It appears review embargoes are only upheld if you critics don’t like your movie as the demand for tight lips surrounding Paramount’s recent screening of Sweeney Todd was quickly abandoned as everyone seems to have nothing but good things to say… well, almost everyone.
First for those that broke embargo and revealed their opinion (doing so while saying they weren’t allowed to), oddly they are the positive opinions:
Jeffrey Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere:
Surprise turned to admiration turned to amazement. I felt filled up, delighted. I couldn’t believe it…a Tim Burton film that reverses the decline! Call me a changed man. Call Burton a changed man. Sweeney Todd is his best film since…Beetlejuice?
Tom O’Neil at the LA Times:
Everybody whose opinion I pooled after the screening tonight said they thought the movie and Johnny Depp were brilliant. And everybody thought it was outrageously bloody and grisly. Many said they didn’t think it could win best picture because of that. Yes, there was widespread belief that it’ll be nommed for best pic, director and actor — maybe even best actress (Helena Bonham Carter), too — and that MAYBE Johnny could win, but not the film. Not because it doesn’t deserve it. But because of all the blood, they say.
David Carr at the New York Times says:
This film displays a director in his prime, with a fully realized execution – sorry about that – of one of Broadway’s darkest fables.
Finally David Poland says:
Depp is still likely to win the Oscar ahead of the zealously artful Mr. Day-Lewis… my sense is that on additional views, it will get simpler to see the movie and not the show.
Sorry about the disjointed Poland quote, but his blog post is a garbled mess… moving forward into the less flattering…
Kristopher Tapley at InContention said in his two-and-a-half star review:
I couldn’t shake the notion that Todd was a one-dimensional rendering, a character I couldn’t have cared less about due to a lack of connectivity.
Last we have … Oh, that’s it… Yup, the only “negative” comment is from Tapley, at least that I found in my search. If you need more praise for the flick you can read Harry Knowles’ review from the beginning of November here. Overall the film seems to be a bloody hit.
I will be lucky enough to see it in two weeks, and after missing what will be the only screening of There Will Be Blood in Seattle until January I need something special to shake me out of my doldrums… I hope Sweeney Todd is it, if not I may have to go see Atonement one more time… damn I loved that film.
