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Originally Posted by flippyshark
The movie? I like Gerard Butler, but he was miscast here. That high note in Music of the Night is a real cringer. Also, I wish he had actually been pathetically ugly, not incredibly handsome with what looked like a bad sunburn on only part of his face. I liked the lush production values, but found the whole thing lacked energy.
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Agreed, but more so. Gerard Butler RUINED the movie for me. I enjoyed it on first viewing, but find it almost unwatchable since because I simply can't stand a Phantom that can't sing. Worst Phantom since Franc D'Ambrosio.
Production values kicked ass and the rest of the movie is great. I'd consider a rewatch if someone ran the play soundtrack over the film's soundtrack.
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Also, I didn't care for the habit of replacing sung recitative with spoken dialog, especially as they didn't re-write it AS dialog. They just spoke lyrics in a very stilted self-conscious way. (Almost like they were ashamed to admit they were making a sung-through musical! I hope the makers of Les Mis simply commit to the form and sing out throughout.) Not disastrously bad, but never thrilling either. It just kind of thumps along, very expensively. (Also, Minnie Driver seems to be the only one having anything like a good time with the material - maybe a little bit TOO good a time? I could have made a decent sandwich out of that ham!)
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Again agreed. I *hate* that Hollywood doesn't trust American audiences to a true musical.
They'd better not so much as attempt that with Les Mis. It's a through-composed musical and I can't see anything but disaster resulting from inserting spoken lines.
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As for the film of Evita, as mentioned by Strangler Lewis, I like that one a lot more, and thought the montage impressive, telling lots of story visually. But, yeah, I could see how that could be exhausting.
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Except for the part where they took all the best/funniest lines out and gave Madonna the song that belongs to the mistress she kicks out.
Alex: Agreed on the novel. Good read.