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Topic:
The Movie Musicals Thread: Now Dis. "Mama Mia" (2008)
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Obi Anne
Title: FanForce RSA
Europe
Registered:
Nov '98
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Date Posted:
1/11 11:43am
Subject:
RE: The Movie Musicals Thread: 25 Best (Now Disc. "Chicago")
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I was really disappointed when I saw Chicago. Cell block tango is a great number, and Catherine Zeta Jones is great, the rest not so much. Personally I think that it got so many awards because Moulin Rouge should have won them the previous year.
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Zaz
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered:
Oct '98
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Date Posted:
1/11 11:48am
Subject:
RE: The Movie Musicals Thread: 25 Best (Now Disc. "Chicago")
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I didn't see it on the stage, so I have no basis for comparison.
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Zaz
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered:
Oct '98
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Date Posted:
1/11 12:29pm
Subject:
RE: The Movie Musicals Thread: 25 Best (Now Disc. "Chicago")
- Date Edited:
1/11 12:30pm (1 edits total)
Edited By:
Zaz
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Next: 16. "A Star Is Born" (1954)
"Judy Garland's character, Vicki Lester, wins an Oscar for Best Actress, but Garland lost offscreen (to Grace Kelly for The Country Girl). Dopey vote, given Garland's powerhouse takes on ''The Man That Got Away'' and ''Born in a Trunk.'' She's also got a freaky ability to cry so hard onscreen she gets hiccups. The studio chopped half an hour, but a theatrical and video reissue put most of the scenes back (some as still-photo montages). If those are missing, you're watching a butchered version."
Another dissenting vote: In the musical montage, Garland relaxes a bit, gives a good "Swanee" and "Born in a Trunk", but the pleasures in this awful movie are rare, and consist of that and James Mason's terrific performance in the best role. Garland is way past her 'best-by" date here. She is only 31, but looks much older; and she has unfortunately bought into the "legend" crapola. Her musical taste--once excellent--has declined into narcissism most of the time. But the unlying material may be the other part of the problem. It doesn't work in the original (save for Frederic March in the best role that time) and it doesn't work in the rock remake (save for Kris Kristofferson in ditto). It doesn't work because Vicki Lester is ye saint. Nope, she doesn't rage because Norman Maine is a drunk, or because his self-destructiveness is affecting her and her career. And yes, she becomes a star in Hollywood by accident while remaining a sweet, nice girl. Yeah right.
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Zaz
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered:
Oct '98
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Date Posted:
1/13 1:41pm
Subject:
RE: The Movie Musicals Thread: 25 Best (Now Disc. "A Star in Born" (1953)
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15. "Hairspray" (2007)
"Swathed in a fat suit, John Travolta looks like a startled hamster as early-'60s housewife Edna Turnblad. But his weird Baltimore accent works, and he plays Edna as an actual woman instead of the drag creature of John Waters' original 1988 film and the Broadway show (from which this is adapted). The Marc Shaiman-Scott Wittman score pays shrewd homage to period pop, even if it folds in some later-'60s sounds, and director Adam Shankman brings irresistible energy to the dancing."
Yes, yes, but. Why is it necessary for a male to play this part?
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Zaz
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered:
Oct '98
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Date Posted:
1/14 12:46pm
Subject:
RE: The Movie Musicals Thread: 25 Best (Now Disc. "Hairspray" (2007)
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14. "Grease" (1978)
"Who cares if the students at Rydell High look like they're already past graduate school? John Travolta doing a chicken dance to ''Summer Nights,'' Olivia Newton-John announcing she's an exchange student from Australia, Stockard Channing crowing ''Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee'' with bad-girl panache, Frankie Avalon showing up for ''Beauty School Dropout'' — this is the stuff of repeat-playback heaven. Don't look for much 1950s rock-music flavoring, though: The title tune smacks of disco and the rest is show-tune pastiche."
This one isn't bad, but not my favourite.
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Zaz
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered:
Oct '98
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Date Posted:
1/16 12:00pm
Subject:
RE: The Movie Musicals Thread: 25 Best (Now Disc. 14. "Grease" (1978) )
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13. "On the Town" (1949)
"Three randy sailors (Gene Kelly, Frank Sinatra, and Jules Munshin) have 24 hours to find love in New York City. Producer Arthur Freed chopped out much of the original Broadway score by Leonard Bernstein and Comden & Green. (Too sophisticated, and too raunchy.) But what remains of it — buoyed by the leggy dancing of Ann Miller and Vera-Ellen, and a hilarious turn by horse-faced Alice Pearce as a loser named Lucy Schmeeler — is, as a Brooklynite might put it, ''cherce.''"
And the same could be said of this one; a bit too much Gene Kelly, and a bit too little Frank Sinatra. But great dancing, no question.
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Zaz
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered:
Oct '98
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Date Posted:
1/17 12:02pm
Subject:
RE: The Movie Musicals Thread: 25 Best (Now Disc. 13. "On the Town" (1949))
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12. "Swing Time" (1936)
"The lightest, sweetest outing for Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Lots of folks say the pinnacle is 1935's Top Hat, with a score by Irving Berlin, rather than this outing, with songs by Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields. But Swing Time deserves the edge for the passionate romantic longing on display in ''Never Gonna Dance.'' It's enough to make your loins ache. Dancing with the Stars? Amateur night by comparison — a joke. This is dancing with starlight itself."
*Sigh.* Both "Top Hat" and "Follow the Fleet" are better. Live with it.
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Zaz
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered:
Oct '98
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Date Posted:
1/18 11:49am
Subject:
RE: The Movie Musicals Thread: 25 Best (Now Disc.12. "Swing Time" (1936) )
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11. An American in Paris (1951)
"There's a lot of romantic twaddle involving Gene Kelly and Leslie Caron before you get to the climactic 18-minute ballet, but wow — the finale is an unparalleled rhapsody in Technicolor. Set to George Gershwin's instrumental music, it depicts a fantasy Paris rendered in the styles of great French painters (Utrillo, Lautrec, Renoir, among others), and stands as the most dynamic fusion of ballet and cinema that anybody's come up with yet. From Vincente Minnelli, again (see also The Band Wagon, Meet Me in St. Louis, and Gigi)."
There are times I can tolerate Gene Kelly. This is not one of them. Good things: "I Got Rhymyn" and "S'Wonderful" and Oscar Levant. Bad things: the big ballet, which is a big, big bore and twee into the bargain.
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Thrawn1786
Registered:
Feb '04
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Date Posted:
1/18 1:04pm
Subject:
RE: The Movie Musicals Thread: 25 Best (Now Disc.11. "An American in Paris" )
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I agree. My sister and I both used to dance, and when we watched it the ballet was a huge disappointment, after hearing nothing but raves about it for so long. And the ending is somewhat rushed and makes no sense...I would not recommend this at all.
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Zaz
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered:
Oct '98
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Date Posted:
1/20 4:39pm
Subject:
RE: The Movie Musicals Thread: 25 Best (Now Disc.11. "An American in Paris" )
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10. Love Me Tonight (1932)
"You won't believe how frisky the pre-Production-Code banter is between Maurice Chevalier and Jeanette MacDonald in this delightful fable about a tailor who falls in love with a haughty princess. Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart wrote the songs, and director Rouben Mamoulian finds ingenious ways to use them — especially in a segment that follows ''Isn't It Romantic?'' as it's passed along from a taxicab to a train to a marching regiment of soldiers, the orchestration shifting with each dissolve."
Early Paramount musicals are really hard to see. I've only seen one MacDonald/Chevalier..."The Merry Widow". It's a hoot. I see why he was a star, anyway.
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Zaz
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered:
Oct '98
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Date Posted:
1/21 12:11pm
Subject:
RE: The Movie Musicals Thread: 25 Best (Now Disc. 10. "Love Me Tonight" )
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9. Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)
"Even if you hate people breaking into song, you've got to admire how gracefully director Vincente Minnelli handles the trick in this nostalgic portrait of a turn-of-the-century family. ''The Boy Next Door,'' delivered by Judy Garland on a sunny porch in midsummer, feels completely natural, as does her rendition of the downbeat ''Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas'' in a darkened bedroom late on Christmas Eve. Pure high-fructose eye and ear candy, with a bittersweet kick."
Garland is intolerable in her later incarnations, but here she still has her talent, and an ability to sing the song simply.
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JohnWesleyDowney
Registered:
Jan '04
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Date Posted:
1/21 4:29pm
Subject:
RE: The Movie Musicals Thread: 25 Best (Now Disc. 9. "Meet Me In St. Louis")
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When he was at his best, Minnelli was one of the greatest directors of his era. He sold the studio on this film as simply "a year in the life of a family." This isn't my favorite though, I think it's An American in Paris. I always thought it was interesting that he chose a black musical, Cabin in the Sky, as his first film! Very gutsy for that time.
Amazingly, when Minnelli began his directing career, he actually designed and invented the crab dolly, because he frustrated by the lack of freedom in camera movement that the technology allowed at the time. His invention allowed the camera to move in any direction, long, long before the invention of the steadicam. Wow.
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How many movies do you think Industrial Light and Magic has worked on? WRONG. http://www.ilm.com/ilm_services.html "Films fulfill an unconscious spiritual desire that human beings have to share a common memory." - Martin Scorcese
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Zaz
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered:
Oct '98
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Date Posted:
1/22 12:04pm
Subject:
RE: The Movie Musicals Thread: 25 Best (Now Disc. 9. "Meet Me In St. Louis")
- Date Edited:
1/22 12:06pm (1 edits total)
Edited By:
Zaz
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It's a lovely movie.
Next: 8. South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (1999)
"The penis-joke title is one of the tamer gags in Matt Stone and Trey Parker's totally obscene, utterly inspired musical take on their Comedy Central TV show about the world's trashiest-talking grade-schoolers. (By one online count, the F-word is uttered here 146 times.) It's better than any episode, thanks to outrageously dirty ditties by Parker and Marc Shaiman like ''Uncle F---a,'' ''Kyle's Mom's a Bitch,'' and the Oscar-nominated ''Blame Canada.''
A confession: "Uncle F-----", with its chorus of synchronized farts, reduces me to tears of laughter every time. Okay, I'm twelve.  This movie is also a highly effective satire of aminated Disney: most notably Satan's power ballad "Up There"
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Spiderfan
Registered:
Mar '04
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Date Posted:
1/22 12:27pm
Subject:
RE: The Movie Musicals Thread: 25 Best (Now Disc. 8. "South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut")
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Not just a satire of Disney but a wonderful satire of Musicals in general: Much of the story can be compared to Les Miserables. Once again Parker and Stone demonstrate they may very well be two of the most gifted writers in Hollywood. They have an incredible gift for social commentary while at the same time never straying far from Toilet Humour. For instance when they were thanking the Television Academy for the Emmy win as one of the Fathers of South Park was painfully trying to pass the world's largest chunk of feces. Granted this isn't part of the Movie but wonderfully demonstrates that there are no limits for these guys and they will say and do anything often with side splitting results.
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SueAsideRide
Registered:
Oct '00
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Date Posted:
1/22 2:12pm
Subject:
RE: The Movie Musicals Thread: 25 Best (Now Disc. 8. "South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut")
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Loving the synchronized fart chorus is nothing to be ashamed of; it's totally hilarious. SP:BLU is one of the funniest movies ever, and the songs are among the best parts. It completely works as a musical, and Parker and Stone are geniuses.
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