crawlfan-1

When I first saw this movie, I was harsh on it. Why? Probably because I wasn't used to the b-movie style. About a year later, I watch it again after seeing a few dozen other bad movies.

Wow.

It can easily be said that this movie set standards for future b-movies to follow. Why? The cheesy special effects are VERY dated, there's no doubt about it. The acting is mediocre at best, and the plot is extremely corny. But isn't that what we love about these kinds of movies? The script impressed me a bit. Ed Naha did what he could with the dialouge, which was humorous for the most part.

So basically, anyone who didn't like this movie had the wrong expectations. This may be classified as a horror or fantasy film, but it seems unfair to think of it that way. There should be a category called "Late-night-nonsense." Maybe it would get better ratings.

If you enjoy your health, and dislike throwing up when you expect a thrill at the movies, avoid this movie at all costs. I probably wouldn't have minded this movie if it hadn't been shot from the bystander's point of view. I admit, this had some excellent thrills to it, and I always love films about gigantic and destructive monsters, but it was filmed like the Blair witch project. It's almost as if they wanted to take a wonderful idea and ruin it. I felt so physically ill that I kept my eyes closed for five minutes of it so that I could control the migraine that this useless piece of crap gave me. It almost felt like the director was trying to insult the general public.

Goal well met, jerk.

And now they're planning a sequel. Dear God, have mercy on us, we DO NOT deserve trash like this in our cinema. Don't let the absurd rating of 7.8/10 fool you, this movie should be ranked on the Bottom 100 list.

Originally, I was going to give this movie a rating of 6/10, rather than 9, but a lot of things have made me reconsider. For one, the sets and visuals in this movie are downright amazing, and showed Tim Burton for the genius of cinema that he truly is.

However, I was going to give it a 6/10 for a few reasons. As an example, they removed my favorite song from the stage-play ("The Ballad of Sweeney Todd"), and the casting seems much like a 12 year old would arrange. Like Johnny Depp as Sweeney Todd; he has a dark appeal to him and a sort of sinister voice when it comes to singing, but it seems that he was cast mainly because of how big of a name he is in Hollywood. Then there's the casting of Alan Rickman and Timothy Spall of the Harry Potter franchise. Showing that the both of them were cast in the same movie shows that Tim Burton wanted the same kind of feel of Professor Snape and Peter Pettigrew. Regardless of that, Johnny Depp, Alan Rickman and Timothy Spall pull off their roles much better than I had ever expected (As a matter of fact, Timothy Spall has become my favorite actor to play the role of the Beadle in the history of Sweeney Todd, and I regret he didn't have more opportunities to sing).

Helena Bonham Carter didn't quite live up to expectations, though. As a singer, she's pretty good. As an actress, she's great. But a great musical actress? No, not quite. Lovett is a character of comic relief, and you simply fall in love with her as the play progresses, but you don't in the movie. I kept feeling like I had to picture Patti LuPone in her place as the movie progressed.

This movie is extremely well-crafted, as only Tim Burton could do. The blood seems a bit cheap and added-in, but the mood of the film is dark and, yes, somewhat frightening if you let it sink in as you watch it.

All in all, despite a few casting errors and how they cut out all the comedic wonders of "A Little Priest" and "The Worst Pies in London", there's so much in this movie that compensates for it, such as how it's the darkest adaptation of Sweeney Todd I've seen in my life, musical or not.

If you're squeamish, please avoid this movie. There's gore galore.