I was more taken aback by Sweeney and Mrs Lovett being so stupid as to go rumming around in the cellar with the oven looking for the little boy, when he could easily have hidden and locked them in. Saying that, the scenes where Helena BC realised she had to kill the little boy were fantastic. She was two parts Helen Schlegel to five parts Marla Singer. The Worst Pies In London was my favourite song. And did anyone else think the dubbing was off at times? When shall we expect the West End revival, with West End Leading Man Lee Mead as Sweeney Todd, West End Leading Lady Connie Fisher as Mrs Lovett and West End Leading Man John Barrowman as Alan Rickman? I missed a bit of the final scene, as a mentalist who had been making strange noises throughout the film was being forcibly ejected, and I wanted to establish if he was a mentalist or just drunk, and judging by his hat and the way he shuffled he was a mentalist, but the sight of Sweeney holding his wife and his blood pouring all over her face was quite beautiful.
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Post by Nurse Dunkley on Jan 28, 2008 22:54:22 GMT
I didn't really 'buy' that Toby would kill Todd, but you pointing out that he saw Todd kill Lovett changes that.
Also, I only worked out that the mad beggar lady was Mrs Todd when she went up to the barbers shortly before being killed. Either I was being slower than usual or this was very good on the film's part, since usually if an offscreen death is mentioned I'm shouting "AAHAH! SHE'S NOT REALLY DEAD THEN!". Similarly to when someone in a wheelchair turns up and I shout "AaHah! THEY'RE NOT REALLY DISABLED!". Obviously this is only in films and tv shows, not in real life. That would be offensive.
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Post by pauliepoos on Jan 28, 2008 23:05:49 GMT
I've edited my original post and put it in the spoiler now. I didn't think spoilers would be necessary seeing as Mrs Lovett's death had been mentoned outside of one. That surprised me, and it's the second time I've seen HBC burnt alove, and neither time was very nice.
I knew Laura Michelle Kelly was in it, and realised she was the beggar woman straight away, because I was thinking how much Blonde LMK looked like Michelle Gomez, and then beggar woman looked like Michelle Gomez too.
Do you think that the sailor boy and Johanna escaped with Alan Rickman's money and adopted the little boy? I love a happy ending.
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Post by somethingbiblical on Jan 29, 2008 1:51:27 GMT
I genuinely didn't notice it was his wife. I never even heard her say "Don't I know you", so I literally found out at the same time as Sweeney did, which made me feel incredibly stupid.
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Post by jamiek on Jan 31, 2008 0:52:35 GMT
Seen it this evening: it really was great.
It was everything I wanted it to be: dark, gory, funny and kind of sad. The cast is wonderous too but who is expecting anything different? I never fancy actual Johnny Depp but when he's in character as Sweeney or even as Jack Sparrow, I'm always up for him.
I do apologise for actually being old news central but I just Wikipedia'd the stage version and Angela Lansbury was Mrs Lovett originally? I quite frankly have no words to describe my fury at having never seen that.
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Post by Joel on Jan 31, 2008 20:34:59 GMT
It's the best thing Tim Burton's done for a while, that's for sure.
Anthony was beautiful. I want him to be my boyfriend. Toby was very unannoying, which is good for a singing child.
Anyone who wants to see evil Angela Lansbury must watch 'The Manucharian Candidate'. She so scary.
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Post by Muinimula on Feb 2, 2008 19:37:33 GMT
As a huge fan of Sondheim generally, and a fan of the stage version of 'Sweeney', I was generally very impressed. The film looked phenomenal, and the trimming of the score wasn't too distressing. I loved Helena's Mrs Lovett most. Johnny kept my attention, but his voice was a bit too 'pop' for my taste. I loved Sacha as Pirelli, but wanted the Beggar Woman to appear a bit more often throughout.
The biggest disappointment was the ending. I mean, it just finished! I was longing for the chorus/ghosts to make an appearance to sing 'The Ballad Of Sweeney Todd' to finish the film, but...nothing.
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Post by Merce on Feb 3, 2008 20:53:09 GMT
Saw it last night and loved it and was pleasantly surprised by Johnny Depps voice, the tone of it kept bringing back the vulnerability of his character in the middle of the bloodbath. Also thought the boy Tobys singing voice was quite remarkable.
The cinema did seem to be amusingly segregated into musical fans, Depp fans and emos/goths. One little goth in particular caused the entire cinema to erupt in laughter after he let out a shocked (and rather middle aged) 'Ooooh' at high volume when Alan Rickman made the comment to Joanna about her not being a lady. I think the poor boy was blushing under his white make-up.
Loving Anthony a little too much - reminded me of 'Sebastian' era Johnny Rhys-Myers in Velvet Goldmine.
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Post by subrosa on Feb 3, 2008 22:24:25 GMT
Loving Anthony a little too much - reminded me of 'Sebastian' era Johnny Rhys-Myers in Velvet Goldmine. That's exactly what I thought! Whenever I saw him I kept thinking 'it's Brian Slade!'
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pops
Jane Asher
Posts: 227
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Post by pops on Feb 7, 2008 19:59:31 GMT
I do apologise for actually being old news central but I just Wikipedia'd the stage version and Angela Lansbury was Mrs Lovett originally? I quite frankly have no words to describe my fury at having never seen that. The Angela Lansbury stage version was filmed for American TV and you can watch pretty much all of it on You Tube. She plays it very different to Helena Bonham Carter, but is still great. When Andrew Lloyd Webber gets round to making How Do You Solve a Problem Like Mrs Lovett, I'm definitely auditioning. And at the end of each show, the person who got voted off will be shoved in an oven while the rest of us sing Poor Thing. Alternatively, he could just get me a role in Hollyoaks and I could sing sinister lullabyes to Tom, while keeping quiet about where I got his suspiciously dark looking fish fingers from.
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Post by Rad on Feb 7, 2008 23:46:11 GMT
Pops, you are amazing, have sme karma.
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Post by coxy1979 on Mar 24, 2008 22:43:23 GMT
I've just finished watching this
It looked fantastic and, as everyone has already said, Depp and Bonham Carter were generally terrific.
However, there was just something amiss for me. I think it may be that the operatic Sondheim musical, is not the sort of musical I'm really a fan of. There were no big numbers for me to sing along to.
Helena needs to stay away from flames though - what with this and Frankenstein, she'll be getting a reputation.
(Oh yes - I was fascinated by Anthony as well)
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