That is insane good. And scarily accurate.
Just watched It.
Good film but doesnât really add anything to the original.
Bit hyped in my opinion.
Lies
I thought it was a mess of a film.
Saw Mother! last night. Wasnât sure whether it was a masterpiece or a farking mess. I thought Iâd nailed its direction halfway through but it then turned into a frantic mind fark. I guess the only thing I can say about the film without giving anything away is that itâs a modern take on an old story. A very old story. Jen Lawrence and Javier Bardem were brilliant.
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Saw The Greatest Showman today, normally Iâm not a fan of musicals but I loved this. Good story, good message, good music. Up there with Dunkirk as one of my favourite films of the year.9/10
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Awwwww, bugger.
Mum, Mrs Wim and LMW are going tomorrow.
Iâll be watching the cricket with dad, of course.
I got an invite, and even a veto if I thought it was worth it.
SoâŠbugger.
The women give The Greatest Showman a big thumbs up.
All want to see it again, and LMW has added the soundtrack to her Spotify playlists.
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Since Iâm in Melbourne for a couple of days, I went down to Brighton Bay to see Just to be Sure, a French family comedy-drama.
Erwanâs daughter, Juliette, is worried that her baby will inherit a congenital problem that affected her grandfatherâs sister.
However, Erwanâs father is not Erwanâs father.
Stars some top class French actors in François Damiens from The Belier Family and Cécile de France and the rather gorgeous Alice de Lencquesaing.
I wonât say any more, but I enjoyed it. I was thinking of seeing Downsizing but it came up short.
Downsizing
Saw it tonight. A bit different from what youâd expect from the trailers. To me, in a good way, but to most, I suspect not. The story takes a few unexpected turns that change the feel of the film from a light Hollywood drama/comedy, to one that poses a number of interesting and philosophical questions that leave you thinking.
This movie probably will not do well in the Box Office. It has a number of the usual plot flaws. But if youâre tired of the standard fare, it may be worth watching. Not âarthouseâ, not âhollywoodâ.
7.5/10
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It seems not everyone enjoyed it, ⊠this guy downright hated itâŠ
dailyreview.com.au
The Greatest Showman is the greatest kind of con: a repugnant film full of lies
Luke Buckmaster December 25, 2017
Was P.T. Barnum, the pioneering circus owner, impresario and father of the freak show, really the swell bloke â so wise, benevolent and virtuous â portrayed by Hugh Jackman in The Greatest Showman? A basic understanding of history would suggest the famously exploitative, gawk-for-a-penny entrepreneur was the opposite: a shameless shyster who pocketed a tidy profit by monetising human and animal suffering.
The rewriting of history from debut director Michael Gracey, in his frothy musical biopic, is sensational stuff: a standard of dupery-dealing to be envied in Pyongyang. There is an argument to say Barnumâs life story suits the entertainment over truth (at any cost) approach, given the subjectâs affection for peddling the former at the expense of the latter.
But The Greatest Showman does more than invite us to leave our brains at the door. Gracey presents a laughably dishonest, history-recalibrating melodrama much more pernicious than the sentiment behind that old line about not letting the truth get in the way of a good story. What was it like to be considered a freak, paraded in front of customers who pointed, jeered, laughed and cringed? According to this all-singing, all-dancing feel-good lark, it was fabulous!
Screenwriters Jenny Bicks and Bill Condon frame Barnumâs narrative as the tale of an unfairly maligned person â the son of a poor tailor â dedicating his life to helping fellow outsiders. These include a bearded lady (Keala Settle), the diminutive Tom Thumb (Sam Humphrey) and an assortment of others including a tattooed man, a giant, a person with albinism and conjoined twins. The message is clear: these empowered â and not at all exploited â people should be damn grateful for this beautiful manâs charity.
And indeed, the eclectic supporting characters belt out a range of uplifting tunes, âmaking no apologyâ for their lives and appearances and coming to Barnumâs aid when the manâs spirits need lifting. Barnumâs resolve to help down-and-outers is established early in the film, when, while loitering in a laneway as a child, he is presented with an apple by a hag in a hoodie. This is a moment of kindness that inspired him to risk everything and create a museum populated by âunusualâ people.
Outside his theatre, we see vision of crowds holding placards reading âBoycott Barnumâ. In these brief moments Gracey, though he does not give their views even cursory consideration, acknowledges there is a lingering foulness in his protagonistâs legacy: an elephant in the room, and not the one the protagonist rides on through the streets of Manhattan (!) after informing business partner Phillip Carlyle (Zac Efron) that he will be scaling back his showbiz commitments to spend more time with his family.
The reason the protagonistâs behaviour is not questioned in any way â quite the opposite â is because it runs counter to the filmâs core message: that Barnum was a saviour who, as an initially snooty and later fawning theatre critic portrayed by Paul Sparks puts it, created âa celebration of humanityâ in his museum. Did Jackman wince when he read that line in the screenplay? Did any alarm bells go off?
Perhaps the actor hoped Graceyâs song and dance numbers â full of cheesy images and contemporary lyrics, despite the story taking place in the nineteenth century â would tape over any plot or thematic weaknesses. It is becoming increasingly obvious that Jackman, like his character, is something of a huckster himself, well beyond the âsavvy businessmanâ, with a classy, clean-cut image that beautifully camouflages a tenacious spirit â and in this instance a dubious, if not downright repugnant product.
When Jackman, while introducing The Greatest Showman at its Australian premiere, brought up the recent Fox/Disney merger to a MoĂ«t-infused audience, assuring the crowd it would not result in a reduction of quality content, who was he really speaking to, or for? When Jackman reflected on how greatly the script for a Lipton Iced Tea commercial connected with him on a personal level, because that delicious drink âcan really keep you cool under pressureâ, was he actually talking from the heart? Scarier than the duplicity of a ânoâ is the possibility of an earnest âyes.â
The current push for greater diversity in Hollywood and the wider entertainment industries constitutes a realignment of the scales, the ultimate aim for our entertainment industries to better reflect the scope and range of human experience. The Greatest Showman turns this meaningful journey into a doublethink cash grab, painting perpetrator as saviour and exploited victims on the fringes of society as empowering role models â figures of inspiration to make mainstream, uncritical audiences feel better about themselves.
Folk like the real Tom Thumb were undoubtedly inspirational people, though god knows what they thought about the state of humanity or the souls of fellow humans. Their lives and legacies have been hijacked for manipulative schmaltz that solicits the same pity-based response Barnum evoked from his customers back in the day: the feeling âthank god Iâm not one of themâ. The impresarioâs freak show was honest, or at least obvious, in its gratuitous intent. Graceyâs sensationally disingenuous film is a more elaborate ruse.
Breaking News: Hollywood film not accurate representation.
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Jumanji was lots of fun
I can never go to see that movie. seeing the trailer 50 times a day as ads does my â â â â â â â head in.
Fixed
Just saw Jumanji because the young fella wanted to see it. Wasnât expecting too much but was pleasantly surprised. Quite entertaining with a heap of laughs throughout and the underlying teamwork lesson for the kids. 7/10.
Took the Mrs to see Jumanji as she loves those kinds of films, must admit I thought it was great.
Jack Black and The Rock were awesone.
Would definitely watch it again.
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Jingle All The Way . 9/10
great xmas movie and quite refreshing from the usual fare of die hard and other stuff.
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Itâs TURBO TIMEEEEEEEEE!!!
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Just watched this on ITunes (currently a 99c Rental).
Sarah Silverman is surprisingly good in this dramatic role, playing a middle aged mother suffering depression, and the many forms of self medication she employs to alleviate her anxiety.
Tough to watch at times, but worth a look.
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