Better not show her Novocaine, then.

Movie versions of musicals tend to be a bit shorter because people forget that a real musical can sometimes last for three hours or more, and movie versions intepret things differently because they're not tied to the limitations of a stage show. By the way, there is now talk of doing a live movie version of the Beauty and the Beast musical, which could be quite good if they translated what was so well done in Enchanted into the movie.

I'm surprised no one has jumped on a movie version of Wicked.

What are you talking about? I did a two second search for showings in the East Bay and came up with:


Showtimes & Tickets
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Location: 94538 [ change location ]

Date: Today, Sun. Dec 23 Mon. Dec 24 Tue. Dec 25 Wed. Dec 26 Thu. Dec 27 Buy tickets from MovieTickets.com by clicking linked showtimes.


Cinedome 8 Fremont


39153 Farwell Drive, Fremont, CA, 94538 Map It

(11:35am), 2:10, 4:50, 7:20, 10:00


Century Union City 25


32100 Union Landing, Union City, CA, 94587 Map It

(11:10am), (12:30), 2:00, 3:25, 4:50, 6:15, 7:40, 9:05, 10:30


Century 20 Great Mall


1010 Great Mall Drive, Milpitas, CA, 95035 Map It

11:00am, 1:50, 4:40, 7:30, 10:20


AMC Mercado 20


3111 Mission College Blvd., Santa Clara, CA, 95054 Map It
Buy tickets from MovieTickets.com by clicking a linked showtime.
(11:30am), 12:55, 2:30, 4:00, 5:30, 7:00, 8:35, 10:00


Century Cinemas 16


1500 N. Shoreline Blvd., Mountain View, CA, 94043 Map It

(11:05am), 2:20, 5:05, 7:50, 10:35


Century Park 12 Redwood City


557 East Bayshore Blvd., Redwood City, CA, 94063 Map It

(11:30am), (12:30), 2:30, 4:00, 5:50, 7:00, 9:00, 10:00


Regal Hacienda Crossings 20& IMAX


5000 Dublin Boulevard, Dublin, CA, 94568 Map It

(10:40am), (1:35), 4:20, 7:25, 10:15


Livermore Cinemas


2490 First Street, Livermore, CA, 94550 Map It

11:05am, 1:45, 4:30, 7:15, 9:50


Century San Leandro Bayfair 16


350 Bayfair Mall, San Leandro, CA, 94578 Map It

1:55, 4:40, 7:25, 10:10


It's definitely playing in Northern California.

I though it was much better than "The Phantom of the Opera" and "Moulin Rouge," but is not in the same category of "Chicago," as far as modern movie musicals go. I found this to be over-rated and rather silly. Depp and Bonham-Carter were great, though.

Carter was pretty good, not great, but not distracting, fit her character. I thought Timothy Spall's little song was the worst showcase of vocals by far, and the song was awkward.

I enjoyed the film a lot once I fell into it's groove. The first 15 minutes (especially the credit sequence) just felt off to me. The younger cast members did the best job singing, but everyone worked well. Cohen was hilarious. I definitely heard a little Bowie in Depp's singing.

The story, while nothing new, was very intriguing. The ending was great for the Sweeney Todd character, but I felt Anthony and Johanna had their arc cut short. I've never seen the musical, but I imagine it's addressed there.

The Mrs. Lovett fantasy segment was my favorite but Toby's first song was the most enjoyable.

I had the songs in my head all day yesterday, so I picked up the complete soundtrack today. It's a nice edition with a booklet that has all the lyrics and some glossy stills from the movie, along with an intro by Burton. And the songs, of course, are great.

I must say, I rather enjoyed this a great deal.

A musical that ties in the gallons of blood that were scene in Kill Bill. Sweet!

I liked the movie just fine - great job by Burton, Depp, Carter, et all.

But I hated, hated the music - it was just one annoying, awkward and retarded "song" after another. The music had no melody to speak of whatsoever, and the lyrics were plain asinine. The songs were so bad, they sounded like they were being made up on the spot as it went on, with no structure or coherence. Just abysmal music.

I'm not a huge musical fan, but I don't particularly have any dislike of them either. I've just never been a Sondheim fan, though this was my first time hearting his Sweeney Todd, so now I hate his shit more than ever.

I just want to reiterate how much I hated the music - EVERYTHING about it.
Maybe it'd have been better if the cast could sing... but I doubt it.

Loved the movie very much. There were a few sequences/songs I didn't think worked (the stuff with the young sailor boy and the daughter) but overall it was beautiful.
One of my favorites of the year without a doubt.
The ending was one of the most shocking and surprising I have ever seen though. I really was not prepared for such an ending as they had in this film. Very dark but I guess it makes sense if you think about it.

See, I think Sondheim is great because he's not afraid to abandon the typical verse-chorus-verse structure, and his melodies don't sound like typical Broadway musical fare. I hate most musicals, but I love Sondheim.

I don't mind the lack of verse/chorus/verse, but I'm not exaggerating when I say that it comes off as very lazy songwriting with the way it all sounds like it was just made up on the spot. And forget typical Broadway melodies (which I'm not too familiar with anyways), his melodies don't sound like melodies, period. Sure, it's not easy coming up with 90 minutes of good melodies, but the dude didn't even come up with one minute.

But I guess I have to chalk it up to music's subjectiveness - one man's Beatles is another man's Slayer is another man's Sondheim...

Sondheim's music is incredibly complex. You can say you don't like it, but to dismiss it as lazy songwriting is, well, just wrong.

From wikipedia:

"Sondheim's score is one of his most complex to date. It relies heavily on counterpoint and rich, angular harmonies in the show. Its compositional style has been compared to those of Maurice Ravel, Sergei Prokofiev, and Bernard Herrmann (scores for horror films). Sondheim also quotes the ancient Dies Irae Gregorian chant, both as part of the eponymous ballad that runs throughout the score, in a musical inversion later on, and in the accompaniment to "Epiphany". He also relies heavily on leitmotif - at least twenty distinct ones can be identified throughout the score. Depending on how and where the show is presented, it is sometimes considered an opera."

Now, granted, some of the music has been cut or re-arranged for the film, but Sondheim himself signed off on the changes, and personally, I think it flows very well. So again, if you don't like it, that's fine. But it's certainly not lazy, and to say it is lacking in structure, coherence, or skill is just misinformed.

If you want truly lazy songwriting, look no further than another Broadway composer: Andrew Lloyd Weber.

yah but im a hr and a half north of sac thats 3 hrs from the bay...

You're totally right. Lazy was the wrong word. And I think that's my disconnect. I truly feel that the best songs are quite simple and straight-forward, showtunes or otherwise. Though it might sound badly improvised to me, complex music like Sondheim's lack the sort of subtlety and/or straightforwardness that comes more simple song structures, which makes them more appealing to me.

Also, I saw this on the same day I saw Once, which had music that I absolutely adored, so it had a lot to live up to. Yeah, I know it's not fair to compare them since they're completely different beasts. But to me, one had music that completely helped the film, and the other had music that only hurt it.

Now that is the kind of criticism I can get behind. Although I'm not sure I understand what's subtle about simple song structures. I love simplicity, and in music it can be quite useful, but almost by definition something that is straightforward would lack subtlety. Maybe I'm just not reading your post right.

Personally, I love complex music, especially outside of the rock milieu. Bring on the non-traditional song structures, the challenging counter-harmonies and melodies, and if you can throw in something atonal, I'll probably love it even more. What makes that stuff so great to me is how I can enjoy it on the base level of simply listening, or I can dig deeper and see how the composer has constructed the work, which means I'm always finding something new.

Well, as a musician and (sometimes) songwriter myself, I've alway subscribed to the "keep it simple, stupid" axiom of songwriting. While I prefer complex themes, I feel that simple song-structure gets those themes across better (and more universally). I just think that this musical is the opposite of that (simple themes and complex structures). That's my objective view. Subjectively, it's just nails on a chalkboard...

I would agree that the musical (and by extension the movie) has simple themes and complex songs, but I think if the piece had simple themes AND simple songs, it would be too on the nose.

And perhaps I should qualify my statement: I don't love complexity for the sake of complexity. There should be a reason for it, but I find the best composers are sophisticated enough to make it work. I find that the "keep it simple, stupid" axiom works best as a baseline. Always keep your base simple, and expand on it from there. Sometimes some things need to be complex, and trying to enforce simplicity where it would be too brute force is inappropriate in those cases. Makes me think of the scene in Amadeus where the Emperor chides Mozart for using "too many notes."

I really enjoyed this one. I've never seen the musical, but I loved the music and the songs, very memorable stuff. I admit I couldn't make out every word some of certain songs (i.e. The Worst Pies in London), but that's not the first time that's happened to me.

She was cute for that world, and she filled that dress quite nicely. She doesn't look like that in real life:

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Yeah, you're right, she looks like a normal human being in that video.

Wow, I have to disagree with Slop101's criticisms. Lazy songwriting? From Sondheim? I think the lyrics are quite clever. And if "Johanna" and "Not While I'm Around" aren't melodic, I don't know what is. It just goes to show how subjective music is, I guess.

Haven't seen this yet (dying to though), but am I the only one who thinks that a Burton hasn't looked this absolutely fucked up since Batman Returns?

you're not alone. this is definitely his most fucked up.

Has any Burton film ended as hopeless as this one? Usually his films, while dark, have a happy ending, of some sort.

For the record, I hate showtunes, and more specifically the style of singing associated with it. It's actually bad for your voice to sing that way, besides the fact that it sounds grating. I was glad Sweeney Todd was mostly more powerful, operatic if you will, and proper singing.