My GOD!!! There are so many qualities in the film version that I honestly really love (huge acl fan..including the film:)) Let's see.. 1 the fact that "Gimmie the Ball" is gone! 2 the Val is actually believable in her acting and appearance 3 "Hello Twelve.." fantastic. 4 Michael Douglas 5 Cassie "Mirror" dance break is fantastic, even though her fall is awful
so many to choose from! Oh I love it all!
" I Act. I Sing. I Run. Jump. Walk. Just don't ask me to Spin."
The onyl redeeming quality in the film to me is Vicki Frederick's Sheila. Apart from that, I do not care for any of the characters (or actors); actually, in the film, I dislike just about every character, every number (they even cut portions of "At The Ballet"), and particularly Alyson Reed's Cassie.
It is the oNLY chane to see Barrymore's. I hate how they cut to Cassie and Zach during "I Can Do That"
"All I ask of you is one thing: please don't be cynical. I hate cynicism -- it's my least favorite quality and it doesn't lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen."
Conan O'Brien
The only redeeming value for me was the fact that the guitar picks the original prints of the film were turned into have been used by musicians the world over.
"2 the Val is actually believable in her acting and appearance"
Too bad it's a dance movie and you never see her dancing.
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
I love the movie. I find it very entertaining, and although it's not the best verison of the story of A Chorus Line, it does justice to the musical. I think Michael Douglas' performance was amazing, and I was dissapointed by Michael Berresse's performance because I liked Michael Douglas so much.
What is it that people don't like about the movie?
I'll be damned but Audrey Landers T&A quotient was perfect for Val and she sang the best rendition of "Dance 10; Looks 3" I've ever heard...Pam Blair included. :-P
What is it that people don't like about the movie?
That the score was shred to bits; that the dance scenes are clunky and shot with ineptitude (let's show a tap dance from the waist up); the arbitrary changes to virtually every character; the fact that the "second-tier" characters (Don, Connie, etc) have virtually no stories at all, etc.
"How do you like THAT 'misanthropic panache,' Mr. Goldstone?" - PalJoey
Vicki Fredericks (who played Cassie on Broadway) had a fairly long career with several embarrassments (a ladies-wrestling movie whose name I forget with Peter Falk, a supporting role in Sharon Stone's psycho-slasher movie "Scissors", a guest spot on "Murder She Wrote"). I agree she is the definitive Sheila, and I loved the way "At the Ballet" was shot in the movie--until Maggie hits her high note and the camera tilts up at the ceiling, subjecting us to twenty seconds of absolute blackness. Couldn't they have shown us some dream-ballerina images? Also, I loved the strong, funny, admirable actress who played Bebe (a kind of nonentity role in the stage version)--what was her name? Ditto whoever played Diana Morales.
Otherwise--ugh. All the flashbacks and the Cassie "backstory" bring the film to a halt; Don's speech is unwatchably inarticulate; the "Surprise" sex number is a DISMAL substitute for "Hello Twelve, Hello Thirteen" (is there nothing more to adolescence than sex?) and the dance sequences remain stagebound (you can tell where they are hiding Audrey Landers' ineptitude). Giving "What I Did for Love" to Cassie was the last straw. It's supposed to be about the quest of all dancers, not one woman's unfortunate love life.
I ask in all honesty/What would life be?/Without a song and a dance, what are we?/So I say "Thank you for the music/For giving it to me."
I do think that Vicki's Shelia is very good, as is Yamil Borges plays a nice Diana, her "Nothing" is the vocal highlight of the show for me.
I also hate that "Hello Twelve..." has been basically cut, I hate "Suprise, Suprise". And what is with the one random good note that Audrey Landers hits in "Dance 10..."? When she goes "and you find" it is, i don't know, randomly good.
"Oh look at the time, three more intelligent plays just closed and THE ADDAMS FAMILY made another million dollars" -Jackie Hoffman, Broadway.com Audience Awards
until Maggie hits her high note and the camera tilts up at the ceiling, subjecting us to twenty seconds of absolute blackness. Couldn't they have shown us some dream-ballerina images?
Unfortunately, director Richard Attenborough didn't know much about musical theater and what makes it work and what doesn't. He obviously didn't watch any of the classic musical movies such as West Side Story, Grease or The Sound of Music. I will give him credit in that ACL is a very difficult musical because the action is very confined and cerebral, but a genius director could have overcome that. To his discredit, the stage version of ACL is very cinematic in its staging; I believe that if someone had copied the Broadway version it would have been better than what we were given.
If anyone ever tells you that you put too much Parmesan cheese on your pasta, stop talking to them. You don't need that kind of negativity in your life.
The name of the wrestling movie with Peter Falk is All the Marbles. That movie pre-dates ACL by 4 years though.
Vicki was also in All That Jazz, Scissors, Chaplin (she took no rolling credit for this movie), Stewardess School, Body Rock (almost more embarrassing than Chopper Chicks, but entertaining for the fact that Vicki has really horrifying hair and gets to rap; though that in and of itself is marginally alarming), Chopper Chicks in Zombietown (yes, that's highly embarrassing and yes, she does get blown up under a bus) and Coast to Coast.
While the movie basically is a very poor version of the stage show, there are some really good performances in my opinion: #1 Vicki Fredrick as Shiela #2 Cameron English as Paul #3 Pam Klinger as Maggie #4 Yamil Borges as Diana #5 Terrence Mann as Larry #6 Michelle Johnston as Bebe.
Everybody else was just okay. The changes to the songs were not only unnecessary but also pretty much ruined the movie. The Zach and Cassie flashbacks were awful and giving Cassie "What I Did For Love" a tragedy. Other than that, it was an opportunity for a lot of kids (like me) who couldn't get to Broadway or to a city with tours a chance to sample the show. It made me buy the OBC recording, which, to this day, is one show I listen to constantly.