What's Next On My List? Nine

Welcome to #MusicalMay! If you have followed my blog before, then you know that I am big musical fan. I just think that singing makes everything better, I really do. It is a sort of medicine to the soul. When two years ago I wrote about my favorites from Halloween to Christmas I still had many left on my list and I will cover a few of them this month! Enjoy the music.

For last review in this season I wanted to leave something that simply made me... go insane. It is still amazing to me the magic a musical can have on a person, the feelings, the poems, the story that can be told a thousand times better through music. And this movie is no exception:

Nine

Renouned director Guido Contini is about to start shooting his new movie, however, there is no script. Production begins within 24 hours and Guido lives his life haunted by the women of his past. His mother, his wife, his lover, his muse, his agent, and the actress he cast in the leading role of his movie. He is, however, stuck creatively and cannot seem to work. All these muses in his life and he cannot move ahead.

This movie is spectacular. I have no idea why the imdb rating is so low... the songs are out of this world and the actors... I mean just look at this line-up! The story is original, the story is unique, it has colors and choreography that transports you with it. This is something many times movie musicals completely mess up. Movies are different mediums so you have to come up with scenery that is more than a stage could offer and just as compelling as a live show. To me this show brought just that. If you loved Chicago you will love this movie. If you like any of these actors then you will like this movie. Really, I cannot think of a good reason why anyone wouldn't like it. Unless you are one of those people who doesn't like musicals. Then why the hell are you reading this review? You know what? You should watch the movie too! I recommend it to anyone who has ever struggled artistically or wishes to see the portrayal of Italian-Americans outside of the known stereotypical image Hollywood created for them. 

Watch it? Oh my god yes, how many times do I have to tell you? This movie is brilliant. Good movies win awards but remain undetected. This movie, unfortunately, falls into that category. But maybe with time people will come across it and see the beauty in it that I saw.

That was it for #MusicalMay, I hope you all enjoyed my reviews, you can got back to read them, they are everywhere among my entries!

Until the next item on my list!

_ _ _ _ _ _

Guido Contini - Daniel Day-Lewis

Claudia - Nicole Kidman

Luisa Contini - Marion Cotillard

Carla - Penélope Cruz

Lili - Judi Dench

Mamma - Sophia Loren

Stephanie - Kate Hudson

Saraghina - Fergie

What's Next On My List? Dirty Dancing (2017)

Welcome to #MusicalMay! If you have followed my blog before, then you know that I am big musical fan. I just think that singing makes everything better, I really do. It is a sort of medicine to the soul. When two years ago I wrote about my favorites from Halloween to Christmas I still had many left on my list and I will cover a few of them this month! Enjoy the music.

I wanted to write this because after having watched it I felt super bad about how people reacted. I believe that the show was very badly advertised and that is one of the reasons it failed. However, having watched it I can't really sit quietly and not add my thoughts. And guess what, it is in this series because Dirty Dancing has been made into a musical and this movie basically adapted the musical, not the movie... see why it was badly advertised?

Dirty Dancing (2017)

The summer that changed Baby's life. Her family went to the Kellerman Lodge for the last three weeks of summer to wind off a bit. Baby gets involved with a dancer, Johnny Castle, while her sister befriends an African-American boy, and their parents have to face up to the fact that their lives are not the way it used to be.

Honestly, it wasn't that bad. If you watch the original, it is about a summer romance. It is the dream of every single girl, but in the background there are more stories. This version did not try to remake the movie. It tried to tell those stories. Honestly, at that, it did a wonderful job! There was this comparison between the perfect romance and how a marriage can go wrong, even if it developed the same way many years ago. I love how people criticized the singing... this is the musical you f*cking idiots, why do you think they hired actors who can sing?! First, yes the 'this is feminism' was a bit forced in the beginning. But after that there was a relationship of a mother with her two daughters and a marriage she is trying to save; then an older sister who wasn't made into an idiot (which I loved!), but who sought to be more than she was before, striving to be like her sister. Baby has a relationship with Penny, which was very much needed in the original. Not to mention that I couldn't care less about the women Johnny was having sex with, because they cheated on their husbands, and here Vivian was just someone who felt alone. You feel for her and I loved that these characters from the background were brought into the foreground. The movie reminds you that bad people get what is coming to them, not to mention that there is always something you can do to save what is important.

Is it perfect? No, of course it isn't, but it does not make the original null... people always forget that and attack remakes as if they are meant to rewrite history or something... it's stupid. People are stupid. Try and find normal arguments if you wish to attack something. There was a frame to the story, in which Baby goes to see the musical version of her summer, which was choreographed by Johnny. And you know what? That was indeed stupid. And you know the green screen effects were all effing awful. The main character, Johnny? He looked more like an Elvis Presley impersonator and I don't blame the actor for that, but the make-up department. I liked it, because I took it as a mash-up of the highly successful musical and a summer romance movie that everyone loved. Are there weird moments? Sure. Is calling it an utter shit correct? Far from it!

Watch it? I don't think it will make any difference at this point, but if you do just keep an open mind! This is a different story, and there was instances that are much better. No cheating, for example. I liked that. Some characters could have gotten punched though, I missed that. But these are small details that can be picked on but do not make the remake that bad!

Until the next item on my list!

_ _ _ _ _ 

Baby Houseman - Abigail Breslin

Lisa Houseman - Sarah Hyland

Marjorie Houseman - Debra Messing

Johnny Castle - Colt Prattes

Vivian Pressman - Katey Sagal

Penny Rivera - Nicole Scherzinger

Dr. Jake Houseman - Bruce Greenwood

What's Next On My List? Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical

Welcome to #MusicalMay! If you have followed my blog before, then you know that I am big musical fan. I just think that singing makes everything better, I really do. It is a sort of medicine to the soul. When two years ago I wrote about my favorites from Halloween to Christmas I still had many left on my list and I will cover a few of them this month! Enjoy the music.

Here is a movie that teaches you about the dangers of pot smoking through a musical. In other words, the best possible way out there! 

Reefer Madness

A man arrives in a little town to show a film about the dangers of marijuana in a local school for parents. The story is that of a good boy who was persuaded into smoking and couldn't stop himself anymore. Once in the grasp of the conman who sells him 'the stuff', the boy involves his girlfriend as well and it all ends in death. The man then highlights that he might be a bit exaggerating, however, the dangers of smoking should not be overlooked.

This was a fun tale, in my opinion, as it had a lot of jokes and little nuances. The songs were great and I don't know about you, but I get a shiver in the back of my knees every time I see Alan Cumming. He is a wonderful actor and his comedic timing really brought the movie together. This was the first thing I saw Kristen Bell sing in, however, my favorite actress in this is definitely Ana Gasteyer! The whole movie tries to parody these awful short films that people were always forced to watch to educate them and help them explain the dangers of the world... and the parody works. You wouldn't expect anyone to die in a film about, well, pot. I said it like that because we live in a world where there are drugs far worse than something which is becoming legalized in many parts of the American continent and Europe. That said, this movie is a perfect example of how easily things can get out of hand, and putting it into this context, which highlights the silliness of it, works perfectly. Gotta say, my favorite thing about it were the visions of Jesus some of the characters got when high.
And the lesson here is that people can be controlled so easily with fear. The marijuana can be substituted by anything contemporary, from immigrants to a country that has more money. Anybody can become and enemy if you force enough fear onto someone. That is simply scary and that is something the movie highlights. Unfortunately people never learn this lesson.

Watch it? Well, it escalates quickly, I can tell you that, but without it how can you say that it is truly dangerous? The movie brings the point across, with good actors and great songs. It might not be on your top ten list of movies to watch next, but if you like musicals then it is a must!

Until the next item on my list!

_ _ _ _ _ _ _

Mary Lane - Kristen Bell

Jimmy Harper - Christian Campbell

Miss Poppy - Neve Campbell

Lecturer / Goat-Man / FDR - Alan Cumming

Mae Coleman - Ana Gasteyer

Ralph Wiley / Uncle Sam - John Kassir

Sally DeBains / Statue of Liberty - Amy Spanger

Jesus - Robert Torti

Jack Stone / George Washington - Steven Weber

What's Next On My List? Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again

Welcome to #MusicalMay! If you have followed my blog before, then you know that I am big musical fan. I just think that singing makes everything better, I really do. It is a sort of medicine to the soul. When two years ago I wrote about my favorites from Halloween to Christmas I still had many left on my list and I will cover a few of them this month! Enjoy the music.

Television has decided to start a series of live events with famous musicals and I am 100% for it. The castings are remarkable, in my opinion, and always have something new. Some musicals, no matter how much I love them, I will never see live and this is the closest I'll ever come to it.

Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again

A young engaged couple gets lost in the woods and ends up in a castle owned by a Professor Frank-n-Further. On the night the Professor shows them her creation, Rocky, and from then on the horror ensues as the main characters lose all sense of who they are and were before that night.

Of course I don't have to tell you about this musical, everyone knows it, and there have been hundreds of versions since. The idea of actually casting a transgender actor, however, I think is simply wonderful. I adored every second Laverne Cox was on the screen! It drew me in right from the start. I adore this musical, the songs, the idea behind it, the intertextual jokes and the magic of the overall story.

This musical probably has the largest fan base all over the world. It has been in the theater for the longest time, despite being a fail at the box office at first. Re-enactments of the musical within the theater are, I believe, some of the best ways to pay tribute to something people adore. Now, coming back to this version: it was great. It is different, but then again, what's the point of making it the same as the original? It won't be, so dare to pay homage but move on at the same time. A different angle, a different cast, a more open approach to an idea that was already revolutionary when it came out. As far as I'm concerned, the more versions the better, but people should be introduced to the original before getting to know the newer ones.

Watch it? Sure, it's good fun. Songs you love and actors you should get to know. One crazy night that can change your life, as it changed that of the main characters.

Until the next item on my list!

_ _ _ _ _ 

Dr. Frank-N-Furter - Laverne Cox

Janet Weiss - Victoria Justice

Brad Majors - Ryan McCartan

Columbia - Annaleigh Ashford

Riff Raff - Reeve Carney

Magenta - Christina Milian

Eddie - Adam Lambert

Rocky - Staz Nair

Dr. Scott - Ben Vereen

The Usherette - Ivy Levan

with

The Criminologist, An Expert - Tim Curry

What's Next On My List? Repo! The Genetic Opera

Welcome to #MusicalMay! If you have followed my blog before, then you know that I am big musical fan. I just think that singing makes everything better, I really do. It is a sort of medicine to the soul. When two years ago I wrote about my favorites from Halloween to Christmas I still had many left on my list and I will cover a few of them this month! Enjoy the music.

What I adore about musicals is that they can be of any genre, from comedy to horror, really any story can be told through music. I, for one, don't like horror and yet the musical format not only made me enjoy but also care for the following musical:

Repo! The Genetic Opera

In the future an epidemic brings about a company, GeneCo, that provides organs for anyone who needs them, however, if they can't pay or they breach their contracts, then they send the Repo man after them and he gets back what is rightfully GeneCo's. Our main character is Shilo Wallace, who is sick as well, and her father keeps her closed in their home, but she sneaks out to see the world and that is how she discovers much of the horror that surrounds them. This monopolistic system is, however, close to being changed because if GeneCo is no more, then the possibilities are endless.

This is a strange world, but it grabs you. First of all, the story is told as if it was a comic book, with transitions that turn into drawings. This already got me hooked, because much more than brining comics into life, I love it when we are made to believe we are reading one. Second, there is a narrator to the story, a Graverobber, who finds the main character in a cemetery and introduces her to the harsh reality that is their world. This apocalyptic vision of a dark world that is dying and people being obsessed with their looks and plastic surgery is surprisingly believable. The world is no longer in control of the government, but of one company that has money.

The narrator gets a material, zydrate, from old graves which help with the pain if you get a surgery, and some use it to get high - like the daughter of the owner of GeneCo. And the man, the Repo, who gets back the organs if you don't pay in time is the father of our main character. His job - to kill to get back the organs - is justified by the fact that there is not much else to do in a world where organ markets rule and everyone wants to get high enough to not see the chaos and dismay that surrounds them. Of course, there are a few twists and turns to the story that I am intentionally not revealing because I believe you should see it. If you plan a horror movie night, or if you like musicals, or just apocalyptic dystopias then you will surely enjoy it! Grotesque and eerie and chilling in a good way.

Watch it? Well, yes. Here is the problem with musical movies that are made solely for the small screen: they go unnoticed. If something is a hit on Broadway then it is likely to be a hit as a movie as well because the people have heard or known of it for years. Although most actors in this are famous, the movie was somewhat unnoticed. I'm sure it has its own fan base, and that's awesome, but it could be bigger!

Until the next item on my list!
_ _ _ _ _ _

Shilo Wallace - Alexa PenaVega

Rotti Largo - Paul Sorvino

Nathan / Repo Man - Anthony Head

Blind Mag - Sarah Brightman

Amber Sweet - Paris Hilton

Graverobber - Terrance Zdunich

What Next On My List? The Last Five Years

Welcome to #MusicalMay! If you have followed my blog before, then you know that I am big musical fan. I just think that singing makes everything better, I really do. It is a sort of medicine to the soul. When two years ago I wrote about my favorites from Halloween to Christmas I still had many left on my list and I will cover a few of them this month! Enjoy the music.

This was one my sister's favorite musicals and she was happy it was made into a movie, so was I, because you see we will never go to Broadway. Even if by chance we get the money to go to America, we will never get to see our favorite musicals live. We love musical movies because they bring us closer. And not everything gets translated into Hungarian, so the stage is rarely an option for us. This is one of those musicals too.

The Last Five Years

The narration of this musical is outstanding. We have a couple, Cathy and Jamie, and the story is told backwards for one of them. Cathy, an actress, starts off singing at the end of their relationship, while Jamie, the writer, is at the beginning. They meet up in the middle, when Jamie asks Cathy to marry him, and in the end we see how Jamie is no longer as happy in this relationship as the fist time Cathy was when she met him.

"Jamie is over and Jamie is gone.

Jamie's decided it's time to move on.

Jamie has new dreams he's building upon.

And I'm still hurting."

This idea is quite spectacular, not to mention that to me it signified that there was a point of view shift within the musical. When Jamie asks her to marry him, the initial scene is repeated, but a bit differently, which to me implied that now we see it from Cathy's point of you. Not only point of view but from her recollection of the story. As the story unravels you sometimes feel mad at Jamie, but then again, that is just one point of view. Each relationship takes two, let that be marriage, love, friendship, and each side has their own good reasons for acting the way they do. You need to listen and be patient. If it doesn't work out, it doesn't, but don't let that be because there was no communication or you were too stubborn to put aside your own expectations.

This musical actually reminds me of a quote from the TV show Nashville, which goes "Sometimes the one we learn the most from is not the one we end up with." When you think about it, we all have relationships that had an impact in our lives. Whoever they were, they had a place in our hearts and left something, good or bad, that we learned from. We learned something of ourselves through that process. In this story Cathy and Jamie learn who they are, what makes them happy, what they want to do for the rest of their lives, and the other one might not be that 'one' they are meant to be with. But the journey they took to get there cannot be underestimated. Shifting the storyline for one of the characters highlights just how important they were to each other. This is a wonderful musical.

Watch it? I'm telling you it's brilliant. The imdb rating is complete idiocracy. This movie had the misfortune of coming out on a bad weekend and people STILL don't take the time to understand musicals and the story behind them... I for one adore every single second of it and wish more people could see it!

Until the next item on my list!

_ _ _ _ _

Cathy - Anne Kendrick

Jamie - Jeremy Jordan

What's Next On My List? Evita

Welcome to #MusicalMay! If you have followed my blog before, then you know that I am big musical fan. I just think that singing makes everything better, I really do. It is a sort of medicine to the soul. When two years ago I wrote about my favorites from Halloween to Christmas I still had many left on my list and I will cover a few of them this month! Enjoy the music.

First up is the musical that reminded me that I need to continue my musical reviews:

Evita

A musical of the life of Eva Perón, wife of Juan Perón, the president of Argentina between 1946 and 1955. The story details how Eva came to live in Buenos Aires and how she became an actress only to meet Perón at a fundraiser. From then on the two became a power couple and were beloved as they fought dictators and cared about the nation. The story is narrated by Ché, who appears in the background of all of Eva's life, he is both active and passive, and in the end it seems that he loved Eva maybe more than any other Argentinian. Perhaps Eva loved him too.

"Sometimes it's very difficult to keep momentum when it's you that you are following."

This is one of those musicals in which you fall in love with the songs more and more each time you re-watch it. First time, two or three, second, four or five and so on until you know the whole soundtrack by heart. Whilst watching this movie you'll also ask yourself why doesn't Antonio Banderas sing more?! As far as I'm concerned I would give him a role in every single musical out there :D His voice and his charisma as a narrator are essentially the best part of this movie. Of course that is arguable as Madonna's performance is wonderful. Very few movies I can think of where I was happy that a singer was cast as an actor, but here? I applaud that decision.

The musical of course is quite controversial. Eva Perón was a beloved woman by her people and the movie showcases parts of her life that one might not be proud of on a larger scale. She was accused of abusing her looks and connections to get ahead. Historically accurate or not, the movie does not bring into question that her charity work and her devotion to the people was done with love. She cared. She did make a difference. If she didn't there would be no musical about her, think about that! Even if there are debatable parts, the music and the narration is outstanding, the casting is literally the best of Hollywood and if you have questions regarding the story then look them up. That is the beauty of historical figures: you can always clear things up for yourself! Here is my favorite song from the musical:

Watch it? Well, it is 100% worth it for the music. You might argue that you are not a fan of Madonna, and to that I will say that you shouldn't worry, this is Eva Perón on the screen. Historical musicals I believe are the best way to learn for anyone. It makes you interested in the background, the inspiration and the reason for the need to tell that given story. I would so much recommend this movie that I'm going to re-watch it right now!

Until the next item on my list!

_ _ _ _ _ 

Eva - Madonna

Ché - Antonio Banderas

Juan Perón - Jonathan Pryce

Magaldi - Jimmy Nail