Sunday 28 January 2018

Pitch Perfect 3

The final instalment in this series and after the second movie we were all thankful that they were going to end it. The first movie was so good and it ended in a way that almost left it perfectly for another movie to guide them through the next year but when the second movie didn't pick up from the end of the first movie we all knew that there were going to be problems. There were huge problems so it pleases me to say that this movie is ten times better than the second one!

The song choice is better, the plot is better, everything is better. There is still the comedy but they go back to where they are and this movie is just about each of them working out who they want to be and where they want to go. There is a lot more focus on 'Fat Amy' (Rebel Wilson) which is nice because she really was fighting with 'Becca' (Anna Kendrick) for the spotlight. They worked hard on this movie and the compilation of songs is brilliant. It kinda went a way that I wasn't expecting but the film felt finished and we enjoyed it a lot more than the previous movie.

It is fitting that they managed to get in 'Zombie' by 'The Cranberries' because for those of you who aren't rock fans, you probably wont know that the singer died a few weeks ago. I enjoyed their version of it and I was very impressed and excited by it. DJ Khaled was himself because he was supposed to be himself. I didn't really know who he was until watching this movie and even though I hate that he ripped off 'Maria Maria' which features Carlos Santana on the guitar I can learn his other music and I quite like that he is a DJ and a producer rather than attempting to sing or rap. Anyone that can make Justin Bieber sound slightly bearable deserves a lot of credit. It's all about your taste in music but he was solid in this movie and that can only help to promote his music.

The one thing that I did like a lot was the British love interest for Becca. The character of 'Theo' was actually very good and he did everything that he needed to do in order to bring Becca to a new level. The Jesse love interest is over and done with and there wasn't anywhere else they could go with it so giving her a new life and a new interest has actually worked out very well for this movie.

There is class to this movie. If you enjoyed the first movie then you should enjoy this movie.
Image result for pitch perfect 3

Friday 12 January 2018

The Greatest Showman

So much better than La La Land. Probably the best musical that has been released in the last five years. Every single song in this movie is really good.

The Greatest Showman is about the Barnem circus. Some characters are fictional, such as the character of Zac Effron but others, such as the Character of P.T Barnem are actually real and based on the man who ran the circus. This film is about the appreciation of everyone. Everyone is equal and should be appreciated for who they are. I don't like circus' and I wouldn't say that putting someone who is different in a circus is really appreciating them in todays world but at that time it was the only way to give them a career and I have no problem with that at all.

We all know that Hugh Jackman can sing because if we didn't already know it before Les Miserables then we discovered it from that movie. The good news is that this part was better for him and his solos didn't just focus on his face. We all kind of new that Zac Effron could sing but it has been a long time since his terrible 'High School Musical' days where he didn't even necessarily sing and played on his looks. He was surprisingly good in this movie and the character that he played still had the same feel of 'popular' that he normally takes on and 'dating below class' which is also another characteristic of his characters but this character was different because he did end up taking on the circus and funding it and ditching his money and status to do something good with his life. The love interest was fictional but that was okay.

Image result for the greatest showmanAll the voices were great, except for Michelle Williams because she didn't actually sing which is a HUGE letdown. If you can't sing then don't take on a role in a musical that has to sing! I hate someone else taking the credit for another persons' work and this irritates me especially because I do not know who sang her part. While I am busy complaining about it I might as well mention that her opera singer character does not actually sing any opera in this movie. The song that she sings is good and she acts it like it is opera but it isn't and that is a huge let down. Loads or rich people dressed in evening where going to see Adele? I doubt it. What the character of Jenny Lind actually sung was a pop style song, hence my reference to Adele.

The music is fantastic. The choreography is fantastic and the design of the film has that 'wow' feel to it which is why the movie should win more awards than La La Land but there is still room for improvement in the musical front. The music is going in the write direction and having decent stability to every song is a huge improvement from that dreadful musical released last year but there is still work to be done on the plot and the way in which they film the songs.

I was very happy with this movie. We enjoyed it a lot. Much better than Star Wars.