Les Miserables (2012)

This is such a cheery movie, it being all about unicorns and rainbows and the whatnot. Happy singing elves in the country of Happyland singing about life's continuous parties. La la la.
I think this film has caused me to suffer a bit of a cognitive break. Sorry about that.
Everyone is familiar with the story right? Some good people get put in bad situations and their lives get totally fucked and then it gets worse and then the hand of justice comes to fuck things up some more. I know. Right?
I didn't watch this to be cheered up or because I didn't know the story and got tricked into watching it. I watched this to see Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway. As a bonus I also got to see Helena Bonham Carter. Now, I was previously familiar with Jackman's and Hathaway's singing ability and was not let down. I was pleased to see that Carter did not embarrass herself which is kind of ironic considering that her character is somewhat shameless, made even more so playing opposite Sacha Baron Cohen as the Thenardiers. The real surprise for me was Russell Crowe, whom I had heard was tolerable as Javert - singing-wise as he is obviously a more than capable actor - yet found his singing to be surprisingly good. That's right. I like Crowe in this role. Broadway has a style that is somewhere in the middle of opera and pop music with pros and cons of each. I often do not like the singing style, even though I have mad respect for the performer's ability. I think it pretty much boils down to the extensive use of vibratto which I feel when used that much lends a melodramatic feel whatever the song or scene is supposed to convey.
I know from interviews I've seen and articles that I've read that Jackman, Crowe and Hathaway are very serious about their craft and if the role calls for them to do something extreme with their bodies, they will. At the beginning of the movie before Valjean has been released from prisong/slavery, Jackman is looking very thin and has the buzzed hair. I read that he had dropped some pounds for those scenes. Then we have Hathaway who gets her hair chopped off and also lost a bit of wait for the 'stylish' starving-prostitute look. Just take a look at her body weight in the other film she had come out last year, The Dark Knight Rises. Perhaps the biggest difference in weight was Crowe, however. He looks much like we have seen him in films the last few years, since he buffed up to play Robin of Loxley in the Robin Hood remake. But his film out earlier in the year, Fists of Steel, had him about 30 or 40 pounds heavier. (Just look at my blog for that movie to see what I thought about how he looked.) This is true commitment to your art. I am mentally sending sandwiches to Jackman and Hathaway, and one to Christian Bale because I'm remembering him in the Thin Man where he lost so much weight for the role that he looked like he might snap in two if someone sneezed on him.
My only complaint about this movie is that it's so long. Sure it's downright short when compared with The Hobbit, but it comes in at over two and a half hours. That's a long time to be subjected to the particular emotions the film illicits. Which I guess is how I ended up in that happy place full of unicorns and rainbows.

Les Miserables on IMDb

The Man with the Iron Fists (2012)

I don't know how I let myself get talked into watching these kinds of films. It's probably something like, "Self you should watch it. It'll be kung-fu-tastic. It'll be like all those movies you loved as a kid, except bigger and better and more, more, more. Come on Self, you know you want to." Damned if I don't submit to peer pressure every time. Double damned if I don't get especially suckered by the Tarentino films. And I'm thrice damned by that temptress Lucy Liu. I'll watch her in anything, even if I know it's going to be crap.
Watching these films, by which I mean this genre of the super-exaggerated kung fu movies is almost a guilty pleasure. In fact I would say that it is a guilty pleasure, but as I started that sentence I decided to go with an almost tossed in because for some reason while I feel silly admitting to watching these films, I'll gladly openly discuss The Avengers, or X-Men: First Class. Really, what's the difference? Super hero flicks with predictable plots mitigated by intense fight scenes and big special effects budgets. Which am I talking about here? The Hong Kong style super hero movie or the American style? Exactly.
What I should not admit to (speaking of guilty pleasures) is that as soon as the villain Bronze Body came on the screen, I was all like, "Oh snap! That's Bautista!" Though, in my mind's dialogue I always misspell his name - leaving out the "u". If you don't know who I"m talking about, just skip to the next paragraph, no need to see me admit to watching professional wrestling. Okay, there. I said it. Actually I'm a recovered addict, since I don't have a television. Well, that's not entirely true, there is one in the other room, but I never watch anything on it as it is not connected to anything that allows me to watch anything, i.e. cable or disk player. But really, pro wrestling is like the bastard child of comic books and soap operas. You get hooked into story lines that are no more or less ridiculous than any soap opera, being acted out by people who are no more or less ridiculous looking than any comic book characters (or from what I've seen of certain programs, I might as easily have said "reality shows").
The surprise for me in this film was the character of Jack Knife. For the first couple of minutes he was on screen, I was asking myself where they found an actor who was an older, fatter version of Russell Crowe. And then I saw Lucy Liu and had the epiphany that I was most likely actually looking at the real Russell Crowe. Ouch. I probably would have figured it out sooner if I recognized RZA on sight and not just by name. Hey, I recognized Ms. Liu and that's all that matters, pro wrestlers aside.

The Man with the Iron Firsts at IMDb