Fun if slight movie.  Good, if somewhat forgettable musical numbers.  Predictable really, but charming.  But charm it has by the bucketful.

An ok remake.  Not as good as Maleficent or the Jungle Book.  But ok.  Emma Watson is a good actor and a passable singer and Dan Stevens isa good singer and passabel actor.  Luke Evans is enjoyably hammy and dickish as Gaston and Josh Gad is more amusing than terrible.  And the FX work for Beast and the living castle was pretty good.

The musical bits were very catchy and enjoyable.  And Auli'i Cravalho voices a charming and delightful lead.  Plus Dwayne Johnson oozes charisma even when being a giant butthead.  Also I liked the swerve for the final boss confrontation.  Of course now I want a Maui/Lilo & Stitch fight kaiju movie.  With musical numbers.

The exciting world of college competitive a capella! Except of course that the soundtrack makes sure most of the musical numbers actually have musical accompaniment. But never mind that. Not very deep and most of the story beats are pretty predictable. But the singing is decent and it manages to be genuinely funny, if not spectacularly so, and ( Read more... )

The over-the-top goth/cyberpunk setting and the weak story might have been tolerable. Since there are a couple decent actors and singers involved here. If only the songs hadn't all been fucking terrible. At least all the ones in the first 30 odd minutes before I gave up on the whole thing...

The chorus to this has been running thru my brain all week-end. No idea why...

Click to view

It feels odd to describe a musical based on a John Waters movie as delightful. But it is. Even Travolata in drag is..well not appealing. But he's got something going on that makes the character enjoyable. And Nikki Blonsky is great as Tracy. Add in Queen Latifah and several excellent musical numbers and the whole movie is surprisingly

Click to view

So I'm watching the "America" number from West Side Story on YouTube. And I suddenly am struck by something. The entire song is pointless. Puerto Rico IS part of the USA. Has been for quite some time. Its just a part that hasn't decided whether or not to become a state or not. I mean as far as I can recall it meets EVERY requirement for ( Read more... )