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

djp- don't you start

The movie is fine except for that it ruins all the slow songs by taking them at thrice the speed. Literally the worst version of "Somewhere" ever.

― Zero Dark 33⅓: The Final Insult (Eric H.), Saturday, January 12, 2013 11:47 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Also turns that song into a sex duet instead of sung by an anonymous girl during the Nightmare

In fairness (now that I've seen it), the thing with Thenardier's accent appears to be that it's HBC-matching English at base, he just throws on a French accent when playing the innkeeper to his guests - and a dreadful Irish one for the con before the mugging.

The restaging of Mme Thenardier's coda to Master of the House, as one more con, is kind of interesting, though I like the vanilla interpretation that they're bound together in hate.

The reworking of Beggars at the Dance blows though, that is one of the classic "No, fuck you and your morals, we win" statements, and taking it away cheapens the last scene.

There was some other stuff in there, but I'm all about the Thenardiers.

Also have we not had this yet?
http://25.media.tumblr.com/aa97cfd1ace95c205a2b86e5388becb9/tumblr_mfzlzozQRj1qf0u9eo1_500.png

Also of course "I Dreamed a Dream" benefits from not being all "is this a conversation, are we talking over each other, are we switching from talking to singing and back", and is just sit yourself down sonny, I'm going to Sing you a Song.

Tom Hooper hates people's eyes because he makes shit that looks fucking terrible and he knows nothing about anything.

"I Dreamed a Dream" was amazing though. Worth the price of admission, I'd say.

Denby such a hack I wish I liked this more.

Just watched this and fuck it, I goddamn loved it. Vocal wise, Hathaway is fucking great, all three of the revolutionary hero dudes are as well, both kid actors obv total pros, Amanda seyfried (who outside of mean girls I fucking hate) was shockingly good, Russell Crowe way better than he is getting credit for. Big surprise is that Hugh Jackman pretty much shits the bed throughout - bad constant vibrato, mushy nowhere delivery. As a movie? Eh it's shiny in all the right parts. Master of the house is half-assed at best.

As much as I dug Hathaway, idg the supporting actress nod at all, it's kind of "hi I'm here, hi I am downtrodden, lemme sing like a badass, whoops I'm dead". Give her a Grammy or some shit, Oscar gtfo. And i like her, but wtf.

How do you feel about the show in general? I've stayed away because I really really hate the show

Thought jackman did a better than passable job tbh, with notable winces. Hathaway got oscar for 'dreamed a dream' and if you can show me a more deserving 3 mins from a supporting actress last year then i'm listening

If 'delivery' is what Russell Crowe brought then I am not at home, they can ring the doorbell all they want.

It was def an off year for that category, but certainly Ann Dowd and Jennifer Ehle had more than just 3 deserving minutes.

Yeah but had they 3 mins like that?

Andrew otm re foghorn crowe

Those 3 minutes were not all that.

In fact* they were.

*opinion

How do you feel about the show in general? I've stayed away because I really really hate the show

― AMERICA IS ABOUT RESSLING (DJP), Thursday, May 16, 2013 1:09 PM (2 hours ago)

heh until last night i had never seen it. first 15-20 minutes border on awful imo (meaning the actual songs, not the movie in specific), but it starts to work after that.

hmm

it is probably my most despised commonly-enjoyed musical (main competition is "Miss Saigon")

oh miss saigon suuuuuuuucks

probably the only thing that ever strained my friendship with Kyl3 was his insistence on playing that soundtrack over and over during senior year whenever I was at his house and how he would frequently accost me with "THE HEAT IS ON IN SAIGON/THE GIRLS ARE HOTTER THAN HELL"

I just thank God we were in different cities by the time Rent came around

I finally saw this!

I've never seen Les Miz before, but these are my thoughts, such as they are:

- I don't think I liked the talking-style singing? It bothered me that the music was way down in the mix, I wanted the words + music to be more harmonious together like a regular musical, just having them sing-talk kinda took away the majesty of some of those songs. once I got into the movie I realized I wanted them to be just straight-up songs. I understand what they were going for, and it worked to an extent but it just felt like the songs, with a few exceptions, were always sort of half-sung.

- I dreamed a dream, Eponine's solo song, and the ending made me BAWL so I think despite my reservations about the way the story was delivered, it still had enough power to knock me over anyway.

- Jackman was a little disappointing but I'm wondering if it's because he's done both - broadway and film acting - that making him blend both together diluted his, idk, superpowers somehow. Because I know if he could just stand and belt it, he would have. He was still pretty good, but it felt like he was at about 50% power from magnetic-stage-presence-mode.

- Rusty's a good actor, he at least had me buy the character. His singing is not great but I knew that going in. I thought he did well with it, for what he brought to the table.

Now I'm going to go dig up a cast recording or something from an old staged version so I can get some serious SONG action.

also just in general, storywise, lyrics etc...impressive bit of work, that. I'm a fan.

This is now a thread about the 280 minute 1934 Raymond Bernard film version starring Harry Baur

It’s good!

As much as I dug Hathaway, idg the supporting actress nod at all, it's kind of "hi I'm here, hi I am downtrodden, lemme sing like a badass, whoops I'm dead". Give her a Grammy or some shit, Oscar gtfo. And i like her, but wtf.
― AMERICA IS ABOUT RIESLING (jjjusten), Thursday, May 16, 2013 12:35 AM (nine years ago)

It was def an off year for that category, but certainly Ann Dowd and Jennifer Ehle had more than just 3 deserving minutes.
― Not Simone Choule (Eric H.), Thursday, May 16, 2013 8:22 AM (nine years ago)

* Checks notes *

My god did they screw that category up that year. Sally Field, OK, but what the hell re: the other four -- Amy Adams in The Master, Anne Hathaway in this, Helen Hunt in The Sessions, Jacki Weaver in Silver Linings Playbook?!

* Checks list of candidates that might have had a legitimate shot from the pool here: http://skandies.org/results/categories/6?year=2012 *

Ah, OK, that does make sense

Flooded with memories of how close Nicole Kidman came to getting a nod for The Paperboy