Into the Woods Official Movie Thread — Page 168

Ha! I doubt even very many musical theater fans who dislike Sondheim would accuse his songs of being "generic."

I actually used to read Berardinelli when I was first really getting into film about 15 years ago. I don't think he's an idiot, but he's kind of the prototypical internet critic - a decent writer, but he rarely goes into any depth or says anything particularly insightful or revealing.

Updated On: 12/23/14 at 10:04 AM

Here's a real doozy that just came out:

http://www.kpbs.org/news/2014/dec/23/dont-go-woods/

"I would prefer to suffer the peril of the Pit of Despair from "The Princess Bride" than be assaulted by the preening artifice of this film again. It overtly tweaks the conventions of the fairy tale (like Prince Charming being a bit of a cad and happily ever after not being all it's cracked up to be) and proudly notates things like having a giant but a lady giant, which is very rare. But in the end, it really doesn't tweak the formula all that much. It's still ends on an upbeat reassuring note with the bulk of the characters behaving exactly as we'd expect. But how about throwing in some ethnic diversity or maybe Prince Charming is gay."

@ljay889 (at the critic you quoted)

I've seen the musical several times and I have to say that they don't do a lot of moving during the songs that are considered WOWing. It's just normal stuff.

BUT...every version has the Baker's Wife (that I've seen) putting her hair back together as she sings her song after dealing with the Prince. And I love that. For some odd reason I find that a good use of her time and I look forward to it. Plus it makes her so likeable. And now I'm sad...

^ That's why I've always found it a lot more useful to listen to certain critics I trust than to follow some general "Tomatometer" score. A good majority of critics simply don't have much of interest to say (imo.)

Which isn't to deny that I've been kind of sad to see the score on this one moving downward over the past few days. Even though none of my preferred critics have weighed in so far - and even though, based on what I've seen and heard of this, there's pretty much no risk of me not liking this - there's always something gratifying about critical validation of something I value.

Updated On: 12/23/14 at 11:37 AM

@Len6677

well I have seen Into The Woods twice live and the DVD version. I love every moment. Different interpretations make it so much fun to watch again.

I never once saw dancing outside of the time the cast is all together, but that was just center stage and the off to the side or walking in circles. Never full on dancing. Which is why this is a great High School production. They don't need much. It's all there in th script.

I don't know what there is to dislike about it...performance wise maybe...but these complaints are all on the dumbest things.

I don't read reviews often. Myabe only snippets just to get an idea. But for films like this I have to see it for myself.

@musikman

Good grief. It's not that hard to know the character's names. The Baker. The Baker's Wife. They're mainly titles. He could've at least got that right. Instead of acting as if they had names and he forgot them.

I guess he needs songs that have catchy choruses. These songs don't and yet I still remember each song as easily as those that do.

And how is Nice is different than good not witty if not a really smart way to view people?

ugh...

Not to mention having a sister who has seen the musical doesn't validate your opinion any more so if you had just left her out of it.

Updated On: 12/23/14 at 12:02 PM

I love the stupidity of some of these critics shining through and how proud they seem to be of it.

"Nothing really new here" ... from material that was written over 25 years ago?? Nice one, fool. You should start a review of Romeo & Juliet that way. "This is a ripoff of West Side Story written by some old guy in England. It's SO been done before."

I would love to rate these critics "Rotten Tomatoes" -style. There would be a lot of green splats on their faces.

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Updated On: 12/23/14 at 01:31 PM

Y'know what.....**** it....I'm not in the mood for another Les Miserables style disappointment. I won't be seeing this. At all.

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"That's a good mindset."

Whether that was sarcasm or not, it doesn't matter. It's my mindset and I'll keep it, thank you very much.

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Enjoy this hilarious/ridiculously awful Imdb review:

"This was probably one of the worst movies I've ever seen in my life. EVER. Please, don't waste your time and/or money on this movie, as it was awful. The movie started off cute, with the music and the setting and all. But then the music turned into this preachy, do the right thing, "listen to your elders" movie. It was awful. 30minutes into it, I knew it wasn't going to get any better. This movie felt like a mash-up of a terrible version of Les Mis and Once Upon A Time. The music almost never ceased and I was just about to throw my remote at the TV. Not worth a penny. If I was the creator of this movie, I would never show my face again. To anyone giving this movie higher than a 4 star review is crazy, and most likely getting paid for their good review. This movie should receive a million Raspberry awards. PLUS, 99% OF THE PEOPLE DIED. TERRIBLE ENDING. Don't watch, this movie has literally no genre. This movie is probably as much for little kids as Les Mis is. I couldn't even understand half of the words they were singing. The only good part about this movie is Lilla Crawford. I have seen her in Annie and she is great. But the part with Johnny Depp was TERRIBLE and the part with his "stomach" is so cheesy that I think a 5 year old could have done better effects on it. This movie was a waste of my time, and frankly, a waste of my LIFE."



Lol!!!

If anyone wants good news, the RT rating is back in 70% with a lot of top critics REALLY liking this.

That certainly is a better top critics rating than LES MISERABLES (though I really like that movie) which is at 57%.

@ljay889, I wouldn't be surprised about it, there's a lot of movies in the Academy's past that didn't receive majority acclaim that were nominated for Best Picture.