Rate the recent Broadway-to-Hollywood films!- Page 2

[BigFatBlonde]

Posted: 7/31/07 at 3:40pm

Although it was 20 years ago, the stage-to-screen adaptation that doesn't get NEARLY enough credit is

Little Shop of Horrors

That movie was great when it came out and hasn't aged a bit.

Updated On: 7/31/07 at 03:40 PM

[LoringsGuy]

Posted: 7/31/07 at 3:44pm

Thurman totally disappointed me. She definitely had the right LOOK for her character, but seeing how some of her dancing was obviously "dubbed," for lack of a better term, and that her belting was more like shouting, I was wishing they'd gone with someone else.

[Dark_Angel]

Posted: 7/31/07 at 3:52pm

Shouldn't we at least be thankful or respectful of the fact that Columbus clearly took a reverential approach to making the film, regardless of how lackluster it turned out?

Absolutely not. I would have preferred a fresh young new cast that would have given the film it's potential edge. All I saw were a bunch of thirtysomething year olds trying to recapture something that had already come and gone for them. The only two who succeeded in their respective roles were Tracie Thoms and Rosario Dawson.

Why would I be respectful or thankful for a half-@ssed/lackluster film?

So with that said RENT doesn't even register. It's a prime example of how NOT to make a movie musical.

CHICAGO, DREAMGIRLS and HAIRSPRAY lead the pack.

[Funny Face]

Posted: 7/31/07 at 3:57pm

Oooo, forgot about Reefer Madness. I enjoyed that one a lot, I'd put it between Phantom and Producers.

[americanboy99]

Posted: 7/31/07 at 3:57pm

Ferrel was serviceable, but hardly worthy of such a nomination.

Golden Globes-
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture

Winner:
Syriana (2005) - George Clooney

Other Nominees:
Cinderella Man (2005) - Paul Giamatti
Crash (2004/I) - Matt Dillon (I)
Mrs Henderson Presents (2005) - Bob Hoskins
Producers, The (2005) - Will Ferrell

Oscars:

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

Winner:
Syriana (2005) - George Clooney

Other Nominees:
Brokeback Mountain (2005) - Jake Gyllenhaal
Cinderella Man (2005) - Paul Giamatti
Crash (2004/I) - Matt Dillon
History of Violence, A (2005) - William Hurt

Ferrel had no business being on that least. He was nowhere near William Hurt or Gyllenhaal (unless the latter was considered leading).

[LoringsGuy]

Posted: 7/31/07 at 4:02pm

DarkAngel, my point was that Columbus respected the fans of the stage show enough to insist on casting the original actors, which goes against conventional Hollywood thinking. Regardless of the outcome, I respect his choice (however misguided some people might think it was).

[The Boy From Ohio]

Posted: 7/31/07 at 4:03pm

I agree with TAP.
1. Chicago
2. Dreamgirls
3. Hairspray
4. The Phantom of The Opera
5. Rent
6. The Producers

[purpleprince101]

Posted: 7/31/07 at 5:44pm

Good:

1. Chicago
2. HairsprY
3. Dreamgirls

Okay:
1. Rent
2. Phantom

Sicked
1. Producers

[landryjames2]

Posted: 7/31/07 at 6:50pm

Excellent: Chicago (and Moulin Rouge if that is included)

Very Good: Dreamgirls and Hairspray

Mediocre: Rent

Just Bad: Producers with Phantom taking very last place

[thejcm]

Posted: 7/31/07 at 7:44pm

I think the reason that there is so much RENT-Movie hate around is because the cast and Columbus really built it up to be this amazing thing. I blame it on the blogs from the website, the movie just didn't live up to the hype those blogs created.

I would list mine like this: (and I'm including a couple of the less-mainstream ones)

1. Hedwig and the Angry Inch - I can't even begin to describe the amount of love that I have for this show/movie. It's not even a fan-boy thing. I'm not lying when I say that this film changed my life.

2. Dreamgirls - The anticipation I had for this movie was INSANE. When the midnight showing of it that I tried to attend was sold out, I woke up at 9am the next day to go see it by myself. It definitely surpassed the expectations I had for it.

3. Chicago - There's nothing I can say that hasn't already been said, other than Chicago played a huge part in breaking me in to the musical theatre scene.

4. Hairspray - It's only 4th because while it's a great, great, great movie, it didn't leave an emotional impact that the others did. However, it is probably the most fun I've had at a movie in a long time.

5. Reefer Madness - Just too perfect. Like Hairspray, it was just a fun movie with a message that wasn't beating you over the head.

6. RENT - I have such an attachment to RENT that I couldn't help but at least enjoy myself. All 4 times I saw it in the movie theaters, I cried through the 2nd act. Despite the flaws in some of the casting and direction, Jonathan's work still managed to shine above that in some parts. (Case in point: All of "Without You" through "Goodbye Love" was intense. If the rest of the movie was that strong it would've been such an awesome thing.)

7. Phantom - I don't love it, but I don't hate it either. It's very boring (due to the sluggish tempos). But you can't deny that Minnie Driver is superb.

7.b - Evita - Another one that I don't love or hate. Give me the OBCR with Patti singing the songs in their original keys, please.

8. The Producers - Yawn.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 7/31/07 at 8:06pm

The best--

1. HAIRSPRAY -- if you can overlook John Travolta's ghastly makeup and labored performance, the movie actually works pretty well. Good solid fun.

2. DREAMGIRLS -- a really good cast that can actually sing make up for the parade of cliches that passes for a story. Guess what? Success isn't all it's cracked up to be. Yawn. But the performances and score make up for the script's shortcomings.

The Worst, in no particular order:

1. RENT -- the sentimentality that the show always managed to avoid is embraced full-out by this unfortunate film. The cast is on average ten years too old for their roles. Director Chris Columbus sets what must be some standard for On-Screen Stupidity when he has Collins escape from a pack of muggers by running INTO a dark alley. It's kind of downhill from there.

2. PHANTOM OF THE OPERA -- Well, what can be said? Gerard Butler sings like some kind of wounded moose, and Joel Schumacher finds bold daring new ways to cut away from the performers at every excuse. Could have been worse, I guess.

3. CHICAGO -- I've posted elsewhere on this film. I've said it before, I'll say it again, I'll continue saying it: CHICAGO is quite simply the worst film ever made. Period. A parade of miscasting, atrocious hyper-editing, inept filmmaking, and a script device (having all the songs be fantasies in Roxie's head) that manages to trash whatever momentum the story might have, as it takes so much time getting in and out of the burlesque house in Roxie's head that it never gets around to making the story exciting. All this, and Richard Gere tap-dances. Atrocious.

Updated On: 7/31/07 at 08:06 PM

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 7/31/07 at 8:12pm

I have to admit, I'm a little shocked and disappointed. Are none of you familiar with work pre-1995? We've had scads of film adaptations of stage musicals -- granted, most of them pretty terrible, like DOLLY and MAME and NIGHT MUSIC. But they're just as deserving of comment as the perpetual posts about RENT and PHANTOM and (yawn) DREAMGRLS, even if that comment is "Yeah, pretty awful, but how about _________" Go back a bit and revisit the film version of KING AND I, which got probably the best treatment of any R&H show on screen. Look at the wonder that is WEST SIDE STORY and tell me of *any* stage-to-screen adaptation could come closer in capturing the energy on the stage.

There's far more to the musical theatre than just RENT and WICKED and SPRING SNOOZING. Go find it.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 7/31/07 at 8:15pm

Sean, I thought the thread was about recent Broadway-to-Hollywood films. DOLLY and MAME and NIGHT MUSIC, whatever you might think of them, are hardly recent.

[Funny Face]

Posted: 7/31/07 at 8:15pm

But the topic of the thread is recent musicals. We all know how fabulous King and I and all the other Golden age movie musicals were, but this ain't about them.

[SeanMartin]

Posted: 7/31/07 at 8:22pm

Point taken. But it's still disappointing. The way the boards are sometimes, it's like *nothing* happened before WICKED. And that's almost an insult to all the people who made Broadway what it is today. If the thread cant stand to be creaked open to explore things pre-W, then it's pretty sad all around for musical theatre history.

[wonderfulwizard11]

Posted: 7/31/07 at 8:29pm

Well, then I'll say Cabaret is the best movie musical ever made, closely followed by The Wizard of Oz and West Side Story.

Happy Sean?

[BrianIdol]

Posted: 7/31/07 at 8:29pm

Seanmartin- start you're own thread if you wanna talk about the other stuff....i dont' mean that to sound hostile, but I'd love to give my two cents about the older movie-musicals too, so start a new thread:)

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 7/31/07 at 8:42pm

I actually liked Rent and thought it captured the spirit very well , yes sometimes(what you own) it went a bit wrong but all in all it worked well.The film would have been awful if they kept all the sung through bits in to.
The insults of the direction was bollocks , Chris did a great job and some of the shots in the film still get me today.

Great and Good
1.Hairspray
2.Dreamgirls(even though it tried to act like it wasn't a musical for the first half).
3.Chicago (same problem, using the whole "its all in her head thing" was a bit of a cop out
4.Rent and Reefer Madness
5.Evita (great to see madonna pull this off)

BAD
6 Phantom Of The Opera
7.The Producers

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/31/07 at 8:56pm

Since you're throwing in a few more fairly recent films (and why not?)...

I totally agree with BigFatBlonde about Little Shop. I just saw it again not too long ago, and it's aged really well.

I would actually tie my spots 5 and 6 with Little Shop and Hedwig. Thanks for reminding me about Hedwig, Capn! It's definitely solidly on the "good" list.

Evita is (for me) stuck in the middle. It's not fantastic, but it's not bad either. Parts of it feel stale now and strangely claustrophobic. Madonna's performance was impaired by those LOUSY dark contact lenses that made her look like a lifeless, beady-eyed doll. It seriously is disturbing, once you pick up on it. You don't see her "window into the soul" at all.

*waits for the jokes about Madonna having no soul*

Her acting was good (if you could get past the impenetrable contacts), her vocals were limited but not terrible. Antonio Banderas was excellent and a real surprise to me, at the time. But he brought out the fact that I really don't like the character of "Che." He pops his smirky little head in one too many times throughout the story, and by the time he gets to "forgive my intrusion," I feel like saying, "No, I don't forgive your intrusion... Get lost!" And I thought the production value was excellent. It didn't feel like a stage show, but rather like an extended, high-end MTV video... not that that's a bad thing, either.

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/31/07 at 9:04pm

SeanMartin---I get your point, and I, of all people, would love to dive into the Golden Age stuff and include them here. But that was a different era and a different set of cinematic expectations. A time when musicals flourished and were THE popular movies to see. They were just as "valid" as comedies or dramas.

Not so anymore.

We're only now coming out of a depressing lengthy dry spell, so I wanted to see what you thought of these recent films. Which are the classics of the future? Which don't even hold up on a second viewing? Which sucked to begin with?

But you're "preachin' to the choir" about the old Hollywood musicals!

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 7/31/07 at 9:16pm

1. Hairspray
2. Dreamgirls (Jamie Fox nearly ruined the film for me)
3. Chicago (though I think it kind of apologized for being a musical)
4. The Producers (I liked it! I know I'm in the minority)
5. Rent
6. Phantom (I'd rather eat glass than see this again).

[NYC4Life]

Posted: 7/31/07 at 9:28pm

1.Chicago
2.Dreamgirls
3.Hairspray
4.Rent
5.Phantom
6.Producers
7.Moulin Rouge- I don't think this was good at all. The only good thing about it was the costumes. It made me dizzy and Nicole Kidman was awful. Plus the music did not help the plot and the lyrics did not make sense.

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/31/07 at 10:07pm

Little Shop was kind of this strange oasis in the desert.

It was successful and well received... but the only thing it led to was Ashman and Menken being snatched up by Disney, where they reinvented the animated feature (as a Broadway musical!).

There are really only a handful of people who can pull off a film musical today. Wonderful, even legendary directors have tried in the past (Lumet, Huston and Attenborough... oh, please!).

I have high hopes for Tim Burton... because at least he has a sense of wonder in his films that lends itself to the "heightened reality" of a musical. And he's already done Wonka with several musical numbers and Nightmare Before Christmas. I'm not thoroughly convinced, but at least it's not someone like Steven Soderbergh, were you go, "Yeah, he's good, but WTF?"

We'll see...

And I think RENT will age better than we expect. Everything about it seems at least 10 years off right now... but in 50 years, nobody's going to know the difference, or care. It will all be a "nostalgic" look back at a time in NY that doesn't exist anymore. It will age the way HAIR has (as a film). That movie was also much better than people gave it credit for when it came out... but it, too, was ten years too late to the party, and people were not in step with the film's "heart."

I'm hoping we're seeing the beginning of a renaissance of Broadway-to-Hollywood musicals that started with Chicago. At least they're being made, and with great ambition (for the most part). And I'd say at the very LEAST, we're batting 500 right now.

That's a good thing!

Updated On: 7/31/07 at 10:07 PM

[wickedfan]

Posted: 7/31/07 at 10:14pm

Well, if we're going for the last two decades than this is my list.

The Great:
1. Chicago
2. Little Shop of Horrors (a nearly flawless adaptation-even the altered family friendly ending works)
3. Dreamgirls (a few glitches but overall a fantastic movie musical)

The Impressively Good:
1. Hairspray (I was caught off-guard by how much I liked this movie)
2. Moulin Rouge (too many camera zoom in's for me to have it on the "Great" list)

The Mediocre:
1. Evita (a miscast Madonna, and a movie with no satirical bite...exciting)
2. Rent
3. The Phantom of the Opera (at least it's pretty to watch and some moments of the film are actually good)

The Miserable:
1. The Producers (no explanation needed)

I think that's all of them. Things are starting to shape up, though. I'm looking forward to the Damn Yankees remake. The confirmed casting I've heard is quite exciting.

[BrianIdol]

Posted: 7/31/07 at 10:17pm

lemme guess....Catherine Zeta Jones is Lola? not that I don't love her......lol