Dreamgirls (or, I see some drag acts coming...)

Bill Condon (I bet he got ribbed at school - okay, that was uncalled for) has done it again; he has taken a successful stage musical and turned it into a successful movie musical. Hoorah. Sorta.

If Dreamgirls isn't as successful as Chicago before it much of the fault lies with the musical itself. Yes, some of the performances could have been toned down just a touch - Jennifer Hudson belting out her torchsong at the end of what I suppose would have been the first act borders on laughable as she hoofs around the stage hysterically screaming to herself - but on the whole the film has the right look and feel. It is just lacking a decent score.

The whole scenario is pretty much lifted (inspired by?) the rise of Motown Records and Diana Ross and the Supremes (with bonus adulating Michael Jackson). It is a tale of business, fame and betrayal, in that order. The performances are uniformly excellent (excepting a few OTT blips) especially Hudson and Eddie Murphy, who should win the Best Supporting Actor nod just for that look - see the film, you'll know which look I am talking about, it is a harrowing moment. It is just a pity that the source material couldn't keep up.

With Chicago or even Hal Prince's Cabaret before it, there was a clever choice to remove or adapt many of the "non-performance" numbers. Chicago found us drifting into Zelleweger's fantasy world and allowed us to cleveryly sidestep the "excuse me, I'm excited/distressed/reflective, I think I may spontaneously break into song" moments. Don't get me wrong, I love those moments when they are done well but to do them well the switch from speech to song needs to be clean (think Dancer In The Dark) and the song needs to be worthy (think, dare I say it, Evita). Unfortunately, Dreamgirls was often lacking on both counts and much of this was down to the original show.

Here we have a musical, which has actual performances within it. The songs that are "performed" need to be structured differently to the the more recitative-based numbers and less obviously related to the narrative of the book. Instead we get Beyoncé singing to Foxx that she is going to assert herself and we are to believe he is listening to her recording it in front of him. That has to stress the suspension of even the most hardened musicals fan's disbelief.

Growing up with musical theatre means taking a lot of shitty music and even shittier lyrics and learning to forgive the mis-steps for the sake of the whole. On stage or in a recording, that is all well and good but celluloid straps boots on these mis-steps and they echo thunderously. Dreamgirls has some truly cringe-worthy numbers that should have been cut, instead they have been cheesily orchestrated and left to batter our eardrums and offend our intelligence.

Thankfully, the lighting, cinematography, editing and art direction more than make up for these inadequacies. Dreamgirls is a, well, dream to look at. It glitters and sparkles in all the right places. Some of the scenes are jaw-dropingly gorgeous. It is glossy but still textured and nuanced.

I think I'll leave it there. On a high note. It would be easy to bitch and moan forever but in the end Dreamgirls is enjoyable, even memorable. It won't be a classic of the genre but I'd certainly recommend it for a night out.

Daredevil (or, I wish I were blind)

I borrowed the dvd of Daredevil from Glen about, well, long enough back for him to forget I even have it, I'm sure. Actually, I didn't even know that I had it until I returned to Australia to find it snuggled in my tubs of dvds. I borrowed it because when I saw it in the cinema I fell asleep. When I tried to watch it on dvd, I fell asleep. I tried to watch it again and fell asleep.

I've always wanted to see it. I always fall asleep. That has to be somewhat telling.

I watched it again yesterday and found out something even more telling: I have seen Daredevil all the way through. I have seen it all the way through and it still didn't make enough of an impression on me for me to recall that I had seen it.

Why did I persevere? Jennifer Garner. (That reads, Jennifer Garner FULL STOP, by the way!)

I like comic book films and Daredevil came with such good press, pre-release. A dark comic book film. A solid comic book film. No... it was just another lightweight, watered down, connect the dots, crap comic book film.

I'll drop the dvd back to you, Glen. Post haste!

Pride And Prejudice (or, Just Prejudice)

I caught a few moments of the BBC's excellent Pride and Prejudice last week and I was inspired to finally watch the ex-rental film adaptation I bought in Brighton last April.

I shouldn't have.

That's all.

Eragon (or, Harry Skywalker of the Narnian Rings)

Farm boy, dragon, princess, mentor, evil tyrant.

Been there, done that.

There is not new ground to cover here. In fact, at times the ground is so well worn that the sides of the furrow come up to your armpits. Eragon sitting on the hill staring at the Tatooine’s Alagaësia's setting sun; Cloaked Eragon entering Jabba’s Durza's palace; the attack of ring wraiths Ra'zacs – at times scenes seemed to be a direct and open homage to the classics of the genre.

Eragon, for all its clichés is an engaging little film. The leads are likable, the effects passable, and the narrative will easily keep the attention of kids and kids at heart. A little charmer is all it is going to be though. Like the Potter films (excepting Cuarron’s effort) and The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, Eragon suffers from being adapted from a best-selling book. Scenes seem to have been shot because they had to be and the end result is less cohesive for it.

It’s a few weeks before school holidays and if this is your bag then catch it before you have to share the cinema with a gaggle of screaming brats.

Æon Flux (or, Arguments for burning the MTV science fiction wing)

Æon Flux is to movies what hair bands are to music: All style no substance. Well, sort of. Actually there is a reasonable amount of substance to the flick and some quite intricate and interesting ideas being played out but it is all glossed over with lycra, hairspray and dicey editing that nothing really comes of it.

Of course, the film looks fantastic. Charlize tries terribly hard to pull a Jolie but can't quite manage it. It wasn't till the final shot that I realised why. It is that she looks like a chipmunk storing nuts in her cheeks. The original cartoon was very harsh, boney (beautiful) and angular. Charlize is a little too rounded and even an over relience on close-ups of hands and legs can't disguise that fact. Nor can it make bad fight scenes look slick and interesting.

All this is a pity because the original cartoon was rather good. Actually, strike that (I would do it myself but Blogger doesn't have a strike through option) because therein lies the problem. Just because something works as a two minute series of shorts (or half hour cartoon serial) doesn't mean it will translate into a one and a half hour film. It isn't a pity it didn't translate, hopefully it will convince people to stop trying.

The original Æon Flux was devoid of dialogue and fueled by futility. It worked because it was obtuse, it hinted at a broad mythology but never gave enough information to allow the audience to piece it together. The film version tries to play on that but gives the game away at the same time. Trying to be obtuse while spelling everything out is a one way ticket to box office and critical disaster!

Tickets please!

P.S. Go and see it for the hair though. Why else do you listen to Flock of Seagulls?

And another thing. Check out the imdb message board thread here. It wasn't so long ago that people were complaining that MTV movies were for people with no attention spans, now people are being attacked because they can't even sit through one of those.

Andrew Adamson to direct PrinzzzZzzZz...

Dark Horizons reports that Andrew Adamson has been announced as the director for the next installment of the budding Narnia francise.

Given his work with The Lion, The Witch and The Cupboard was so wooden and paint-by-number, and that Prince Caspian is an even more insubstantial book than its predecessor, I couldn't be more underwhelmed.

My only hope is that, seeing as the book is so light on and lacks any real "baddie", they may branch out a little and add something to the film version out of pure necessity. Down with slavish reproductions!