Les Misérables - Not in need of improvement

So I went to see Les Misérables today, and as everyone else seems to be doing it as well, I figured I'd post about it.

I thought the film was fantastic, and this is from someone who has not only seen it live but also watched the 10th and 25th anniversary concerts more than is probably healthy.  I felt it was a terrifically engaging story that was particularly faithful to the source material, that said it was not without its problems.  Here are some of the highlights and lowlights of my Les Mis experience.

Hugh Jackman.  Someone, I can't remember who, once told me that the reason he is so fantastic is that he proves that you can be Wolverine and Peter Allen and absolutely rock them both.  I think there are elements of both in this one part.

Russell Crowe.  Even though I think he missed the mark with Stars, I just couldn't get over how well he did with the song on the bridge (I think it is maybe best not to name the song because, well, spoilers).  Overall, I saw in his face the justice that he carried out, but in his voice I heard the purity which he felt as he did.

Samantha Barks.  I can't help it, I tear up in A Little Fall of Rain every time in the 25th anniversary concert and this was no different.  Actually, I think at this point I should just say the entire cast was a highlight: Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Sacha Baron Cohen, Helena Bonham Carter, all fantastic, ok enough now.

I did not like, however, the ridiculous number of close ups on faces while singing.  I like your work Tom Hooper, but if you don't know what to do with your camera during a musical soliloquy then maybe Les Mis isn't actually for you.  Nor did I like the anachronistic Eiffel Towers on the flags that they were waving around in a couple of scenes - When your film is set in 1815-1832, try not to include an image of a building not erected until 1889.

I also did not like Suddenly.  Why did they feel the need to put that song in the film?  It didn't gel with the rest of the music and completely took me out of the moment.  Did they think it would improve the musical or did they just get bored and decide to screw with people's heads?  I would have much preferred to see some more character development for Grantaire, maybe put the other verses of Drink With Me in instead.

Finally, for a two and a half hour film, I did not appreciate sitting through almost three quarters of an hour worth of ads.  That's over three hours of sitting in the one place, if I get deep vein thrombosis after my trip to America I'm not blaming the airline I'm blaming Val Morgan.

On the whole I thoroughly enjoyed the film.  I was going to include pictures and maybe a clip from YouTube but my computer is throwing a hissy fit so no snazzy and awesome looking blog post for you.

End of Days continued

So I woke up this morning thinking that I managed to survive the apocalypse, but then I remembered the Mayans lived in Mesoamerica so there's still two or three hours left for world the world to end, or almost seven hours if we're waiting for it the day to be over worldwide.

This time I'm going to explain what I think needs to survive the apocalypse.  After all, something needs to be the basis for the reconstruction of society.  For each section I'm selecting three, because that would not be unreasonable to manage to store somewhere and can provide a more in depth snapshot of society.

Play:  Hamlet, because face it at least one of Shakespeare's works must survive.  Also Pippin and Les Misérables because given the choice I'd take a musical almost every time.

TV:  This is a bit of a challenge but Scrubs, Firefly and Gilmore Girls which probably has the most balance between genres of all these categories.


Book:  I think that if I had to save anything I would save the Lord of the Rings trilogy (which I'm counting as a single book because I own it bound as such) by J R R Tolkien, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston.  That said this was a hard one because there are so many genres and types of book unrepresented here, I would also like to save, for example, Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, but alas, it will be lost if only three books in the entire world, chosen by me, are to survive.

Film:  De-Lovely, The Blues Brothers and Back to the Future.  If I can have the trilogy I'll take it, but I'm guessing I was already pushing my luck with the Lord of the Rings loophole.


Music:  By this I mean entire albums. Natural Selection by Hunters and Collectors, Desireless by Eagle Eye Cherry and A Night at the Opera by Queen.  There should probably be some female representation in here as well, though, so maybe replace Desireless with Missy Higgins's The Sound of White.

There you have it, my choices for what to save if the world ends.  Obviously this is a very subjective list and I'd love to hear what you think is worth saving and if there is anything here that you'd be happy to see disappear forever.

I finally get it.

As an owner/operator of a set of balls, I have been kind of satisfied that I'd never seen either Mean Girls or Bring It On as I had been assured they fall squarely into the category of "you will not enjoy this film unless you have the capacity to ovulate, a tendency to eat copious amounts of chocolate when sad, and are avoiding doing maths homework.  Not having seen these films, I have just descovered, has meant that I have missed out on soooo many pop culture references.

For a few weeks now I have been frequently told by friends that I should see them both so that I can officially be part of the 21st century.  Today I had absolutely nothing else on so I decided to bite the bullet an watch them both, and I have to say, they were not bad.  Well played friends, well played.


I now understand the following quotes, presented in gif format for your viewing pleasure:

I do musical theatre so I've been saying this one for years anyway.  Source

My friends do in fact say this - far more often could possibly be called for.  Source

I know at least one person who knows this cheer (including moves) off by heart, her reciting this to me may or may not have been what convinced me to actually watch this film.  Source

And of course how could I not like this scene, it's Eliza Dushku dancing all sexy like! Source

As for Mean Girls:

Its been eight years since this film came out and I only now understand the many long and boring conversations about whether fetch is going to happen eventually.  Source

Overnight everyone went from saying "there is no limit" to "the limit does not exist" I now realise why.  Source

30% chance has in fact come to simply mean yes for so many people I know.  Source

Also, I now get so many more of the pop culture references in blogs and generally online that refer to these movies, how have I survived so long without understanding this?  Stuff at Snark Squad (which is awesome) is particularly good at referencing both these films, I strongly urge people to check it out, for no other reason that it's awesome and deserves more readers.

There you go, I now get to consider myself officially a part of the 21st century apparently.

...Unless there are other major gaps in my pop culture experience, like committing some sort of terrible faux par involved in the use of gifs or something.