i have no idea who to recommend this to. the songs are..alright, nothing spectacular, but passable. thats my problem with musicals in general, unless the songs are truly magnificent, then they’re just filling time, and a 30 min story drags out to 2 hours.
this is kind of what happened here, but because of the subject matter it made it more bearable. johnny depp seemed to get better as the film went along, but that reprise of pretty women at the end made me wince when it started. god that was awful.
all in all, it was thoroughly..ok. i can see why they wanted to make it, im sure it was fun for them, but for us, it certainly didnt do much to brighten up my evening.

I was actually a bit disappointed in this: it just doesn’t live up to the pedigree. The whole thing – although looking beautifully dismal in true Burton style – was just a tad one-dimension for me. I went in knowing there was a barber killing his customers, who ended up in pies. I came out knowing pretty much nothing else, except that Johnny Depp can croon a bit, and grimy little urchins singing will always make you think of Oliver!.

Alas, none of the songs were particularly memorable, and unlike musicals I have fairly enjoyed (Phantom of the Opera and Evita, and even Moulin Rouge) the story isn’t told through the music, so a fair few of the numbers do drag horribly, coming across as staged, pointless moments (“Ah, I will now sing to my razor!”).

However, after a slow start, and before a rather… hmm… ending, there are moments in there of delicious nastiness. Fav moment is Todd and pie-maker Mrs Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter) coming up with the people-pie idea, and duetting about the virtues of various types of filling. Vicar pie, anyone? ;)

Finally, I’m actually quite impressed that they didn’t try to tone things down for a 15-rating. The gore factor is high, with lingering shots of blood and gore, even if it did make me wince more than once!

Ah, I’m glad I saw it, but very glad I didn’t pay £6-7 for the privilege.