Originally Posted By oc_dean Always nice to see a musical grace the screen. (We are not living in the golden age of film musicals, after all!). The production values, Meryl Streep's performance .... even "Captain Kirk" Chris Pine surprised me, I burst out in laughter seeing him sing. I thought he was dubbed by someone else. Nope. That's him! Good on him. But the singing "duet" (sort of) between him and the other guy ... uhhh .. I couldn't help but to laugh my head off. This was my first time sitting through any Sondheim musical (film or stage) ... and I got thinking ..... I bet Sondheim ain't for everyone. A bit of a boring repetition between 'talking' through songs. I just took it, that's the "Sondhiem" style. And I just took that style as a 'norm' ... since the film version of Evita, and Phantom of the Opera are like that. There are some confusing elements that didn't have finality. Overall .. not bad. Another decently produced movie musical to add to this lesser era we are living in ... compared to the Golden Age. I give it 3 out 4 stars. Perhaps I'd be more forgiving if Sondheim's songs in the production had more memorable 'hook' to them. A bit monotone in some respects. Though I thought Streep's final song was cool. I had no idea what happened to her. I had to read the wiki page on it to know what the heck happened. Anyhow .... I'm sure Disney hopes the Academy Awards honors it. As Best Picture? .... probably not.
Originally Posted By basil fan Evita & Phantom are both Andrew Lloyd Webber. Though I think I see what you mean; in Phantom, a lot of dialogue is sung without being part of an actual song. That reminds me of one of the things I hated about the Phantom film: they spoke some of the lines that were supposed to be sung, and it sounded, IMHO, seriously bad. "Think of it: a secret engagement. Look, your future bride." Sounds great if you sing it. The Great Mouse Detective <a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.whatsitsgalore.com/basil/bakerst.html">http://www.whatsitsgalore.com/...rst.html</a>
