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Showing posts with the label Musical

Cyrano

What I liked: I aspire to someday be a ballerina sheep. I guess the 1600's is the time I could have been a professional dancer. I liked that throughout the whole movie there are people sprinkled in the background with ridiculous nose masks. Cyrano's problem in this one isn't that his nose is huge, so it was a nice nod to the original. Surprise! It's a musical. That was unexpected. But somehow it worked since Cyrano is a poet it kind of made sense. And the rap battle was pretty great. There was some pretty arts dancing but, again, it's a musical so that makes sense. I liked that they made all the characters more likable than I remember them being in the book for example Christian wasn't an idiot just uneducated. I liked Cyrano's excellent sword skills and his friendship with the guard captain.  What I didn't: Not sure about the over the top costuming and make up. It definitely placed us in the right time period and sets a very unique feel for the film. I ...

Lion King 2.0

What I liked: The animation was incredible. It still didn't look quite like the real thing but it was close. Like a really cool video game. I liked the baby animals, the baby rhino, the baby ostriches, the baby hippo, the little warthogs were surprisingly cute. I liked that the instrumental sections of some of the Broadway songs ended up in the sound track. I liked the paint by insect technique that Rafiki used, but I don't think I'd hang that kind of art on my wall. Being in the theater for the stampede scene was pretty cool because the thunderous hoof falls made the seats shake What I didn't: So, this is essentially a shot by shot recreation of the original. I'm not really sure why they did this it is exactly the same for 95% and the 5% changes actually make it worse. They could have included the incredible songs from the Broadway production, that music is great. Instead they kept the old songs dropped some and changed some lyrics. They tried to highlight some...

The Lego Movie 2

What I liked: The pop culture references were, as always, very funny. I particularly liked how Bruce Willis kept popping up all over the place and the compilation of all known time machines. The hot teen vampires and annoying Pop music were also good additions. The angsty post-apocalyptic world was spot on parody, if a bit much for an hour and a half. The Duplo invasion was cute and I could relate with small enthusiastic well meaning destroyers of beautiful creations. Glitter based brain washing makes a lot of sense. Glitter gets everywhere and never never never can you get rid of it. I liked the credits animation. What I didn't: I agree with Lucy, "You guys are terrible communicators." There is a whole song about why Batman is not the best. Not cool Lego, not cool. I didn't like how much we got pulled back to the real world. I promise that anyone who has ever encountered Legos knows that they are actually not sentient animated toys. And I promise that with names ...

Coco Review

What I  liked: The skeletons. They were fun They were fashionable. Even when they had some assembly required they didn't seem to mind very much. They were also remarkably dexterous for not having any muscles or connective tissue, but they do have hair. And eyebrows, which is some cases is illegal. Also for not having lungs or diaphrams, they are pretty remarkable singers. The songs were all lots of fun and stick in your head. And the bonus flexibility that detachable limbs provides them, the skeletons also have pretty great dance numbers to go with their songs. The spirit animals. I have seen Alebrija in fairs and museums seeing them on the big screen in all their neon fully animated glory was great. Some skeletons have better spirit animals than others, The great great grandmother has an awesome winged jaguar. Others are ... less impressive. Frida kahlo made some very...um... artistic appearances. Like my reaction to most art installations I agree with the sentiment that it was ...

Greatest Showman Review

What I liked: This was a solid musical. There was a little tap dancing. There was a whole lot of chorus lining. There was minimal dialogue. The plot proceeded whether it seemed likely or not. And unlike LA LA Land, this movie committed to being a musical the whole way through. I liked the aerial silk number and would have liked to see more of it. I definitely thik that next year show choirs will be performing numbers from this musical. The daughters had a great suggestion that there were too many dead things in the museum. They were ahead of their time, interactive museum exhibits are all the rage now. Also when your centerpiece exihibit is a guilotine beheading a mannequin, the call for somehting less dead is just good sense. I aspire to be a tree in a ballet production. What I didn't: Since this whole thing was a giant anachronism anyway I really wish that they had put in some really awesome circus routines. The chorus line was quite impressive, but they would have been even ...

LA LA Land Reveiw

What I liked: What impressed me first about this movie was the really long shots. The camera zoomed around between rooms, up and over cars, and all over taking really long shots. That gave it a good feeling of being an on stage musical where your eye follows the movement of the action across the stage. The film's commitment to being a musical sky rocketed when it included a tap dance number. Followed by a random existential dance sequence. Most of the costuming at the beginning was clearly very musically too: bright colors, flippy skirts, bloomers. The story itself was fairly good and I thought they did a good job of capturing the decisions around making compromises and incremental progress toward one's dreams. The last song, the reprise of the piano solo that has been woven through the whole film, was really good and captured the feeling of what it if. I also really liked seeing the LA scenery I got to enjoy on my recent trip.  What I didn't: The commitment to full on musi...

Florence Foster Jenkins Review

What I liked: I thought the film did a good job of capturing the feeling of the 1940s. The actors gave great performances as very colorful characters. The core cast really did a fantastic job. I also liked the side characters particularly the annoying blonde. I liked the ambiguous compliments the music teacher delivered and the ridiculous antics that were carried out to prevent Florence from seeing the reviews of her concert.  What I didn't: The previews showed a movie about an eccentric woman who loved music enough to perform even though she was not very good and that this enthusiasm inspired those around her to also be brave in their own spheres. I thought eccentricity, love of music, lack of regard for condescending critics, sounds like my kind of thing? It turns out that her willingness to perform stems more from being completely out of touch with reality rather than being unconcerned with how she is perceived. This small difference skewed the movie from a celebration of quirky...

Kiss Me Kate Review

What I liked: This is a classic musical, or at least it comes in the box set labeled classic musicals. I remembered seeing it in middle school as the movie version of taming of the shrew It wasn’t particularly inspiring at the time and we ended up watching it as part of a girls night after everyone else voted down Indiana Jones and Star Wars, so Kiss Me Kate was not likely to get a good response from me. It turns out there is much more to the movie than we watched in middle school. The more than we watched in middle school isn’t really made up parts relevant to the plot, rather it is all of the famous show tunes that you have never placed: It’s too darn hot, Brush up your Shakespeare, True to you in my own fashion, Why can’t you behave, etc. These songs are great, they are catchy, they are famous, they have nothing to do with each other or the plot. So essentially Kiss Me Kate excels at being a musical. It has an absurd plot that is largely disregarded by the actors and audience, it h...