re: Les Mis - Anyone Else Going Today?

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Alfie Boe should have played Valjean. Jackman's singing of "Bring Him Home" was cringeworthy.

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Would you stop with this shite? Hollywood isn't going to sink millions into a production for it to be headlined by Alfie fricking Boe.
If the singing is most important to you, enjoy the great stage performances already released. With the way the movie was made, did you really expect the singing to be on par with the 25th anniversary show? I'm sure Jackman would sound much better standing still at a mic only having to focus on that one aspect.

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No. I'm not a homo.

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Would you stop with this shite? Hollywood isn't going to sink millions into a production for it to be headlined by Alfie fricking Boe.

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That's why they cast Hathaway and had her in the first trailer. She's the one with the massive Oscar buzz, not Jackman (who is up for an Oscar). They could always have cast Jackman as Javert and gone a different way with the story, which might have gotten them BP.

And they did call Boe in for an audition and the guys doing the music work (composer, sound technicians, etc.) lobbied for Boe over Jackman, so it's not completely out of the question.

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If the singing is most important to you

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It's not the most important to me, but it is a musical. And I know with how the movie was made that it was never going to be on par with the stage version as far as the singing goes, but I'm a purist. If you're going to make a musical, you make sure the people you cast who get the big songs can sing those songs. And they did this for the most part (see Hathaway, Barks, Redmayne). With Jackman and, to a lesser extent, Crowe, they went away from this to sell tickets, and I hope this costs them the Best Picture.

Went tonight. First off I'm a huge Les Mis fan. I've seen it twice on Broadway and once in London. Overall I really enjoyed it, but some of this singing was just distracting.

Russell Crowe was just not a good singer. Terrible tone. It's clear that Hugh Jackman is a very capable singer and great actor, but his voice just did not fit Valjean. Bring Him Home was especially off, as that's usually the emotional high point of the stage musical. His emotions throughout did make up for his vocal performance to some extent though.

Other than that I thought it was solid. Probably the least douchiest Marius I've seen, which I guess isn't saying much because I've always hated the character. Seyfried was a pleasant surprise and Hathaway lived up to the hype. Eponine was fantastic and as always hotter and more interesting that Cosette, which is the biggest flaw w/ the stage musical too.

Anyway if anyone here liked the movie but hasn't seen the musical, do yourself a favor and see it on Broadway w/ real singers and it will blow your mind.

The movie really started to struggle once they got to Lamarque's funeral and the Paris Uprising. I have long thought Les Miserables to be an overrated musical with quite a few songs being straight up duds. The second act of the play is full of them. I enjoyed the singing of Jackman, Hathaway, Barks and most of the rest of the cast. Crowe was tolerable as a singer, I don't really get all the hate. He's most definitely the weakest link in the cast as far as singing goes, but he didn't do a terrible job. The story was top notch but the film was weighted down with music that really isn't all that good.

Final Grade: B. The first act is amazing but the last half of the film drags the overall quality down a bit.

Saw it last night with my girl. I thought it was a decent adaptation. She absolutely loved it. Agree that Anne certainly lived up to the hype .. she was fantastic. Her one-take I Dream A Dream was a phenomenal piece of cinema.

I'm in the anti-Crowe camp .. he just didn't bring the umph that that character needed and obviously he doesn't have the strongest voice. They should have gotten Gerard Butler into that role.

It really came through that they recorded every song as it was shot and let the actors' voices really come through for what they were. I liked that. Many modern musicals have too much sound mixing and re-recording it doesn't come off as very organic, as if you're watching a live performance.

Overall I'd give the film a B+ .. direction and production values were great just didn't have any special elements that left me longing to witness something again.

Oh, and the Sacha Baron Cohen/Helena Bonham Carter duo, while a nice performance, felt really recycled. Should have left them back at Sweeney Todd.

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didn't have any special elements that left me longing to witness something again.

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then there was the Paris sewer,a special element that I didn't long to see again...

Gave a new meaning to "deep deep do do"..

The dude playing Marius was so gay

As many of you may have figured out, I’m a massive fan of Les Mis. Why? Probably the blatant Catholicity of the story. It doesn’t hurt that I enjoy the vast majority of the songs. Many of you also know of my opinions about the singing, so I’ll put them last in this review.

Set Design, Costumes, etc.: The costumes were quite good. The cast and feel of the movie definitely oozed the “miserableness” of the situation. There were a few problems I had with the set design. They blatantly looked like backdrops in a number of instances (all Javert songs, for instance). Perhaps this was done to give it a “stage” feel, but it just didn’t work. It wasn’t constant, but it did take away from being “in” the film, and, IMO, this is one of the reasons that critics have disliked Crowe’s performance. Also, the barricade didn’t really work as a barricade. That was made worse with the pull-back into the sky showing the rest of the area. A place that was shown to be very open earlier in the film is then shown to be maze-like and closed in.

So I’m giving this section a 7.5.

Story: I love the story and the film stuck mainly to it. The few deviations, however, seemed completely unnecessary. Why, for instance, was Gavroche the one who gave the letter to Valjean? Personally, I feel that Eponine’s death becomes that much more pitiful when she dies helping Marius get with Cosette than her dying trying to save Marius. Maybe that’s just me, I don’t know. For those whining about the story itself (laid out for you by me early on page 2), GFY.

So I’m giving the story a 9.

Editing: I might be the most annoying person to see movies with because I immediately notice every editing and continuity error. I already noted one in the set design. Elsewhere, during Javert’s “Stars” song, the sky goes from cloudy to perfectly clear with a ton of stars back to cloudy in the space of one cut. During Eponine’s death, the rain appears to only be falling on Eponine. This is even more clear when you notice that many of the clothes look dry during the attack scene right before her being shot. The editor also fricked up big time on the scene of Valjean praying/debating in the bishop’s chapel. He walks down a hall and ends up back where he started. I also don’t know why you cut a good portion of “A Little Fall of Rain.” Doesn’t make sense to me. Of course, most of the film was pretty good on the editing count.

So I’m giving the editing a 7.5.

Acting:

Anne Hathaway elicited a response of “I’ve never seen someone look so miserable” from one of the people sitting near me. I understand why she’s getting talk for an Oscar.

Eddie Redmayne did as well as you could ask for Marius. Having never seen him in anything else, his performance was a very pleasant surprise.

Russell Crowe has gotten a bad rap in the reviews. He might not be the best singer in the world (I’ll get to that in a second), but he’s one of the few people who actually “gets” Javert. He acted it perfectly. And I watch Javert closely because he’s the character I most identify with (shocking, huh?). It’s not his fault that the fricking background detracts from almost all of his scenes. If you see this movie a second time, specifically watch Crowe’s acting.

SBC and HBC were sufficiently slimy. The problem is that there part works much better on the stage. A bunch of “comic relief” moments aren’t needed in a feature film like this.

Amanda Seyfried was passable. I hate the character of Cosette and I hate Seyfried, so…

Samantha Barks deserves an Oscar nomination. frick all the people attacking her for being a stage actress. She was fricking flawless. The Oscars should shut down if she doesn’t get a nomination. Anyone who says differently can find me most weekends at Fado on 15th in Center City Philadelphia.

Hugh Jackman’s performance was mixed. He did much better in the second act than he did in the first (except in the confrontation with Javert at the café). He’ll be nominated for Best Actor due to hype and money, but he doesn’t deserve the nomination for his acting. And taking away his shirtless scene takes away the only good reason for keeping Alfie Boe out of the film. frick you directors and producers, frick you.

The kids who played Gavroche and young Cosette were excellent for children. Especially Gavroche.

I give the acting a 9.

Singing: And now we get to what you were dreading. First, I completely understand how they recorded it. This does not excuse certain people because most of the actors, when they were singing sounded perfectly fine. Second, frick you if you don’t like the music in this (except for the worthless older Cosette shite).

Anne Hathaway did a brilliant job with her singing. Sounded studio quality and you could feel the acting in the singing. She should do Broadway.

Eddie Redmayne didn’t suck as Marius, which is shocking, because he’s difficult, especially when put up against Michael Ball. But Redmayne’s version of “Empty Chairs and Empty Tables” was sung very well and was powerful.

SBC and HBC were what they were.

Amanda Seyfried is a fricking squeak toy. No, an ugly, fricking squeak toy. Get out of this film Seyfried.

Samantha Barks was perfect. Eponine’s got two of the “big” songs in the film and she nailed them. Her drowning out of Seyfried was glorious. Of course, she’s a stage actress. Not shocked. My comments above in the acting category stand here.

Russell Crowe is not a great singer, but he’s passable. Javert, however, isn’t necessarily supposed to be a great singer. He’s supposed to convey Javert, and he did that well enough. If he wasn’t going against people like Hathaway, Barks, and Redmayne, nobody would have a problem with him.

The girl I saw this with described Jackman’s singing on a number of songs as “a cat whose tail got stepped on.” Not good. And he’s got THE SONG in the film. And he fricked it up.

“One Day More” was enjoyable, although I wish that Javert’s full lyrics were used. “Drink With Me” is annoying and was a perfect candidate to be axed. But no, they cut parts of “A Little Fall of Rain.” BOOOOOOO. Colm Wilkinson was Colm Wilkinson. The concluding song was great.

I give the singing an 8.5.

Overall: I really liked it, but I would changed some of the editing and two cast members (bye Jackman and Seyfried).

The film overall gets an 8.