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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=S3uUTKOUhZU

Spoiler:

every

one

dies

basically "yay Anne, boo Hugh" is how I break this down to an extent

better or worse than Gatsby?

probably a tossup

I hate Les Miz but like most of this cast
I like The Great Gatsby but dislike most of the cast and the director

sticking w/ Charles Laughton & Freddy March

predictions! this will be competent but not that interesting. gatsby will be a mess.

They really missed an opportunity to cast Jason Alexander as Thénardier, he has a musical theater background and I can only think of that Seinfeld episode when I hear Master of the House anyway.

I guess it was SB Cohen's dream to work with the director of The King's Speech.

basically "yay Anne, boo Hugh" is how I break this down to an extent

― that is a weird thing to bring up over lean cuisine (DJP), Wednesday, May 30, 2012 9:44 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

people are already bitching about her vers of dreamed a dream

here it is embedded

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnLSG5t_dc8

she's way fucking better than Emmy Rossum was in Phantom

I can only think of that Seinfeld episode when I hear Master of the House anyway.

― Respectfully, Tyrese Gibson (Nicole), Wednesday, May 30, 2012 10:23 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

YES!!

I HATE LM. I saw it on Broadway and went home during intermission. You couldn't pay me to see this.

all the singing in this movie is live apparently

I HATE LM. I saw it on Broadway and went home during intermission. You couldn't pay me to see this.

yeah I feel the same, only I never actually paid to see it (in fact, I think I've only ever seen it in its entirety once, and that was because we stumbled across http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Mis%C3%A9rables:_25th_Anniversary_Concert on TV which had Nick Jonas in it and I couldn't fucking believe I was watching Les Miz starring Nick Jonas)

same here re never wanting to see the musical. a shame, i liked the book a lot.

x-post - Oh, I didn't pay for it either. If I had I might have stayed but I'd won tickets somehow and took a friend. We stepped outside during intermission and neither of us wanted to say anything at first but were pretty relieved when we both admitted that we hated it and agreed to take off.

I like a lot of musicals too but there was something about this one that I just couldn't get into. It would prob have been better if the Frenchies were on skates or if it included a couple human sized cats.

what was that Broadway musical from the 1980s/early 1990s where it was done entirely on roller skates?!?

Starlight Express or Xanadu?

I have several friends who do musicals around town and going to see them just highlights to me how terrible Les Miz really is; I mean, even lesser-known stuff like The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin is way way WAY better.

Starlight Express, that was it! didn't know that there was a Xanadu musical.

Xanadu is more recent, I was mostly just making a joke about "the musical on rollerskates" not being sufficient enough description

she's way fucking better than Emmy Rossum was in Phantom

Who wouldn't be? That may very well be the worst movie I've ever seen.

The Starlight Express is one of the most cracked out musicals ever made.

It is. I mean - WAHT? It's completely nuts. It's also the one I was referring to.

I was mostly just making a joke about "the musical on rollerskates" not being sufficient enough description

Yeah see I didn't know there was another! Impressive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3LKrnCXvsM

i'm so excited for this movie

in fairness, the Xanadu musical is only 5 years old (it was on Broadway for about 18 months)

the only reason I brought it up is because it's playing in Boston now and some of my friends are in it, tbh (I also have friends in Avenue Q)

Nicole - amazing!

The best part of that video is at the 4:36 mark when you see the Tony audience's collective "Wtf did I just watch?" face.

"Starlight Express" is probably the biggest "this music doesn't go with these costumes" show ever created

I saw the trailer for this yesterday, and they had some kinda behind-the-scenesy thing afterwards -- I had no idea that they were singing live, and not lip-synching to playback. Now I *really* want to see it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwgQjfg0hZw

and yes, I even want to see Rusty singing, lol

He's the one I especially want to hear, because I imagine a disaster of Brosnan proportions.

this was pretty big in my household as a kid, i bet if were dragged to this it would still move me

it could be ok. i'm no kind of movie musical buff but hooper's suggestion that all other pre-recorded movie musicals are all false is nagl

all my friends in college loved the soundtrack, my mum saw it a bunch of times but I've never seen it - I never got the chance or paid attention when it was showing

but I just kinda love Hugh Jackman singing so I have to see it

i'm no kind of movie musical buff but hooper's suggestion that all other pre-recorded movie musicals are all false is nagl

It's ridiculous, and makes him look petty.

ive gotten that clip a few times... whats weird is they play it with the trailers and not the commercials before the trailers... i dont care for it!!!

i hope crowe brings some of that russ le roq flavor to this

http://i.imgur.com/eeQLV.jpg

yeah I don't get why it's up front with the trailers either

the only thing that could potentially kill it for me is Amanda Seyfried. She looks like the cleo the goldfish from pinocchio.

http://images2.fanpop.com/images/photos/6500000/Cleo-pinocchio-6585856-247-215.jpg

lol

i dont really like her either, though i havent contrived a good reason to hate her yet

goldfish is the only reason I've ever had

it's not hate so much as...she's just weird looking, lol

i have warm feelings for her bc of mean girls. also i'm really excited for this movie, even if it's bad it's going to be great.

I am interested in Anne Hathaway itt

does Hooper know that they recorded Burt Reynolds & Cybill Shepherd live when they destroyed Cole Porter in At Long Last Love?

They've flipped that here with awful songs and decent singer-actor leads. Still, must to avoid.

these songs are the opposite of awful

yeah I don't find the songs awful at all

morbs ya big grinch

I've only heard 20 seconds of them before I sent them back to the kitchen

i'm sure there is something gained from first being exposed to them around 8 years old

yeah my Mum listened to the soundtrack a lot, so I know most of the songs even though I don't really know where they go in the storyline, lol

that kind of post-Sondheim epic bombast just tests my gag reflex in a hurry

musicals quit being good when ginger rogers was no longer available to star in them

Bernadette Peters still around

What's the over/under on people bursting out into singalong during various screenings? Gunna be pretty hard for me to not do so if I've had a few that day

what kingfish said. what is this movie even for if not drunken singalongs?

Who is this man?
What sort of devil is he?
To have me caught in a trap
And choose to let me go free?
It was his hour at last
To put a seal on my fate
Wipe out the past
And wash me clean off the slate!
All it would take
Was a flick of his knife
Vengeance was his
And he gave me back my life!
Damned if I'll live in the debt of a thief!
Damned if I'll yield at the end of the chase.
I am the Law and the Law is not mocked
I'll spit his pity right back in his face
There is nothing on earth that we share
It is either Valjean or Javert!

The school edition cuts a considerable amount of material from the original show. It is divided into thirty scenes and, although no "critical" scenes or songs have been removed, it runs 25–30 minutes shorter than the "official" version making the total running time about 2 ½ hours.[44] A few subtle changes of vocal pitch have been made: "What Have I Done?", Valjean's Soliloquy, "Stars" by Javert, "A Little Fall of Rain" by Éponine and Marius, "Turning", and "Castle on a Cloud" lose a verse each. During "Fantine's Arrest" Bamatabois loses two verses. The song "Fantine's Death/Confrontation" is edited, and the counterpoint duel between Javert and Valjean is lost, as well as a verse by Fantine. "Dog Eats Dog" by Thénardier is heavily truncated. "Beggars at the Feast", is shortened, with Thénardier losing a verse, and the song before it, "Wedding Chorale", is excluded entirely although the rest of the wedding remains in place. Also, the drinker's introduction to "Master of the House" is cut completely.[citation needed]

After The King's Theatre, The King's School and Tara Anglican School for Girls, in Sydney, Australia, gained rights for the full production in late 2000 from Cameron Mackintosh to perform the show. Music Theatre International developed a school version, available only to productions with an entirely amateur cast aged under 19. Hundreds of schools worldwide have purchased the rights and staged performances, and it was the best-selling production for high schools in the year 2006.[citation needed]

In November 2001, Harry S Truman High School in Levittown, Pennsylvania piloted the school version under director Lou Volpe. Cameron Mackintosh attended closing night of the performance and shared how impressed he was with the adaptation. The show was met with rave reviews.

The Woodlands School, located in Mississauga, Ontario, marked the first presentation of the Les Misérables school edition in Canada.[45]

I mean, I'm 6'1", 250lbs, and sing baritone, so not belting out "Do I stay and do i DARRRRREEEEEE!" is gunna be REAL HARD if the filmmakers pull off a proper emotional connection

also, listening to the 1985 London original cast and dear GOD is there a shitload of rubbish synthwork for the score. Worse than any of the 80s Phantom recordings, surely.

i'm listening to that RIGHT NOW.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSxq-JCrLag

I had forgotten that Paul Rudd actually shows up in tunic and bicorne for this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhXsJjVdj1E

in my hands via FedEx.

hell no, not even on mute.

I WILL WATCH IT FOR U

saw an endless preview for this about how much more ~meaningful~ it was when shot live

morbs otm

SEND IT TO ME MORBS

I Have seen some of the first clips online. They are not good...at all.

Witness the normally Reliable Hugh Jackman doing a William Shatner impression with the songs rhythms, and singing the usually bombastic "Who Am I?" As if it were a Jim Croce song!

Hear the quiver in Amanda Seyfriend's voice that makes her sound like a 14 year old taking her first voice lesson!

Listen to Russell Crowe channeling Officer Barbrady as he sings Confrontation!

It frustrates me to hear so much of this speech-sung as if this was a Rex Harrison show. The actors keep trying to justify these as acting choices made in the moment because they're "feeling the song". I read it as "MASKING VOCAL INADEQUACIES!"

At the End of the Day is Good, though.

http://broadwayworld.com/videoplay.php?colid=433130

in my hands via FedEx.

Jesus, first This is 40 and now this. Nothing is showing up for me this year. (Good.)

The prologuey bit of Valjean's release actually works pretty well for Jackman, but Crowe's voice is a bit too bellowy

i might see this. normally dont care for broadway-style musicals at all, but it looks kewl

hungry4bread

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8WSysB5vKM

lol i didnt know they sung all the dialogue in this puppy

How the fuck did Helena Bonham Carter get cast in another musical?

she was fine in S Todd

also, fuck singing

Of course fuck singing, Morbs. Of course.

"Fuck singing" in a through-composed, sung-through musical? I'm afraid I don't understand, Please Explain

I will try. Hmm, where do I start? Well, you see, in a nutshell, Morbs disdains joy and expressions thereof. Does that make things a little clearer?

Morbs disdains joy and expressions thereof

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.

I would prefer this film if they added in an updated version of "Fightin' Round the World" from that South Park ep for Crowe to sing

tomorrow belooongs to Aaaasssss

omfg Rent was SO FUCKING BAD

I was actively angry at the group of friends who dragged me to that piece of shit for WEEKS

Some guy accused me of disrespecting his girlfriend once because she asked me what I thought of Rent the film and I (thought I) politely responded "I didn't like it". He said I "tried to destroy something she loved".

hahaha I have actively ridiculed the critical faculties of people who have told me that they liked the Rent movie

i've never seen rent, planning to keep it that way

snippets I hear are just O_o

at some point nino you just have to be happy these people find each other

I really can't believe that show launched the careers of three actors I genuinely like/admire because IT IS SO FUCKING TERRIBLE AND NEVER SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED

I just remember sitting there in the movie theater when the lights came up on them singing "Seasons of Love" and thinking to myself "my god... what have I done?" and then the movie proceeded to get WORSE and WORSE and WORSE until at one point I found myself actively cheering on the AIDS virus

Everything I've heard of Rent marks it as pretty clearly the worst musical of our times.

it's a really special movie/show that can reduce you into a hate-filled caricature of yourself that you don't even recognize as being human

I just remember sitting there in the movie theater when the lights came up on them singing "Seasons of Love" and thinking to myself "my god... what have I done?" and then the movie proceeded to get WORSE and WORSE and WORSE until at one point I found myself actively cheering on the AIDS virus

― I loves you, PORGI (DJP), Tuesday, December 11, 2012 4:24 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

lmao

http://thebestpictureproject.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/les_miserables_2.jpg

omfg Rent was SO FUCKING BAD

I was actively angry at the group of friends who dragged me to that piece of shit for WEEKS

I saw about 3/4s of this film while I was in the waiting room of a doctor's office...it was hell.

I just watched this movie last night, and for some reason all I find myself singing today is "Yes! I'm Martin Guerre!"

I think it says a lot about exactly how terrible Rent was when you consider that all of this venom and invective is coming from someone who has said positive things about Catwoman and Ultraviolet; I think the last time I was that outright angry at a movie was Funny Games, only by the halfway point of Rent I was hoping and praying that the psycho brothers from FG would show up, rewind the movie and murder all of the characters as they sat on those fucking stools singing about sunshine and rainbows

man I have successfully talked myself out of giving even a modicum of benefit of the doubt to Les Miz, thanks again Rent you fucking bastard

i saw this musical in highschool and I was really bored. I couldn't follow the plot. Now I know why, because I looked up a synopsis on wikipedia and there's far too much shit going on for one damn musical.

the movie version of Rent is dreadful, but ngl I saw the stage show like three times as a teen and loved it, it functioned as a sort of Baby's First Intro to Edginess to me and my sheltered drama friends.

otoh i've managed to get this far knowing next to nothing about le miz, i'm considering seeing the movie because any exposure to the show thereafter can only be an increase in quality.

I remember liking the '95 Lelouch Les Miserables. Maybe I should try that again.

With this and Django opening on Christmas Day, it's no wonder Morbs is such a grinch.

I have such a loathing for Tom Hooper that I'll probably go see this.

Bring Him Home is a freaking amazing bit of work i don't care what anyone says.

Won't argue with you there, but I'd rather hear Kermit the Frog sing it than Hugh Jackman

man this thread is p stupid

this fucking owned

this was the best musical-to-movie adaptation I've seen since Chicago, which makes it the second-best musical-to-movie adaptation I've seen.

However, it turns out that I think Les Miserables is a really stupid musical.

i'm still planning on seeing it

This musical is the best of all the latter-day myoozicals, it doesn't even come close to making up for the entire genre but I will surely set aside 30 years of bullshit "musical" "theatre" when we go to see it tomorrow

you can have emphyzema and choke out "On my own / pretending he's beside me" and I'll still get goosebumps. Plus: everybody dies

pfft nah

several of the dumber characters were alive at the end in this version

I could reserve my challops till after listening to a cast recording or watching the concert film or whatever but that wouldn't be very ilxory

anyway I think this is dumber than Rent, and Rent is pretty dumb. *drops mike*

I wouldn't accuse Rent of being dumb so much as being manipulative, gaysploitative, blaxploitative, classist, patronizing and smarmy, plus every song was worse than the one before

iirc only Marius and Cosette are alive at the end, everybody else has committed suicide, been executed, died of starvation, or "ascended gloriously to heaven on the wings of song"

Oh my one funny story about watching this was, I was doing my usual thing of not learning too much about a movie before seeing it, and I was thinking to myself about twenty minutes in that it was a relief Helena Bonham Carter wasn't in this

then blammo as if on cue there she appeared

lol
she is in everything
she and Helen Mirrin and Judi Dench are the Hecate of British cinema

never seen/heard the musical before. some of the big numbers were stirring, but i thought the second half of the movie was interminable. eponine, marius and cosette were all dumbass fucktards. russell crowe was alright in his scenes with other people, but his two big solos were real bad. he seemed like he was concentrating as hard as he could on getting the singing right, and as a consequence was really stiff. wolverine's got some pipes on him though, damn.

i dunno, maybe somethings wrong with me. the whole theater was sniffling during valjean's death scene, but i was just thinking about how bad i needed to piss. my attention wandered bigtime during a lot of the songs, including that one.

i agree with most of that, partic crowe's stiffness. thought all the acting was pretty good though

hathaway's "i dreamed a dream" was AMAZING, like i knew nothing about the story coming in and sobbed during it amazing

also agree the last third was too long. again i didn't know the story beforehand but i kind of expected it to end after

...valjean brought the young guy back to his daughter, though i can see how that might have been too disney-movie of an ending

also i kind of just loved the character of valjean and jackman's performance. his eyes did a lot of srs acting imo,

everyone dying at the end was pretty cool too

I understand that Sacha & Helena BC stink up the place but at least some Youtube searching on that matter has caused me to find Matt Lucas and Jenny Galloway at the 25th Anniversary.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sD5hjYXD3E

oh they were fine for the comic relief they were intended to be, but they were probably in too many scenes

I have a soft spot for musicals -- I blame it on incessant listening to Oliver! when I was a kid -- and I like Les Mis more for its ridiculousness than in spite of it. My theater-geek girlfriend is similarly inclined, so we're looking forward to this. Not because it will be good in any serious sense. But, you know, shamelessness can be its own reward.

i dig a lot of old movie musicals, but broadway-style musicals never did it for me

This is one of those movies that turns my FB feed into a true tale of two cities.

movie musicals absolutely need abstract body patterns and lots and lots of fountains

jackman is pretty much 100% why I want to see this - love any opportunity to see him sing
and I'm v curious about Hathaway

who is responsible for trading in dancing for belting out hallmark cards, and can we flog that person

Hathaway as Javert?

jackman's real good in this. if he wins an oscar it'd be well deserved. same with hathaway

this movie shouldve had the lyrics onscreen the whole time with that little ball bouncing on each syllable

who is responsible for trading in dancing for belting out hallmark cards, and can we flog that person

otm. I guess Fosse was the last gasp of great Broadway dance? Or I guess, Twyla Tharp has had some big shows. But none of those have been made into movies (and I haven't seen any of them, so I don't know if they were any good).

hathaway didn't have much screen time at all but she was wonderful, yeah. jackman should get some recognition for his part i think

Jackman only seemed great because he played most of his scenes opposite Russell Crowe.

Like the Twilight movies, I'm only happy that this exists for the hilarious Walter Chaw review:

http://www.filmfreakcentral.net/ffc/2012/12/les-misérables-2012.html

the only one who makes real emotion of the melodrama of cramped source material that has the audacity to not only introduce a new generation of characters post intermission, but also ask us to invest in a love triangle between three pretty little ciphers chirping their sorta-pretty little songs.

yeah, exactly. the part where it turns into a teen movie is when i started checking out mentally, and spent the rest of the movie counting the pores on the actors faces

I cannot emphasize enough, again, how horrible Crowe is in this

I really liked Crowe as Javert. I feel so lonely.

Doubt I'll be seeing this. Saw it on Broadway, didn't even love it THEN, and well...

But, ain't gonna hate on those who did like it. I'm just more miffed at the people who are writing scathing nastygrams on their FB Wall to people who had the audacity to criticize the film. One FB friend boasted that Crowe could "wipe his ass" with your paycheck.

(This criticism coming from a guy who...had yet to see the film).

can't find much to disagree with in that review - way too many closeups, at least 30 minutes too long, confused politics, and crowe's singing was pretty bad. yet...i liked it - am i just a sap? the whole thing is just so warm, deliberate, and kind-hearted. kind of think you have to be a real grump to not have felt it at times

Awwww crypto I love your DN <3

I like that the musical keeps the Balzacian epic quality of the book. It allows minor characters to have big lead songs. In contrast to, say, the latter day revisions of a lot of 19th c source material where the central romance is emphasized at the expense of setting and backstory (modern cinematic adaptations of Great Expectations, Jane Eyre for example)

way too many closeups, at least 30 minutes too long, confused politics.......yet...i liked it - am i just a sap?

i've been reading and re-reading this and i've decided this movie is just .... lyfe

aw sentimental k3v

i dig a lot of old movie musicals, but broadway-style musicals never did it for me

uh h4a these used to be basically the same thing until culture died.

Crowe's rock background is kind of obvious in this clip - dude stands like they're singing Evanescence

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fB6LIsntpg

yeahhhhh i noticed that haha

for all the shit gerard butler got for his singing in phantom, crowe was way, way worse

I saw this, it was pretty OK. Considering how lame some of the songs are ("Bring him home", "Empty chairs") they did a great job, both actors and performers

I'm willing to admit that the 3 minutes of Anne Hathaway singing "I dreamed a dream" was the most moved I've ever been by anything since prepubescence

I liked also how gross it was, from Javert breaking his back as he fell to the snot and eye-boogers and shit and thing, it kept the pathos in the Real Zone

The whole second half has some dreadful songs though, some of them so bad I'd forgotten they'd existed

Russell Crowe wasn't as bad as people say, he just sings like a trombone. His death scene was good

ah now cmon, spoilers

lol @ "sings like a trombone"

His last sound going over should have been the "wah-wah-wahhhhhh" noise.

this fucking owned

― k3vin k

http://img.perezhilton.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/kevin-keller2__oPt.jpg

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/531902_10151404089977783_1793876027_n.jpg

Denby opens a can of whupass, has rehab suggestions for you Les Shizzies:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2013/01/theres-still-hope-for-people-who-love-les-miserables.html

Wherever Valjean goes, Javert shows up; he’s everywhere at once, like the Joker in “The Dark Knight,” who was at least intended to be a fanciful creation.

Would like to shake the hands of whoever stuck a "Based on true events" on Denby's copy of the novel.

this was much, much better than i'd hoped for. crowe did struggle for air but tbh javert's just an awful part, even sung well, it's just continuous tuba notes going nowhere.

Hathaway, jackman and guy playing marius were all great. Bring him home was terrible tho, disappointing considering he did well with everything else asked of him.

Cosette sang like a cartoon mouse. HBC's singing was awful.

Whole thing looked amazing.

the songs are all really boring and awful songs even for a broadway-ish joint except for "i dreamed a dream" which is amazing, it's weird.

well i love 'bring him home' and the one or two ensembles bringing all the motifs together can be great too (lacked something in this tho, maybe too much focus on individual vocals i think)

Wait, you liked it but you hate the music? Not a dig, just wondering how you can enjoy a completely sung-thru musical and hate all of teh songs!

the songs are all really boring and awful songs even for a broadway-ish joint except for "i dreamed a dream" which is amazing, it's weird.

I agree that "Dream" outshines everything else, but "On my own", "Master of the house", "Do you hear the people sing?", "Castle on a cloud", and to a lesser extent "Look down", "Bring him home" and "Empty Chairs" are all good-to-great megamusical fare

And "Red & Black" is the best example of megamusical recitative that I've heard

But yeah, then there are five or six other songs that suuuuck

Re: "bad singing" I liked it, actually, every actor had their own kind of not-great singing style and it a) contributed to the snot and shit stylization of the whole thing, and b) it made every singer so individual and different. I actually was left the least moved by the "pro" stage singer (Eponine) just 'cause she seemed so out of place in an otherwise filthy and fucked up production

Like when Amanda Seyfried started singing and she sounds like a theremin I was like of course girl sounds like a theremin

Biggest head scratcher I've read about is that Sacha Baron Cohen sings/acts with an exaggerated French accent, despite the fact that the no one else in the movie has a French accent, even though it is set in France.

Because Thernardier is a racist, obv

fortunately I've only met one gay who knows more than one verse of "It Was All A Dream, I Used to Read Word Up Magazine" or whatever

I was so upset by the banality of the music that I felt like hiring a hall and staging a nationalist rally.

or David Denby's Dream Life.

About a month ago, my neighbor's elderly father from the middle of nowhere Texas came to visit, with one goal being a chance to see "Les Mis" on stage, which he's wanted to see for 25 years. Found it so weird that in 2013 there were still people anywhere who have really wanted to see this musical for 25 years. I can't remember the last time I saw someone in a "Les Mis" sweatshirt.

How long until the CGI-enhanced "Cats" movie?

See I'm just amazed that Les Miz is getting all this crap piled on it, like, are these people aware of the hundreds of other horrible "musicals" that exist?

Yea but none of them are currently films atm

And none of them are a) the scientifically-proven best musical of all time, brought to you now in singovision b) the musical in the thread title.

Wait, you liked it but you hate the music? Not a dig, just wondering how you can enjoy a completely sung-thru musical and hate all of teh songs!

― NINO CARTER, Saturday, January 12, 2013 9:17 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah there were a couple other good ones i was exaggerating a little

No I know I was talking about the sweeping cultural indictments that I've read elsewhere (some of which are linked to from this thread)

That said I didn't pay any attention to any drubbing that Schumacher's Phantom received so nm

Speaking as someone who runs in musical theater circles, truuuuuuuuuuuust me, other musicals get eviscerated much, much worse than this incarnation of Les Mis. Theater aficianados can be a tough crowd to win over (even those favorites like Rent and such win over only a certain, youthful faction of the community).

i never realised how much south park the movie ripped on this

Ah so, Nino, I don't run in musical theatre circles I just end up seeing these 1975-present megathings with sentimental family members and get soooo frustrated with 95% of them.

Re: South Park. Les Mis features so many cliches of the genre that any send-up of megamusicals is gonna appear to be a direct parody. Kind of like the way people thought Mars Attacks was a parody of specifically Independence Day

..well that's just "the world didn't exist before 1985."

(see also "ILX action film poll")

"goddamn kids"

no, ignoramii

nice hypercorrection there morbs

vigilance is my watchword!

i dig the heck outta 'do you hear the people sing' thats some rousing ass shit. a lot of the gooey numbers were dull to me, but maybe it would've helped to have heard some of them before

"I Dreamed a Dream" the standout number at the time, but the thing that's stuck in my head is the "daa daaa daaaa daa daaa daaa daaaa-ah" motif that everyone sings a thousand times, I don't even remember any of the words they sang just dahha hdhdhh dhdhdhdhhdhdh

idk if all that's for me, but if the whole 'la resistance' sequence from SP The Movie isn't a direct & obvious LM ref then i dunno what. If every musical before 1985 (if there even were any? Idk, there prob was, prob books and movies and music too, tho it seems strange to think it.) has a french guy leading a resistance through song while threading the motifs of most of the previous songs together i wouldn't know, I'm only 32, we poor creatures can't be expected to do anything but grasp for the familiar in the comforting patterns of our limited youthly experience and hope for the kindness of our betters and elders to guide us.

idk if all that's for me, but if the whole 'la resistance' sequence from SP The Movie isn't a direct & obvious LM ref then i dunno what

haha yes that is exactly what that us

The whole idea of an ensemble number that weaves together a ton of different themes from the show didn't start with Les Miz though; there's a huge number in West Side Story that serves the same function and interpolates "Tonight" with a new theme that pushes forward some narrative strands right before the rumble.

is this the point in the thread where I can rant and rave about how much I hate the film of West Side Story

because I can go on about that for some time

I thought I loved the movie until I saw it in high school; it really can't compare to the stage show.

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.

I also think it works better to switch "Cool" and "Krupke."

don't think i've seen the movie, but i saw the most recent National tour twice and loved it

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