I'm 33 minutes into the new "Les Miz" movie and can't stand another minute. Anybody else feel the same?

I’ve only seen the previews and they helped me decide that this movie isn’t for me. I feel the same way about Anne Hathaway. I don’t have anything personal against the girl, I just can’t see the appeal.

I’m not a huge fan of filmed musicals in the first place and once I’ve seen a show live, it’s even harder for me to enjoy a filmed version. Since I saw Les Mis live several years ago and it was one of my favorite musicals ever, I haven’t been chomping at the bit to watch the movie. All that said, I saw a few behind-the-scenes videos from the filming and was intrigued enough that I’ll probably end up seeing it eventually.

I generally like Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman, but tend to dislike Russell Crowe. It’ll be interesting to see how the movie/characters make me feel.

I couldn’t stand 33 seconds of the preview.

How and why Andrew LLoyd Webber’s musicals, even with excellent singers, have been successful has been a mystery to me for years.

The exception would have to be “Jesus Christ, Superstar.”

Calling something “Les Miz” should have been a giveaway.

I would probably also avoid any play entitled, “Ham, PrintZ, ” “Mac, ”
“Two Dudes of Verona,” or “Tony and Cleo.”

@Jeruba Thanks for the mini-review. You saved me the price of a ticket, and what was it? 4hours? That’s a a lot of time to waste on something that sounds like a bore.

I dislike Russell Crowe entirely. Can’t stand him. Don’t want to see him try to sing.

Anne Hathaway, I like in certain roles but I can’t see her carrying this one.

I also saw Les Mis live several years ago in an off Broadway touring company. These “stars” can’t match that magic,.

I have to agree entirely with @gailcalled. Jesus Christ Superstar was the only ALW film to exceed the stage show. That film is amazing!

(I keep thinking of new abominations;

West Side YouTube
The Rap version of the Divine Comedy
Beowolf w. voiceovers by Eddie Murphy and Robin Williams
Death of a Used Car Dealer
To Kill a Turkey Buzzard

@gailcalled I believe they already did “death of a used car dealer” and it starred Robin Williams. It actually was about tin roofing, I think, but it was a retake on the Miller play and it was about as good as you’d expect

edit:
Oh wait! Death of a used car dealer was “Fargo” and that was pretty darned good.

^^^Seriously?

Hm, so the movie sucks? The trailer looked promising, but then, those always do…we studied that in school, I thought it was a cool story, although I never saw any movie about it. there’s a cartoon of it though, seriously

I hated it. It was truly awful. The singing was bad and I don’t care who the ‘stars’ are, if you’re going to have a musical, pick people who can sing.

Horrible film. I paid to see it at the cinema.

I’m not sure how Andrew Lloyd Weber comes into this discussion (he didn’t write this), but I’ve wondered the same thing about his musicals.

Andy Lloyd Webber, you’d look like him too if you stared at your reflection in the back of a tablespoon…seeing as though his name was brought up.

Well @Jeruba I think it came to severe disappointment in movie remakes of great musicals.

Les Mis was, of course, originated by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg, and the empathy and emotion I felt watching that on stage was like when I saw Puccini’s Madama Butterfly for the first time.
In both cases, the stage managers were considerate enough to leave the house lights down well after the final ovations to allow us all to blow our noses and pretend we had bad allergies.

I’ve not seen film versions that can match and I certainly can’t imagine Crowe moving me to even stay in my seat through the credits.

Webber is well known and Phantom, the film, was a great disappointment, so the association is made.

Jesus Christ Superstar is one of two films based on a musical that I can think of that surpassed the stage versions.(The other is West Side Story)

on the same line, I HATED “Rent”. I love La Boheme and adore Moulin Rouge, but Rent lost me in 20 minutes

I won’t touch it with a ten foot pole. Fortunately, I heard a critic talking about how Crowes horrible singing was a constant distraction and knew that alone would drive me up the wall.

Whoever decided to cast a tone deaf actor in a musical should be shot. He is a good actor But he’s an awful singer.

I guess he fancies himself a singer because he was in a rock band in his younger years. But one can play various musical instruments while having no sense of pitch. And he wouldn’t be the first rock band member who can yell loud and passes it off as singing :)

I was just about to say it did well in Australia, but then @Bellatrix blew it for me. But I do think in general with female aussies, it went well. But for me, I didn’t even bother bringing it home, I have seen Russel do some surprisingly good roles, but this is one case I will stick with the book! A lot of women seem to like perving on Hugh but seeing him in Australia (which I loved for the scenery and the little aboriginal boy) where I thought he was not good except for the scene with his shirt off, it was another reason to give it a miss. I did just watch an excellent aussie movie called Mental. I think an American friend said it is on Netflix, it is definitely worth a watch!

Hilarious movie review, @Jeruba! Actually, I had long-since decided to skip it. Having seen several excellent stage productions and not being a fan of any of the actors in the movie, I see no point in wasting ten bucks.

“Overblown musical dud” says it all. i saw it on a date so stayed through it but it was quite awful. Schmaltz for the masses!

Re; Dragging Andrew Lloyd Weber into this thread. I am the guilty party. Having been briefly brainwashed about guessing and assuming being acceptable debate techniques here, I did just that in a moment of weakness.

From the brief excerpts I have watched on PBS, the music for Les Miz could have been written by ALW, even thought it wasn’t. I had to keep turning the TV off.

(However, keep in mine that I am the person who sits through hours of The Ring Cycle waiting for a hummable aria, or for that matter, any aria.)

I saw it on Broadway, and I hated it so much that I wanted nothing to do with the movie. IMO, long and mawkish.

The novel, by contrast, is long and engrossing.

I like all these actors, but it got a bad review in the new yorker so I didn’t want to see it.

Must admit to only having seen the trailer, it did not inspire me to seek out the film.