"Les Misérables (2012)" Movie Review

"Les Misérables" movie poster.

"Based on the novel by Victor Hugo, 'Les Misérables' travels with prisoner-on-parole, 24601, Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman), as he runs from the ruthless Inspector Javert (Russell Crowe) on a journey beyond the barricades, at the center of the June Rebellion. Meanwhile, the life of a working class girl (Anne Hathaway) with a child is at a turning point when she turns to prostitution to pay money to the evil innkeeper and his wife (Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter) who look after her child, Cosette (Isabelle Allen). Valjean promise to take care of the child, eventually leads to a love triangle between Cosette (Amanda Seyfried), Marius (Eddie Redmayne) who is a student of the rebellion, and Eponine (Samantha Barks), a girl of the streets. The people sing of their anger and Enjolras (Aaron Tveit) leads the students to fight upon the barricades." Written by JBW (Source below.)

Anne Hathaway (being carried) and Hugh Jackman.

Directed by Tom Hooper ("The King's Speech", "John Adams" TV Mini-Series, "Elizabeth I" TV Mini-Series) and based on the original stage musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg, Alain Boubil, Jean-Marc Natel, and Herbert Kretzmer. The screenplay was written by William Nicholson ("Elizabeth: The Golden Age", "Gladiator", "First Knight") with additional text written by James Fenton.

Russell Crowe.

In the starring role is Hugh Jackman ("The Prestige", "X-Men"). He does an excellent job and I don't think he's getting enough accolades for it. Opposite him is Russell Crowe ("Gladiator", "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World"), who, though not a singer, holds his own. He wasn't terrible and I think he acted the part rather well. For the record, Javert is my favorite character out of the whole musical. Anne Hathaway ("The Devil Wears Prada", "The Dark Knight Rises") isn't in it for very long, but she is brilliant and will probably win supporting actress come Oscar time.  Though her vibrato bothered me a bit, Amanda Seyfried ("Mean Girls", "Mamma Mia") was also very good. Her character doesn't have too much depth to her so in consideration of that she did well. 

Amanda Seyfried (L)
and Eddie Redmayne.

Sacha Baron Cohen ("Hugo", "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street") and Helena Bonham Carter ("Alice in Wonderful", "The King's Speech"), even though they tried really hard to be funny, it just didn't work for me. Cohen was the only one with a French accent and it was a bad French accent. They were okay, Carter could've sung her parts louder, but her acting was good. Eddie Redmayne ("Black Death", "My Week With Marilyn") was good, but his face shook every time he sung a long note out and that was a bit distracting. Aaron Tveit ("Ghost Town", "Howl", "Premium Rush") was cute and had a great voice, but in comparison to the Enjolras I saw on Broadway (in about 2009) really got me gung-ho about the revolution. Tveit was adorable, but I didn't fall in love with him like I did the one onstage. 

Samantha Barks.

Samantha Barks ("Les Misérables in Concert: The 25th Anniversary") is basically known for being an amazing Eponine onstage so I think she suffers from the same thing that Jackman is going through right now: because everyone knows that she's a great stage actress, she's not getting the praise that is due her way. Daniel Huttlestone was wonderful as Gavroche. He has an excellent voice and was oftentimes singing rings around the other actors in the scene. And Colm Wilkinson ("The Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall") was the Bishop that shows Jean Valjean some kindness and helps him to become a better man. He wasn't in it very long but he does an excellent job with his part as well.

"Les Misérables"
movie poster.

The makeup, or rather lack thereof, was brilliant. Everything was done very realistically. You saw how dirty, disgusting and sick everyone was. Also, everything seemed historically accurate which is something that can't always be shown in a musical stage production. The clothes were very good. I still don't think it's going to win "Best Picture" though. Because of the way they filmed everything, they had to keep very close to the actors. The actors were really singing while they were being filmed. This is what people actually sound like when they sing. 

Russell Crowe.

I had to watch this musical two times before I could write a review (damn people!). If you know the musical, you will notice that they cut some parts out and put some parts in. Most of it doesn't matter to the overall movie. I really liked how they humanized Javert. This wasn't something that could be done onstage. He was obviously changed by the end of the movie.

Also, Lisa Schwarzbaum: who the hell watches a movie musical when they don't even like musicals?!

I would like to read the book one day. I read an abridged version in high school some years ago, but the only part I remember is when Eponine is helping some old guy water his flowers while spouting off revolutionary, political jargon. 

Also, this review, featuring Sourcefed's Meg and Trisha:

Sources: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1707386/plotsummary and http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1707386/fullcredits#cast.

"Mean Girls" Movie Review

"Mean Girls" movie poster.

"Raised in African bush country by her zoologist parents, Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) thinks she knows about survival of the fittest. But the law of the jungle takes on a whole new meaning when the home-schooled 16-year-old enters public high school for the first time and encounters psychological warfare and unwritten social rules that teenage girls face today.

"Cady Heron is a hit with The Plastics, the A-list girl clique at her new school, until she makes the mistake of falling for Aaron Samuels (Jonathan Bennett), the ex-boyfriend of alpha Plastic Regina George (Rachel McAdams)." Written by Sujit R. Varma (Link below.)

I have finally watched this cult classic! It was quite funny! And it had quite a cast too: Lindsay Lohan, Amanda Seyfried, Rachel McAdams, Lacey Chabert, Tina Fey (who also wrote the screenplay), Neil Flynn, Tim Meadows, and Amy Poehler as "the cool mom".

It's actually a really wonderful film! I had a very good time watching it with my friends. If I had been a bit younger than I am now, I think it might have been more influential for me.

The print is small, but you can read the script here: http://www.script-o-rama.com/movie_scripts/mean-girls-movie-transcript.html or http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/mean_girls.pdf.

(L to R) Lacey Chabert, Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams,
and Amanda Seyfried.

Favorite Lines:

Janis: [reading list the major cliques in high school] You got your freshmen, ROTC guys, preps, J.V. jocks, Asian nerds, Cool Asians, Varsity jocks Unfriendly black hotties, Girls who eat their feelings, Girls who don't eat anything, Desperate wannabes, Burnouts, Sexually active band geeks, 

[a picture of herself and Damian come on screen] 

Janis: the greatest people you will ever meet, and the worst. Beware of plastics. 

[seeing all the girls fighting] 

Mr. Duvall: Hell, no. I did *not* leave the South Side for this! 

[hits fire alarm with a baseball bat] 

[Damien is in the Girl's Bathroom] 

Short Girl: Hey, get out of here. 

Damian: Oh my God - Danny DeVito! I love your work! 

Karen: If you're from Africa, why are you white? 

Gretchen: Oh my God, Karen, you can't just ask people why they're white.

Damian: [reading Cady's class schedule] Health, Spanish... you're taking 12th Grade Calculus? 

Cady: Yeah, I like math. 

Damian: Eww. Why? 

Cady: Because it's the same in every country. 

Damian: That's beautiful. 

[to Janis] 

Damian: This girl is deep.

(L to R) Lacey Chabert,
Rachel McAdams,
Lindsay Lohan,
and Amanda Seyfried.

Coach Carr: Don't have sex, because you will get pregnant and die! Don't have sex in the missionary position, don't have sex standing up, just don't do it, OK, promise? OK, now everybody take some rubbers.

Karen: God. My hips are huge! 

Gretchen: Oh please. I hate my calves. 

Regina: At least you guys can wear halters. I've got man shoulders. 

Cady: [voiceover] I used to think there was just fat and skinny. But apparently there's lots of things that can be wrong on your body. 

Gretchen: My hairline is so weird. 

Regina: My pores are huge. 

Karen: My nail beds suck. 

[pause. All look at Cady] 

Cady: I have really bad breath in the morning. 

Karen: Ew! 

[Mr. Duvall is introducing Cady to the class] 

Mr. Duvall: Her name is Cady. Cady Heron. Where are you, Cady? 

Cady: That's me. It's pronounced like Katie. 

Mr. Duvall: My apologies. I have a nephew named Anfernee, and I know how mad he gets when I call him Anthony. Almost as mad as I get when I think about the fact that my sister named him Anfernee. 

Mrs. George: I just want you to know, if you ever need anything, don't be shy, OK? There are NO rules in the house. I'm not like a *regular* mom, I'm a *cool* mom. 

Bethany Byrd: Somebody wrote in that book that I'm lying about being a virgin because I use super jumbo tampons... but I can't help it if I've got a heavy flow and a wide set vagina! 

Mr. Duvall: Yeah, I can't do this.

Amber D'Alessio: [reading from the burn book] Made out with a hot dog? Oh my God that was one time! 

Source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0377092/.