The critics have been really harsh on this movie. While not a great movie, it's still good enough to be enjoyed by kids during the holiday season. There are fun musical numbers and Hugh Jackman excels in his role as Barnum. It's not meant to be a realistic biopic. It's an enjoyable musical fantasy.
Pretty solid movie if you are into that kind of movies (musicals). Audio fine tuning to the songs were in fact somewhat excessive, but to my opinion the movie was meant to be viewed in theaters with loud sounds so everything "should" sound nearly perfect. The songs and dancing acts were well performed and I really liked Hugh Jackman's acting. Overall, it's a pleasant movie to watch and perhaps even worth watching twice.
I thought that this was a terrible idea way before I ever saw the movie itself, and I thought this was a terrible movie way before I ever found out what P.T. Barnham was actually like. What a toilet fire in every sense, this is one of those rare examples where I just **can't** understand what everyone is loving here. _Final rating:★½: - Boring/disappointing. Avoid where possible._
one of the musicals that bring you joy in life
Like many other folks, I have a sort of allergy to hype: particularly when it is built on power ballads and an actor who just doesn't "belong" in the role. I also saw Michael Crawford doing his "Barnum" thing on stage in 1982 - so to be fair, my expectations of this were not especially high. I was pleasantly surprised! Jackman as the street urchin son of an itinerant tailor with grand dreams is really pretty good. He brings oodles of charisma to the part of P.T. Barnum determined to win the love of "Charity" (Michelle Williams), despite her being from a wealthy family living well beyond his meagre means. The chronology of his actual achievements - his marriage, family and his American Museum of Curiosities morphing into a circus of all things diverse from the human race - including Sam Humphrey as "Gen. Tom Thumb" and a super Keala Settle as the "Bearded Lady" - is well enough documented and this musical version pretty much follows the rags to riches tale of this inspirational and aspirational man as he taps into the lucrative vein of giving the public what they want. That public is, however, not the one he wants - he wants the toffs, too - so enlisting the help of debonaire, bored, theatre producer Zac Efron "Philip Carlyle" they head to the UK for an audience with Queen Victoria - the epitome of "acceptable society" at which he meets Jenny Lind - the legendary Swedish singer and his fortunes seem to be unstoppable... Efron is good, too - you are reminded of just how far he has come since his "High School Musical" (2006) days; as is Rebecca Ferguson in the role of "Lind". I have to say that I found the songs a little bland; the film lacks a killer song - "A Million Dreams", "Come Alive" and "Rewrite the Stars" do get the toes tapping, but they meld into each other leaving a pleasing, but unmemorable soundtrack to this charming family drama. It's good, not great - and far better than I was expecting.
This Canadian made comedy/drama, set in Hamilton, Ontario in 1954, is a sweet and - at times - goofy story that becomes increasingly poignant as the minutes tick by. It's the fictional tale of a wayward 9th grader, Ralph (Adam Butcher), who is secretly living on his own while his widowed, hospitalized mother remains immersed in a coma. Frequently in trouble with Father Fitzpatrick (Gordon Pinsent), the principal of his all-boys, Catholic school, Ralph is considered something of a joke among peers until he decides to pull off a miracle that could save his mother, i.e., winning the Boston Marathon. Coached by a younger priest and former runner, Father Hibbert (Campbell Scott), whose cynicism has been lifted by the boy's pure hope, Ralph applies himself to his unlikely mission, fending off naysayers and getting help along a very challenging path from sundry allies and friends.
Movie Star Rating : 6.8 Read More
Ellen Burstyn stars as Joan Walker, a mother whose college student son vanishes while traveling from Canada to Colorado. When police fail to investigate, Walker takes matters into her own hands. She and her ex-husband begin a search, but when their son's van is found in Maine brandishing stolen plates, they fear the worst. Now, it's up to a private detective to uncover the chilling truth in this absorbing drama based on a true story.
Movie Star Rating : 7.2 Read More
Olga is a complex young woman desperate to break free from her unfeeling family and social conventions. With her Louise Brooks-like tomboyish looks she drags herself, chain-smoking, from one job to another until she appears to find her niche as a truck driver. Although she has female lovers she does not form a bond with any of them; instead she clashes, time and again, venting herself in wordless emotional outbursts and other behavioural extremes.
Movie Star Rating : 6.9 Read More
An aggressive agent turns a hotel porter into an overnight sensation.
Movie Star Rating : 5.3 Read More
When his bank fails, a young man loses not only all his money but his fiancée, deserts him, too. Depressed, he joins a circus.
Movie Star Rating : 0 Read More
True story about a rape victim who took a stand that rape is never the victim's fault and inspired many other victims who felt shame about what had happened to them to speak out.
Movie Star Rating : 6 Read More
Olga Neuwirth, for a long time one of the great composers of the present, succeeds with this opera in creating a captivating arc across many musical genres. It’s an exciting, socially critical production by Polly Graham who puts a fantastically singing and playing Kate Lindsey in the center of the action.
Movie Star Rating : 0 Read More
Filling the giant screen with stunning time-lapse vistas of Antarctica, and detailing year-round life at McMurdo and Scott Base, Anthony Powell’s documentary is a potent hymn to the icy continent and the heavens above.
Movie Star Rating : 7.2 Read More
Repulsed by the hypocrisy of adults and the irresponsibility of society, a boy refuses to grow older after his third birthday.
Movie Star Rating : 6.9 Read More
A Tribe Called Judah 2023 - Movies (Apr 19th)
Blood for Dust 2023 - Movies (Apr 19th)
Rebel Moon - Part Two The Scargiver 2024 - Movies (Apr 19th)
Asphalt City 2023 - Movies (Apr 19th)
Late Night with the Devil 2023 - Movies (Apr 19th)
Problemista 2023 - Movies (Apr 19th)
Ghostbusters Frozen Empire 2024 - Movies (Apr 19th)
The Christmas Break 2023 - Movies (Apr 19th)
The Christmas Detective 2023 - Movies (Apr 19th)
Meet Me in Paris 2023 - Movies (Apr 18th)
Never Alone For Christmas 2023 - Movies (Apr 18th)
Peppermint and Postcards 2023 - Movies (Apr 18th)
The Braid 2023 - Movies (Apr 18th)
A Royal Christmas Surprise 2023 - Movies (Apr 18th)
Civil War 2024 - Movies (Apr 18th)
The First Omen 2024 - Movies (Apr 18th)
All You Need Is Death 2023 - Movies (Apr 17th)
The Dive 2023 - Movies (Apr 17th)
Bad Hombres 2024 - Movies (Apr 17th)
Immaculate 2024 - Movies (Apr 16th)
An American Bombing The Road to April 19th 2024 - Movies (Apr 17th)
Lovers and Liars - (Apr 19th)
The Bold and the Beautiful - (Apr 19th)
The Talk - (Apr 19th)
The Price Is Right - (Apr 19th)
The Kelly Clarkson Show - (Apr 19th)
Lets Make a Deal - (Apr 19th)
Beyond Paradise - (Apr 19th)
So Help Me Todd - (Apr 19th)
Bargain Hunt - (Apr 19th)
The Spiderwick Chronicles - (Apr 19th)
Passenger - (Apr 19th)
After Midnight - (Apr 19th)
Big Little Crimes - (Apr 19th)
Deadliest Families - (Apr 19th)
Four in a Bed - (Apr 19th)
TNA iMPACT! - (Apr 19th)
Selling Houses Australia - (Apr 19th)
WWE The Bump - (Apr 19th)
ROH On HonorClub - (Apr 19th)
The Last American Vagabond - (Apr 19th)