#12 ‘The Greatest Showman’/’Les Misérables’

Movie night date – 8/06/19. Post date – 15/06/19.

Soooooooo…I’ve been gone a while and been slack…I gave into temptation and skipped out on doing the bonus weekend surprise of two extra movie reviews as well as ‘Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond’ and thought I would post it Thursday this week…which led to me forgetting and doing it now so…hey! We actually made it! The surprise was going to be me reviewing the two movies I was invited to watch with two of my old roommates with the theme of both musical and Hugh Jackman movies. We watched the 2017 musical sensation ‘The Greatest Showman’ by Michael Gracey, followed by the 2012 musical movie ‘Les Misérables’ by Tom Hooper.

The Greatest Showman – 2017 – Michael Gracey – 105 Mins

‘The Greatest Showman’…Finally got around to it at a point where it wasn’t being overly hyped to me. That in itself is a lie; when I told a relative of mine I was doing ‘Phantom Of The Opera’, they replied by saying their partner’s kids were doing ‘The Greatest Showman’ for their school production. Hype aside, I thought it was a good movie. Made me think of two movies, but made into real world adaptations. It reminded me of the beginning being like the beginning of ‘Up’, where the two star-crossed lovers meet and play in a old home which eventually becomes their home and they both have a sense of ‘Adventure is out there’. The main story reminded me of ‘Sing’, but in a different time and not with animals. The songs weren’t bad; didn’t make me want to run out and buy them instantly like some have made me do, but pretty damn good songs. Probably biased from the hype there…

What surprised me is that it is based on a real person. I didn’t know that going in and have always loved the circus. I remember when a travelling circus stayed and set up on my school’s field. Best and worst part of it was the fact they had an elephant stay with them on the field. The smell lasted long after they had gone…We had a class visit to see what they were doing and I managed to answer a question right and win tickets to go watch when they preformed. Needless to say this excited 10 year old me. I’ve always liked circuses. Obviously being small town New Zealand, it was nothing as grand as this, but still! A circus is a circus. I never had that difficulty of a fear of clowns. I was more scared of the dark, dying, and old age…yeah, I was a weird one except the dark one. Anyway, I’m getting distracted…back on track!

It was cool to see MJ and Ted Bundy…I mean, Zendaya and Zac Efron in some more movies. I haven’t seen Zendaya in anything other than ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ and this expanded on her acting. I look forward to seeing more of her stuff. As for Zac, as I probably did or should have said in the Ted Bundy film review, I haven’t seen much with him. Both seem to have incredible voices though! Man, I knew Troy Bolton could sing, but I hadn’t paid attention to it till now, having not seen ‘High School Musical’. It goes without saying, Hugh Jackman is always a treat to watch act and sing. I really need to watch ‘Oklahoma’ with him in it…This week’s movie will have another Hugh Jackman movie amongst it, but not a musical one so it’ll be interesting to see if the movie stands up to my memory. Overall, I would say this is a good movie with solid singing and a decent plot.

Les Misérables – 2012 – Tom Hooper – 158 Mins

When looking back, it doesn’t seem that it was 7 years ago everyone was losing their shit about ‘Les Misérables’ coming out. I may be a musicals person to the lowest degree and I hate being labeled as such, but ‘Les Misérables’ doesn’t do anything for me. I mean I like/know about five songs and one of them is pretty sketchily remembered. Anyway, this was like the ‘The Greatest Showman’ of 2012 for me. I just remember every baritone singing ‘Empty Chairs At Empty Tables’ and…was that around the time of Susan Boyle singing ‘I Dreamed A Dream’? Huh, a quick Google proves me wrong that that happened in 2009…maybe there was residue of her singing it when it came out.

One of the things that surprised me because this was my second time watching the movie, was that I forgot how drawn out this movie seems. It takes FOREVER to even get to seeing Courgette…I mean, Cosette. It was funny hearing that one of my old roommates only remembered Amanda Seyfried from ‘A Million Ways To Die In The West’. To their defence, I only remember her from that and ‘Mamma Mia’…or at least I thought I did till another quick Google showed she was in ‘Mean Girls’…yes, I’ve seen that. God knows where, but I remember seeing it some time. Anyway, it’s a solid cast in this one as well. Eddie Redmayne never ceases to amaze. I forgot he was in this till I thought about the film before watching. I’ve only seen him in a handful of things, but I thoroughly enjoy his acting. If you haven’t seen the video he did for GQ on Youtube breaking down the movies he has been in, I would recommend it. He is a rather interesting fellow and played some interesting parts.

I will do what I normally do and state that ‘Les Misérables’ is based on a book by Victor Hugo and in saying that, it’s a huge ass book! Just under 1300 pages! It made me think about it and a lot of musicals are based on books. I would argue Christian musicals are based on the Bible at least, let alone things like ‘Phantom Of The Opera’, ‘Cats’, and ‘Aspects Of Love’. Apparently ‘Starlight Express’ is based on Thomas the Tank Engine…I wanna see that on stage; know nothing about the story, but it is famously known to be done entirely on roller skates. Apparently people have stopped doing that cause you’d be hard pressed to have a whole company so competent and confident on skates. Bit off topic there…sorry. Anyway, this film was filmed all sung live. No pre-recording dubbed over top, and it sounds pretty damn good. No wonder people were so excited about this…Would I prefer this one over ‘The Greatest Showman’? Nah…I am not a fan of the pace of ‘Les Misérables’. Just seems to drag out a bit too much for me. Doesn’t mean it’s not good. Just not my cup of tea. Good movie; not for me.

Closing Thoughts

I might be over musicals for a little bit…or at least musicals specifically. Disney might slide. Next week however…I only had one picked but I’ve thought about a theme. They are both gonna be starting with the same letter. Well…excluding a ‘The’ in one but I’m gonna watch them. I’m excited for it; it’s been a while since I’ve seen the one I’ve seen and the other has been a long time coming. Related to one of the past films too. Anyway, I’m out and as always:

Hope you’re having a wonderful day and keep smiling.