MEH-ry Poppins — Page 3

dramagoer said: "What a total snooze. The songs are ALL awful. The plot is a big who-cares. The performances are adequate. It really feels pointless."

It was pointless. But Disney couldn't make an official re-make without alienating , well, pretty much everyone, so they made a "sequel" that pretty much follows the structure and tone of the original film.

I don't know about you but looking at Box Office Mojo tells me that Mary Poppins Returns has the same box office legs that The Greatest Showman did (maybe more so) and it may out gross La La Land's 150+ million domestically. I personally thought that the movie was so beautifully made and created with such love and passion for the first film that the "Disney Live Action Remake" stink doesn't even show up throughout the entire film; and with a fantastic soundtrack that is selling very well in the Billboard 100 soundtrack charts, tells me that the songs are already beginning to grow on people instantly.

Sorry guys, "meh" might not be the correct word for this movie. "Love it or hate it" is more appropriate.

I've seen this film twice now. I can totally see the issues with it and the parallels with the original movie and I did have disappointments. However, I still wept from beginning to end. It really took me back to my childhood. Mary Poppins was a huge deal in our house and meant so much to my family. It still does. This sequel made me appreciate just how brilliant the original is and made me want to watch it again! This new movie may not be perfect, but it sure does make you feel like a kid again! I was floating on air leaving the movie theater! Absolutely adored Emily Blunt and was so happy they leaned more towards the Mary from Travers' stories. Her entrance scene had me bawling tears of happiness!

I finally got around to seeing the movie on Friday night. My wife -- who would probably have LMM's baby were she not 30 years too old (to put that in perspective, I have only used this allusion one other time, when Baryshnikov was in his prime and we lived in NYC, i.e., 40 years ago) -- really wanted to go, so we went. I have never liked the original, despite seeing it at least 5 - 6 times (taking kids to see it when reissued mostly). I particularly didn't feel the blending of the cartoon and human characters, which I know was state of the art in those days. To me, even at 14, it just looked cheesy.

Well, much to my surprise, I had a wall to wall grin for the length of the movie and loved it. I can't say that any of the songs reached out to me in a big way on initial hearing, but I had the same reaction 55 years ago at Radio City Music Hall.

I thought the integration of cartoon characters and humans, thanks to technological advances, was beautiful. I actually thought that Emily Blunt's acting was better than Julie Andrews; and, if her singing was not up to Andrews standard, I sat there thinking that she could be a great Mame. She had presence, charisma to spare, sophistication, and sang very well. (And why can't Mame be a worldly mid-thirties...given Patrick's age and the fact that her brother was older than her...).

That said, I was never comfortable with Miranda. As a performer, he's talented, he has charisma, can carry a tune, and he dances surprisingly well. In the theatre, I never have a problem with diverse casting. In the movies, maybe less so. I could not get past the fact that he looked hispanic, despite talking with a Cockney accent. It rang false to me. So, I guess I felt that he was miscast.

Also, In some ways, I wonder if another issue is that he became sooooo famous so quickly, and beyond the million or so ticket purchasers who saw him in ITH or H -- and there were mega overlaps in attendance of the two shows as well as multiple time viewers of both, so the actual number of distinct humans who have seen him perform more than a song is likely to be significantly lower than that -- to a lot of people he is a personality (who they know created a Broadway phenomenon that has become the event to see if you never see anything else (and I don't actually think I am being hyperbolic...there was a news article about ticket purchasers in Tampa. They learned that many people who have never seen a live show in their life waited in the Ticketmaster queue for hours to purchase tickets to see it in Tampa). My conclusion: it was probably going to be hard to take him seriously, since we were more familiar with the personality than the performer, and had a hard time seeing the character vs. the personality (of course, this was probably true of Gaga as well, so who knows). In any event, I loved it.

PS -- What do people think of its disappointing grosses. It has only grossed $150MM and is quickly winding down. Since it cost almost that much to make, unless it does well overseas, I imagine that Disney could be taking a loss, which must be shocking to them.

I am assuming that kids above the age of about 6 probably wanted to see Aquaman or Ralph whatever or Spiderman or Bumblebee, fearing a cornball session that only their grandparents would like, although any people I know (via friends and family) between the age of 10 and 25 all seemed to like it. Again, I am surprised.

"PS -- What do people think of its disappointing grosses. It has only grossed $150MM and is quickly winding down. Since it cost almost that much to make, unless it does well overseas, I imagine that Disney could be taking a loss, which must be shocking to them."

It should hit $300m internationally in the next few days, so I don't think they're TOO upset. With a cost of $130m (plus marketing etc. obviously), it'll probably be a break-even and then some for them, with home video bringing in a lot of extra bank down the road. In the US it's even surprisingly trounced the recent family-friendly, well-reviewed Transformers movie.

Agreed, but doubt they'll be "taking a loss".

everythingtaboo said: "I Buta notable exception of Lin-Manuel, who I'm just not sure is a good screen actor at all, and here just wasn't a good fit and given way too much to do when all I wanted was more Mary Poppins and the rest."



He is awful. Just to self aware. I dislike him on stage as well. SO how did this movie end up doing financially in the scheme of things?