Film The Redcafe Movie review thread

Last Boy Scout - Entertaining, if not a bit ridiculous Tony Scott action film. A good script by Shane Black, filled with a bunch of one-liners, and gives Bruce Willis a fun character to play - probably my favouirte Willis character after Mr. McClane I would say.

I will miss Tony Scott films, they may often not have been anything of real substance, but they're generally films you can have a good time with.

Then I went on a bit of a Denzel binge

Glory - It's an Edward Zwick film, so it's going to use as many cliches and shortcuts possible... but I still have an entertaining time with it. Performances from Freeman and Washington are both good, but I'm not a huge fan of Broderick. I realise he's not meant to be a stereotypically authoratative figure within the film, but it doesn't really work for me. Anyway, for what it is, a cliche ridden Civil War film about racism, it does the trick. Also, considering it was done in 1989, the action holds up quite well.

Malcolm X - I love it. Yeah, it's long, but it's well worth the time and the effort in my opinion. Spike Lee obviously had the time of his life doing this, and every single scene is carried out with maticulous detail, and shot superbly by Lee. It's a great looking film that captures the time and the atmosphere perfectly. I'm sure the film could lose about 30 minutes at several points to make it a bit tighter, but I wasn't bored at any point during it's 200 minute run... and said run time just allows Lee to delve so deep into Malcolm X as a person that you get a fantastic sense of who this man started off as, what he became, and who he ended up as... all 3 tremendously different people, and all 3 incredibly interesting characters... and Washington plays them all superbly.


Flight - A good character study of an alcoholic under immense pressure. The actual portrayl of the alcoholism might have been a bit over-the-top/in your face at times, but you could probably argue that it was neccesary in order to show that Denzel isn't a good guy, and that he has a severe problem... though the later was pretty apparent at any rate. Whilst Denzel is great in it, the supporting cast (apart from John Goodman) leave a lot to be desired. They're either just there (Cheadle) or they're utterly terrible (the girl). If Denzel plays a drunk well, then this girl playing a drug addict is the exact opposite of that.

Oh, and the actual plane scene itself (which takes up about 10/15 minutes of the film) is excellent.
 
Agree entirely with your take on Malcolm X.

This weekend I saw :

Seven Psychopaths - Enjoyed it a lot, though I thought the first hour was a bit messy, McDonagh tried to pack too many stories into that part. It all comes together during the second half of the film though, and the performances by all the actors are perfect. I like McDonagh's style of writing, he's good with the words and manages to conjure up some great one liners but never at the lack of the story. He brings a real melancholy to his stuff (you could already sense it in In Bruges, it's present here as well). Didn't like it as much as his previous effort (In Bruges is one of my favourite films) but definitely worth a watch.

Zero Dark Thirty - Loved it. More than the story of how the CIA found Bin Laden, it's the story about a character's courage, her will and her refusal to let go, played magnificiently by Jessica Chastain. It shows the gritty day to day work of a spy, up against a slippery enemy and the frustration it brings, both due to exterior elements (the wall of silence in captured elements of Al Qaeda, the false leads...) and from the inside (her conflicts with her hierarchy). Bigelow manages to create some real moments of tension (the scene with the Afghan doctor, the take of Bin Laden's lair at the end) like in her previous stuff. I also liked that she and Mark Boal stayed away from any kind of patriotism, I really don't feel like this is an "America feck yeah" film like we've discussed in here over the last few pages, and I think that's especially obvious during the scene where Obama is on TV promising the US will no longer use torture, Maya and her colleagues are just watching on and don't comment: they just have to adapt their methods and don't question the morality of the decisions.
 
Annihilate Now! said:
Flight - A good character study of an alcoholic under immense pressure. The actual portrayl of the alcoholism might have been a bit over-the-top/in your face at times, but you could probably argue that it was neccesary in order to show that Denzel isn't a good guy, and that he has a severe problem... though the later was pretty apparent at any rate. Whilst Denzel is great in it, the supporting cast (apart from John Goodman) leave a lot to be desired. They're either just there (Cheadle) or they're utterly terrible (the girl). If Denzel plays a drunk well, then this girl playing a drug addict is the exact opposite of that.

Oh, and the actual plane scene itself (which takes up about 10/15 minutes of the film) is excellent.
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I started watching this yesterday and need to finish it off tonight.

The plane crash has put me off flying for a while.
 
CassiusClaymore said:
I started watching this yesterday and need to finish it off tonight.

The plane crash has put me off flying for a while.
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Yeah, it's definitely not to be watched before going on a holiday!

I liked my time with it. It's nice to see Washington play a character with something to him, which he hasn't done since Man on Fire (or possibly American Gangster).
 
R.N7 said:
0 Dark 30 was rather hollow I thought. It didn't really say anything, wasn't very intriguing and the characterisations weren't that great.
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Well it said a lot about the frustrations of the spy job, I thought. As for the characterisations, I think Maya was great, her evolution throughout the film is well done and you can really see that she's not the same person at the end. I agree the rest of the characters were pretty superficial though, even though I enjoyed Gandolfini's part (which was pretty short) and Maya's friend, the guy who's in the torture scene at the beginning, one of the only secondary parts that is slightly developed.
 
Rooney in Paris said:
Well it said a lot about the frustrations of the spy job, I thought. As for the characterisations, I think Maya was great, her evolution throughout the film is well done and you can really see that she's not the same person at the end. I agree the rest of the characters were pretty superficial though, even though I enjoyed Gandolfini's part (which was pretty short) and Maya's friend, the guy who's in the torture scene at the beginning, one of the only secondary parts that is slightly developed.
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When is this guy gonna stop getting fatter? All I could think when I saw him was 'Peter Griffin'.
 
Annihilate Now! said:
Yeah, it's definitely not to be watched before going on a holiday!

I liked my time with it. It's nice to see Washington play a character with something to him, which he hasn't done since Man on Fire (or possibly American Gangster).
Click to expand...

The film was okay but I think it would have went straight to DVD if Denzel was not in it... the film gets quite ordinary after the plane crash scene and Denzel's performance pulls it through to the end. Still decent, but nothing to shout home about.
 
Goooose said:
I watched Blade Runner years ago and I didn't get the hype. I'm watching it again now (about 45 mins in) and once again, nothing special. The last hour of it might change my mind, but I'm pretty bored so far.

Edit: Nope, thought it was rubbish. The speech at the end was good, and I liked the whole design and back story to the film, but it was just plain boring.

6/10
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Blasphemy blasphemy!

I was abused here for not liking Blade Runner. Couldn't get into it at all and never understood the hype of it.

Together with Seven Samurai it is the only old highly rated movie that I didn't enjoy at all.
 
Anyone who thinks that Blade Runner only deserves a 6/10 is plainly unwell.
 
Nice to see there are other people on the internet who don't like Blade Runner, it's probably my most disliked film due to the amount of times I had to watch it. It feels really of its time to me, a vibe that feels like the worst of the 80's.

Finally got around to watching the Pledge which was really entertaining. Also saw the Perks of Being a Wallflower, which was as wanky as I imagined it.
 
The Master - Visually striking, very atmospherical (the score was well nice), superbly acted (Hoffman, Phoenix, Adams) but seriously lacking in substance...so, so empty, just as I expected from Paul Thomas Anderson. I enjoyed it more than There Will Be Blood though.
 
I didn't know where else to put it. I'll delete it, if it doesn't belong.

The fast and furious 6 trailer is out and here's a breakdown from the best sports and pop-culture writer ever.



Running Diary: The New Fast & Furious 6 Extended Trailer

February 5 is now a holiday. In less than an hour this morning, we learned Gus Johnson is calling the 2018 World Cup, Keith Law’s annual list of the top 100 minor leaguers was released (LEAGUE OF DORKS ALERT!!!!!!!) and the extended Fast & Furious 6 trailer surfaced on YouTube. Everybody go home. Just go home. But before you do, let’s break down the trailer for the sixth installment of the greatest action franchise of all time.

0:02 “The following preview has been approved for APPROPRIATE AUDIENCES.” I’m woozy.

0:05 It’s sweeping-helicopter-shot time. IN!!! If there were a Sweeping Helicopter Shots Olympics for directors, I’d have Justin Lin as a -240 favorite over Ben Affleck in the finals.

0:08 Nobody pulls off the “being mounted by a hot blonde immediately followed by strutting outside and looking out to a panoramic ocean view while holding a beer” trailer montage combo better than Vin Diesel. I can’t tell you how much I missed Dom Toretto.

0:11 Send this exchange right to the Oscar committee.

The Rock: So this is what 100 million buys? [Dramatic pause.] Wasn’t that hard to find you, Toretto.
Dom: [Dramatic pause.] I wasn’t hiding.
0:25 Sweeping helicopter shot! SUCK IT, AFFLECK!

0:35 Our plot: So a team of highly coordinated drivers wiped out a military convoy, leaving the FBI with two choices: send either a team of Seal Team 6 dudes after them, or a top-10 most-wanted felon (Diesel) and a disgraced FBI agent who’s on the lam (Paul Walker) to find them. Obviously, you go with Plan B there.

0:44 Dom doesn’t want to help out — after all, he’s already rich, he’s living in a tropical location and he’s getting mounted by blondes. But wait! Rock drops a bombshell: Dom’s dead girlfriend Letty is alive ... and, yup, she was one of the aforementioned “highly coordinated” drivers. She couldn’t be alive! In Fast 4, she perished in a car accident that Dom dissected by studying tire-tread marks for about 12 seconds, after which he somehow found the guy responsible just from the tread marks. She’s alive?

“It’s impossible,” Dom mumbles.

I agree. I mean, we saw the tread marks. Dom’s in.

0:53 Another Vin Diesel staple — he always looks like he’s angrily staring someone down in slow motion even though he’s doing it in real speed. Harder than it looks. I’m trying this every time someone at Grantland disagrees with me.

0:59 Sweeping helicopter shot!!! Affleck is so effing jealous right now. He’s gotta be going nuts.

1:05 I’ll be honest ... this trailer has been a little light on Paul Walker, a.k.a. Keanu 2.0. Are they phasing him out? I’m worried. We need Keanu 2.0. Rock is stealing his lines. This is bullshit. Paul Walker is getting Pau Gasoled.

1:10 Dom: “You got the best crew in the world standing right in front of you. Give 'em a reason to stay.” I agree. This really is the best crew in the world. I mean that unironically.

1:15 Our target is Owen Shaw, former spec-op soldier. Got it. Can you show me some cars flipping over and things blowing up, please?

1:24 Thank you!

1:31 For the best crew in the world to help out, Paul Walker wants The Rock to guarantee full pardons all the way around. If he doesn’t think that’s getting a dramatic pause from The Rock, he’s nuts.

1:32 [Dramatic pause.]

1:33 Rock: “I can’t promise you that.”

1:35 Dom: [Mumbling, angry, intense, barely audible.] “That’s the deal ... take it or leave it.” Dom Toretto’s character must drive Sly Stallone crazy. I guarantee he watches these movies while thinking, How did I not come up with an action movie franchise centered on a fugitive illegal race-car driver named Dom who mumbles his way through scenes while foiling complicated car-related crimes? I couldn’t have come up with Fast and Furious instead of Cobra????

1:48 Dom sets up our first street race by mumbling, “Ride or die.” Maybe that’s not as profound or inspirational as “I live my life a quarter mile at a time,” but then again, what is? Hey, you know what’s really sad? I’ve seen enough Fast & Furious trailers to know what’s coming next — we’re getting a hip-hop song, we’re getting an action montage, we’re going to see at least one person jump from one car to another at high speed, and if you don’t think a car is flipping over, you’re insane.

No franchise understands exactly what it is quite like Fast & Furious.

2:03 Yup.

2:08 Letty gets out of the car and drops this one on Dom: “Do you believe in ghosts?” How fast do you think Michelle Rodriguez said yes when they offered her a Letty comeback? 0.19 seconds? 0.75 seconds?

2:13 She just shot at Dom!!! WTF!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? What did he ever do to her? All he did was love her and avenge her death in Fast 4 by killing 245 people and causing $10 billion worth of damage! I can’t believe this. I’m rewinding.

2:13 Hmmmm. Dom’s wearing a leather jacket and a black shirt when he first sees Letty, but when he’s getting shot at, he’s wearing an aqua T-shirt. Maybe she didn’t shoot at him? More importantly, why the hell was Dom wearing an aqua T-shirt?

2:17 Paul Walker and Keanu Reeves are the Bird and Magic of enjoyably bad acting. The fact that the “tell me about your father” scene from Fast Five isn’t on YouTube is a collective Internet failure. We’ve all failed. I should be able to watch that twice a day. In Fast 6, it looks like their scene figuring out Letty’s comeback might be on that level. I don’t want to jinx it. Just saying it’s possible. But here’s a taste.

Paul: Maybe the lady you knew is gone.
Dom: [Pulling a bullet out of his own body.] You don’t turn your back on family ... even when they do.
(Quick tangent: I’ve always loved and admired Dom’s sense of family. The Fast & Furious franchise, to me, really hinges on three things: an appreciation for driving recklessly while causing as much damage as possible, a genuine appreciation for family, and the suspension of disbelief that American law enforcement would never be able to find a bald fugitive who lives lavishly, owns lots of expensive cars, and fully admits to FBI agents that he’s not hiding. It’s totally realistic to me that he would forgive Letty.)

2:23 May 24. Got it. Already on my calendar.

2:30 We just went from two cars on fire that were flipping in midair right to a girl-on-girl fistfight. How many days away is May 24? (Checking.) Fewer than 100 days!

2:33 Ludacris [into a walkie-talkie]: “Ah, guys? They got a tank.” Tremendous.

2:37 I gotta admit, I’m pretty intrigued by this tank. Huge monkey wrench. I mean, it’s a tank. It’s just wreaking havoc right now.

2:45 Great montage here. Includes a car flipping over and going through a glass window, someone jumping forward from one speeding car to another (forward????), The Rock leaping through the air and punching someone at a 45-degree angle, Vin holding an assault rifle while looking intense and ... wait, where was Paul Walker? I’m telling you, they’re phasing him out. I’m concerned. They better not replace him in Fast 7 with Chris Pine or something. I won’t handle it well.

3:09 Did we just see the world’s greatest crew drive under a plane that was about to take off, shoot something at it, then drag the plane back down so it crashed behind them? Yes. Yes we did.

3:14 Did Dom then somehow drive his car through the front of the plane? Of course he did.

3:30 I’m watching it again.

FINAL GRADE: 17 OUT OF 4 STARS.

http://www.grantland.com/blog/holly...diary-the-new-fast-furious-6-extended-trailer
 
Forevergiggs said:
I didn't know where else to put it. I'll delete it, if it doesn't belong.

The fast and furious 6 trailer is out and here's a breakdown from the best sports and pop-culture writer ever.



Running Diary: The New Fast & Furious 6 Extended Trailer

February 5 is now a holiday. In less than an hour this morning, we learned Gus Johnson is calling the 2018 World Cup, Keith Law’s annual list of the top 100 minor leaguers was released (LEAGUE OF DORKS ALERT!!!!!!!) and the extended Fast & Furious 6 trailer surfaced on YouTube. Everybody go home. Just go home. But before you do, let’s break down the trailer for the sixth installment of the greatest action franchise of all time.

0:02 “The following preview has been approved for APPROPRIATE AUDIENCES.” I’m woozy.

0:05 It’s sweeping-helicopter-shot time. IN!!! If there were a Sweeping Helicopter Shots Olympics for directors, I’d have Justin Lin as a -240 favorite over Ben Affleck in the finals.

0:08 Nobody pulls off the “being mounted by a hot blonde immediately followed by strutting outside and looking out to a panoramic ocean view while holding a beer” trailer montage combo better than Vin Diesel. I can’t tell you how much I missed Dom Toretto.

0:11 Send this exchange right to the Oscar committee.

The Rock: So this is what 100 million buys? [Dramatic pause.] Wasn’t that hard to find you, Toretto.
Dom: [Dramatic pause.] I wasn’t hiding.
0:25 Sweeping helicopter shot! SUCK IT, AFFLECK!

0:35 Our plot: So a team of highly coordinated drivers wiped out a military convoy, leaving the FBI with two choices: send either a team of Seal Team 6 dudes after them, or a top-10 most-wanted felon (Diesel) and a disgraced FBI agent who’s on the lam (Paul Walker) to find them. Obviously, you go with Plan B there.

0:44 Dom doesn’t want to help out — after all, he’s already rich, he’s living in a tropical location and he’s getting mounted by blondes. But wait! Rock drops a bombshell: Dom’s dead girlfriend Letty is alive ... and, yup, she was one of the aforementioned “highly coordinated” drivers. She couldn’t be alive! In Fast 4, she perished in a car accident that Dom dissected by studying tire-tread marks for about 12 seconds, after which he somehow found the guy responsible just from the tread marks. She’s alive?

“It’s impossible,” Dom mumbles.

I agree. I mean, we saw the tread marks. Dom’s in.

0:53 Another Vin Diesel staple — he always looks like he’s angrily staring someone down in slow motion even though he’s doing it in real speed. Harder than it looks. I’m trying this every time someone at Grantland disagrees with me.

0:59 Sweeping helicopter shot!!! Affleck is so effing jealous right now. He’s gotta be going nuts.

1:05 I’ll be honest ... this trailer has been a little light on Paul Walker, a.k.a. Keanu 2.0. Are they phasing him out? I’m worried. We need Keanu 2.0. Rock is stealing his lines. This is bullshit. Paul Walker is getting Pau Gasoled.

1:10 Dom: “You got the best crew in the world standing right in front of you. Give 'em a reason to stay.” I agree. This really is the best crew in the world. I mean that unironically.

1:15 Our target is Owen Shaw, former spec-op soldier. Got it. Can you show me some cars flipping over and things blowing up, please?

1:24 Thank you!

1:31 For the best crew in the world to help out, Paul Walker wants The Rock to guarantee full pardons all the way around. If he doesn’t think that’s getting a dramatic pause from The Rock, he’s nuts.

1:32 [Dramatic pause.]

1:33 Rock: “I can’t promise you that.”

1:35 Dom: [Mumbling, angry, intense, barely audible.] “That’s the deal ... take it or leave it.” Dom Toretto’s character must drive Sly Stallone crazy. I guarantee he watches these movies while thinking, How did I not come up with an action movie franchise centered on a fugitive illegal race-car driver named Dom who mumbles his way through scenes while foiling complicated car-related crimes? I couldn’t have come up with Fast and Furious instead of Cobra????

1:48 Dom sets up our first street race by mumbling, “Ride or die.” Maybe that’s not as profound or inspirational as “I live my life a quarter mile at a time,” but then again, what is? Hey, you know what’s really sad? I’ve seen enough Fast & Furious trailers to know what’s coming next — we’re getting a hip-hop song, we’re getting an action montage, we’re going to see at least one person jump from one car to another at high speed, and if you don’t think a car is flipping over, you’re insane.

No franchise understands exactly what it is quite like Fast & Furious.

2:03 Yup.

2:08 Letty gets out of the car and drops this one on Dom: “Do you believe in ghosts?” How fast do you think Michelle Rodriguez said yes when they offered her a Letty comeback? 0.19 seconds? 0.75 seconds?

2:13 She just shot at Dom!!! WTF!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? What did he ever do to her? All he did was love her and avenge her death in Fast 4 by killing 245 people and causing $10 billion worth of damage! I can’t believe this. I’m rewinding.

2:13 Hmmmm. Dom’s wearing a leather jacket and a black shirt when he first sees Letty, but when he’s getting shot at, he’s wearing an aqua T-shirt. Maybe she didn’t shoot at him? More importantly, why the hell was Dom wearing an aqua T-shirt?

2:17 Paul Walker and Keanu Reeves are the Bird and Magic of enjoyably bad acting. The fact that the “tell me about your father” scene from Fast Five isn’t on YouTube is a collective Internet failure. We’ve all failed. I should be able to watch that twice a day. In Fast 6, it looks like their scene figuring out Letty’s comeback might be on that level. I don’t want to jinx it. Just saying it’s possible. But here’s a taste.

Paul: Maybe the lady you knew is gone.
Dom: [Pulling a bullet out of his own body.] You don’t turn your back on family ... even when they do.
(Quick tangent: I’ve always loved and admired Dom’s sense of family. The Fast & Furious franchise, to me, really hinges on three things: an appreciation for driving recklessly while causing as much damage as possible, a genuine appreciation for family, and the suspension of disbelief that American law enforcement would never be able to find a bald fugitive who lives lavishly, owns lots of expensive cars, and fully admits to FBI agents that he’s not hiding. It’s totally realistic to me that he would forgive Letty.)

2:23 May 24. Got it. Already on my calendar.

2:30 We just went from two cars on fire that were flipping in midair right to a girl-on-girl fistfight. How many days away is May 24? (Checking.) Fewer than 100 days!

2:33 Ludacris [into a walkie-talkie]: “Ah, guys? They got a tank.” Tremendous.

2:37 I gotta admit, I’m pretty intrigued by this tank. Huge monkey wrench. I mean, it’s a tank. It’s just wreaking havoc right now.

2:45 Great montage here. Includes a car flipping over and going through a glass window, someone jumping forward from one speeding car to another (forward????), The Rock leaping through the air and punching someone at a 45-degree angle, Vin holding an assault rifle while looking intense and ... wait, where was Paul Walker? I’m telling you, they’re phasing him out. I’m concerned. They better not replace him in Fast 7 with Chris Pine or something. I won’t handle it well.

3:09 Did we just see the world’s greatest crew drive under a plane that was about to take off, shoot something at it, then drag the plane back down so it crashed behind them? Yes. Yes we did.

3:14 Did Dom then somehow drive his car through the front of the plane? Of course he did.

3:30 I’m watching it again.

FINAL GRADE: 17 OUT OF 4 STARS.

http://www.grantland.com/blog/holly...diary-the-new-fast-furious-6-extended-trailer
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:lol: The car drives through the front of the burning plane and then does a flip as it lands.
 
BAMSOLA said:
I could say the same about anybody who doesn't acknowledge 2001 to be a great film, opinions huh?
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2001 for me was much better and much more unique than Blade Runner.

People can probably not like 2001 but it is impossible to not appreciate it.
 
Revan said:
2001 for me was much better and much more unique than Blade Runner.

People can probably not like 2001 but it is impossible to not appreciate it.
Click to expand...

Completely agree with your first point and your second point I would have though was true before earlier in this thread.

peterstorey said:
Nope, it's quite possible to do both.
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It should be possible to do the first but also impossible for anybody with half a brain to do the second like he said.
 
Pete is right. Utter rubbish. The King's New Clothes and all that.
 
What about unique new movies?

In the top of my head are Requiem for a dream, Donny Darko and Cloud Atlas. Thoughts?
 
BAMSOLA said:
I could say the same about anybody who doesn't acknowledge 2001 to be a great film, opinions huh?
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You could say it about Anchorman but you would be wrong.

And I was obviously not being entirely serious. People have opinions about all sorts of things I disagree with and often disagree with quite a bit. Until they realise I'm right I'm quite at peace with them having their own opinion. :angel:
 
I saw 2001 many years ago and have never managed to re-watch it - usually a good indicator of entertainment value.

I don't care for Kubrick's movies anyway - you've got to wear a woolly jumper and a heavy coat to keep from freezing. I don't know anything about the guy, but I'd hazard a guess he was a total prick.
 
Revan said:
What about unique new movies?

In the top of my head are Requiem for a dream, Donny Darko and Cloud Atlas. Thoughts?
Click to expand...

Requiem - not seen it
Donny Darko - I have only seen the Director's Cut which I thought was good but with massive plot holes. I think the original, which apparently left far more to the imagination (and thus harder to pick holes in), might have been more to my taste.
Cloud Atlas - should have been utter rubbish but somehow was watchable despite the many and obvious flaws.
 
Will Absolute said:
I saw 2001 many years ago and have never managed to re-watch it - usually a good indicator of entertainment value.

I don't care for Kubrick's movies anyway - you've got to wear a woolly jumper and a heavy coat to keep from freezing. I don't know anything about the guy, but I'd hazard a guess he was a total prick.
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His films could have been made by a robot. A very dull robot.
 
Les Mis - In short. It's a bit long... and theres lots of singing.

For a bit more... I thought the 2nd half was much better then the first, the acting/singing was all somewhere between decent and good... apart from from Helena Bohem Carter, who annoyed the shit out of me. Even in Les Mis, she manages to appear like she's in a Tim Burton movie.

Finally, the way this movie shot is, for large parts, utterly rubbish.
 
Django Unchained-8.5/10

Really enjoyed that. Was probably a bit overlength and some of it was just plain silly, but it was really enjoyable nevertheless and the main cast was incredibly entertaining to watch. Some of Waltz's scenes were excellent while Foxx played the main role well I thought. Kind of glad he had it over Will Smith actually. If you can't handle racism though then stay away. Just a word of warning on that one.
 
Annihilate Now! said:
Les Mis - In short. It's a bit long... and theres lots of singing.

For a bit more... I thought the 2nd half was much better then the first, the acting/singing was all somewhere between decent and good... apart from from Helena Bohem Carter, who annoyed the shit out of me. Even in Les Mis, she manages to appear like she's in a Tim Burton movie.

Finally, the way this movie shot is, for large parts, utterly rubbish.
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I was a bit mixed about the way it was shot. The close-ups were a bit over the top at times and it could've done with less of them, but then there were some shots which were incredible to look, such as the one near the start when the prologue ends of the whole small town and the mountains in the background etc.

Bonham Carter was okay. She was funny enough at times, but the parts a lot more brutish than what she made it. She kind of just played herself which half tailored the part. In general though the Thenardier's were shortchanged in this compared to the stage version.

Funny though that most of the best cast members were probably some of the younger ones with less experience while the weaker links were mainly some older ones. I didn't dislike anyone strongly in the main cast, but as you say Bonham Carter was a tad annoying and while I didn't hate Crowe like I expected to, he's not the best.
 
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