So the CHICAGO hate in that other post got me thinking about how great movie musicals are when they're done well. I'll list some names, and you give us your thoughts.
23. "Incredibly underrated musical... Fosse would have been pleased" In response to Reply # 1
It deserved its Best Picture win that year ________________________________________________________________________ Your battleship has sunk I wish Grandma could see us...
i thought the movie was incredibly put-together. they took an inherently theatrical show and made it an inherently filmic film. i thought the performances were strong, and while the dancing could have been shot better for sure, they served the purpose. and this is coming from someone who saw the stage version three times.
77. "everything about it is great except the singing and dancing." In response to Reply # 1
That Queen Latifah is the best singer in the picture says a _lot_ about the quality of the musical performances. Luckily, the songs are good enough to overlook the mediocre singing and Renee Zellweger's dancing.
27. "One of my favorite movies of all time" In response to Reply # 3
I'll put it in if I need a pick-me-up
Always puts a smile on my face ________________________________________________________________________ Your battleship has sunk I wish Grandma could see us...
32. "very well done" In response to Reply # 4 Thu Jan-29-09 06:25 PM by THRILLHOUSE
No cartoon in recent memory has made the transition as well to the movies as South Park did. I thought the Simpsons movie was ok, Benders Big Score was decent but these were no where near the SP movie. And I usually hate when cartoons go the musical route, but thought Matt and Trey did a great job here.
12. "I liked what they were going for." In response to Reply # 10
just like i liked what he was going for with romeo and juliet. i just think that for every good decision he makes, he makes three or four really bad ones. and i'm not sure that he gets the structure as well as, say, the south park guys.
I finally watched it for the first time over the weekend.
Why was everybody saying it sucked? I kinda liked it. The costumes and the cinematography were pretty cool. Bryan Barber did decent job in the "video Director makes a movies" department.
Threestacks was trying a bit too hard to be the 'brooding sentimental artist' but overall I thought it was pretty good. I liked Big Boi's character.
73. ""Idlewild" is a structural nightmare." In response to Reply # 19
The song choices for the "book songs" don't match the tone of the scenes they're placed in ("Church" during a climactic shoot out? Really? "She Lives in My Lap" as a suicidal dirge? Really?). "Makes No Sense at All" is jammed into the narrative with a shoehorn, as is "Chronometrophobia" ( I probably didn't spell that right).
And whilke a lot of the CGI embellishments (example: talking cartoon rooster on flask) would work well in a music video, these become overkill to me in a two-hour picture. But I guess it's fitting, since "Idlewild" is less an actual movie musical than a two-hour video i nthe first place - a "Purple Rain" set during the depression. And I suppose people who think "Purple Rain" is a good movie will like "Idlewild" too (I think "Purple Rain" the album is in the top 5 of all popular recordings from the 1980s, but the movie? Not so much.)
It doesn't help that at the very root of the picture is a stereotypical rural gangster film, where everything that you expect to happen happens. It doesn't help that a lot of the acting is sub-par, and a good bit of the dialogue cliche ("I got a great new song for ya...*sniffle* *sob* *blubber*)
I love OutKast, but "Idlewild" I found a chore to sit through.
101. "maybe I just took it at face value." In response to Reply # 73 Fri Jan-30-09 08:08 PM by disco dj
I guess that's the problem with Rappers making movies. I didn't go into it expecting much, becuase I thought it'd be a typical Hip-Hop movie
However, I found it a welcome change from the typical "Rapper playing a reformed drug lord trying to escape his past" or "rapper as unconventional Cop" movie...
*shrug*
I'd watch "Idlewild" again. I've seen FAR worse from 'good' directors.
31. "Hairspray" In response to Reply # 0 Thu Jan-29-09 06:25 PM by ZooTown74
(Mr. Bo)Zac kissin' fat girls and dancin' with the Negroes... GOOD!
Shia ain't do that shit ________________________________________________________________________ Your battleship has sunk I wish Grandma could see us...
i didn't care for the changes they made from the stage show. whenever they forced material for michelle pfeiffer to get more screen time, the movie dragged. overall, it was entertaining enough.
66. "It's the best of the neo-musicals I've seen so far IMO" In response to Reply # 31
even if the material is a little fluffy, there's a good balance of quality songs, proper structure, good singing/dancing, and proficient direction and production values.
"Sweeney Todd" runs a close, very close second...it's more operetta than "movie musical" though...
-Eddie Murphy -Anika Noni Rose -"Fake Your Way tio the Top", "Steppin' to the Bad Side", "Jimmy's Rap", "One Night Only" -The art direction and cinematography
It's a bit of a structural nightmare in that it's a musical that's afraid to be a musical (and Beyonce is playing Deena Jones - ugh) but it's not _just_ the J-Hud show.
83. "Funny. Funnier than the original, as a matter of fact." In response to Reply # 52
Nathan Lane owned that movie.
Also takes an era and theme that's not really all that accessible and makes it so. Big numbers in the middle of NY were a nice surprise and helped escape the obvious "set pieces" of most of the numbers.
65. "One of the Goldwyn Girls HAD to have been screwing Mankiewicz" In response to Reply # 56
Or the camera guy.
She got as much camera time as Vivian Blaine in the "Pet me, Daddy" and "Take Back Your Mink" numbers ************************************** *Most H8'd on poster in all of okp*
74. "No, no, a thousand times no." In response to Reply # 70
Outside of the musical score (meaning just Quincy's music) and the production on the songs (meaning Quincy's producing/arrangement) and the handful of numbers that don't require Diana Ross to sing, "The Wiz" is a mess.
A complete mess.
A dingy, well-intentioned but ill-conceived mess full of bad matte shots, inconsistent art direction, poorly shot dance numbers, Diana Ross playing Dorothy and screeching her way through "Home", and a ten-minute "Brand New Day" number with grown people running around in cloth diapers.
85. "MY FAIR LADY ((goddammit!!))" In response to Reply # 0
The G.O.A.T. - why the hell did it take so long to see this up here?And don't give me that bullshit about how this one was NOT a true musical because its not a "dance-a-thon" musical. The acting is fantastic. The songs succeed outside of the story but also help the story greatly. And it is the most beautiful film to come out of the brillaint mind of George Cukor.
Rex Harrison as Prof. Henry Hill is easily one of the greatest performances in musical history.
Lottabook in this one, but the songs and the actor's performances are great. I love seing William Daniels shake a leg. Howard Da Silva, that pinko lovin summbatch, is the Benjamin Franklin all others are measured by. Also I love "back lot studio" films....the ones where they try their damnedest to make the surrounding SO CAL landscape looke like Boston or Phila.
I LOVE this film. One of my top 10 of all time. Cleverly hidden as a musical because most of the songs are done with little-to-no fanfare to them and they're often incomplete. the only big-production tru-to-form "musical" numbers are seen in imagined productons.
Mike Leigh strikes gold. Jim Broadbent is in top form ((when isn't he??))
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