Best movie of this year hands down!

How sad is this?

A Disappointing Continuation

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

A series of mysterious disappearances leads an American inspector in England to a charismatic barber and his helper who bake his victims into pies for the locals and try to stop their deadly game before it's too late.A somewhat decent effort of the story, which manages some good stuff here and there to make it interesting at least. The fact that there's several interesting and fairly entertaining mysteries built up that cross pollinate each other gives this one a pretty quick pace, with the mysterious murders leading him down one path, while the fact that he needs information from a previous victim to carry out his task which intersects with the vanished helpers from their shops, and overall this whole segment is quite good. There's even a grand finale that includes the Gothic trope of burning-down-the-location as well, as several of the preparation of the victim scenes get quite bloody, but this one does have some flaws. With several romantic subplots present, it doesn't offer up a lot of time on horror-specific subplots so this one doesn't really get up there in dealing out a body count, and overall this one has more of a period/drama feel rather than an out-and-out horror film so it misses a lot of chances to deliver some gruesome shocks. These lower it enough, but it's still pretty enjoyable.Rated R: Language, Graphic Violence and Brief Nudity.

This TV-movie ranks as one of the two best versions of the classic tale of Sweeney Todd, the other one being - of course - the 1936 black-&-white movie starring Tod Slaughter.Ben Kingsley and Joanna Lumley are terrific - and their approach of the famous characters is in the true spirit of horror melodrama: a perilous "exercice de style" between horror and comedy. All the other actors are excellent, the sets are wonderful in their creepiness, a touch of gore is added to good measure, and Schlesinger's direction is faultless. This TV-movie could be shown in movie theaters, as a "legitimate" picture - in fact, it's well above most of the current movies...Incidentally, this version is an Irish-British coproduction, certainly not "an American production" as wrongly mentioned in some posts.

I suppose I should not be too harsh, since this is an American TV movie, and neither a quality British product nor a feature film. But Sweeney Todd was ultimately a disappointment.On the plus side, the film was enthusiastic about the cannibalism and murder at the heart of the story. These subjects certainly weren't skirted around. Nor were the central characters made into heroes. There was never any doubt that the villainous Mr Todd and his butcher accomplice would pay for their crimes. There was only a faint echo of the modern idea that a criminal is the product of society, and that Todd's crimes were the product of a negligent military. But this was only hinted at.The major problem was lack of authenticity and a period feel. The Irish street scenes were physically right for early nineteenth century London, but the people were wrong. They were exaggerated characters, caricatures. Everything over over-acted, over directed, over-blown! Basically the director tried too hard to create a period feel.A good effort, but not good enough. A waste of acting talent

I started watching this one with no hopes that it'd be any good but, for my surprise, I enjoyed this classical story until the end. Acclaimed director John Schlesinger and Campbell Scott had worked together before in "The Innocent". Campbell Scott, by the way, defines his character in very positive way and he does look 'cool'. The costumes and art direction are excellent, especially since this is a TV movie (one of the best TV movies I've ever seen, because I don't usually watch them and, when I do, I usually hate it).Plus there's beautiful young English actress, Selina Boyack, she is one of the best things about this movie. I'd say she might turn out to be famous some time soon.And this movie is better than at least 70% or 80% of the movies we see around. If you get the chance, don't miss this one, I promise you that you'll like it.