Movie: Les Miserables (2012)

Rating: C+

Probably my favourite musical of all time, I couldn't wait for Les Mis to come out Christmas Day. The unfortunate thing was that the stars were a little bit of a distraction to an otherwise excellent rendition of Victor Hugo's classic.



This iteration of the musical takes a little while getting used to. Usually, when musicals are put on the big screen, the singing ends up being part of the soundtrack. Instead, Tom Hooper decided that the singing was going to be part of the script. So this does 2 things.
1. On most sound systems, the singing is going to be on the centre speaker and the music on the side/surrounding speakers.
2. You have to act AND sing at the same time.

For myself, I found this to be part of the distraction. Case and point, Anne Hathaway's character Fantine has a big powerful solo that she has to cry through. Ever try crying and singing at the same time? It's not the easiest thing to do, and I do have to compliment her for that. But at the same time, at certain points, it almost seemed like she was screaming. Not so good.

I couldn't decide if Eddie Redmayne (Marius) had a problem acting, or a problem acting AND singing at the same time. His voice was actually pretty good, I mean heck, he DID win himself a Tony award. You see, when you're on stage and doing musicals, you don't act so much with your face as you do with your voice and your body language. And like I said about having the singing as part of the script, it's really hard to do both at the same time.

The biggest distraction however, came in the form of Russell Crowe, who played Javert. Yes, he has his band, 30 Odd Foot of Grunts, but that sort of singing is entirely different than the type of voice you use for musicals. His voice simply pales in comparison. It's particularly evident during his little back and forth with Hugh Jackman, who actually came from the world of musicals.

It's watchable enough for sure, and very well done despite these distractions. But I thought it was rather sad that the supporting cast members seemed to have better voices than the starring cast. Again, distracting.

~Cheers.

Blogger's Note: Hiatus

Hi guys. Thanks to all of you who have helped to keep this little blog going. Unfortunately, I've been on a little bit of a hiatus. Things at work have been ridonk-culous. Somehow however, we reached 5,000 page views. YAY! Things should be settling down a little bit, so I should be starting to post again after labour day.

~Cheers.

Movie: Tron Legacy

Rating: C

That's right. Let's give it a solid C. Without giving too much away; Tron Legacy is a visually brilliant, mind-numbingly vapid, aesthetically droolworthy, brainless exhiliration that combines the best of Daft Punk's genius with an unhealthy portion of Disney infused saccharine induced cliched script.



(SPOILER ALERT: Stop reading right now if you're worried I'm going to give too much away.)


28 years ago, Disney came out with a movie that pushed the boundaries of computer graphics and delved fairly deeply into the possibility of a digital civilisation. Mixing in bits and bytes into the script along with other geeky jargon, the movie was a disastrous flop at the box office. That being said, over the years, Tron has become a huge cult classic due to its growing relevance in the maturation of this digital age. Unfortunately, its sequel, will not likely experience the same longevity.

The production team did several things that made this movie aesthetically sensational.
1. They were able to get Jeff Bridges to reprise his role
2. They were able to get a great CGI / 3D team to get 1982 Jeff Bridges to reprise his role.
3. They hired Daft Punk to do the soundtrack.
4. They hired Olivia Wilde (Thirteen from the TV series "House")

The movie COULD have been and WOULD have been much better if they had just stuck with those 4 items of brilliance. But then they wanted to get cerebral. They start talking about socio-digital politics. They start talking about bio-technological breakthroughs that will change humanity. They start talking about destiny. They start talking about the undying love of family. When in actuality, all they needed to do to make this movie amazing, was to simply just STOP talking!

Highlights of the movie?
- Seeing Jeff Bridges young again was just spooky. It was awesome. But spooky. Especially in the beginning when you don't really realise it's all CG just yet.
- The visuals were simply stunning.
- I hope Daft Punk wins the Oscar for Best Original Score. Yes, it's THAT good.

Lowlights of the movie?
- Anytime anyone talks.

Just to give you a taste of HOW good the score is? Check it out:



~Cheers.