Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 29, 2024, 01:34:11 AM

Login with username, password and session length

The Brand New All Encompassing Movie Musical Thread

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

Previous topic - Next topic

Small Man Big Horse

Royal Wedding (1951, aka Wedding Bells) - Fred Astaire and Jane Powell are brother and sister but star in a hit Broadway play as lovers as apparently that wasn't creepy in the nineteen fifties, and then they head over to London to restage it for us limeys. The first half is a little light on songs which is a shame as the second half is packed with them, and they're nearly all a delight too, and if that opening forty minutes had a couple more this could have been an absolute classic. As it is I really enjoyed it, their version of London is a very amusing one as it's a fog bound city with a bobby on every street corner and populated by a sod load of people with dodgy accents, while the script is really sharp and has some very funny lines. There's a few really impressive dance sequences (one on a storm hit cruise ship and another with Astaire dancing on the walls and ceiling particularly being a huge amount of fun) and it has a playful sense of humour that I found extremely charming. 8.0/10

Small Man Big Horse

Summer Stock (1950) - Jane (Judy Garland) runs a farm that's in financial trouble but her Daddy's boy of a fiancée Orville (Eddie Bracken) gets his Dad to bail her out, but much to his horror Jane's actress sister Abigail and her new boyfriend Joe (Gene Kelly) turn up with a bunch of actors who plan to try out a new musical in the family barn. Jane's not happy about this either, while Abigail's ego is out of control, and so the show might not go on at all. It's a light, frothy piece, anchored by superb performances from the leads along with Phil Silvers providing some light relief, it could have done with a couple more songs in the middle section but apart from that I really liked it and it's fun and frisky throughout. 7.6/10

Small Man Big Horse

Les Girls (1957) - Former dancer Lady Sybil (Kay Kendall) has written a book about her time performing as part of a troupe, but ex-colleague Angele (Taina Elg) is suing her for libel as the book claims she tried to kill herself after a confusing relationship with male lead Barry (Gene Kelly). We get to see both of their versions of events, along with Barry's, and the majority of this is a frothy, light but smart movie with some great songs by Cole Porter, though once again with a big fifties musical I found myself wishing there were a couple more, especially in the final act. Still, otherwise this is strong stuff, plus Gene Kelly and Leslie Phillips have a fist fight at one point which is (almost) worth the entrance fee alone. 7.4/10

Small Man Big Horse

Rent (2005) - Mostly straight laced poor people with Aids musical with some very dodgy lyrics that nonetheless entertained. It's deliberately ludicrous at times (one song is about how drumming caused a dog to commit suicide) and some of its attempts to be funny are cringeworthy, which one scene featuring performance art is awful. But fuck it, I'm a sucker for this sort of nonsense, I've seen many a review online explaining why it's not a patch on the live stage show and I'm sure they're right, but eh, it just had me grinning a lot, even though a fair amount of that was at how cheesy or ridiculous it all was, the ending especially. 7.9/10

Small Man Big Horse

The Other Side Of The Bed (2002) - Spanish musical where Paula breaks up with her boyfriend Pedro and he's devastated, and also completely unaware that it's because she's sleeping with his best friend Javier, who promises Paula he'll break up with his girlfriend Sonia but unsurprisingly quite likes having two women interested in him. It's a fairly sexy, smart movie that gently pricks the pomposity of macho men, but there's only one really great song, the group number toward the end, the rest are nearly always sweet, poppy numbers with fun lyrics but they're often all too short. Still, it was a breezy, likeable watch, but it's not essential viewing and would have benefitted from a sharper ending. 7.4/10

Small Man Big Horse

Anything Goes (1956) - Broadway actor Bill Benson (Bing Crosby) teams up with tv star Ted Adams (Donald O'Connor) for his latest stage show, and egos soon clash when they both want to cast a different woman in the lead role. Gaby Duval (Zizi Jeanmaire) and Patsy Blair (Mitzi Gaynor) are the singing and dancing dames, while The Jungle Book's Baloo (Phil Harris) is the latter's dodgy father who annoyingly doesn't get to belt out a number, with a fair chunk of the action set on a boat as they travel back from Europe to the good old US of A.  There's a little bit of filler, what with around the hour point Bing crooning a dull love song to Gaby, who then has a six minute long fantasy about dancing on stage which is really boring (and not helped by my not really liking the character) but otherwise it's strong stuff, I've seen the film version criticised by some and it's not exactly the most complex of musicals, but it is a very amiable and charming work with a good few memorable songs. 7.3/10

Small Man Big Horse

There's No Business Like Show Business (1954) - Story of a family of Vaudeville performers, starting off with the lead couple who later have children, with them all initially involved in the family business until they hit adulthood. It's rarely a musical in a conventional sense and is mostly watching them perform on stage, either in front of an audience or while rehearsing, and normally this doesn't work for me but it does here as the songs are (nearly) all well written, jaunty affairs with some strong choreography. The narrative is very slight for the first 90 minutes
Spoiler alert
but then there's quite a jarring tonal shift in the final half hour as one of the sons (Donald O'Connor) has an argument with Marilyn Monroe and then his Dad and he buggers off, and everyone is miserable for a bit until he turns up again and the drama really wasn't needed and feels forced
[close]
, and the film is a lesser piece for it. 6.8/10

Quote from: Small Man Big Horse on October 31, 2021, 05:18:40 PM
Rent (2005) - Mostly straight laced poor people with Aids musical with some very dodgy lyrics that nonetheless entertained. It's deliberately ludicrous at times (one song is about how drumming caused a dog to commit suicide) and some of its attempts to be funny are cringeworthy, which one scene featuring performance art is awful. But fuck it, I'm a sucker for this sort of nonsense, I've seen many a review online explaining why it's not a patch on the live stage show and I'm sure they're right, but eh, it just had me grinning a lot, even though a fair amount of that was at how cheesy or ridiculous it all was, the ending especially. 7.9/10

The dog doesn't commit suicide, Angel kills it for pay, and the performance art bit is supposed to be awful.

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: tubbsthespidergigolo2 on November 15, 2021, 09:56:28 PM
The dog doesn't commit suicide, Angel kills it for pay, and the performance art bit is supposed to be awful.

Ah, I didn't pick up on either of those, which definitely makes the film a bit more interesting
Spoiler alert
(though it's a shame during Angel's funeral no one stood up and said "Hey, she might have been amazing at times, but for fuck's sake, she killed a dog for money!!!")
[close]
. I still think it's a pretty dodgy piece overall
Spoiler alert
(the whole power of song saving Mimi's life is ludicrous)
[close]
but despite that am very fond of it.

Small Man Big Horse

Anything Goes (1936) - The 1956 film of the same name used the title, setting and a couple of the songs but otherwise bares very little resemblance to the original play (co-written by P.G. Wodehouse) and while I liked it at the time I much prefer this and can completely understand why fans of it were annoyed by the other one. It's a farce packed flick where Bing Crosby plays Billy Crocker, a passenger on the ship who's supposed to disembark when they arrive in New York but as he thinks a hot sexy woman is in danger he stays on the ship, and with the help of a fake priest gets hold of a ticket and a passport. Unfortunately for him said passport is that of Snake Eyes Johnson, Public Enemy No. 1, so soon nearly everyone on board is hunting for him, while it also involves the real Snake Eyes Johnson's moll and a posh idiot who is trying but failing to understand American slang. The songs are great but the script is even better, and this is delightful daftness throughout that made me laugh out loud a good deal. 8.0/10

Small Man Big Horse

Not On The Lips (2003) - A frothy French musical from Alain Resnais which has a fair bit of fourth wall breaking making it feel like a very endearing Shakespearian farce, along with some playful visuals as the characters in a scene sometimes change location in less than a blink of an eye and when they exit a room at times they become invisible before they've actually departed. A romantic comedy where business man Georges Valandray (Pierre Arditi) is about to sign a deal with American Eric Thomson (Lambert Wilson) while being completely unaware that Thomson and his wife Gilberte Valandray (Sabine Azéma) were once married, being a bit of a twit this is a problem for Georges as he claims relationships don't work unless he is their first love. There's also a couple of men who wish to seduce Gilberte, while her friend Huguette (Audrey Tautou) is in love with one of them, all of which leads to some predictable but extremely fun daft antics. It's packed with extremely catchy songs with some very funny lyrics, superb performances from all involved, and this won me over completely and was a delight from start to finish. 8.5/10

Small Man Big Horse

Seven Brides For Seven Brothers (1954) - Small town girl Milly (Jane Powell) marries macho mountain man Adam (Howard Keel) about ninety seconds after meeting him, and is over the moon to get away to the quiet of the countryside without being aware that Adam has six other brothers and he mostly wants her to cook, clean and be mother for them, in this sweet natured upbeat musical which if made today would no doubt be a psychologically terrifying movie. I'm not normally a fan of extended dance scenes but there's a superb one when the brothers meet the brides for the first time and the choreography is really impressive, but the second half of the movie runs out of steam a bit
Spoiler alert
after the brothers' kidnap the women
[close]
, and the songs are okay but only two are really memorable. 7.3/10

Gulftastic

My Mum would have fought anyone for Howard Keel in that film. She bloody adored him.

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: Gulftastic on December 07, 2021, 02:14:59 PMMy Mum would have fought anyone for Howard Keel in that film. She bloody adored him.

I can understand why, even though his character's a bit of a turd in places he has a huge amount of charisma, and is a handsome old bastard too.

Small Man Big Horse

Jeannette, l'enfance de Jeanne d'Arc (2017) - French hard rock musical based on a play written in 1910 by Charles Péguy, where a young Joan of Arc prays / sings to God as she wishes to understand the nature of faith, war and why the English are slowly defeating the French. Sometimes her  young friend Hauviette sings with her, as does nun Madame Gervaise (who appears to be two people), and a fair while in it cuts to a few years later after Joan has decided to fight against the English, with her once again explaining why in song form, and how she requires the help of her very young Uncle who raps rather than sings. Oh yeah, and there's a fair bit of headbanging and dancing going on too, in this quite exhausting affair which mostly uses the same location and is a discussion of fairly weighty ideas in song form that I sometimes liked and was amused by, but was also puzzled and confused by, especially when it comes to why some parts were sung and why some were spoken. 6.1/10.

Dex Sawash


Went to the live theater thing with wife since nobody else would, Ain't Too Proud the Temptations musical.

Member berries(gordy) for boring cunts

Small Man Big Horse

Evita (1996) - Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's musical is adapted to the big screen by Alan Parker, where Jimmy Nail takes 15 year old Evita's virginity but you can't really call him out on it given that she's played by a 37 year old actress. Then Evita has sex with lots of men to further her career before ending up with Jonathan Pryce,
Spoiler alert
where they have a lovely old time for a good while until she dies, with the final twenty minutes being a miserable turgid part indeed
[close]
. Tim Rice's lyrics are ridiculously on the nose and often outrageously bad, which yes, I loved personally, and it's all so overblown and preposterous that I couldn't take it seriously, and the madness of it all had me smiling right up until the final part which went on for far too long. One of those films that anyone who rarely gets on with musicals would probably hate, and I wouldn't blame them at all, but eh, I enjoyed it for most of its running time. 7.8/10

Small Man Big Horse

Xanadu (1980) - Sonny Malone (Michael Beck, terrible) is a mostly arrogant and unlikeable artist who one day meets Kira (Olivia Newton-John, fine when singing, bad otherwise) and they fall in love, even though Kira won't tell him anything about her so appears to have no character or depth at all, though why that is is sort of explained. Sonny also meets Danny McGuire (Gene Kelly, fantastic, and deserving of much better material than this) and weirdly Danny decides he wants to open a club with Sonny, even though they've only just met and Sonny is a twat. The first half is just about watchable but then the second half is absolutely bizarre, it features a strange amount of roller-skating, some laughably terrible dialogue, an animated sequence where the characters become fish and then birds, while there's also a shopping montage where models become alive and Gene Kelly is suddenly part of a pinball machine for inexplicable reasons. It's only partially a proper musical as two thirds of the time the soundtrack is performed off screen by ELO, but Newton-John at least has a couple of songs, and Kelly gets one, and this is such a strange oddity overall, and definitely one of those movies I could understand someone hating, but due to that batshit mental second half I rated it 6.4/10

Small Man Big Horse

42nd Street (1933) - The first fifty minutes of this is a "Let's put on a show!" frothy comedy which includes a dictator director, gossipy showgirls, pervy financiers and handsy actors, combined with snappy dialogue and a good dose of sexual innuendo (though the Motion Picture Production Code of 1930 twats did force some changes, with tummy said instead of belly in one song. and a subplot featuring a gay relationship was also sadly cut). Fifty minutes in
Spoiler alert
it becomes more serious when lead actress Dorothy (Bebe Daniels) finally gets sick of being mauled by producer Abner Dillon (Guy Kibbee), gets drunk and fractures her ankle, and it looks like the show is sunk, but luckily newcomer Peggy Sawyer (Ruby Keeler) saves the day.
[close]
Then we get to see just under twenty minutes of the musical "Pretty Lady", and if the film has an issue it's that this segment is so fantastic, with some gorgeous choreography from Busby Berkeley, that it made me wish we'd seen much, much more of it. 7.5/10

Angst in my Pants

Quote from: Small Man Big Horse on December 13, 2021, 08:00:07 PMXanadu (1980) - Sonny Malone (Michael Beck, terrible) is a mostly arrogant and unlikeable artist who one day meets Kira (Olivia Newton-John, fine when singing, bad otherwise) and they fall in love, even though Kira won't tell him anything about her so appears to have no character or depth at all, though why that is is sort of explained. Sonny also meets Danny McGuire (Gene Kelly, fantastic, and deserving of much better material than this) and weirdly Danny decides he wants to open a club with Sonny, even though they've only just met and Sonny is a twat. The first half is just about watchable but then the second half is absolutely bizarre, it features a strange amount of roller-skating, some laughably terrible dialogue, an animated sequence where the characters become fish and then birds, while there's also a shopping montage where models become alive and Gene Kelly is suddenly part of a pinball machine for inexplicable reasons. It's only partially a proper musical as two thirds of the time the soundtrack is performed off screen by ELO, but Newton-John at least has a couple of songs, and Kelly gets one, and this is such a strange oddity overall, and definitely one of those movies I could understand someone hating, but due to that batshit mental second half I rated it 6.4/10

I love Xanadu. It's such a mess and there's way too much going on, but it just makes me smile. I love the ambition of it all, it's so easy to laugh at it but it's played straight and they must have really thought they were on to something.

That final sequence with the lead-up to the title song is just incredible, especially when...
Spoiler alert
Gene Kelly suddenly appears on rollerskates. No, wait... there's THREE of him!
[close]

There was a stage show on Broadway in 2007 (revived in London in 2015) but I can't bring myself to go near it because they play it for laughs as a tongue-in-cheek pastiche of the movie, and I'm not sure I can bring myself to laugh at it in that way when it's so unintentionally funny in of itself.

EOLAN

Re:42nd Street. Didn't realise Bebe Daniels was in it. One of my favorite silent film comedy sidekicks, particularly when paired with Harold Lloyd. Will put it close to top of my watchkliat now.

Small Man Big Horse

Quote from: Angst in my Pants on December 17, 2021, 09:08:06 AMI love Xanadu. It's such a mess and there's way too much going on, but it just makes me smile. I love the ambition of it all, it's so easy to laugh at it but it's played straight and they must have really thought they were on to something.

That final sequence with the lead-up to the title song is just incredible, especially when...
Spoiler alert
Gene Kelly suddenly appears on rollerskates. No, wait... there's THREE of him!
[close]

There was a stage show on Broadway in 2007 (revived in London in 2015) but I can't bring myself to go near it because they play it for laughs as a tongue-in-cheek pastiche of the movie, and I'm not sure I can bring myself to laugh at it in that way when it's so unintentionally funny in of itself.

Spoiler alert
Gene Kelly on rollerskates
[close]
really was something quite amazing to see, and I can completely understand why you enjoyed it so much. I just wish that it had been crazier in the first half, then it could have been something I really loved. And yeah, I've no real interest in seeing a pastiche of a movie, and without Gene Kelly being so fantastic I can't imagine anyone could replace him effectively.

Quote from: EOLAN on December 17, 2021, 10:32:03 AMRe:42nd Street. Didn't realise Bebe Daniels was in it. One of my favorite silent film comedy sidekicks, particularly when paired with Harold Lloyd. Will put it close to top of my watchkliat now.

She's fantastic in it too, and really comes through on the dramatic front so I hope you enjoy it.

Small Man Big Horse

Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey (2020) - Released last year on Netflix this poorly titled musical is an adorable movie and full of charm, as inventor Jeronicus Jangle sees his life fall apart as his work is stolen by his protégé Gustafson and his wife passes away. Cut to a couple of decades later and the now much older Jeronicus (Forest Whitaker) has all but given up inventing, Gustafson (Keegan-Michael Key) is a world famous toymaker but unable to come up with anything himself, and then Jeronicus's granddaughter Journey (I know, but hey, what can you do) comes to visit for the first time and soon every changes. It's mainstream stuff for sure, with a reasonably heavy dose of magic realism, but I thought it was just all kinds of lovely, the songs are catchy and then some, and while The Muppets Christmas Carol and Anna And The Apocalypse are my top two favourite Christmas musicals this easily takes the third slot. 8.2/10

touchingcloth

I'm not sure if the new West Side Story (2021) warrants its own thread, but I thought it was much better than I expected.

It was phenomenally well cast, and I'm glad they didn't go down the route of casting big names who can't really sing.

They fluffed the ending a bit to my mind. I can see what they were doing having Moreno as Valentina/Doc sing Somewhere rather than Tony, but having Maria reprise her own Tonight rather than Tony's Somewhere lacked the melancholy impact of the original. They also dropped perhaps my favourite moment from the original of "you make this world lousy" / "we didn't make it, Doc," which was a shame.

They also laid on the social commentary a bit thick. Having Schrank bore on about the difference between the Irish and the Puerto Ricans when that didn't add anything which isn't already in the lyrics to, say, Officer Krupke, was an odd choice and it made the film overly long. Schrank also seemed to have an implausible level of foresight about the eventual gentrification of Manhattan.

I really liked what they did with Cool, and placing it as a warning before the rumble rather than panic after it worked really well.

4/5, definitely worth a watch.

Small Man Big Horse

I'm not a big fan of the original version of West Side Story, and am right now avoiding cinemas so will have to wait until it streams, but I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it.

The 5,000 Fingers Of Dr T (1953) - Dr Seuss co-wrote this kid's movie where young Bart hates his piano lessons and whenever he nods off he dreams about his teacher Dr Terwilliker being an evil genius who lives in an enormous fairy tale style castle. Terwilliker's a fantastic villain, one who plans to marry Bart's hypnotised mother, make five hundred kids all perform on one giant piano, and kill Bart's best friend who somewhat weirdly is the local plumber Mr Zabladowski, so Bart sure does have a lot to deal with. The first half hour is a little sparse on the songs front and only has two, but the final hour is packed with them, and they're all bloody great, and come with some very funny wordplay, while plot wise everything gets amusingly crazier as it goes on. If the first half hour had been as great as the final hour this might have been a rare 9/10, but as it is it's a strong 8.0/10.

Rizla

Quote from: touchingcloth on December 21, 2021, 09:12:42 AMI really liked what they did with Cool, and placing it as a warning before the rumble rather than panic after it worked really well.

That's where it was in the original stage production, they jiggered a few things around for the 1961 film.

Small Man Big Horse

I Love Melvin (1953) - A musical about a novice actress Judy (Debbie Reynolds) who has a non-singing role as a football in a Broadway show, and Melvin (Donald Campbell), a magazine photographer who falls for her but who Judy's family don't approve of, wishing her to marry the very boring Harry instead. There's a good deal of very likeable songs (with one from Judy's sister Clarabelle about life's ups and downs being quietly adorable), on the downside there's one (mostly funny, briefly racist) long dance sequence at the Look magazine photographic studio where Melvin tries on lots of clothes and larks about in different sets, but with hardly any lyrics it just looks like he's having some kind of psychotic break. That's the only negative thing I have to say about it though, and it's largely a frothy delight. 7.5/10

touchingcloth

I rewatched Hamilton last night, and remembered just how great it is, and also how much better filmed stage performances often are than dedicated movie adaptations of musicals. The entrance of Washington works amazingly well on stage, I'm not sure any screenplay could make it quite as thrilling.

Gulftastic

Quote from: Angst in my Pants on December 17, 2021, 09:08:06 AMI love Xanadu. It's such a mess and there's way too much going on, but it just makes me smile. I love the ambition of it all, it's so easy to laugh at it but it's played straight and they must have really thought they were on to something.

That final sequence with the lead-up to the title song is just incredible, especially when...
Spoiler alert
Gene Kelly suddenly appears on rollerskates. No, wait... there's THREE of him!
[close]

There was a stage show on Broadway in 2007 (revived in London in 2015) but I can't bring myself to go near it because they play it for laughs as a tongue-in-cheek pastiche of the movie, and I'm not sure I can bring myself to laugh at it in that way when it's so unintentionally funny in of itself.

In that big daft last sequence, there are guys popping and locking. Is that the first time this type of dance was shown in a mainstream film? Hip hop stuff was still pretty new at the time.

olliebean

Speaking of filmed stage performaces, Anything Goes with Sutton Foster and Citizen Smith, as well as Barbara Good and Gary Wilmot, was on BBC2 tonight and is on iPlayer here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0012y8y