les miserables (the movie film; not the concert film or book. Dutch angles! Americans! Australians!)

Broadway car-alarm shit

What does the new Patti LuPone album have to do with anything?

Les Mis doesn't have fuck-singing, Morbs. It's not THAT kind of French movie

AP review

But again, it's hard not to appreciate the effort, the risk it required to take on the role.

Yeah, no.

http://www.vulture.com/2012/12/david-edelstein-on-les-miserables.html

The tasteless bombardment that is Les Misérables would, under most circumstances, send audiences screaming from the theater

I will make any friend who isn't a film critic pay dearly for watching this.

http://www.noise11.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Hugh-Jackman-Les-Mis%C3%A9rables.jpg

"But I have suffered enough!"

you'll have to catch me first, alfred :D

haha

http://curiosity-media.discovery.com/mediaItems/4/e/7/4e7291d0c36f1/kids-taste-buds-1.jpg.jpg?v=1316131286

http://www.sounzgood.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Les-Miserables-Russell-Crowe.jpg

"I look for the friends of Alfred. They have violated the law."

http://cdn0.sbnation.com/imported_assets/822929/5123-9434.gif

"They chose...poorly."

http://www.eonline.com/eol_images/Entire_Site/2012430/reg_1024.lesmis.anne.mh.053012.jpg

"Why, Alfred, WHY!"

beat me to it, Ned

lol

This movie feels so weirdly abrupt and microbial in scope. It just has absolutely no sense of spatial or rhythmic comparison.

The belting vets -- Aaron Tveit, Samantha Barks -- do the best by the material, tho Eddie Redmayne was surprisingly strong.

I still don't understand why Russell Crowe. I don't think the world will ever know.

Hey, that rhymes! Maybe this is the genesis of a new musical complaining about movies.

Yeah, the show's fans will cringe at his each and every note. I also wasn't much impressed with Wolverine's high notes, either, but that could be just a result of the horrible audio recording techniques.

Almost everyone sounds like they're whisper belting.

http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1217561.1355241302!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_635/anne12n-2-web.jpg

I like it? I would wear cracked out things like that every day if I could get away with it.

This entire week I have been singing this more than anything from the actual musical itself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRbDOTRqPCY

what is she wearing around her legs? they look like fashionable calipers

i mean I love the overall look I just, idgi re the legwear

Barks seems hemmed in by the approach. Redmayne sounded Kermit-y to me. Crowe def the worst offender.

Can we agree that no one at all (yes, even Crowe) sounds as good as they could've had Hooper not f'd up their game with this gimmick?

Can we agree that no one at all (yes, even Crowe) sounds as good as they could've had Hooper not f'd up their game with this gimmick?

Can we agree that no one at all (yes, even Crowe) sounds as good as they could've had Hooper not f'd up their game with this gimmick?

haha

Yeah the whole "live singing is more real/authentic/etc" thing is so odious.

eh, I give the direct the benefit of the doubt re: the conceit until I see it

btw I fucking hate this show so the only reason I'll be seeing this is spouse pressure

She dreamed a dream

it doesn't strike me as a bad idea, but it probably works better if you privilege singing over name recognition - you cant mamma mia this shit

The problem with the Live-Singing gimmick is that this is the sole reason Musical Theatre heads seem to be touting this movie musical over other recent movie musicals. Annoyed by the decidedly choppy rhythmic vamping from Jackman on "Who Am I?" and they reply "He's FEELING THE SONG". Complain about Russell Crowe's throaty bellowing and "He's trying to be earthy!".

Half the Musical Theatre heads I know think Les Miserables is about the French Revolution and remember fuck-all about the story. The whole reason the musical was ever popular was the songs, and now that they're being rendered unlistenable, who cares?

I blame Baz Luhrmann for this generation of bad movie musicals.

the approach appears to be coming from the school of thought that privileges emotion over accuracy, which may be a very good choice for me given how much I dislike most of the music from Les Miz

The problem is that many people seem to be equating emoting with making a constipated gutteral grunt in place of where the note used to be.

lol

hooper came off like an arrogant dolt and i'm sort of pleased there's resistance to this movie. what was he saying, other than "those people who made singin in the rain and oklahoma? fucking fakers!" way to not get it, smart guy.

IMO this film would have been much better with Diamanda Galas as Fantine

Richard Gere managed to make an unpleasant nasal whine work surprisingly well as a character voice in Chicago; I don't actually expect Crowe to be any good but maybe his terribleness will distract me from the fact that I just paid for and am sitting through the Les Miz movie

i dont think he really meant any of that shit. i love singin in the rain but im not offended on its behalf, hes just trying to hype up/justify his movie's gimmick

I didn't mind Gere at all in Chicago, actually, now that I think about it

The trouble is that (most of) the actors seem too distracted making an effort to sing well to remember to act well.

xpost Yeah, with that movie, it was the sub-par dancing that bugged me.

H4A: all right, but if his movie ends up being shitty with shitty singing he kind of loses coming and going, you know?

im not a singing nazi so i suspect i wont really care. that clip of russell crowe bellowing I AM JAVERT or whatever had me cracking up, so im probably going to enjoy this

im not a singing nazi

The hills are alive with the sound of Hunnnnnnnnnnngry...

This film is going to do what Rent did -- draw in a large opening weekend, make a bunch of high school Thespians sob into their box of Milk Duds, get panned critically, and then brick the rest of the way.