NINE - The Movie Musical - Review Thread- Page 2

[GoSmileLaughCryClap]

Posted: 12/4/09 at 6:00pm

Rob Marshall has delivered an exceptionally well-crafted film adaptation of the Broadway musical inspired by 8 ½
4 stars from Box-Office Magazine

[Brick]

Posted: 12/4/09 at 11:02pm

"The Fact that the Hollywood Reporter reviewer thinks that Sweet Charity was a pretty terrific film tells you right there he doesn't really know what he is talking about. "

I noticed this, too. Sweet Charity was a huge bomb. I love when critics put on their rose-colored glasses and cite a flop original as being superior to a remake or revival. Credibility goes right out the window.

[chrisampm2]

Posted: 12/5/09 at 12:37am

Add me to the teensy list of folk who like the film of Sweet Charity. And add me to the peops who think O'Neil doesn't know what he's talking about if he says the audience at the LA Nine screening was only into it because the stars were going to be there. I don't know how he would know unless he sensed hostility during the screening itself. I was there and felt the response throughout the film was positive. The people I spoke to afterward were positive about the film.

[MrMidwest]

Posted: 12/5/09 at 2:39pm

What's wrong and what's right with 'Nine'

[Holbee]

Posted: 12/5/09 at 3:45pm

"Nine" is only at 43% at Rotten Tomatoes. The bad reviews seem to really dislikes DDL's and Marshalls work especially.

[TalkinLoud]

Posted: 12/5/09 at 3:56pm

Rotten Tomato score is totally irrelevant at this point. It has 7 reviews, and only two important ones (Variety is positive, THR negative). A major release will have upwards of 120.

[Holbee]

Posted: 12/5/09 at 4:17pm

I'm sorry, then what is this thread doing here so early then? Jeez...

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 12/6/09 at 5:02am

Its here because the film's reviews from London and the major trades have been printed. Most of the major reviews won't be printed until either the 18th or the 25th, but monthly magazine publications will also be printing reviews this week.

For the record there are several reviews that have been posted - both positive and negative in this thread that are not from reviewers, but bloggers, whose opinions mean no more or less than any of you who print your opinions on this website.

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 12/6/09 at 5:13am

So far, it seems that those who have seen it either love it or hate it based on the reviews so far and facebook/twitter comments from those who have been to screenings so far.

I would guess the love its are in the majority at the moment.

[Holbee]

Posted: 12/6/09 at 1:54pm

and these will, or have been printed on Rotten Tomatoes. Was Talkin Loud mad at me for posting it was only at 43% or mad that it only GOT a 43%....?

[Pgenre]

Posted: 12/6/09 at 2:21pm

He was mad that you keep making stupid posts in this thread, Holbee, so please stop.

No one cares what Rotten Tomatoes says three weeks before the movie is released. Wait until December 26 and post about it all you want.

P

[Kad]

Posted: 12/6/09 at 2:36pm

Or at least December 18, when several major metropolitan reviews will come out.

[Pgenre]

Posted: 12/10/09 at 1:24am

“Dazzling! A hot-blooded musical fantasia full of song, dance, raging emotion and simmering sexuality. Daniel Day-Lewis acts like the maestro he is and the women are smashing! Penelope Cruz is sizzling! Marion Cotillard is beautiful and bruising all at once...perfection! Judi Dench is a sassy delight! Sophia Loren is much more than an actress, she's the iconic face of Italia! When visionary director Rob Marshall gathers his cast together for a finale with cinematographer Dion Beebe, costume whiz Colleen Atwood and production designer John Myhre working at their highest capacity ‘Nine’ fires on all cylinders!”

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

[strummergirl]

Posted: 12/10/09 at 1:26am

Travers always has a way with buzzwords. That will definitely be printing on newspaper ads and the dvd covers.

In other news Invictus is using Peter Hammond as one of their raves. Now I'm worried.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 12/10/09 at 1:43am

That will surely be on Travers ten best list tomorrow

[lull89]

Posted: 12/10/09 at 1:44am

EW didn't like it very much. Owen Gleiberman gives it a C, calling special attention to his dislike of the score:

". . .when the songs are going on, Nine at least has a pulse. Yet this musical, to my ears, hasn't aged well. The melodies tend to cluster into cliché hooks (there's a lot of honking burlesque, and too many faux-'60s-Italian carnival-of-life showstoppers), and Marshall's staging lacks the thrilling unity he brought to Chicago. The numbers, while lively, remain cluttered and stage-bound.

The women, however, are spirited and sexy. Cruz performs a mock bump-and-grind with real heat, and Fergie, as an oh-so-Fellini-esque beach drifter, turns herself into a wild electric siren. If only the lyrics weren't so awful! Cotillard, a lovely presence, is martyred by having to sing such gems as 'My husband makes movies/To make them he lives a kind of dream/In which his actions aren't always what they seem!' No wonder Day-Lewis looks like he's having stomach trouble. He spends most of Nine as a haunted spectator, and you want to tell the guy to lighten up. The ? movie Guido is trying to dream doesn't look like much fun, and neither is Nine"

ETA: Sorry, I forgot the link. I've added it now.

Entertainment Weekly: Movie Review: Nine, Reviewed by Owen Gleiberman Updated On: 12/10/09 at 01:44 AM

[Pgenre]

Posted: 12/10/09 at 1:50am

"The most explosively entertaining film of the year!"

[strummergirl]

Posted: 12/10/09 at 1:50am

Gleiberman also hated the music to Dreamgirls fwiw. I distinctly remember him saying that there was not a hit song in the film.

And as much as I poked fun at Travers for being a 'quote-whore', not even an original derogative, when he likes a movie most of the time trending toward that movie being good or at least critically successful.

[James885]

Posted: 12/14/09 at 10:32am

The New Yorker review is up. He didn't like it.


To be fair, the theatrical project was a challenge in the first place, having taken its cue from "8�½" Fellini's masterpiece of 1963. This means that "Nine" is a film of a musical of a film--which was itself the film of a life, if you happen to believe that Guido (Marcello Mastroianni) was the harassed alter ego of Fellini himself. The story was that there was no story; Guido could not get his latest film started, or even written, and that remains the case in "Nine." One is forced to ask: who wants to make, or watch, a major Hollywood musical about mental block? "Singin' in the Rain" was also about obstacles in moviemaking, but it found irrepressible joy in seeing them surmounted; each song pushed events along, whereas the songs in "Nine" merely hold them up. A woman is introduced, the action is paused, and she gives us the melodious lowdown on her circumstances.


NINE Review - By Anthony Lane

Updated On: 12/14/09 at 10:32 AM

[GoSmileLaughCryClap]

Posted: 12/14/09 at 10:34am

Down to 35% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

[musicalfandukie]

Posted: 12/14/09 at 12:21pm

The BFCA Critics Choice Awards were announced today and Nine has 10 nominations including best picture. I'm kinda surprised since some of the reviews haven't been so nice.

- Best Picture
- Best Supporting Actress- Marion Cotillard
- Best Ensemble
- Best Cinematography
- Best Art Direction
- Best Editing
- Best Costume Design
- Best Makeup
- Best Sound
- Best Song - Cinema Italiano

Critics Choice Award Nominations Updated On: 12/14/09 at 12:21 PM

[strummergirl]

Posted: 12/14/09 at 12:24pm

FWIW, here's a review from our friend Ryan O'Connor:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2OnBYdqFTA

Surprised Lane did not like it. If it is deemed too exquisite by some people, it seemed up his alley since he hates anything with CGI.
Updated On: 12/14/09 at 12:24 PM

[James885]

Posted: 12/14/09 at 4:04pm

The BFCA Critics Choice Awards were announced today and Nine has 10 nominations including best picture. I'm kinda surprised since some of the reviews haven't been so nice.

Actually almost all the reviews, even the negative ones, have had good things to say about the production design, cinematography, costumes, etc. Although it's still too early to form a consensus, so far most seem to agree that the film is very good on a technical level. So it's not surprising that the film garnered a lot of tech nods and I'd expect the same thing to happen with the Golden Globes and the Oscars.

Critics seem to be split on Day-Lewis' performance, as well as Rob Marshall's direction, and the script. Notice how NINE did not got nominations in the categories of Best Director, Actor, or Adapted Screenplay. It'll be interesting to see how it performs at the Globes and the Oscars.

Updated On: 12/14/09 at 04:04 PM

[Kad]

Posted: 12/14/09 at 4:54pm

A lot of criticism seems directed at the musical itself.

[strummergirl]

Posted: 12/14/09 at 5:25pm

Movie critics are horrible music critics.

Same with attacking source material for anything (I literally went into a dry heaze listening to David Edelstein critique The Lovely Bones, Peter Jackson, and Alice Siebold) but seriously, music is as far away from the reservation for many film critics.