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The Brand New All Encompassing Movie Musical Thread

Started by Small Man Big Horse, April 05, 2020, 12:25:07 AM

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Small Man Big Horse

We've had threads about musicals before but I don't think we've ever had one solely dedicated to film musicals. And if we have, well hell, Neil likes new threads anyway, and I can't be arsed to search for an old one. So yes, film musicals only please, no theatre ones, you can stick those up your mangy arse. Oh, and this thread will see reposts of mini-reviews I've posted in other threads, but well, that's just the way it is. So fuck you. And yes, I have been drinking tonight, and there's nothing you can do about it.

Bran Nue Dae (2009) - Fantastic sixties set musical about Willie, an aborigine kid who initially trains to be a priest, but is kicked out when he (and others) steal from the tuck shop. He then bumps in to a guy who claims is his Uncle, and the two head off back to Willie's home, pursued by an angry Geoffrey Rush. It's short but very sweet, and all kinds of joyous, it's an anti-depressant in film form and something I'm enormously enamoured by. 8.2/10

Bang Bang Baby (2014) - A right old oddity and then some, this Jane Levy starring musical is  kind of like a very early Coen Brothers film where a woman imagines that she's dating a famous Hollywood crooner but then a mysterious pink mist descends on the town causing people to become mutated, the songs aren't anything amazing but they're fun enough and it's nicely shot and acted. The problem I have with it is that her hallucinations are a response to date rape, so the lighthearted tone (at least until the end) is a strange choice and I'm not sure what to make of it all. 7.1/10

Emo: The Musical (2016) -This is a superb modern musical, an Australian 2016 effort that's very funny, anw while it's often tongue in cheek it's also a sweet, knowing and smart affair. It's full of fantastic songs which made me smile from ear to ear, with this daft number being particularly great (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=my1pxDdvHCg&fbclid=IwAR0QGNWdbiLqm-PHhCC7eXOFwdD1VqNeXDrxylpcKzhM414nblGy8OIGonY), and it's on Netflix right now so if you're in the mood for something all rather lovely I'd definitely recommend watching it. 8.1/10

The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992) - Just stunning, and a surprisingly faithful take on the tale too with a lot of Scrooge's dialogue word for word from the novel, while all the muppets make it charming and funny and the songs are amazing, while best of all is Michael Caine's performance. 8.6/10

Scrooge (1970) - Musical version of the classic tale with Albert Finney as the title character and Alec Guiness as Jacob Marley. The songs are sometimes fun and Finney is superb (and given that he was only in his thirties it really is an impressive performance), but on the downside it drags a bit when we visit Christmas's past and Scrooge's failed romance and half half an hour could be cut quite easily. Otherwise it's quiite sweet and very likeable take, with one of the best finales too which makes up for the patchier moments. 7.5/10

Crazy House (1943) Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson's follow up to Hellzapoppin', it's another mixtures of sketches and songs hung on to a skimpy plot, but there's a couple too many musical moments and not enough daftness in the film, and not enough of the lead two men either. Cass Daley's great in it, and there's some fun cameos, but there's way too much filler and so it feels like a bit of a disappointment after the brilliance of Hellzapoppin'. 6.4/10

South Pacific (1958) - Bizarre fifties musical set on a couple of islands in an ocean somewhere, where a bunch of sexually frustrated soldiers moan about how desperate they are for relief. A french guy seduces one of the women but then fucks it up by telling her he's a murderer, and after she accepts that, that he has two kids but the mother's dead. Meanwhile a lieutenant has a dogy relationship with a woman who's mother claims he'll never have to work as she'll earn money for both of them, and then sings "Happy Talk" while he stares at the daughter in a creepy manner. It's likeable but lacking in substance and the action scenes towards the end drag, and though the songs are mostly pretty damn great and it looks beautiful, I still can't help but feel a bit disappointed by it. 7.2/10

Funny Girl (1968) - A biopic of singer dancer and comedian Fanny Brice, this is another shockingly charming Streisand musical which is packed with a huge amount of classic songs (many of which I had no idea originated with the film, but instantly recognised) while Omar Shariff is a great romantic lead too as Nick Arnstein. It's smart, funny, and sags slightly in the middle but hey it's two hours and thirty minutes so that was always going to happen, and the dull bit thankfully doesn't last very long. 8.2/10

On A Clear Day You Can See Forever (1970) - Bizarre Barbara Streisland musical where she wants to give up smoking and so goes to see a professor at a university who specialises in hypnotism, only for him to discover she had a crazy past life romance in Victorian England. Naturally he thinks it must be some kind of mad scam at first and is deeply sceptical but after a while finds himself enamoured by her tale, and the woman that she used to be, even though she's engaged to be married and likes to flirt with her former brother-in-law Jack Nicholson. So yeah, it's a weird old story and then some but the songs are mostly superb, Streisland's superb in the lead role, and it's often delightful and bursting with charm. 8.0/10

The Band Wagon (1953) - Fun enough musical about a fading Hollywood star (Fred Astaire) who heads back to the stage only for a pretentious director to completely change the nature of the play he was set to star in. There's lots of backstage shenanigans, arguments between the creative types, and pricking of the pomposity shown by prima donnas and the script is pretty sharp and funny, though on the downside the songs vary a great deal and at best are pretty good and at worst fairly bland, and the ending where we get to see a part of the newly revised play isn't quite as engaging as the film seems to think it is. 7.1/10

High Society (1956) - Deservedly a classic this musical romcom is sweet, lovely and all rather heartwarming in general as Grace Kelly's Tracy Lord is due to be married to the rather stuffy George (John Lund), but her ex Dexter (Bing Crosby) and Frank Sinatra's tabloid journalist Mike Connor lust after her making it quite the convoluted love square, which always tend to be a lot more fun than love triangle's. The singer of the wedding band is Louis Armstrong so the music is obviously stunning, even when he's not providing vocals, and it's a charmingly playful flick which is all rather adorable. 8.0/10.

Just Imagine (1930) - Sci-fi comedy musical set in the far, far future of 1980, where everyone has a flying plane, the government decides who marries who, and a man is brought back from the dead after fifty years of being a corpse. He ends up hanging around with J-21 and RT-46 (because no one has names in the future) with the former in a complicated love triangle, and after that goes wrong they fly to Mars and meet some very strange inhabitants of the planet. It's bizarre stuff indeed but very charming, with quite a few smart gags in amongst the slapstick and daft puns. 7.5/10

Zero Patience (1993) - Canadian musical all about the first person who supposedly spread AIDS around North America which sees should be dead Victorian sexologist Sir Richard Francis Burton investigate the matter, initially exploiting the story of Patient Zero, until he meets and then falls in love with his ghost. The songs are great, the moral message important, and it's a sweet and affecting film. 7.6/10

Cinderella (1977) - A soft porn version of the fairy tale which is actually a pretty decent musical. The only problem is there aren't enough songs (8 at a guess) and too much dull 70's titilation, which is a shame as the songs are pretty funny and well produced. Ah well, there are worse ways to spend 90 minutes I guess. 5.9/10

Toomorrow (1970) - This was listed as one of the best cult musicals on a website but it's not really a standard musical, just a movie about a band who happen to perform about five songs during the running time, so I have to confess to being slightly frustrated on that front. It's a very flimsy lightweight affair too about an unknown band who produce specific sonic vibrations that can cure an alien race (I promise I'm not making this up), and so a weird and slightly creepy extraterrestrial called John Williams (Roy Dotrice) is tasked with tracking them down. It's half weird sci-fi silliness and half PG rated sex comedy, and kind of likeable, but there's a fair bit of filler and the songs are fine but nothing amazing so I can only rate it 6.4/10

God Help The Girl - Aka Twee Indie Band: The Movie, as this musical written and directed by Belle and Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch sees a trio form a band in Glasgow. It's the kind of film I can understand some hating, but it worked for me even if the lead male is a bit too limp and occasionally pretentious, as other than that I have no complaints, the songs are great and Emily Browning makes for a superb lead as an anorexic woman with ambitions to do something with her life. 7.8/10

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum[ (1966) - I've normally a soft spot for musicals but this was just a bit drab, and way too pleased with itself. There's some occasionally funny moments and the ending is great, but most of the songs were bland, Michael Crawford spends most of the film doing weak slapstick, and it completely wastes Phil Silvers. Plus it's attitude towards women is horrendous, but well, that's probably not too much of a shock given that it's all about shitty men lusting over prostitutes, and struggling with any females who have opinions or crazy things like that. 5.4/10

The Dead Inside (2011) - Very odd musical about a writer who's creating a zombie short story (which we get to see excerpts from), the first thirty minutes seem to be a comedy until she has a breakdown, stabs her boyfriend and is institutionalised. Upon coming home she seems okay, and then the next minute she's suddenly floating above her boyfriend in the middle of the night and he thinks she's possessed. The possession thing could have worked as a metaphor for mental illness (and does seem to be at times) bar that she really does have a ghost inside of her, and then it really fucks up when it comes to the end, disappointing me a good deal. 5.4/10

Colma The Musical (2006) - Very low budget musical about three friends who have graduated high school and don't know what to do with their lives. It's shot with a digital camera and doesn't look great but the songs are really fun, the performances strong, and the script impressed in general and even though some of the characters are twattish at times the film's very aware of this. I wasn't completely won over by the ending but as a whole this is pretty impressive given the miniscule budget.  7.7/10

Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967) - Ah, musical comedies about young women being sold in to sexual slavery, there's just not enough of them. Or at least someone thought that in the sixties and so this hit our screens, with Julie Andrews (fresh off of The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins) in the lead role. Set in the 1922 Millie is new to the city and wishing to make a name for herself by marrying in to money, and soon finds herself looking for love in all the wrong places, well, one wrong place at the very least. It has a bit of a skimpy plot and is more a series of fun vignettes, the songs vary in quality and are distinctly lacking in the final third of the movie, and at 2 hours 20 minutes it's overlong, but it's mostly a fun breezy affair that's very likeable. 7.4/10

Bye Bye Birde (1963) - A charming and fun romcom musical based around an Elvis-esque singer being drafted who thanks to Dick Van Dyke and Janet Leigh is set to make one last performance on the Ed Sullivan Show where he'll kiss a lucky fan. But complications ensue when said girl's boyfriend gets jealous while Van Dyke's mother complicates his relationship with Leigh, and then the Moscow Ballet pop up and almost screw up the whole thing completely. There's a bit of filler around the hour point which stops it from being an all time classic but it's bloody great in general, the songs are a blast and it has a gorgeously daft ending. 8.0/10

Forbidden Zone (1980) - Low budget DIY sci-fi fantasy musical which is insanely crazy but also a little puerile, and unfortunately a bit racist and homophobic, while women are treated poorly too. It's a shame as otherwise this is a mad old thing, quite unique and beautifully designed. The songs are fun (if throwaway) and there's a lot of pretty funny scenes in it, but due to the aforementioned shittiness it loses a point and only gets 7.1/10

The Apple (1980) - Absolutely mental musical that is technically awful but also amazing. The songs are insane, the plot ridiculous (being a mix of the tale of the garden of eden and a parable warning of the perils of fame) and the acting's all over the place yet I loved it an enormous amount, and the ending has to be seen to be believed, and even then you might not do so. 8.1/10

Tommy Battles The Silver Sea Dragon (2018) - An arthouse musical written, directed, produced, composed and starring Luke Shirock, when someone takes on so many roles it could be accused of being a vanity project and I'm not quite convinced that's not the case. But it's certainly an intriguing piece where in the film Shirock plays Tommy Silver, a man accused of murdering three people, and after being strapped to a device we travel through his memories. Despite the initial set up it's basically an anatomy of a relationship which we witness from start to finish, as Tommy tries to come to terms with his actions. The songs are often quite similar but a few are pretty great, certain scenes are beautifully shot, and the initial romance is playful and fun, but the second half is a struggle as it takes on a bleaker edge. It occasionally borders on the pretentious and it's definitely fond of the odd cliche, and if you're not a fan of musicals this will probably make you hate them more than ever. I'm still not quite sure what I make of the ending, and the film as a whole, and though I certainly don't regret watching it there's no doubt in my mind that it's a flawed work. 6.5/10

Meet Me In St. Louis (1944) - Incredibly charming musical set around the turn of the 20th century where the Smith sisters are looking for love, while the rest of the family get up to various fun antics. The songs are great, the characters memorable, and it has such a sense of innocent joy about it all, though there is the occasional surprisingly brutal line, like when the maid jokes about killing a cat a young daughter hits back with ""If you've killed her I'll kill you I'll stab you to death in your sleep and then tie you to two wild horses until you're pulled apart" which made me love it even more. It also has the best ever snowman massacre scene in a movie and a weird Halloween sequence which made me laugh a lot, and it's a film which could melt even the hardest of hearts. 8.4/10

Anna and the Apocalypse (2018) - The best zombie comedy horror that I've seen in ages, even better than One Cut Of The Dead and a loved that a great deal. The songs are superb, the performances lovely, the gore fun and the christmassy setting makes the whole thing delightful. 8.4/10

Lemonade Joe (1964) This Czech musical western is a right old bizarre thing being an odd battle between a lemonade seller and a bar owner in the wild west, it looks incredibly beautiful, the songs are shockingly charming, it's playfully filmed and has the most absurdly daft happy ending I've ever seen. 8.7/10

The Greatest Showman (2017) - Musical biopic of PT Barnum. It's very likeable but something didn't quite work for me - possibly the incredibly predictable plot that the inescapable trailer spoilt, or that some of the songs felt a little over produced. Despite such issues it's still a lot of fun, just not quite good as it could have been. 7.4/10

Citizen Dog (2004) - A musical romcom from Thailand, it's brightly lit strong colours and magical realism reminded me of Amelie though this has it's own unique sense of humour and tone. Plus songs! Lovely lovely songs. It's one of those "Everything and the kitchen sink" films when it comes to playing around with ideas, and pulls all off with aplomb. 8.7/10

The Devil's Carnival (2012) - Musical anthology set in hell this should be my ideal film (and I'm a big fan of Repo The Genetic Opera from the same director) but whilst stylish and well performed it didn't click with me, and I found some of the songs irritating. 5.5/10

Pennies From Heaven (1981) - Horrendously misjudged Steve Martin musical comedy about a rapey man. 1.3/10. Fine, fine, I'll take it seriously then, and as you might expect from a screenplay by Dennis Potter this is darkly bleak stuff. Bernadette Peters turns up once again but as ever that's only to the film's benefit, whilst Martin's great when it comes to miming and dancing but I'm not quite sure about his more dramatic moments, and it's an uneven performance compared to the rest. It's fortunately only a minor issue and more than made up for by the impressively inventive song and dance sequences, 90% of which are incredibly fun stuff. Christopher Walken's especially sexy, and it really is a feast for the eyes, as lazy critics used to say. 8.4/10

The Fox Family (2006) - Korean madness about a family of foxes who can transform in to humans, who then run a circus. They're waiting around for some super special event where if they eat human livers they'll get to become like us, and so kidnap four people, but unfortunately the cops are suspicious. It's also a musical (though there aren't enough songs), frequently very funny and quite sexy in places. 7.9/10

The Return of Captain Invincible (1983) - Offbeat Australian musical comedy about a superhero returning from years of drunken obscurity. In certain ways it's all a bit of a mess but for some reason that makes me like it all the more, as it's a fascinating clash of different styles of comedy that don't always sit well together, but taken in isolation are really interesting and often very funny. There's only three really strong songs, but Christopher Lee's final song where he attempts to get recovering alcoholic Captain Invincible pissed again is fucking amazing and imho it's genuinely one of the greatest scenes in comedy history, with Lee delivering every line with glee. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcRSwo9bGHQ. In short: It's one of those time when flawed ambition is still a beautiful thing. 8.3/10

The Suicide Shop (2012) - An animated musical comedy from Patrice Leconte, director of The Hairdresser's Husband and Monsieur Hire. Vaguely like a french Addams Family but where a deranged family run a shop which sells everything you need to help you commit suicide, from poisons to rope to samurai swords. But then a third, happy, child is born to the couple and their world is thrown in to disarray. It's got great songs, a dark but also daft sense of humour, and for me is one of those "Where have you been all my life?" kind of films - it even made me think that suicide might not be a good thing, and it's a rare day where such thoughts feel believable! 8.4/10

Pitch Perfect (2012) - Surprisingly funny romcom which affectionately sends up singing competitions. There's a few too many songs and it's formulaic as hell but otherwise is enjoyable stuff. 6.9/10

The Hole aka Dong (1998) - A musical made in Taiwan, according to imdb "While never-ending rain and a strange disease spread by cockroaches ravage Taiwan, a plumber makes a hole between two apartments and the inhabitants of each form a unique connection, enacted in musical numbers", and from that I was expecting a fun, offbeat and weird film. But christ no, this is a bleak, damp, depressing effort where the two neighbours barely have any contact with each other for long periods of time, and instead we get exciting footage of them eating, drinking, or boiling fucking water on their lonesome. There's only three songs during the first hour and throughout that time I only carried on watching as I couldn't believe I was witnessing something so bizarrely boring, and just presumed it had to pick up. But it dosn't and I can't understand why anyone would give a fuck about either of character given how very little insight in to either of them, and what we do see is largely negative. One of the worst films I've seen in years. 2.2/10

Tokyo Tribe (2014) - From Sion Sono, the director of the amazing Love, Exposure, comes this rap based musical about a bunch of gangs fighting over territory, power, women and all that jazz. It's stylishly shot and a whole lot of fun but it lacks substance and so feels hollow in places. Still, this is the kind of film where the villain's son has a red room containing living naked human furniture and that's one of the more standard scenes, so it without doubt has a lot going for it. 7.7/10

The Boy Friend (1971) - I was disappointed by this Ken Russell effort which is far less entertainingly mental than his usual fare. When an actress breaks her leg the assistant stage manager (Twiggy) somewhat unrealistically takes over, and what follows is coverage of the play with the occasional glimpse of backstage inanity and dream sequences showing how things could have been if the theatre had an enormous budget. It's a mild farce which is overlong with too much dancing and not enough singing, some of the homages to other movies are visually appealing, Glenda Jackson's good value and Twiggy's more than fine, but it's ultimately a very mixed affair and one I can't really recommend. 5.7/10

Guess Who Killed My Twelve Lovers? (Pen Huo Mei Ren Yu, 1970) - This romantic comedy thriller musical from Hong Kong sees a bunch of teenagers stranded on an island with a sexy woman who might be a mental murderess. Or she might just be swell, we just don't know. A lot of the songs are pretty bland but their mundane repetitive lyrics often make them somehow bemusing, and there are two or three which are decent at least. Unfortunately the ending's a bit rushed and slightly rubbish, but in general it has an unusual charm which I was mostly won over by. 7.3/10. (17th Jan 2018)

Billy the Kid and The Green Baize Vampire (1987) - I'm amazed this isn't a really high profile cult classic given how strange yet oddly lovable it is, but also that it's from the director of such jolly ficks as The Firm, Made In Britain and Scum. Imdb describes it as a comedy horror musical but the horror thing is completely misleading, not a drop of blood is spilled in the movie and whilst there's a very slight supernatural element to proceedings it's less disturbing than the Lady and The Tramp. So this is essentially Rocky for snooker fans. Who also enjoy musicals. And it's the songs that make this bizarre oddity such a fun film, whilst not all quite work there's a surprisingly high hit rate, and Phil Daniels (as a snarky Jimmy White type) turns out to have a lovely singing voice. Meanwhile Alun Armstrong camps it up as someone so obviously based on Ray Reardon I'm surprising he didn't sue them.  Now I can certainly see why some might not like it, and it's an imperfect beast, some of the acting wouldn't look out of place in an episode of Only Fools and Horses and certain scenes between Daniels and his manager feel like a bad grungy channel four eighties sitcom. Yet in the context of this ridiculous film it all serves to make it more endearing. It's undoubtedly an oddity, but an incredibly endearing one. 8.4/10

Nudist Colony of the Dead - A 1991 horror comedy musical film which was shot on Super-8 film and only cost $35,000 - and boy can you tell! I watched a supposedly remastered version but the quality is still shockingly poor, with it often looking like a pirated vhs cam copy of a 70s film. But despite all of that it is fairly funny in places, it's deliberate cartoonish feel has a mild charm, and the only topless nudity doesn't feel overtly gratuitous. I mean it's definitely gratuitous, how could it not be, but I didn't feel uncomfortable watching it. So that's nice. The songs are largely quite simple and yet oddly upbeat, which makes them quite endearing, even if lyrically they're occasionally weak. On the downside it's worryingly slightly racist in places - with two anti-semetic jokes and the sentence "coloured guy knocking at back door" uttered within the first twenty minutes, but I don't think it's intentionally mean, just misjudged. A shame though, as it means I can't wholeheartedly recommend it to people. 7.1/10

Yellow Submarine (1968) - One of those films I can't believe I hadn't seen before as it's so fucking great, the animation is a constant delight and the songs are bearable too, if you like that sort of thing. 8.8/10

The Ghastly Love Of Johnny X (2012) - Sadly nothing to do with the Keneckie drummer but this is an extremely endearing black and white musical about an alien criminal whose punishment is to live on earth. It's a little short on songs and slightly weak in the middle, but otherwise it's charming stuff and despite it's faults I've definitely got a soft spot for it. 7.6/10

Hair (1978) - Adaptation of the famous stage musical, the songs are consistently strong throughout and visually it's frequently memorable. It wobbles a little bit half way through but then once it amps the anti-war stuff up it becomes far more interesting and ends somewhat audaciously and in a way which had me cackling. 8.4/10

Stage Fright (2014) - A mostly likeable comedy horror musical, but for me it didn't quite work as a whole. It felt like it wasn't quite sure what it wanted to be, sometimes it's very cartoonish but in other places it wants to be taken sincerely and the two don't always mix. There's a lot to like about it though, including many of the songs, so I'd definitely recommend seeking it out, even if it's not exactly a perfect movie. Oh, and it's worth sticking around for the end credits too, where they have a great song about whether you've pirated the movie or not. 7.2/10

Poultrygeist - Night of the Chicken Dead (2006) -  Gah, this is bloody frustrating as in places it's a fairly funny gory musical comedy, but the first half is filled with some really crude material, including deeply unpleasant racist, sexist and homophobic jokes. It's a shame as there's a couple of good songs in it, and an hour in the gore starts to deliver and then some, along with an unhappy ending which made me laugh a great deal. You could probably cut about half an hour and make something decent out of it, but because some of the humour left such an unpleasant taste in my mouth it's impossible to recommend even to fans of this kind of nonsense. 3.3/10

The Phantom of the Paradise (1974) - An early effort from Brian DePalma, it's a ridiculously silly but incredibly entertaining musical which mixes Faust and The Phantom of the Opera together with aplomb, and visually there's lots of stand out scenes that will remain in your memory for a long old time.

The Umbrella's of Cherbourg (1964) - Famous french musical where Catherine Deneuve falls in love with Nino Castelnuovo, only for him to be drafted for two years whilst Deneuve discovers she's pregnant. It's all singing and no dancing as every bit of dialogue is set to music which is enjoyable stuff and very funny in places (like when Deneuve argues with her dear old ma) but the first third is a little slow, and I wish the final section was a little longer (but that may come down to me fancying the arse off of Madeleine). It's still a lovely slice of romance and which is definitely worth watching despite my minor issues with it, but I didn't feel it was quite the classic mainly proclaim it to be. 7.4/10

Repo - The Genetic Opera (2008) which is certainly...something! Indeed it's a lot of things, most of which are strange and bemusing, it's a vaguely camp sort of goth opera set in a grim dark future where organ transplants are all the rage. Unfortunately it's expensive, and one evil corporation runs the whole thing, and if you don't keep up repayments then they'll send a repo man to rip out the organ, no matter where or how vital it is to stay alive. It was the cast which drew me to it, as it stars not only Anthony Head, but also Paul Sorvino, Sarah Brightman and Paris Hilton! The latter is actually quite good too, though the rest have the more interesting roles and are the reason it's so worth watching. The following isn't my favourite song, but it is up there: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWRjYdbsdng 7.6/10

The Boy Friend (1971) - I was disappointed by this Ken Russell effort which is far less entertainingly mental than his usual fare. When an actress breaks her leg the assistant stage manager (Twiggy) somewhat unrealistically takes over, and what follows is coverage of the play with the occasional glimpse of backstage inanity and dream sequences showing how things could have been if the theatre had an enormous budget. It's a mild farce which is overlong with too much dancing and not enough singing, some of the homages to other movies are visually appealing, Glenda Jackson's good value and Twiggy's more than fine, but it's ultimately a very mixed affair and one I can't really recommend. 5.7/10

Guys and Dolls (1955) - Marlon Brando bets Frank Sinatra a grand that he can fuck anyone, so Sinatra chooses a Salvation Army missionary. Soon enough sexy old Marlon's getting her drunk for the first time before kissing her passionately. Hmmmmm. Meanwhile Frank Sinatra's trying to avoid marrying his fiancee and also run a craps game whilst hiding from the pesky police. It's two hours and thirty minutes so yeah, you know what that means unfortunately, and whilst three or four of the songs are memorable some are bland and certain dance sequences go on a bit. Still, it's fun to see Brando sing, Sinatra's fiancee's endearing, and the script's fairly sharp throughout, but I can't quite understand why this is considered such a classic. 7.4/10

Jesus Christ Superstar (1973) - Gah, it turns out that Melvyn Bragg and Andrew Lloyd Webber are partially responsible for what is now one of my favourite movies. Still, it's Tim Rice's mad lyrics and the strong performances which make it so fun, whilst it occasionally surprises with touching moments, like Yvonne Elliman's Mary who has a hauntingly beautiful voice. Meanwhile Jesus is kind and wise and only occasionally stroppy, and his verbal sparring with Judas and smashing up market stalls consistently entertain.  8.7/10

Absolute Beginners (1986) - Set in Soho in the late fifties and about the perils of fame and racial tensions, I saw it when it first came out but had forgotten (and was surprised by) how many times the N word is used in the film, I had no memory of the latter subplot at all. Patsy Kensit's not in it enough, but bar that it's extremely likeable and many of the songs are superb. 8/10

Apologies for the lack of order, and of course lots of amazing musicals are missing like Little Shop Of Horrors, Reefer Madness, Singing In The Rain and South Park, and all of those amazing animated ones too, so when I''m sober I shall post more mini-reviews.

In the mean time, which movie musicals do you like?

chveik

wow impressive post!

have you watched Les demoiselles de Rochefort SMBH? it's much lighter and joyful than Les parapluies..., there are great choregraphies, even old Gene Kelly is there playing an American tourist. Une chambre en ville is another Demy musical where all the dialogue is set to music, which happens during a workers strike. it's far from being a complete success but I recommend it just for the utter boldness of the thing.

The Wayward Cloud is bleak af but I think it's worth a watch, one of the weirdest films I've seen (although if you've hated The Hole that much I'm not sure you'll 'enjoy' it).

I'm not a big fan of Dancer in the Dark but this scene is an absolute gem.

I've watched Cry-Baby recently, pretty entertaining film, some of the songs are really nice. Waters' brand of anarchy is toned down though.

other than that, I quite enjoy the Blake Edwards musicals with Julie Andrews, Darling Lili, Victor Victoria, they're quite daft but solid pieces of entertainment, although it makes you feel like you're witnessing the dying days of this type of classic hollywood musicals. I love this scene in particular.

I love All That Jazz. Kubrick called it 'best film I think I have ever seen' in 79 and maybe he was right.

Funny Face, for how lovely Audrey Hepburn is in it. the depiction of the french intellectual scene is laughable and Astaire's starting to look his age but I suppose it works in the musicals' world.

does Red Shoes count as a musical? either way it's a god damn masterpiece.

and Brigadoon is the best Minnelli musical imo.

samadriel

Bran Nue Dae was sweet, although as my grandmother was part of the Stolen Generations, I found the film's Christian tilt a bit uncomfortable, given the church's involvement in tearing kids away from their families. Still, Ernie Dingo is really charming (love the bit where he points the bone, haha), and I can't stay mad at such a pleasant film.

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: chveik on April 05, 2020, 01:16:03 AM
wow impressive post!

Thank you! I'm admittedly a bit obsessed with the genre of late but they fill me with a huge amount of joy when done well and that's something I really need right now.

Quotehave you watched Les demoiselles de Rochefort SMBH? it's much lighter and joyful than Les parapluies..., there are great choregraphies, even old Gene Kelly is there playing an American tourist. Une chambre en ville is another Demy musical where all the dialogue is set to music, which happens during a workers strike. it's far from being a complete success but I recommend it just for the utter boldness of the thing.

I haven't, but both of them are on my list, I have to admit to not being enormously fond of the type of musical where all the dialogue is set to music rather than it featuring separate songs, but definitely will see them sooner rather than later.

QuoteThe Wayward Cloud is bleak af but I think it's worth a watch, one of the weirdest films I've seen (although if you've hated The Hole that much I'm not sure you'll 'enjoy' it).

That's also on my list, though it's slipped a few places down as right now I'm more in the mood for upbeat musicals than bleak ones, but it's something I do plan to watch.

QuoteI'm not a big fan of Dancer in the Dark but this scene is an absolute gem.

I saw that when it came out and, well, liked is not the right word, but I did admire it? Hmmm, that doesn't sound right either, I guess what I mean is that I could see what it was trying to do and thought it did it really well, yet it wasn't a film I enjoyed at all. But then who would?

QuoteI've watched Cry-Baby recently, pretty entertaining film, some of the songs are really nice. Waters' brand of anarchy is toned down though.

That's another film that I saw a long time ago, I did like that one a huge amount at the time and do plan to rewatch it again soon to see what I'd make of it now.

Quoteother than that, I quite enjoy the Blake Edwards musicals with Julie Andrews, Darling Lili, Victor Victoria, they're quite daft but solid pieces of entertainment, although it makes you feel like you're witnessing the dying days of this type of classic hollywood musicals. I love this scene in particular.

I've yet to explore Edwards' fare, but definitely will do so after your recommendations.

QuoteI love All That Jazz. Kubrick called it 'best film I think I have ever seen' in 79 and maybe he was right.

Shockingly that's one I've not seen as well despite it's reputation as being an all time classic, and I will watch it very soon for sure.

QuoteFunny Face, for how lovely Audrey Hepburn is in it. the depiction of the french intellectual scene is laughable and Astaire's starting to look his age but I suppose it works in the musicals' world.

That I have seen, and fairly recently, I somehow missed out my mini-review of it last night but here's my response to it at the time:

Funny Face (1957) - An enormous amount of enjoyable larks as Audrey Hepburn is plucked from obscurity by photographer Fred Astaire to be the face of Quality Magazine. The age difference between Hepburn and Astaire is a bit creepy and the idea that Hepburn has "a funny face" rather than being a strikingly beautiful woman is off, while Astaire never apologises to her for being a dick at one pivotal point, but otherwise it's fantastic with a smart script, some great songs, and special mention should go to Hepburn's jazzy interpretive dance which is ludicrously funny. 7.8/10

Quotedoes Red Shoes count as a musical? either way it's a god damn masterpiece.

It's a good question, and I'd lean towards no, but I do love it an enormous amount too.

Quoteand Brigadoon is the best Minnelli musical imo.

And that's just been added to utorrent my list of must see films, thanks for that.

Quote from: samadriel on April 05, 2020, 10:36:26 AM
Bran Nue Dae was sweet, although as my grandmother was part of the Stolen Generations, I found the film's Christian tilt a bit uncomfortable, given the church's involvement in tearing kids away from their families. Still, Ernie Dingo is really charming (love the bit where he points the bone, haha), and I can't stay mad at such a pleasant film.

I can completely understand why you'd have such a reaction, and it's definitely a glib response to such a thing, but it really is filled with so much joy that I can't help but love it.

And here's a couple of films I missed off the list last night:

Popeye (1980) - Weird and odd and misjudged yet still all rather likeable despite being such a strange piece. Indeed that's probably why I liked it so much, it's such a mess of a film and yet quite endearing as Robin Williams mumbles his way through the film as Popeye, Shelly Duvall squeaks and squeals as a surprisingly feisty Olive Oyl, and Paul L Smith makes for a perfect and very surly Bluto. The songs are often quite downbeat, the action is over the top yet not that funny, and the dialogue is a mixture of the very amusing and the curiously absurd, and it all makes for a unique movie that I can understand why some hate but which I was ultimately rather fond of. 7.3/10

Mary Poppins Returns (2018) - A frustrating film as half of it's extremely enjoyable and half of it feels like filler and very very average. There's some great songs but a few very average ones, and about an hour in it starts to feel like filler with one song and dance number about tripping the light fantastic going on a fucking age, until with half an hour to go it starts being fun again. The cast are all great, some of the effects are stunning and it's hearts in it's right place, it's just overlong and patchy. 6.8/10

Enthiran (2010) - Crazy, crazy, crazy Bollywood movie from 2010 about a Doctor who builds a sentient robot, Chitti, who falls in love with the Doctor's girlfriend, and even worse is turned evil by a rival professor. It's very funny, some of the action scenes are superb, but at three hours it's easily half an hour too long and sags badly in the middle, and some of the songs go on for longer than they should. Which is a real shame as the first and last hours are a delight, and there's a huge amount to love about the film. 8.0/10

Bugsy Malone (1976) - Yeah, not comfortable with some of this, the way it sexualises some of it's young cast feels all rather wrong. It also feels like an impressively filmed school play as whilst the leads are strong the supporting cast are sometimes plain shit. If you can get past all of that parts are enjoyable, none of the songs are bad and there's five very memorable ones, whilst the script has some decent gags in it.  Baio's okay but lacks charisma with Blousey, but then I can't really blame him for that as I'm not convinced that the actress playing Blousey isn't a robot from the future sent to protect our future president Jodie Foster from being assassinated, like in that film, Predator 2. Minor notes: Bonnie Langford only turns up for three minutes but it was enough to make me consider turning off the film, with her voice at maximum shrill levels that should never have been committed to celluloud. Though on the flip side a young Dexter Fletcher's adorable as Baby Face, and I wish he was in it more. 7.1/10

PK (2014) - A Bollywood sci-fi rom com which also works as a smart and funny satire of organised religion. In it an innocent and naive alien is trapped on Earth and eventually ends up meeting a sympathetic tv producer, and his character is used to explore the absurdities of life, especially organised religion or those who profit from at the very least. The songs are strong (though "Love is a Waste Of Time" is the only stand out) and whilst it's a little over sentimental in places it completely won me over by the end. Initially I thought that at two and a half hours it might be overlong, but it turned out to be one of those films I didn't want to end, I could spend my life happily in this universe. 9/10

Frozen II (2019) - Anna and Elsa head off to an enchanted forest with a bunch of side kicks, only for the snowman cunt to irritate everyone. Or maybe just me, but either way was I glad when the fucker dies 70 minutes in (though not permanently sadly). The songs are sometimes Disney by the numbers (ie good but lacking something), many of the jokes are funny but it felt a bit bland, a bit nothing-y and ultimately disappointed a bit. 6.9/10

The Rutles - All You Need Is Cash (1978) - Neil Innes and Eric Idle's spoof of The Beatles, some of it's obvious stuff but the songs are nearly all fun and there's some strong gags on a pretty regular basis. 7.3/10

Cats (2019) - It's a bizarre old thing, I mean it just looks absurd, the cgi is the weirdest I've ever seen, and some parts were jaw dropping like Rebel Wilson and the cockroaches, I had my fist in my mouth at one point to stop me laughing too much as the cinema (half full, as it goes) was otherwise silent. About five other songs had beautifully weird moments in them too, but other parts were a bit boring (the dance sequence when they first enter The Egyptian especially), Ian McKellen's song was bland, and though I know others love it I didn't get on with Hudson's take on Memories, finding it a bit too histrionic. Overall I'm definitely glad I've seen it, it's just so fucking weird and I did laugh a lot, it's just a shame it's not full on mental in the way some of it's best scenes are. 5.4/10

And though not technically a musical but a documentary about them, I loved the following:

Bathtubs Over Broadway (2018) - A fantastic documentary from The Late Show With David Letterman writer Steve Young about the incredibly odd genre of Industrial Musicals - ones which were created in the 50's, 60's and 70's by various companies for their staff alone, and which tended to be performed or shown just the once at corporate events. Young only stumbled upon their existence after discovering a promotional album of one of the shows and then became obsessed by them, tracking down more and more of the albums, the fans who love them, and the actors and writers who contributed to making them. It's a sweet touching affair but also very funny as some of the songs are just so bizarrely inane yet also strangely lovable, and I was extremely fond of this in general. 8.1/10

Small Man Big Horse

Pete's Dragon (1977) - Pete's a tragic victim of child abuse with Shelley Winters and her redneck family regularly beating him and leaving him covered with nasty bruises, but luckily Elliot the dragon helps children in their time of need and so comes along and together they escape, though all of the above happens off screen and we only join the story with the duo on the run. Once Pete's free from their clutches he meets Lampie (Mickey Rooney) and Nora (Helen Reddy) and there's not really much of plot here, it's more a selection of silly set pieces often involving Elliot causing chaos, while there's a bunch of oddball characters too including Jim Dale as the classic-era Doctor Who villain sounding (and looking) Doctor Terminus, who plans to murder Elliot and use his bits for medical purposes. The whole things a daft romp and though it's slightly overlong the majority of the songs are charming, and it builds to a big fun climax effectively, and even finds the time to have a slightly bittersweet coda. 7.3/10

rue the polywhirl

Tommy (1975) - Allstar movie adaptation of the The Who's classic rock opera of the same name. Directed by Ken Russell, it stars Who singer Roger Daltrey who witnesses malfeasant Oliver Reed hitch with his mum Ann Margret, kill his returning, war-veteran birth dad Jesus Christ and then spends the rest of the movie being deaf, dumb and blind till he gets good at pinball and starts his own religious holiday camp. The songs are brilliant of course but are given dated, pharpy synth treatment and the vocal parts sung by the cast are often a mixed bag. The imagery is wildly resplendent, the direction beautiful and unbound, performances uniformly strong, overall the movie comes across as bewilderingly naff and of-its-time and yet also incredibly powerful and moving. The movie builds and builds and builds until the 3rd act which maybe is a bit lacking and becomes good once again for the finale. Great who's-who of cameos, including some from The Who. Deals with loads of difficult subjects and life's big questions. The strongest scenes are a tumultuously tremulant Tina Turner's face-melting turn as the Gypsy Queen, Elton John in house-sized Dr Martens singing Pinball Wizard and stopping the show and in somewhat of a detour from the main story, Ann Margret writhing around in a flood of champagne, baked beans, and infinite chocolate ooze on top of a giant hot dog. 8.9/10

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: rue the polywhirl on April 05, 2020, 09:41:35 PM
Tommy (1975) - Allstar movie adaptation of the The Who's classic rock opera of the same name. Directed by Ken Russell, it stars Who singer Roger Daltrey who witnesses malfeasant Oliver Reed hitch with his mum Ann Margret, kill his returning, war-veteran birth dad Jesus Christ and then spends the rest of the movie being deaf, dumb and blind till he gets good at pinball and starts his own religious holiday camp. The songs are brilliant of course but are given dated, pharpy synth treatment and the vocal parts sung by the cast are often a mixed bag. The imagery is wildly resplendent, the direction beautiful and unbound, performances uniformly strong, overall the movie comes across as bewilderingly naff and of-its-time and yet also incredibly powerful and moving. The movie builds and builds and builds until the 3rd act which maybe is a bit lacking and becomes good once again for the finale. Great who's-who of cameos, including some from The Who. Deals with loads of difficult subjects and life's big questions. The strongest scenes are a tumultuously tremulant Tina Turner's face-melting turn as the Gypsy Queen, Elton John in house-sized Dr Martens singing Pinball Wizard and stopping the show and in somewhat of a detour from the main story, Ann Margret writhing around in a flood of champagne, baked beans, and infinite chocolate ooze on top of a giant hot dog. 8.9/10

That's a great review, and it's a film I'm very fond of too. That said I haven't seen it since my teenage years and do plan to rewatch it again soon to see if it has the same effect, but given my fondness for Ken Russell when he's in full on crazy mode, and the music in the film, I suspect I'll still enjoy it an enormous amount.

Small Man Big Horse

#7
Were The World Mine (2008) - Timothy's an openly gay student at an all boy's school who are putting on a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, but other members of the faculty and a homophobic student complicate matters, and then life becomes odder when Timothy invents a love potion which he uses to turn the whole (or at least some) of the school / town gay. An American indie musical which looks (and feels) like it was made in the early nineties, there's some problems when it comes to the issues of consent but it means well, and does at least address it at the end. It's also a little slow, and slightly lacking in songs (and some of the ones we do get are way too short) but it at least has some great performances (including Twin Peaks' Wendy Robie as the drama teacher) and the script is strong and the second half's largely pretty fun. 7.4/10

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: rue the polywhirl on April 05, 2020, 09:41:35 PM
Tommy (1975) - Allstar movie adaptation of the The Who's classic rock opera of the same name. Directed by Ken Russell, it stars Who singer Roger Daltrey who witnesses malfeasant Oliver Reed hitch with his mum Ann Margret, kill his returning, war-veteran birth dad Jesus Christ and then spends the rest of the movie being deaf, dumb and blind till he gets good at pinball and starts his own religious holiday camp. The songs are brilliant of course but are given dated, pharpy synth treatment and the vocal parts sung by the cast are often a mixed bag. The imagery is wildly resplendent, the direction beautiful and unbound, performances uniformly strong, overall the movie comes across as bewilderingly naff and of-its-time and yet also incredibly powerful and moving. The movie builds and builds and builds until the 3rd act which maybe is a bit lacking and becomes good once again for the finale. Great who's-who of cameos, including some from The Who. Deals with loads of difficult subjects and life's big questions. The strongest scenes are a tumultuously tremulant Tina Turner's face-melting turn as the Gypsy Queen, Elton John in house-sized Dr Martens singing Pinball Wizard and stopping the show and in somewhat of a detour from the main story, Ann Margret writhing around in a flood of champagne, baked beans, and infinite chocolate ooze on top of a giant hot dog. 8.9/10

I rewatched this tonight and just wanted to say again how much I loved your review, and how I agree with it completely - I'm also relieved I wasn't the only one who thought the final third is a bit bloated and it stops being quite so fun until we get to the last ten minutes. I'm also not completely sure what it was trying to say (other than organised religion is shit for cunts, sexual abuse is bad mmm'kay, and you probably shouldn't murder Robert Powell) but it's a fascinating, absorbing and an uniquely insane trip of a movie with a great deal of unforgettable moments of weirdness, often accompanied by some amazing songs. 8.3/10

Small Man Big Horse

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) - Dorothy (Jane Russell) and Lorelei (Marilyn Monroe) are two showgirls who are travelling to Europe as Lorelei is set to marry Gus Esmond (Tommy Noonan) in France, though Dorothy worries that on the way the shameless gold-digger Lorelei might get seduced by an elderly diamond mine owner. Meanwhile Dorothy's frustrated as the US Olympic team are onboard but on a sex ban, so she's struggling to find love herself, though sly private eye Malone (Elliott Reid, doing quite the impersonation of Jimmy Stewart) might eventually win her over. The dialogue sparkles as much as the diamonds Lorelei's obsessed with but the frequency of the songs is slightly frustrating, with three great numbers early on but then there's a thirty eight minute gap before the next one which is inexcusable for a supposed musical. Which is a shame as with more songs this could have been an all time classic of the genre, but as it is I can only rate it 7.5/10.

Small Man Big Horse

The Toxic Avenger Musical (2018) - A professionally shot version of the London stage production of this musical, it starts off a little grubbily (mirroring the film with it's crude sense of humour) but then gets smarter and funnier as it goes along, with the songs improving too. After the first twenty minutes I had some reservations as to how much I'd like it but it really does become a big old ball of fun, and the final thirty minutes are especially great. And yeah, I know, it's not a proper movie musical, but there's no other suitable thread and this really is worth obtaining if you're a musicals fan. 7.7/10

Small Man Big Horse

Kinky Boots (2019) - Another pro-shot musical, this is of the 2019 West End production which sees Northampton lad Charlie move to London and away from his father's shoe factory, but when his Dad dies he's called back to save the day, even if it might be at the expense of his relationship with his fiance. Fortunately his friendship with Drag Queen Lola and the workers at the factory more than make up for it in the long run in this musical that's all about acceptance, and which is just all kinds of lovely. If you want to be picky it takes a little while to get going but once the main plot kicks off it's a fucking delight. 8.5/10

Small Man Big Horse

The First Nudie Musical (1976) - Very seventies musical comedy where to save his studio and hopefully make a return to making proper films Harry decides to make a porn musical, but is forced to use a first time director who has no idea what he's doing and they've only two weeks to write and shoot the whole thing. It's actually a fairly funny semi-satire of the film industry, there's lashings of silliness and though the songs are short many are pretty amusing, and it's just a shame there's quite so much nudity as otherwise this could have been a mainstream hit. 7.1/10

Rizla

Great post SMBH, gonna have fun going through the ones on there I hadn't heard of/been meaning to check out. The Return Of Captain Fantastic looks a laugh, I'll watch Arkin in anything. You've covered a lot of my favourites, I think Tommy needs its own thread, I could bore on about that all day long. One you didn't mention is one I only really explored a year or two ago, The Music Man in which Robert Preston plays a travelling instrument salesman who turns up in a sleepy town intending to swindle the inhabitants but they end up  teaching each other to live laugh and love instead. It's most famous for the song 'til there was you, as covered by the Beatles, but the real showstopper is Trouble, which served as inspiration for the Simpsons monorail episode. The town council are played by a real life barbershop quartet who our hero  tricks into breaking into close harmony crooning whenever they get close to rumbling his scheme. Andy Kaufman in his stage act used to do a one man rendition of the  opening number. It's great.

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: Rizla on May 10, 2020, 09:27:56 PM
Great post SMBH, gonna have fun going through the ones on there I hadn't heard of/been meaning to check out. The Return Of Captain Fantastic looks a laugh, I'll watch Arkin in anything. You've covered a lot of my favourites, I think Tommy needs its own thread, I could bore on about that all day long. One you didn't mention is one I only really explored a year or two ago, The Music Man in which Robert Preston plays a travelling instrument salesman who turns up in a sleepy town intending to swindle the inhabitants but they end up  teaching each other to live laugh and love instead. It's most famous for the song 'til there was you, as covered by the Beatles, but the real showstopper is Trouble, which served as inspiration for the Simpsons monorail episode. The town council are played by a real life barbershop quartet who our hero  tricks into breaking into close harmony crooning whenever they get close to rumbling his scheme. Andy Kaufman in his stage act used to do a one man rendition of the  opening number. It's great.

Thanks for the heads up about The Music Man, that had passed me by completely somehow and wasn't something I'd heard of, but I've downloaded it now and will definitely watch it soon.

Small Man Big Horse

Newsies (2017) - A pro-shot musical based on the 90's film about youngsters who sold papers in 1899, this is set in "New Yoik" where kids sell "Papes" as everyone has the strongest of accents, but when the bosses start charging the kids more for their papes they go on strike, with a new wet behind the ears journalist supporting them in the form of Catherine Plumber. It's a pretty charming comedy drama vaguely based on a real life story, but though the characters are fun, the story an intriguing one, and the songs are likeable (albeit a little too narrative based and so not the kind of thing you'll find yourself wanting to listen to outside of the musical itself), it's occasionally borderline melodramatic too. Which sounds like I didn't enjoy it when I did, but it's just not quite as good as the other pro-shot musicals I've caught recently. 7.2/10

She Loves Me (2016) - This pro-shot musical from 2016 stars Zachary Levi and Jane Krakowski and is initially dripping with so much charm that it's almost drowning in it. It's an extremely old fashioned affair too as Zachary Levi's store clerk has a romance via letter thanks to a "Lonely hearts club" with a mysterious woman - but shock horror, she turns out to be Amelia (Laura Benanti) a fellow colleague who he doesn't really get on with. Kraokowski isn't in it as much as I'd hoped and none of the songs are that amazing (though perfectly likeable), so file under I'm Glad I've Seen It But I'll Never Rewatch it. 7.4/10

Noodle Lizard

I'm surprised Cannibal! The Musical hasn't been mentioned yet. The fact that that was written/composed/made when Trey Parker was only 20 or so is astonishing - imagine a university student coming out with something like that now. It works as a pastiche/parody of Rodgers & Hammerstein musicals as just as well as it does on its own two le-eeeegs (https://youtu.be/xvk-aPm5p-4), and it's as funny as it is clever and well-composed. A lot of comedy musicals go far too over-the-top with their lyrics or style in order to get the laughs, where as Cannibal! never really oversells its jokes as far as the songs themselves go - it has a level of confidence missing from a lot of similar works.

South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut and Team America deserve a mention too, I think.

QDRPHNC

Thanks for putting the effort into that post, SMBH, a lot to dive into. And I second what NL said about Cannibal! It's really well done.

Fun fact! One of the stars of The Apple opened his own restaurant and was featured in an episode of Kitchen Nightmares.

Small Man Big Horse

I didn't get on with Cannibal at the time but everyone I know loves it so I think I need to revisit it.

Quote from: QDRPHNC on May 25, 2020, 03:20:31 PM
Fun fact! One of the stars of The Apple opened his own restaurant and was featured in an episode of Kitchen Nightmares.

That is a fun fact, and a surprising one too as I'd presumed all would be dead of cocaine overdoses.

Hairspray (2007) - Film version of the Broadway musical of the John Waters 80's comedy, it was only one song in before I decided I needed to have the soundtrack in my life as it's such a barnstorming opening number. Storywise it sees Tracy Turnblad become one of the new dancers of the Corny Collins Show, despite being plus sized and not racist (unlike way too many of her fellow dancers), but of course anyone who's different is going to cause upset and create enemies which include Amber (Brittany Snow) and her station manager mother Velma Von Tussle (Michelle Pfeiffer). John Travolta in a fat suit as Tracy's Mum takes a bit of a while to get used to but he won me over by the end, and otherwise this is a delight with a superb cast, a lot of fun songs, a sharp script and an important message about equality and acceptance. 7.7/10

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: Rizla on May 10, 2020, 09:27:56 PM
One you didn't mention is one I only really explored a year or two ago, The Music Man in which Robert Preston plays a travelling instrument salesman who turns up in a sleepy town intending to swindle the inhabitants but they end up  teaching each other to live laugh and love instead. It's most famous for the song 'til there was you, as covered by the Beatles, but the real showstopper is Trouble, which served as inspiration for the Simpsons monorail episode. The town council are played by a real life barbershop quartet who our hero  tricks into breaking into close harmony crooning whenever they get close to rumbling his scheme. Andy Kaufman in his stage act used to do a one man rendition of the  opening number. It's great.

I watched this tonight and largely agree with you, it is a ridiculously engaging musical, and here's the short review I wrote for my files:

The Music Man (1962) - Professor Harold Hill (Robert Preston) is a dodgy salesman who's going to do his best to get a town to buy a sod load of musical instruments and uniforms, the dirty bastard, but can he last the time it'll take for them to be delivered without anyone rumbling that he's not really a Professor and that he can't teach anyone music? And will he be able to seduce the town librarian Marian (Shirley Jones) who initially thinks he's something of a cad? Plus what has a tiny but adorable Ron Howard got to do with it all? This really is a charming affair, it's not without it's issues and though the songs are fun they're not of the variety I've any urge to own, and a couple of the dance numbers go on a bit too long (as does the film in general at two and a half hours), but the script is sharp and the film in general is a great deal of fetching fun. 7.7/10

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: Noodle Lizard on May 25, 2020, 07:14:41 AM
I'm surprised Cannibal! The Musical hasn't been mentioned yet. The fact that that was written/composed/made when Trey Parker was only 20 or so is astonishing - imagine a university student coming out with something like that now. It works as a pastiche/parody of Rodgers & Hammerstein musicals as just as well as it does on its own two le-eeeegs (https://youtu.be/xvk-aPm5p-4), and it's as funny as it is clever and well-composed. A lot of comedy musicals go far too over-the-top with their lyrics or style in order to get the laughs, where as Cannibal! never really oversells its jokes as far as the songs themselves go - it has a level of confidence missing from a lot of similar works.

South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut and Team America deserve a mention too, I think.

As mentioned above, I didn't get on with Cannibal! The Musical but I rewatched it tonight and liked it a fair deal, it's a little bit dodgy and occasionally crass but the songs are really strong, and as Noodle Lizard mentions above, the fact that it's a work by someone in their early twenties is really impressive. I originally rated it 1/10 on imdb which means I must have had huge issues with it, and I can't explain why as the rewatch moves it up to 6.5/10.

bgmnts

Cannibal! is great when you consider that Trey Parker and Matt Stone were indeed still in uni. University must be so much different now.

I think I read heard from them that Orgazmo was originally meant to be a musical as well. That would have been very funny.

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: bgmnts on June 09, 2020, 08:09:19 PM
Cannibal! is great when you consider that Trey Parker and Matt Stone were indeed still in uni. University must be so much different now.

Makes me wish I hadn't wasted my time at university even more than I previously did, I mean I did a fair amount of work and got a 2:1 so I don't regret going, but outside of lectures and seminars I was mostly stoned or drunk and didn't do anything creative.

QuoteI think I read heard from them that Orgazmo was originally meant to be a musical as well. That would have been very funny.

I wish it had been, I only watched it for the first time this year and found it to be pretty bland, it's not particularly awful in any way, just lazy.

Ignatius_S

Great thread,

One I would suggest:

How To Success in Business Without Really Trying - which takes its name from the book that an ambitious window cleaner uses to to climb the corporate ladder. Both the script and songs are4 wonderful and work brilliantly without the other.

The lead is played by Robert Morse, who starred in the Broadway version prior the film. Morse, who I suspect most in the country will associate with Mad Men, is simply amazing (as he always is). Michael McKean has said that he and collaborator, David Lander were huge admirers of Morse - so much so that Lander created a wall collage of Morse from the musical on his wall, and it's easy to see why there were such fans. Morse also starred in a late sixties series, That's Life (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/That%27s_Life_(1968_TV_series)), which sounds pretty ambitious and from what I can gather, was rather stunning.

Quote from: Small Man Big Horse on April 05, 2020, 12:25:07 AM...A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum[ (1966) - I've normally a soft spot for musicals but this was just a bit drab, and way too pleased with itself. There's some occasionally funny moments and the ending is great, but most of the songs were bland, Michael Crawford spends most of the film doing weak slapstick, and it completely wastes Phil Silvers. Plus it's attitude towards women is horrendous, but well, that's probably not too much of a shock given that it's all about shitty men lusting over prostitutes, and struggling with any females who have opinions or crazy things like that. 5.4/10...

I'm rather fond of that film - however, like a lot of films based on musicals, there were quite a lot of changes made and feel it's best to approach it as a musical comedy with the emphasis on the latter, rather than approaching it as a musical.

Half (or maybe more) of the songs were removed and the score was essentially adapted from Sondheim's - the musical elements are substantially different to the stage version. I think it was on a Sondheim documentary that I learned he was furious about those changes - however, from what I've read, he's downplayed the stage version as being a significant work of his. He's contended that the songs are there to break up the frenetic action on the stage and think there's a fair bit of agreement on that - e.g. that the songs don't really develop the story or characters, which some say is key for the musical.

i can see what Sondheim means to a degree - for example, the Jack Gilford character has a lovely song (I'm Calm) that's cut, which breaks up the action and doesn't reveal much (but as I say, I think it's lovely) - and my gut feeling is that as a musical (or musical comedy) A Funny Thing... is essentially best suited as a live experience and a film version was always going to be tricky.

Sadly, both female leads each have their own (good) song cut. It's particularly a shame in the case of Domina as hers (That Dirty Old Man), I feel shows her in a different way. With something like How to Succeed in Business... it's understandable that they cut songs for time constraints and with others like Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, that they replaced songs that they cut with new ones (even if the logic is a little questionable) but here, I'm not sure they knew the best way to tackle it.

re: the attitude to females, as I say that song of Domina's casts her a slightly different way - however, I feel this reflects the original inspiration of Roman farces. Earlier this year, I went to a Slapstick Festival event where an academic specialising in those writers discussed modern works like Up Pompeii and (I"m pretty sure Forum was mentioned) in relation to those farces, and there's more commonalities that I suspect more would expect, such as the types of characters and their portrayal. That's not to say 'problem? what problem?' but think it's interesting to consider that source material.

re: Silvers - that's something I would take up cudgels about, I enjoy him in the film and although would have liked more, they had beefed up the role for the film.

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: Ignatius_S on June 09, 2020, 11:20:14 PM
Great thread,

One I would suggest:

How To Success in Business Without Really Trying - which takes its name from the book that an ambitious window cleaner uses to to climb the corporate ladder. Both the script and songs are4 wonderful and work brilliantly without the other.

The lead is played by Robert Morse, who starred in the Broadway version prior the film. Morse, who I suspect most in the country will associate with Mad Men, is simply amazing (as he always is). Michael McKean has said that he and collaborator, David Lander were huge admirers of Morse - so much so that Lander created a wall collage of Morse from the musical on his wall, and it's easy to see why there were such fans. Morse also starred in a late sixties series, That's Life (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/That%27s_Life_(1968_TV_series)), which sounds pretty ambitious and from what I can gather, was rather stunning.

I've not seen the film version but I did see it on stage last year, as it was produced by Sedos who are technically an amateur group but they have their own theatre and a lot of funding, and it was really impressive, a musical I had a huge amount of time for and the two and a half hours flew by, so I definitely do plan to seek out the film version sooner rather than later.

QuoteI'm rather fond of that film - however, like a lot of films based on musicals, there were quite a lot of changes made and feel it's best to approach it as a musical comedy with the emphasis on the latter, rather than approaching it as a musical.

Half (or maybe more) of the songs were removed and the score was essentially adapted from Sondheim's - the musical elements are substantially different to the stage version. I think it was on a Sondheim documentary that I learned he was furious about those changes - however, from what I've read, he's downplayed the stage version as being a significant work of his. He's contended that the songs are there to break up the frenetic action on the stage and think there's a fair bit of agreement on that - e.g. that the songs don't really develop the story or characters, which some say is key for the musical.

i can see what Sondheim means to a degree - for example, the Jack Gilford character has a lovely song (I'm Calm) that's cut, which breaks up the action and doesn't reveal much (but as I say, I think it's lovely) - and my gut feeling is that as a musical (or musical comedy) A Funny Thing... is essentially best suited as a live experience and a film version was always going to be tricky.

Sadly, both female leads each have their own (good) song cut. It's particularly a shame in the case of Domina as hers (That Dirty Old Man), I feel shows her in a different way. With something like How to Succeed in Business... it's understandable that they cut songs for time constraints and with others like Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, that they replaced songs that they cut with new ones (even if the logic is a little questionable) but here, I'm not sure they knew the best way to tackle it.

re: the attitude to females, as I say that song of Domina's casts her a slightly different way - however, I feel this reflects the original inspiration of Roman farces. Earlier this year, I went to a Slapstick Festival event where an academic specialising in those writers discussed modern works like Up Pompeii and (I"m pretty sure Forum was mentioned) in relation to those farces, and there's more commonalities that I suspect more would expect, such as the types of characters and their portrayal. That's not to say 'problem? what problem?' but think it's interesting to consider that source material.

re: Silvers - that's something I would take up cudgels about, I enjoy him in the film and although would have liked more, they had beefed up the role for the film.

That's really interesting to hear, I think I'd definitely have liked it a hell of a lot more if there had featured all the songs in it, especially as it sounds like they mostly flesh out the characters I had issues with.

olliebean

Quote from: Small Man Big Horse on June 10, 2020, 01:57:23 PM
I've not seen the film version but I did see it on stage last year, as it was produced by Sedos who are technically an amateur group but they have their own theatre and a lot of funding, and it was really impressive, a musical I had a huge amount of time for and the two and a half hours flew by, so I definitely do plan to seek out the film version sooner rather than later

I saw that same production, preferred it to the film actually.

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: olliebean on June 10, 2020, 02:47:07 PM
I saw that same production, preferred it to the film actually.

Ah, that's interesting, I definitely will see the film at some point for sure but I might put it on the back burner for a bit then so that they my memories of the play fade a bit, and I might enjoy it a little more that way.

Small Man Big Horse

Hello, Dolly! (1969) - Barbra Steisand's Dolly can fix anything for anyone, except that the man she wants to seduce, Horace Vandergelder (Walter Matthau), is interested in someone else. Meanwhile Vandergelder's niece wants to marry an artist but Vandergelder ain't having any of that, and his employee (Michael Crawford, showing off the flare for physical comedy he'd become famous for in a couple of years time) is twenty eight and three quarters and downright annoyed that he's never snogged anyone, so he and Barnaby (Dunno, some bloke) are off to New York, with Dolly orchestrating the lives of everyone else for her own wicked means. Streisland's superb and all kinds of foxy but it's actually Crawford and his beau Irene Molloy (Marianne McAndrew) who are the MVP's as they have the dafter and more playful moments, and it's hard to understand why Dolly would be interested in Vandergelder given what a cunt he is,
Spoiler alert
and his sudden change of mind towards her doesn't add up either, Matthau apparently despised Streisand in real life and that definitely comes across here
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. Otherwise this is lovely stuff though, as it's based on a Broadway musical from the mid sixties the songs aren't particularly inventive sound wise but the lyrics are strong and often very funny, and it's that rare beast, a musical with lots of dance numbers that I enjoyed with the one in the Harmonia Gardens restaurant being a particular delight. 8.0/10

Gulftastic

Directed by Gene Kelly, no less, which is probably why the dance routines are so good.

And you've reminded me of a thread I meant to start.

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: chveik link=topic=79222.msg4150521#msg4150521 I've watchedb]Cry-Baby[/b] recently, pretty entertaining film, some of the songs are really nice. Waters' brand of anarchy is toned down though.

I watched this tonight and like you say it's not quite as crazy as Waters is at his best but I still found myself exceedingly fond of it. Here's my mini-review:

Cry Baby (1990) - This is an odd sort of musical, there's four numbers where the cast burst in to song out of nowhere, all in the second half of the movie, but the rest of the time the songs are sung on stages as part of a band. And it's a slight shame there's not more traditional musical moments as the ones present are easily the highlights of the movie, or that's what I thought anyhow, though being musical obsessive may mean I can't be trusted on that front. Either way it's still extremely enjoyable, a very flimsy but very fun John Waters flick set in the 1950s where redneck Johnny Depp falls for posh girl Alison (Amy Locane) in this class clash comedy that's sometimes slightly pantomime-esque, though that's not too it's detriment, and which has a great number of very quotable lines in it. 7.7/10