To be totally honest, I wasn't in the best mood to watch this film. I forced myself into watching it because I had a time limit on how long I could keep the disc for, which meant I wasn't really in the mood for either a musical or romantic drama.
For those who don't know this is a dramatic musical set after the French Revolution, where a King is back and the people are just as miserable (geddit?!) as before. It focuses on 'criminal' Jean Valjean who breaks parole and becomes a successful and kindly man after being shown great kindness by a Priest he steals from. He is pursued by policeman Javert, who is determined he should not escape punishment, while he takes care of a young girl whose Mother, Fantine, died after being kicked out of her job in Valjean's factory and was forced to become a prostitute to keep up payments for her daughter.
This is a tale of unjust pursuit, poverty, unrequited love, death, tragedy, and love at first sight. It lives up to its name to say the least!
Now, I have seen the stage show (yes I know, need to change the name of the blog if I'm going to keep talking about the theatre), and that has affected how I have percieved this film because I was constantly making comparisons. No doubt that this is epic and beautifully made, and sometimes the intimacy that you can attain through a film goes beyond that of the theatre, but you do suspend your level of disbelief so much more when watching a stage. You go with the love at first sight story because aww its so sweet and isn't this whole thing quite downtrodden? Whereas sat watching the film I was a bit put off by the trills of Amanda Seyfried and Eddie Redmayne cooing at each other like love struck pigeons...ok that might be mean but I'm a little tired.
What the film absolutely outdoes the stage show on is being able to see clearly the agony on peoples faces, Anne Hathaway's Fantine was simply incredible, and was one of three moments that I welled up (I know right, I normally go to pieces at the slightest hint of tragedy but this time I was being too much of a critic).
Hathaway definitely deserved the supporting actress Oscar, though I think 10% was for having her hair unceremoniously hacked off. She has a lovely singing voice and it was strong enough to carry through her tears and anguish. Am not sure Amanda Seyfried's voice would have been strong enough for such a role, but she was playing the young and sweet Cosette who needed only to be young and sweet for her dear Papa and Marius.
Now, Eddie Redmayne, even though I disliked his lighter lovey-dovey moments with Seyfried, he has a powerful presence when he sings. There is a scene toward the end after one of the many tragedies occurs, and his emotion and strength was astonishing. I am a bit ashamed to admit that my attention wandered sometimes toward Twitter, but then the film would force me into paying attention - especially Redmayne's singing.
AS for Javert and Valjean...I have to say I found both of their voices annoying and pleasant. Hugh Jackman's Valjean was a bit too high for my liking, plus I think I put a lot of expectation on his voice being this magical and beautiful thing. Equally I had such low expectations of Russell Crowe's singing ability that I was pleasantly surprised. I mean it is not your typical voice for musicals, but it wasn't entirely awful.
The voices I had zero issues with include the little boy in the revolutionaries camp, the young Cosette, her awful caretakers played by the marvellous Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen, and the lovely Samantha Barks playing Eponine.
Barks is a professional musical theatre performer, with Eponine her most recent role on stage, so it is unsurprising that she could carry off the emotion and sing at the same time. She was very impressive and I'd like to see her live on stage one day.
We have heard the impressive pipes of Bonham Carter and Baron Cohen previously in Sweeney Todd, and evidently they can do comic like no other actors whilst singing live and leaping all over the place.
Which of course is the truly remarkable thing about this movie, that 90% of the singing is in fact Live. They had earpieces in which piped music, then they sang on top, the same thing several times, wearing out their voices. Its a wonder they got to the big finale with any voice left.
However, impressive as the style in which it was filmed is, Les Mis is a film that only musical lovers should watch, and even then the singing takes its toll. There are maybe five spoken lines in the whole thing, otherwise its all singing. It got to me a little whilst watching it on stage, and it grated even more while watching the film. And I am a HUGE fan of musicals, but maybe its just this is too much because of the story and the style of singing. I think Tim Rice's 'Joseph and his Technicolour Dreamcoat' also involves a lot of singing and hardly any dialogue, but it has a bit more of an up-tempo vibe (despite, you know, the brothers trying to kill Joseph).
I think I need to watch this film again, when I'm really in the mood for a weepy musical, at which time I'll probably wish I'd added another star on to this review. However for now, its very good and worth a watch, but only if you love romance, musicals, and some good old fashioned tragedy.
Thursday 30 May 2013
Friday 24 May 2013
Star Trek Into Darkness ☆☆☆☆
SPOILERS! Cannot emphasize ENOUGH how many SPOILERS there are gonna be. So read on for my full review of the film, but only if you have seen it. If you have not yet seen it I take no responsibility for your future viewing being ruined if you carry on beyond this point.
So again.
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS!
Ahem.
(image courtesy of Star Trek and Empire Magazine)
Again, like with all future films that are in 3D I stuck to the 2D format, and believe me it doesn't suffer just because you happen to not get pieces of the Enterprise flying at you as it crashes or gets blown to pieces. I would like someone who has seen the 3D version to comment on what the special effects were like for them.
I thought this was a brilliant second outing for the rebooted franchise. That first part in the distant planet which was hugely colourful and diverse really harked back to original Trek, where everything was strange and new. It also reintroduced the characters nicely, with Bones and Kirk running for their lives from the alien race because Kirk screwed up slightly, Spock in the middle of an active volcano preparing for death so another race does not die out, and Uhura, Sulu, Scotty and Chekov all desperately trying to work around them.
The Enterprise being underwater was just fabulous. I smiled so much when I realised that's where they were hiding it, and Scotty's annoyance at the whole thing was really good to hear.
They pretty much nailed the casting in the first movie, though it does still slightly annoy me they couldn't have cast a Scotsman to play Scotty I'm not sure anyone else but Simon Pegg could do it. Plus he does us Scots proud accent wise. The obvious addition to talk about is Mr Cucumber Patch himself, but we'll get to my love of him later. Just wanted to mention that I thought Alice Eve was a great casting choice for this film.
Eve surprised me slightly, I thought she was going to end up being a slightly bad-guy, but then if she was they couldn't have her carry on into the next films (if any more are to be made). She was sassy and bright, ok so I know there have been lots of complaints about the gratuitous underwear scene but hey, it's about Kirk's libido at the end of the day and the fact he cannot stay turned round when a pretty girl is undressing. Plus it isn't as though the girl is naked or she is waltzing around like that for half the movie, it's a few seconds maximum.
Anyway, Eve was great, and though slightly predictable at turning on her own crazed Father, it worked well and the flirtations attempts of Bones and Kirk at her were pretty funny.
The thing about this film is it feels very much like a set-up movie, like a book in the middle of a huge series that has to tie up loose ends (kill off Pike and establish without doubt that Kirk and the crew are going to get to go on their 5 year deep space mission) and create new threads (war with the Klingons) it left me feeling that something bigger is on the horizon compared to this one.
It also was a little too much of a buddy film, but I guess the relationship of Kirk and Spock was fledgling at the end of the first film and needed to be cemented here. When Kirk died I had this odd feeling of really? Are they gonna let him die? Surely not...oh thank god the puffball came back to life so Bones can save him! I have always been quite skeptical of Kirk, though I love Chris Pine and think he plays him wonderfully, but there was always too much of the playboy about him. But here, self-sacrifice, being logical for once - oh gods Mr Pine you kinda killed me when you died.
I felt like it was cheating when Spock contacted, well, Spock to find out more about Khan. Though always happy to see Leonard Nimoy in work I wanted there to be a different way to discover who Khan could really be to Starfleet. But it worked, and seeing as the first film set up this clash of future and past it was good to carry on the theme.
Now Khan, aka John Harrison, aka CucumberPatch, aka Benedict Cumberbatch, was a phenomenal piece of casting. Truly. If anyone can embody anger, emotionless violence, pure hate, and still make you really strangely want to give him a hug and make it all better, then its gotta be Cumberbatch. The scene in the cell when he has his back to Kirk and Spock, telling them about the threat to his people and his anger at being used, I mean god he was scary. Physically shaking with the anger and torment and emotion spilling from his eyes. I imagine in real life I wouldn't want to piss Mr Cumberbatch off, cos he could really bring it.
I loved that in the end Khan was frozen with the rest of his psychotic clan, it means there is a chance of him coming back in the future. Using him as a way of introducing the Klingons was also clever, because your focus was always on Khan but the importance of what he was doing, and the crazy Commander, to the future of the Earth and Star Fleet was not lost on you.
Now, truly, it was a cheesy ending. But it was so needed, just to hear Kirk say:
"Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before."
It is great to get that 'man' replaced with 'one', because that is something Star Trek has often suffered with, being misogynistic in its portrayal of women-folk and not having enough strong women on board ship. Hence the introduction of Alice Eve.
I get my sister's complaint that this wasn't as funny as the first movie, which to be fair it isn't. But also it wanted to be less funny, to make these characters grow up that bit more and cement their relationships. Scotty and Bones are the main funnymen this time round, though Kirk and Spock still get a share of the laughs. Sulu and Chekov come more into their own, and I hope George Takei is proud of how his iconic character is being portrayed.
Personally I really enjoyed this film. The first is my favourite but Khan was a far scarier villain than Nero (sorry Eric). I think in a lot of ways Cumberbatch carried this film, but that may be more because of the importance placed on the character than a reflection on the rest of the cast. Not many films or shows manage to cast perfectly, but Star Trek and JJ Abrams sure set the bar high for themselves and every other sci-fi franchise.
So heres to the next one, may the Klingons prove to be just as scary as Khan and the visuals just as arresting as that first sequence in the pink foliage.
So again.
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS!
Ahem.
(image courtesy of Star Trek and Empire Magazine)
Again, like with all future films that are in 3D I stuck to the 2D format, and believe me it doesn't suffer just because you happen to not get pieces of the Enterprise flying at you as it crashes or gets blown to pieces. I would like someone who has seen the 3D version to comment on what the special effects were like for them.
I thought this was a brilliant second outing for the rebooted franchise. That first part in the distant planet which was hugely colourful and diverse really harked back to original Trek, where everything was strange and new. It also reintroduced the characters nicely, with Bones and Kirk running for their lives from the alien race because Kirk screwed up slightly, Spock in the middle of an active volcano preparing for death so another race does not die out, and Uhura, Sulu, Scotty and Chekov all desperately trying to work around them.
The Enterprise being underwater was just fabulous. I smiled so much when I realised that's where they were hiding it, and Scotty's annoyance at the whole thing was really good to hear.
They pretty much nailed the casting in the first movie, though it does still slightly annoy me they couldn't have cast a Scotsman to play Scotty I'm not sure anyone else but Simon Pegg could do it. Plus he does us Scots proud accent wise. The obvious addition to talk about is Mr Cucumber Patch himself, but we'll get to my love of him later. Just wanted to mention that I thought Alice Eve was a great casting choice for this film.
Eve surprised me slightly, I thought she was going to end up being a slightly bad-guy, but then if she was they couldn't have her carry on into the next films (if any more are to be made). She was sassy and bright, ok so I know there have been lots of complaints about the gratuitous underwear scene but hey, it's about Kirk's libido at the end of the day and the fact he cannot stay turned round when a pretty girl is undressing. Plus it isn't as though the girl is naked or she is waltzing around like that for half the movie, it's a few seconds maximum.
Anyway, Eve was great, and though slightly predictable at turning on her own crazed Father, it worked well and the flirtations attempts of Bones and Kirk at her were pretty funny.
The thing about this film is it feels very much like a set-up movie, like a book in the middle of a huge series that has to tie up loose ends (kill off Pike and establish without doubt that Kirk and the crew are going to get to go on their 5 year deep space mission) and create new threads (war with the Klingons) it left me feeling that something bigger is on the horizon compared to this one.
It also was a little too much of a buddy film, but I guess the relationship of Kirk and Spock was fledgling at the end of the first film and needed to be cemented here. When Kirk died I had this odd feeling of really? Are they gonna let him die? Surely not...oh thank god the puffball came back to life so Bones can save him! I have always been quite skeptical of Kirk, though I love Chris Pine and think he plays him wonderfully, but there was always too much of the playboy about him. But here, self-sacrifice, being logical for once - oh gods Mr Pine you kinda killed me when you died.
I felt like it was cheating when Spock contacted, well, Spock to find out more about Khan. Though always happy to see Leonard Nimoy in work I wanted there to be a different way to discover who Khan could really be to Starfleet. But it worked, and seeing as the first film set up this clash of future and past it was good to carry on the theme.
Now Khan, aka John Harrison, aka CucumberPatch, aka Benedict Cumberbatch, was a phenomenal piece of casting. Truly. If anyone can embody anger, emotionless violence, pure hate, and still make you really strangely want to give him a hug and make it all better, then its gotta be Cumberbatch. The scene in the cell when he has his back to Kirk and Spock, telling them about the threat to his people and his anger at being used, I mean god he was scary. Physically shaking with the anger and torment and emotion spilling from his eyes. I imagine in real life I wouldn't want to piss Mr Cumberbatch off, cos he could really bring it.
I loved that in the end Khan was frozen with the rest of his psychotic clan, it means there is a chance of him coming back in the future. Using him as a way of introducing the Klingons was also clever, because your focus was always on Khan but the importance of what he was doing, and the crazy Commander, to the future of the Earth and Star Fleet was not lost on you.
Now, truly, it was a cheesy ending. But it was so needed, just to hear Kirk say:
"Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before."
It is great to get that 'man' replaced with 'one', because that is something Star Trek has often suffered with, being misogynistic in its portrayal of women-folk and not having enough strong women on board ship. Hence the introduction of Alice Eve.
I get my sister's complaint that this wasn't as funny as the first movie, which to be fair it isn't. But also it wanted to be less funny, to make these characters grow up that bit more and cement their relationships. Scotty and Bones are the main funnymen this time round, though Kirk and Spock still get a share of the laughs. Sulu and Chekov come more into their own, and I hope George Takei is proud of how his iconic character is being portrayed.
Personally I really enjoyed this film. The first is my favourite but Khan was a far scarier villain than Nero (sorry Eric). I think in a lot of ways Cumberbatch carried this film, but that may be more because of the importance placed on the character than a reflection on the rest of the cast. Not many films or shows manage to cast perfectly, but Star Trek and JJ Abrams sure set the bar high for themselves and every other sci-fi franchise.
So heres to the next one, may the Klingons prove to be just as scary as Khan and the visuals just as arresting as that first sequence in the pink foliage.
Sunday 19 May 2013
Another theatre review. Maybe I should rename the blog...
Well I did warn you guys a few months ago I would gush about this show. And gush I will. A lot.
Please stop reading now if you require absolutely no spoilers before going to see it, which I HIGHLY recommend doing so before it closes in June.
Now, as with Singin’ In The Rain, I had amazing luck with seats. Due to the unfortunate lack of sales (which, to be honest is because the price of the seats in the Stalls and Royal Circle is extortionate) they closed the Grand Circle (the top of the theatre and the £20-£30 seats, ergo most popular) and so upgraded everyone in the Grand Circle to the Stalls. Freaking amazing seats we got, and for over fifty pounds less per ticket than it should have been.
We did suffer with having a group of obnoxious women in the Stalls who were clearly drinking and had no respect for fellow theatre-goers. If you have paid to see a show, no matter what seat you are in or if you got upgraded, you CANNOT talk through a performance without getting yourself kicked out to a round of applause during the interval.
So HA to those girls, and I hope they never get to see the rest of the show.
Luckily they didn’t ruin the whole show or tarnish my opinion of it. Written by Jennifer Saunders and created by Mamma Mia’s Judy Craymer this was a fantastic blend of Ab-Fab comedy and songs used to great effect.
The story follows Viva, a young girl who lives on a barge with her Mum, and her girl group Eternity who are taking part in talent competition ‘Star Maker’, with the appropriate Simon Cowell/Sharon Osborne/mindless idiot judges. Along the way the band get a mentor, split up, Viva becomes a solo act and falls for a Spaniard.
Pretty standard rom-com fare, but with Spice Girls songs to illustrate each point.
The cast were fantastic. The girls, ‘Eternity’, were played by four newcomers who were all really good. A couple had fantastic voices, a couple were a bit squeaky for my taste, but then again what girl band doesn’t have a mix of tones. They harmonised well so that was the main thing. The main girl, Viva, was great and engaging, especially in the scenes between herself and her Mum.
The Mum, Lauren, and best mate Suzi were amazing and hilarious. Suzi is played by Lucy Montgomery who is a comedian and was in Tittybangbang, voiced Destiny the pigeon in Mongrels, and stars in the Ryvita adverts. Suzi is essentially Patsy from Ab Fab: likes to get drunk, isn’t afraid of being extreme, and is all over the boys. And Montgomery was tear-inducingly funny, especially when she does a Zumba class…honest its worth the money to just see that segment.
What was also worth the money was the use of 2 become 1 in a romantic scene between Lauren and her man-friend. Actually cried with laughter and hurt my eye trying to stop the mascara running.
The young lovers were Viva and her music coordinator Angel (pronounced An-hel, cos he’s Spanish). Angel’s rendition of Viva Forever was beautiful, especially as he played Spanish guitar – who doesn’t love a Spanish guitar? It was really sweet and not sickly at all.
The rest of the cast were fab. We had an Eastender playing Johnny, the Simon Cowell of the judges, with Simone, his rival, played with ferocity and fabulous comic timing. One of the assistants for Star Maker, Minty, stole basically every scene she was in hashtag hilarious girl. If you’ve seen it you’ll get that last bit
The choreography, musical direction and combinations of songs were really very good. There is an amazing dance piece set in Spain which had these giant puppet things and some fantastic Spanish dancing. It leaves me feeling so sad that this show is being cancelled.
The only explanation I can see for this show not getting the bums on seats it deserves is the over-pricing of the tickets. Make the entire theatre £30 a ticket, first come first served for best seats, with maybe the top of the theatre and restricted view half the price. Then so many more Spice Girls fans would make the trip to London. Unfortunately its not a show that will necessarily attract the tourists. Its definitely not for little ones, though I don’t understand why less men are coming to see Viva Forever than would go to Singin’ In The Rain or Mamma Mia.
What I hope is that they take this show on tour. Take the Spice Girls TO the fans, cos lets face it London is a very expensive day out, and often involves a hotel stay to boot if coming from further than 3 hours away.
I’ll just say, in case it doesn’t go on tour and Lucy Montgomery does not return, if you liked the Spice Girls or anything Jennifer Saunders does, GO TO THIS SHOW. Its funny, sweet, sing-along fabulousness with a cracking end that gets everybody on their feet for a final sing and dance together.
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