Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street marks the second twisted musical I've seen in the last month and actually enjoyed. Of course, the other was The Rocky Horror Picture Show in the comfort of my own darkened bedroom, safe from all the crazies who invade the night getting their inner transvestites on.
So, pretty much, to catch my eye and keep me enrapt in a musical, you've got to make it about the fringe elements of society.
Of course, it helps that Sweeney Todd was made by Tim Burton (I am, after all, a tremendous fan of A Nightmare Before Christmas). And even though the music wasn't produced by Danny Elfman, I have to say that I wasn't put off in the least by the harmonizing of Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, or any of the other enjoyable scamps in the cast of this film.
And, unlike Rocky Horror, this movie actually has a point. So those of us who aren't stoned out of our gourds 24/7 can also enjoy what we're watching on the big screen.
That point: Sweeney Todd is a street shavin' man, the best there's ever been. He was ripped apart from his family by an evil man, sent away for 15 years, and now he's back to enjoy his bloody revenge.
And how ABOUT that bloody revenge! Makes my stomach all hungry for some �ter-braten just watching it.
I probably went ahead and jumped the gun in declaring Susan Sarandon's rack the best in Hollywood, but I will tell you that Tim Burton's wife - the delightfully impetuous Helena Bonham Carter - gives Ms. Sarandon a run for her money in the get-ups Burton has her cavorting in.
But, that's the thing with Tim Burton movies. He gives you awe-inspiring visuals you're not going to see anywhere else. Bosomy wenches aside, you've got turn-of-some-century London and all its dingy decor, you've got costumes both drab and eye-catching at the same time, and you've got one hell of a fantasy sequence that brings you right back to Dorothy's first steps into Oz.
As far as live-action musicals go, this one's the best I've ever seen, but that's not saying much, considering I've yet to see Hedwig And The Angry Inch, which by all rights I'm told is a must-see on all accounts. Nevertheless, I'm pretty confident that - what with the tepid musical fare from "Grease" on down to "Chicago" - Sweeney Todd will go down in my top five all time musicals if for no other reason that it didn't annoy the piss out of me and didn't have John Travolta involved in any way whatsoever.