Les Miserables

This "Les Mis" does make you feel, intensely and sometimes thrillingly, by honoring the emotional core of its source material.

Despite its pitfalls, this movie musical is a clutch player that delivers an emotional wallop when it counts. You can walk into the theater as an agnostic, but you may just leave singing with the choir.

If you love Les Mis the stage musical, my guess is you will love what Hooper and his bustling company have done. But when you hear "Master of the House" and you think of the Seinfeld episode with Elaine's gruff dad belting the tune before you think of those shifty innkeepers the Thénardiers, then you may want to steer clear of this grand endeavor.

The problem is that so little about Hooper's Les Misérables feels integrated. The cast feels like a grab bag of talented stage vets and garish stunt-casting choices, particularly Baron Cohen and Bonham Carter, who perform the fan-favorite comic number "Master Of The House" as a jerky, staccato series of show-off moves and attempted but inadequate scene-stealing.

By the end, you feel like a piñata: in pieces, the victim of prolonged assault by killer pipes.

Hooper's approach comes across as the equivalent of sitting in the front row of a stage play while the entire cast leans forward and blares each song into your eardrums.

One would be hard-pressed to describe this, despite the wealth of beauty on display, as anything but an ugly film, shot and cut ineptly.

All this over a loaf of bread. After having watched it multiple times, I can say almost certainly that this is one of my favorite movie musicals. Sure, it has its flaws and not all the actors sing as well as others, but **** if I care! I can hear the people singing the song of angry men, goddamnit! Anne Hathaway steals the show, even with very little screentime. There's not much I can say about her rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" that hasn't been said already. I'm sure even those who don't like this movie agree that she's absolutely incredible. Everytime I watch it I find myself liking Russel Crowe as Javert more and more. I love making fun of his voice as much as anyone, but truth be told, he has an incredibly commanding presence in this film, even when he doesn't, if that makes sense. Really, everyone gives amazing performances. There's just something about this that really gets me. Maybe it's the story or the songs or my love for musicals. Whatever it is, it just really works for me. I know it's quite divisive, and I (kinda) get it; but when the beating of my heart echoes the beating of the drums, I can't help but let myself be enchanted by this movie.

Fun film. Great musical numbers and loved Anne Hathaway's monologue."One day more."

Look, I love 30 Odd Foot of Grunt frontman Russel Crowe as much as anyone, but he's badly miscast by the truly terrible, gimmicky, and over rated director of the film. (Tom Hooper, of Danish Girl and Kings Speech Fame) Ann Hathaway is whatever, Eddie Redmayne is typically awful, and Amanda Seyfried's Cosette is a snooze, but the beautiful Samantha Banks absolutely shines in the role of Eponine! Hugh Jackman is also wonderful, elevating the material in every scene he's in. All in all, I would recommend seeing it at least one, and do think everyone involved, even including Tom Hooper, did the best job they could. Also, I will say that the film certainly feels expensive, if nothing else.

I absolutely love the original stage musical of Les Mis, and as a result, I take a strong disliking to the music in this film. rather than the beautiful music heard in the stage version, this movie opts for a grittier and more realistic take on the singing, leading to very jarring and rather unpleasant music that desecrates the original.

They are singing all the time. Yes all the time and some of the actors even not so good. Why dont they sing only sometimes? I would endure this movie better.