Les Miserables

   The beloved musical that shook the world of theatre has finally made it's way to the big screen, and after the results of the film, one might wonder, what on earth took them  so long? Being a theater person myself, I was excited to see another musical made into a movie. It's been a while since they have had a really successful musical to movie released, the last being, in my opinion, The Phantom of the Opera.
   The way Les Miserables was filmed was entirely original and had Oscar written all over it. The camera work was fresh and a relief from the same old techniques of filming movies. There were several instances where a "fish lense" was used to give the movie a different sort of perspective. What really made this movie stand out though, was how brutally real it was. For the first half of the movie, whenever an actor was finished singing a solo and there was silence....you  could hear a pin drop in the theatre. Nobody wanted to be the person who coughed during the silence, let alone breathe. There was a very nerve wracking feel to the first 30 minutes of the movie. Many of the solos in the movie were filmed using close-ups of the actors. It was incredibly effective, and set the tone of the film excellently.
   Anne Hathaway played the character of Fantine in the movie, and I am surprised to report that she did an excellent job. I do not like Anne Hathaway. I have not liked Anne in a very long time because of  all her work after her disney movies. I never see any personality on screen other than her own annoying self. However, her portrayal of Fantine was superb, and in my mind, will undoubtedly win her best supporting actress at the Oscars.The cast was wonderful all around, except for Russel Crowe's inability to sing, and the inability of the audience to watch the character of Marius sing for long intervals of time. His facial expressions were just too bizarre and distracting.  The director, Tom Hooper, did a wonderful job of integrating special effects and actual sets. Some movies use too much CGI (computer generated imagery), and some just don't use enough. Les Mis successfully used the right amount of both.
    I found the movie to be beautifully made, and successful in holding the attention of the audience. This can be a difficult feat for many musicals because let's face it....a lot of musicals have that one song we all wish just didn't exist. For the most part, Les Mis managed to avoid this issue. And for the people who don't know, when it comes to movie musicals, this one was groundbreaking in the sense that every song was sung live by the actors, on set. Up until this movie, every musical has had actors previously record their songs, and then lip sync to them when filming. I thought this new freedom of singing live was very effective for the actors, and definitely embellished the experience. There were definitely times when the actors exercised this new-found freedom too much, and simply acted their way through a song when they should have been focused on the right tune...or focused on making it sound like a song. This problem was fairly rare, but did show itself a couple times.
    It will always be important for a movie that's a musical to understand the difference between a musical reality, and actual reality. People do not break out in a made up song that everyone around them just automatically knows. It's important to maintain the same reality throughout the movie. If you try and make a musical too much like actual reality...then the two will clash and make for moments. I only bring this up because Les Mis was definitely on the verge of clashing, but managed to avoid it for the most part. Overall I thought it was a wonderful experience that will keep you singing Les Mis songs for a very long time. This movie has definitely set a bar for movie/musicals, and it will not be so easily topped.

Django is definitely, "off the chain"!

      For some people, "wow", is the only word that comes to mind when describing a Quentin Tarantino movie. And it's not surprising in the slightest. Tarantino's most recent film, Django Unchained, is no exception. Ever since I had seen Tarantino's Kill Bill, I have been anxiously waiting for him to direct a spaghetti western. Many of his films include aspects of classic spaghetti westerns, particularly in his directing style and the music he chooses to use. He often uses themes composed by the great Ennio Morricone, whose music influence in the western genre has been unprecedented. Django Unchained is a harsh story of slavery, love, and revenge. And he definitely does not hold back on the revenge aspect.
         If you have never seen a Quentin Tarantino film, I would suggest watching some of his previous movies before diving headfirst into this particular one. Being  huge Tarantino fan, I was not disappointed in the slightest with Django. Tarantino continues to excel in surprising the audience and giving them an in depth story that is both engaging, and shocking. There will be several instances of laughing heartily and then thinking to yourself...wait a second, should I have laughed at that? He accomplishes what no other director can in that he gets to the heart of the dialogue in movies. Every conversation in the movie is funny, shocking, heartbreaking and emotional. One thing is for sure..whether you like the movie or not, it will keep your attention all the way through. This has to be either the first or second most violent Tarantino film I have seen. The violence is of course over the top and ridiculous, nothing that is actually meant to be taken seriously. Django Unchained has a delightfully entertaining feel to it that will leave any avid movie goer satisfied.
          The slavery aspect of the story gives a gritty look at our nation's past, without holding back  the cruelty that was slavery. A controversial area of the movie is in the constant use of the "n" word. As controversial as it may be, it is a realistic look at how shameful times were in those days. This movie is definitely not one for the whole family, and maybe not even for you and the wife because of some male nudity in the movie. It's very extreme by nature, and will leave some audience members angry at the humor in the movie that often times pokes fun at very heavy material. But once again, this is how Tarantino has always operated. Tarantino has this unparalleled gift to find the humor in any situation no matter how dark, and still manage to make a movie that is 100% serious and Oscar worthy.
          Much like in his film Inglourious Basterds, where Tarantino (spoiler alert) rewrites history and has Hitler brutally murdered, ending the world war as we know it and sticking it to the Nazis, Tarantino sticks it to the white slave owners. He builds them up to be a great eveil, and then has the slave Django rise up and stick it to the slavers. The movie is riddled with classic quotes that will surely not be forgotten. Tarantino continues to surprise me with every film of his that I watch. He is original and definitely a one-of-a-kind director. If you are a squeamish person, I would not suggest watching this movie. With Tarantino you've just gotta roll with the punches. I loved this movie and can't wait to see what Tarantino pulls out of his sleeve next.

"The Hobbit" movie review

    Well, to get started, Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit"  was no Lord of the Rings, but it definitely holds its own. Like much of America, I was anxiously anticipating this movie's release, and the nostalgia that came with it. Unfortunately I had some reserves after seeing the first trailers for the movie and reading interviews. I was worried that because special effects are overused ridiculously these days, that The Hobbit would fall into the same trap. In the Lord of the Rings, Peter Jackson perfectly integrated realism and CGI, creating a world that was at times difficult to tell what was fake and what was an actual set that had been built by the crew. I regret to say that I had no problem deciphering the difference between what was real and what was fake in The Hobbit. I attribute the overuse of cgi partly to the fact that Jackson was hesitant to return to The Lord of the Rings and direct the Hobbit trilogy. Because the first three films were so time consuming and exhausting, he may have slacked off a tad by using oodles of cgi instead of building more sets and putting some real elbow grease into the project.
      The movie did not have the same feel as the other Lord of the Rings movies, and they put the characters into situations you wouldn't have even dreamed of putting the characters in The Lord of the Rings trilogy through. I thought Richard Armitage, the actor who played Thorin, was a little disappointing. I didn't take very many of his serious moments seriously. And for those of you who have read the book, I had wished that Thorin's great beard was a little more....well....there. And was the cgi Pale Orc really necessary? He wasn't in the book, and I was not fooled by the special effects even once.  Something everyone could do at the end of the Fellowship of the Ring was look at all of the characters and know them by name. I could not for the life of me look at each of the dwarfs in this movie and name them all after watching it for the first time. I saw this movie in both 3d and 2d, and I have to say I that I did not think that it mattered much which version you saw it in. There seemed to be quite simply too much going on in the movie at once. BUT, having said all of that, If you are still reading this review, (which may be questionable if you were a die hard fan of the movie with absolutely no issues with it) I would like to say that the CGI was the biggest problem I had with the movie. Other than that, this movie screamed the Hobbit, and no one else could have done it better than Jackson. Thank the Lord that Guillermo Del Toro did not stay on to direct this movie or we would have gotten another Don't be Afraid of the Dark, or some kind of strange shout out to his one hit Pan's Labyrinth.
      I Loved returning to Hobbiton and having our good old Gandalf back! The Music for the movie was amazing, provided by the always excellent Howard Shore. He provided us with a  new theme that we may all hum when our days get boring and lacking in adventure. Martin Freeman did a wonderful job playing Bilbo, and I cannot wait to see where the other two movies take us. The story has been superbly set up to make way for the next  movie in the trilogy.  Despite the overuse of special effects, this movie will deliver the joy and adventure that has been greatly anticipated for so long. Bring on The Desolation of Smaug!

Why Hans Zimmer is Playing with Fire

    Everyone who knows me well enough knows that Hans Zimmer is my all time favorite movie score composer, and I have been impatiently awaiting the release of the new Superman movie; Man of Steel. Hans Zimmer will be scoring this movie of epic proportions and although I am excited to hear what he has in store for this movie, I am scared beyond belief. Zimmer will be re-scoring one of John Williams classic themes. The god of movie scores, John Williams is not a composer I would wish any other composer to ever stand toe to toe with. Nothing says Superman more than John Williams' Superman soundtrack. The main theme is a part of our culture that anyone would recognize. But all too often people forget the Complete 1978 Superman score. It carries the weight of the Superman movie and makes us forget about the hokey and dated affects that 1978 had to offer at the time.
     John Williams is what I like to call a flawless composer. He has made movie scores what they are today, and what they will forever be. He has made a stamp in time that will never be put out. Now, from what I have read about Hans Zimmer composing the new Superman movie, I gather that it will be a completely original work by him...completely scrapping the John Williams score. I have forever trusted Zimmer with every movie he composes, but this one is a little different. This is Superman. I am a fan of not fixing what isn't broken, and you can rest assured that the John Williams score for the 1978 Superman was NOT broken. I loved every second of the old Superman soundtrack. It is not dated sounding, and it displays all of the complexities that are the character of Superman. If they are going to completely change the soundtrack, I know no better composer for the job than Hans Zimmer. But if Zimmer does this, It has to be one of his greatest compositions yet. Gladiator and Inception were very different scores, and both were amazing. Superman will need that kind of originality. In the case of Superman, a soundtrack like that of Batman Begins will not do. Zimmer produced a fine score for the Batman movies...but this is Superman. A bar has been set, and must be met. I do not want to hear any Inception, or Batman, or Gladiator in this new Superman movie.   
    John Williams is the greatest composer who ever lived. Star wars? Indiana Jones? Jaws? E.T the Extraterrestrial?  Ever heard of those? All John Williams. Hans Zimmer is going to need a miracle to pull off what he simply MUST pull off. This score needs to carry the movie just as the original Williams score did. Once again, Hans Zimmer is my favorite composer, but he has chosen quite the movie to score. Don't fix what isn't broken. I hope that I am wrong, and that Hans Zimmer will create one of his greatest soundtracks yet. (apart from Gladiator) All that being said...Man of Steel has been my most anticipated movie in years and I could not be more thrilled with the team behind the production. May God be with you Hans.You're a brave man for attempting such a feat, and I hope for all our sakes that you are successful.