Chris Stuckmann reviews Les Miserables, starring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Aaron Tveit, Samantha Barks, Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen. Directed by Tom Hooper.
Eddie Redmayne singing "empty chairs at empty tables" was the highlight for me, that was the last straw for me to go bawling. The way eddie sang the song was so poignant and passionate. He really brought that song to life.
I like your reviews. Thanks for talking normal (except for the intro and ending, ha, ha!) and not screaming and shouting and talking super fast like some other reviewers do.
Very fair and honest review. I agree with everything you said about it. I found the camera angles a little disorienting too.I do love musicals and I thought this was a great adaptation. Yes it does get a little tedious, but overall it was really good. The movie moved me to tears several times and all of the actors poured their hearts out in the rolls.
After getting introduced to Les Miserables from this movie and get into the stage show, I can tell you he is the least greatest actor to take on Valjean. Same goes to Crowe
@@girl6007 trueee i expected a lot of Bring Him Home but 😭😭 he sounds so strained, having heard of another better versions made me disappointed. But still a veryyyyy good movie tho bcs it's Les Mis hahahh 👌
Les Miserables comes out on Christmas Day. Perhaps see the film first before deciding which one you like more. Either way, it doesn't really matter, opinions =)
I thought Samantha Barks (Eponine) was a huge standout also. She played the character in the stage show, and she really captured the character on film.
Can I just say, I really enjoy your reviews. You're always fair and honest, you speak your mind, but you also admit to possible biases that you might have. You're not snobby about films like some critics are and you give everything a fair shake before casting your vote which I really respect.
i agree on your thoughts about russel crow, i've seen the live musicals, and sure russel's singing is not the best of the best, but he is good, i love his performance and he have a unique voice, of course, his technique is different, for this musical is meant for classical and opera singers, but he's not badddddd i'm so sad that a lot of people hating him :'(
I am not a Russell Crowe fan, he normally bores me, but i love him in this movie. Javert is an amazing character, an Anti hero and not many people can capture his depths and Crowe captures that depth beautifully.
Well there's plenty of those. It's not that hard to quickly search out that this was about the June rebellion, instead of the actual french revolution. The fact that this one failed even in the movie should have given it away.
Loved the review. I love this musical and have 4 versions of it on my iPod. So when I went searching for reviews of this movie (which I loved), I saw this one, and got STUCKMANNIZED!!!!
I'm not a fan of musicals, but I greatly enjoyed this film. I didn't think it was too long either, I was not wanting it to hurry to the end. Also Chris if you're read this, the French Revolution is not going on in the back ground. Les Misérables begins in 1815 post Waterloo, the Bourbon Restoration of 1815 to 1830 is the backdrop, culminating in the June Rebellion in 1832 that sought to overthrow the July Monarchy of Louis-Philippe set up in 1830.
2 hours and 40 minutes?!!!!!! YES!!!! The Director IS going to do this movie justice. And 95% singing?!!!!... That's not as much as the stage production, but at least it's not going to be like Phantom of the Opera, where most of the soliloquies were spoken instead. So excited!!!!
Except stage actors don't have to sing after dehydrating themselves for 36 hours (to get more hollowed looking cheeks) while standing waist deep in freezing cold water for hours to film a scene, trying their hardest not to let their voices sound trembly from cold or crack from lack of water... For starters. Hugh Jackman gets major props for what he did, and he completely deserves the Oscar nomination.
This isn't Russel Crowe's film that's for sure. I could see his discomfort. On the other side, Jackman was astonishing. Redmayne and the chick who got friendzoned made me look them up on IMDB instantly! Overall its a fun viewing. Great review Chris! :-)
Great review Chris, i watched it last night! Completely agree with all your points. Some songs seemed very long but most of them just really incredible.
Great review!I'm not the biggest musical guy either, though there are some that I love (such as Singin' in the Rain, some animated Disney films like Beauty and the Beast, etc.). However, I'm looking forward to seeing this movie; it looks fantastic in my opinion. Also, 2012 is really the year of Anne Hathaway, isn't it?
Finally a fair and positive opinion and review of the movie instead of the annoying “they sing too much” line. Yes …they sing a lot. The actors in a musical film…sing a lot😑. A lot of people heard that or the jokes about that and it seemed to taint their whole view for the rest of the film not even giving credit to the absolutely incredible performance by the cast. Redmayne, Jackman, and Hathaway absolutely killed it in this one. The others are all great as well but I was absolutely blown away from those three in terms of both singing and acting. I still can’t watch “I dreamed a dream” without instantly getting chills(the hyperventilating while singing😧) and probably a few tears as well😄. It was a very touching film with action, romance, and songs all with the great historical background of the French revolution. I feel like although not perfect, this movie could have easily bombed if handled differently. I wouldn’t have wanted to watch it if it only had a couple musical numbers and just delivered the rest of the dialogue normally. The saturation along musical dialogue really added to the charm of the movie for me and was something different for someone who also isn’t necessarily a big fan of musicals. I feel like a B+ is more than fair for the wonderful job by the cast and crew in this one.
They only added one "song" technically, but they also added some "recitative" (to use theatrical jargon) as well, like the scene where Javert introduces himself to "Monsieur Madeleine".
Russell Crow I thought to be on the same level as Jackman. And his final song Javert's Suicide I quite surprisingly found to be one of the best in the film and very intense.
I was really hoping you'd review the movie using I Dreamed a Dream as the musical undertone. --- Since it is a long film I assume they didn't cut anything out from the stage musical, which is nice.
As a huge fan of musicals, I appreciate a good film adaptation: Les Miserables is up there for me with Hairspray (2007), Grease, & The Sound of Music, to name a few
It was amazing. I give it a 9 out of 10. I´m not into musicals and didn´t know the story of Les Miserables and I was worried to go seeing it cos of how long I knew it was and that 95% of the film was just singing. And I was just blown away. Definitely in the Top10 from 2012, probably top5 imo
Longtime fan of Les Miserables - the novel, the stage musical, and some other adaptations as well. I was really worried I was going to hate this movie, and it does have some annoying moments every so often, but in the end I enjoyed it. For example, one of my favorite minor characters from the book, Marius's grandfather, does not really appear in the stage show but they included him (a little bit) in the movie.
I think my favorite actual singing in the movie including the style of song is from Sasha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter but I agree with your first act feelings
I love musicals (Singin' in the Rain, Little Shop of Horrors, Rocky Horror Picture Show, South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, and many others). I just find them very entertaining pieces of film!
Signs was a very powerfully moving movie for me as well, it's the first movie I ever watched that chilled me to the core (at the age of 5 or 4 I believe) commenting randomly so you'll notice me.
lool thnxx, my history is a bit rusty, but how is the rebellion an extension may i ask?? wasnt against the monarchy or something like that (u'd save me the trouble of researching)
I agree that the movie was long, but it was also based on the braodway play and I saw that Tom wanted to pay respect to that by including every song from the play :)
I think the length of the movie is to enjoy the performances more than anything. Mind you I saw this movie and also saw it on broadway, both felt very long and I enjoyed them immensely
Good review but have you seen the French tv show Les Miserables it aired in the year 2000? Just watched it again and it is just amazing, well acted, heart breaking story. I suggest you see it!
Great review. I do think this movie is kind of under rated, i think the whole concept and production was sawesome, and makes for one of the most original cinema experiences of the 21st century
I thought they could've cut 'suddenly' and the song Eddie Redmayne sings in the top of the cafe after the battle along with some quicker cutting elsewhere Russel Crowe wasn't as bad as people say. Can he sing, not in any sort of trained capacity, but did his voice sound good for the character and all the lines he had to sing, I thought so. Glad to see someone do a review without bashing Great film though and I never liked musicals previous to this outside the range of Wizard of Oz, etc.
The reason Russell Crowe's lack of singing ability bothered me is that if you see Les Mis onstage, Javert is incredibly stoic and straight faced for the most part, and the way he gets across passion and emotion and his extreme sense of righteousness is through his usually incredibly deep and powerful voice. Crowe certainly did the stoicism well, but his singing completely lacked power, volume and expression, thus rendering the character quite flat, at least in my opinion!
1:32 the story takes place over 30 years after the French Revolution. The french revolution took place 1789-1799. Les Miserable takes place in 1832 during the June Riots in Paris.
I'm with you I'm not really into musicals. Though I would never rag on somebody for enjoying them. I see and understand the appeal of them but there really isn't a medium in musicals they're either outstanding or cheesey garbage imo. Also great observation on Tom Hooper his use of negative space in a shot is very unique, he almost makes the backround a secondary character without diminishing the actors performance in the shot. Les Miserables will probably be a rent for me.
I'm curious to know what about the second half of the movie you didn't like. It may be part of the original plot that Victor Hugo wrote, and they can't really change that haha.
Have you considered watching The Hobbit in 24 fps again? Perhaps the experience will be a lot better. I saw it in 24 fps and it wasn't entirely as slow as I've heard that it's been in the higher fps rate.
Gosh this movie was good and had many good songs but damn Russel Crowe really bogged it down. Thank God for Hugh Jackmann and Amanda Seyfried and Eddie Redmayne. Everyone was great in this movie except Russel Crowe
I feel like Amanda Seyfried did not belong in this movie. Her singing tone was very up beat compared to the rest of the characters. There is a scene in the movie where three of the characters are telling a story through song at once and the other two hold it up really well. The scene is surpassed to envoi even emotion and feel for the characters but I was constantly distracted throughout the scene by her out of place singing tone. Such a central role in the story needed a much more fitting actress.
sorry, but it's the June Revolution, not the French Revolution. The first started in 1832 and least 2 days. The second started in 1789( 14/06). There's a HUGE difference between the two of them =)
I like musicals, if you would have liked musicals betterwould this movie have gotten an A? Either way I like this review, you are always fair and honest
I’m not sure if this has been said or not, but this movie isn’t the French Revolution. It’s called the June Rebellion, which is a real failed rebellion that happened after the French Revolution :P
Uhhhh maybe do your research? Les Misèrables is based off a Broadway musical which runs for about 2 and a half hours, after winning a numerous amount of awards, Les Misèrables is the longest running musical of all time. Now before the Broadway show came out, back in 19th February France, critically acclaimed author Victor Hugo published "Les Misèrables" which for generations touched many people's hearts.
I actually agree with you on one point apart from one. I think Hugh Jackmans acting was great but his singing was nasal and came from his nose. Russel's however was my favourite voice, it was strong, powerful and every note had emoition behind it. Russel was the standout for me by far (as well as eddie redmayne and anne hathaeway)
I would've done the same thing in a review to this movie. When I saw the movie, I saw spoilers that I would've thought you'd have problems with. What was that problem?
