Bill

I've seen Les Miserables on stage twice.  Once in 1989 or so and the other in 2012.  Thus, I've seen both the original stage setup and the newer digitally enhanced version.  I loved both of them and I discuss them both at length in a different post.  I only mention them here to illustrate my opinion of the show itself.

The trailer for the new movie really had me fired up to see it:

For the most part I enjoyed the movie but there were certain parts that I disliked so much I can't help but comment on them.

The singing, for the most part, was really good.  Hugh Jackman, as Valjean, did a great job and I was really impressed with Anne Hathaway as Fantine - I had no idea she could sing so well.  I also really enjoyed Samantha Barks as Eponine.  However, every time Russel Crowe sang I cringed.  Don't get me wrong, Crowe had the perfect bearing as Javert - but his nasal singing just destroyed the air of authority and self-righteousness of the character for me; Javert needs a strong voice and Crowe just couldn't deliver.

At first I was a little thrown off when the songs weren't quite in the right order or were divided up a little but I actually appreciated the directors decisions in doing so to translate the script to the screen.  However, there were some new song bits injected into the movie that I just didn't like.  Most jarring was the carriage ride with the young Cosette sleeping beside Valjean where Jackman sang "Suddenly."  The movie would have been better without the song.

From a cinematic perspective I liked the majority of it but there were some scenes that just were glaringly bad or annoying.  The view down to the river during Javert's personal crisis looked absurd - in fact the entire scenery looked way too fake.  I also didn't care for the sound effect upon impact.  Likewise, I didn't really like most of the up close face shots when people were singing.  I suppose it was supposed to create a sense of intimacy but it often jarred me out of the realm of disbelief too frequently and took away some of the scope of the story.

My last issue was with Marius.  I actually liked him for most of the movie but his voice sounded too throaty when he sang deeper notes and his facial expression during the scene where Valjean reveals his secret history is completely out of place.  He looks to be smirking almost - it just didn't make sense given the context.

The most moving scene for me in the movie was all Marius though - when he sang "Empty Chairs and Empty Tables" he blew me away. He had great emotion and I got caught up a little.  The movie really brought that scene alive for me where the stage version never did.  In the the two stage versions the last stand at the barricade along with the dramatic moment featuring Gavroche at the conclusion of "Little People" is what always got me - in the movie I just didn't experience the same impact; but Empty Chairs and Empty Tables blew me away.

Overall, Russel Crowe's singing bothered me so much I can't give the movie any better than a 3/5.  If it were any other story I'd probably give it a 2 due to my issues with the cinematography but "Empty Chairs and Empty Tables" saved the show.

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Fly Me To The Moon is a 3-D animated movie from Disney nWave Pictures & Illuminata Pictures that is about three fly's who stow away on Apollo 11 and have the adventure of their lives going to the moon and back with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. Well, that's the basic boring marketing premise. In actuality it was really more of a showcase of Disney's new 3D movie making techniques and a lot less about the flys, their adventures, or even the moon for that matter.

The movie starts with the 3 young "teenage" flies hanging out in a junkyard building their own model rocket and dreaming of their own opportunities for adventure. They are quickly taunted by two apparently"cool" flies who are off to a great adventure of visiting a neighboring town. At this point the story goes into one of it's many lulls and the viewer is subjected to a 3D travel sequence. These generally meaningless segments of the movie happen quite a bit but I suppose they aren't any worse than the boring and stereotypical group of heros; the rebel and his two friends (the smart one and the fat one), the soft but cagey old grandfather, the boring and oft-fainting mother, and the too-good-for you cool kids. Add into this mix the typical cold-ware fare Russian stereotypes (where in Soviet Russia even the Fly's are Communist) such as the beautiful and mysterious lady who falls for the roguish American, the scarred spy, and the short and belligerent colonel. In general the cast of characters was pretty lame and predictable (kind of like the incredibly shallow story).

The boys adventure to space attracts the attention of the Soviet flies and the impending danger helps the old American fly reunite with his lost Russian love as well as brining all of the American flies together to save our intrepid heroes. Yawn. To top it all off the price of admission was $27 for three people - or, as the cashier put it, 1 adult and 2 children. $9 a person! Why? Because the studio had opted out of actually telling a story and, instead, decided to try and WOW us with their 3D technology. Consider me unimpressed. We did get some high-grade plastic 3D glasses though; however, I doubt we will be able to use them to save money at a future 3D movie.

If it weren't for the fact that my 7 year old daughter liked the movie so much I would say there is nothing worthwhile in the film. However, the 3D effects really did entrance her and she spent quite a bit of time acting like she was grabbing at the various flies, mosquitoes, and maggots that seemed to jump off of the screen. On a scale of 0-5 I'll give this a 1/2 and only because she liked the effects.

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I have a net-flix account that I am pretty bad at using. I have had three DVDs sitting on top of my TV since mid-august waiting on me to watch them. This past week I actually got around to watching all three, but only one, Stranger than Fiction, was good enough, to me, to warrant any commentary.

Stranger Than Fiction is a Will Ferrell movie that is totally and unequivocally like no other Will Ferrell movie. He plays the role of Harold Crick, an IRS Agent, who is also, oddly enough, the protagonist in a book that is being written by a high respected author; Karen Eiffel (played by Emma Thompson). I realize, if you haven't seen the movie that that little summation probably doesn't make any sense. However, it didn't make much sense to Harold either as he was brushing his teeth and suddenly heard the authors voice narrating his normal, and dull, daily life - narrating in a voice only he can hear.

Most people, I think, would think that they might be crazy. However, the authors narration is uncannily accurate and so Harold is both frustrated and intrigued, until suddenly, while waiting on the bus, he hears the narration that foreshadows his impending, and nearly-immediate death. At first Harold visits a psychiatrist but he disagrees with her diagnosis so he follows her secondary advice and visits with a literary expert, Professor Jules Hibert (played by Dustin Hoffman). Professor Hibert tries to help him make sense of the narration but, overall, is little help beyond telling Harold that he should just live his own life.

Thankfully, Harold listens to the professor and starts to break out of his mold of living his days in a cookie cutter fashion and he pursues a love interest with the most recent victim of one of his audits, a baker named Ana Pascal (played by Maggie Gyllenhaal). Harold not only finds Ana exceptionally attractive and intriguing but Professor Hibert alluded that were she to fall in love with Harold that perhaps his story would become a comedy and not a deadly tragedy.

At this point I am reluctant to really reveal more about the movie's plot for fear of ruining it. I rarely write reviews and they are normally very brief and cursory. However, I think this movie deserves a little more effort on my part. I throughly enjoyed it. I am not a Will Ferrell fan but I thought he did a superb job in this movie and, much like Harold Crick I found Maggie Gyllenhaal to be irresistible. I have not seen her in any other movies before and I doubt I will watch any of her previous work based on this movie - but her performance, and presence, in this movie was a very nice complement to Ferrell's. Dustin Hoffman was his typical odd self - very much the same person he always seems to be to me; his motions always seem a little jerky and his dictation equally unbalanced - but he was still an interesting character who added a little flavor to the movie. The best performance however, was by Emma Thompson - the Author. Not only did I really enjoy her voice as she narrated her caustic and torn character, when the audience experienced her personally was a great counter to the hum-drum existence of Harold and his friends, and Ana and her edgy cuteness.

I doubt kids would really enjoy the movie just because it does move along at a slow pace, the scenes are generally pretty dry, and the humor quirky. However, I think most adults would enjoy this film - I will even watch this one again with Lisa - I think she will like it as well.

RATING7

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The mission, and I chose to accept it, was to endure MI:3 last friday night. I entered the theater with very little hope of being entertained. The first two movies in the series were bad. The second, in fact, was one of the worst movies I have ever watched. Yet, for some strange reason, I was there, in the padded seat, waiting for Tom Cruise to once again make a mockery of the Mission Impossible franchise but then something happened - this movie had a decent story. Sure, there were scenes where I couldn't suspend my disbelief enough but that's ok because over the top events are a core of Mission Impossible; I mean, they are Impossible Missions afterall.

MI:3 started with a hook that pulled me in and, while there were times I rolled my eyes, I stayed and actually enjoyed this movie. In fact, If someone asked me for a action movie recommendation I wouldn't be embarrased to send them to this one. Tom Cruise was alright even if I couldn't help but imagine him jumping up and down on a couch everytime he smiled. His costars were better even if they were just fluff on the sides of a movie that focused almost purely on Cruise's character Ethan Hunt.

In this movie he actually took on 4 impossible missions. The first was a rescue mission for a star pupil. The second was a kidnapping, the third a theft of "the rabbits foot" (the key plot device), and the final was another rescue; this time of his love interest. I don't want to spoil how any of the missions worked out but each had it's ups and downs and even a bit of humor.

In the end, I thought the resolution was pretty predictable and kind of easy - but overall it was still a good movie.

RATING7

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Hotel Rwanda is a powerful and gripping movie made all the moreso because it is based in a reality so ugly and violent and, worst of all, recent. I very rarely feel any emotional connection with a movie. They are just a series of bits meant to entertain and that is how I like it; an escape. However, at times, a movie will draw me in and actually draw an emotional response from me. Typically, I just find joy in movies. Hotel Rwanda evoked anger and sadness. This movie is more than just a brief history of the struggles of the citizens of Rwanda - it is a commentary on our worlds politics and the nature of man. To tell a long story in one word - ugly.

I mourn for the million Rwandan men, women, and children who died senseless deaths due to bigotry and hatred based on a cultural divide that was forced upon a people by early Dutch settlers and propgated over the centuries. In one scene in the movie, that seemed kind of forced, a news cameraman (played by Jaquin Phoenix) asks to Rwandan ladies if they are Hutu or Tutsi. The first responds Tutsi the second Hutu. Jaquin's character seems baffled because, quite frankly, there is nothing about either that seems to separate them - they are simply two beautiful women sharing time over drinks at a bar before the troubles begin. One day later the Tutsi is in fear for her life simply because that was how her ancestors were categorized.

The movie is full of painful scenes and difficult choices for the main character Paul Rusesabagina, played by Don Cheadle, that force him into even more painful circumstances ranging from seeing his countrymen kill one another to fearing his family has commited suicide and to believing a good friend has been murdered. Paul is a hero for what he does in the face of these incredible horrors. Too often the word hero is thrown around to anyone who survives a horrible encounter. Paul Rusesabagina is a hero not because he survives but because he thrived in the face of adversity and through his own actions helped save the lives of over 1000 people who otherwise would have been senselessly slaughtered.

If you only see one movie this year, and you haven't seen Hotel Rwanda yet, let it be this one. It is a riviting story about an atrocity that happened just in the past decade but whose truths were only recently exposed to most people outside of Rwanda.

RATING10

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The Day After Tomorrow was much better than I expected it to be. The story, to a meterological ignoramus such as myself made the events seem plausible if not a little preachy. I though the acting was pretty good, the special effects were nearly incredible, and it was easy to feel for the main characters.

I did, however, have a few problems with the movie. First off, if it was so damn cold why did people keep taking off their gloves when going outside? And why didn't they ever stick to any of the metal when they did so? Why did the main character (played by Dennis Quaid) feel the need to walk to Manhattan and on his way from DC why did he have to pass Ellis Island? The escaped wolves seemed forced into the story line just for dramatic effect and at times the city model during the catastrophe seemed out of scale.

Even with these gripes the movie was fun to watch and to anyone looking for a fairly good movie to watch one night I would recommend The Day after Tomorrow.

RATING6

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The Manchurian Candidate is a movie in the same vein as Jacob's Ladderin that soldiers are unwittingly used in odd psychological ways. However, that is where the similarity between the two movies ends. Where Jacob's Ladder becomes a strange and spooky tale of the effects of the drugs The Manchurian Candidate shows a more nefarious purpose behind the mind control efforts. This 2004 retelling of a 1962 classic movie updates the story a bit by attaching it to the Gulf War of the early 1990's and ties in modern concerns such as terrorism and geopolitics. Denzel Washington, as always, does a fine job and his counterpart in this movie, Liev Schreiber (Sgt Raymond Shaw) is equally well cast.

The movie has various interesting plot twists - some of which are painfully obvious as they approach - and others subtly disturbing. The end is both perfectly fitting and flawed in a weak "cop-out" kind of way (but not so flawed that it hurts the overall movie). I would definitely recommend this movie.

RATING8

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Lisa and I recently went to the Steve Martin movie "Shopgirl" which, unlike most Steve Martin movies, is a drama. "Shopgirl" was actually written by Steve Martin as well. Overall, the movie was pretty decent. It's hard to have to strong an opinion about a movie in which I only cared about one character - the star, Claire Dannes (playing as Mirabelle).

Mirabelle is a struggling artist who moved to LA from Connecticut to pursue her art career. To make ends meet she works at Saks Fifth Avenue at a special counter that sells fancy gloves. Her life is dark, depressing, boring, and lonely. In general she seems like someone who is missing a lot in life. Then she meets two men. The first is a young guy, Jeremy played by Jason Schwartzman, who is a complete ass. He works as an artist/laborer for an amplifier company (making amps for guitars). He is totally selfish and self-absorbed. He basically just wants to get with Mirabelle for the sex and his attitude generally sucks. Why she pays attention to him at all, even given her crappy life, is a mystery.

The second guy is an older millionaire, Ray Porter played by Steve Martin, who acts sensitive and caring but who is really just looking for some young ass while he is in LA for work. Mirabelle doesn't realize he is just using her though and she slowly falls in love with him while Jeremy is on the road discovering himself with a rock band that whose lead singer is deeply into meditation and "new age" CDs.

The entire movie is filmed with fairly dark lighting and has very clean visuals. The dialog is pretty well written and the acting is good. Steve Martin does a surprisingly strong job considering your natural desire to laugh when he talks. He does serious well. Claire Dannes has grown from the last time I might have seen her in either "Little Women" or "Romeo + Juliet". She lends an awkward beauty to a dark and troubled role. Overall, I enjoyed the movie even though it was a bit dry and moved slowly at times. I'm not sure I can recommend it to everyone as it is a niche film and It's hard to say if you will enjoy it or not.

RATING5

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Lisa and I went to see the movie, "Must Love Dogs", this past friday night. Overall, it was OK. There was a pretty small crowed, about 30, in attendance, to see the proverbial "chick flick" and only two members of the crowd were guys. The movie started off fairly weakly with poor dialog and not much to catch my interest. However, as the relationship between the two stars started to develop the movie improved. It never reached it's full potential - but at least it got better.

Lisa guffawed loudly at a couple of the more humorous parts and she really enjoyed the movie as a whole (quite a bit more than I did) but it was still a good movie to both of us. The acting was pretty good and the characters fairly interesting and the hand crafted boats were beautiful.

RATING5

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