The Lynn and Pippa *squeeing* about the Rent movie thread

[pippadaisy[$]]

OMG, Lynn... go see it... go see it... go see it!!! It was FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I thought it would be good, but it even exceeded my expectations. Go as soon as you can. Everyone else, go. Even if you think you didn't like the stage version (which my dad didn't), go! My dad even loved it!!!!

GO NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

P.S. Already posted my review. LOL. First review! Whee!

[theworm[$]]

Can I read your review before I go see it?

[pippadaisy[$]]

Yes. No spoilers.

[theworm[$]]

Well, I read it before you responded! VH!
And I'll go see it.

[pippadaisy[$]]

Seen it yet?

[lynnzop[$]]

Not yet, sweetie. Spent the day on the road. We went and saw Potter last night (had kids, so no Rent )

Still on my short, short list.

[pippadaisy[$]]

Lynn, I forgot to tell you that they posted some clips of some of the songs on the blog site:

http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/rent/blog/

Get your fix before you can get there.

[lynnzop[$]]

I took home a newspaper from Mpls, and there was a mag insert that had some fabulous photos and an interview with Jonathon Larson's sister. It was a great read.

Weather tomorrow is supposed to be crummy. Or I may try to talk a friend into going tonite.

[pippadaisy[$]]

They did a Life Magazine... I'm now on a hunt. May have to hit B&N.

[lynnzop[$]]

That's what it was...the Life mag supplement.

I could send it to you.

[pippadaisy[$]]

Squee! It's only a supplement? WAH! eBay, here I come. We get USA Weekend crap.

BTW, I was watching the video blogs I'd missed... it turns out that the double-CD soundtrack is a limited edition, and they are going to replace it with a single CD??? Panic!

Now I'm jonesing for the DVD to see the deleted scenes. I'm a bit ticked about one of the songs that's missing in the movie.

[lynnzop[$]]

Which song is missing??????

Yeah, I don't normally get the Life supplement, we get Parade in the Omaha paper and the USA Wknd one in the CB paper. But since we got a free paper at the hotel on Friday (and I almost threw it out!) I got this little gem.

[theworm[$]]

I really trust you, Pippa, but I'm not sure that I'm going to like this one.

Here is another review.

"Rent"

Who knew a movie musical could be worse than last year's over-the-top travesty "Phantom of the Opera"?

Even though the picture is jampacked with enthusiastic singing, it's devoid of any real feeling -- its robotic, "Up With People" vigor leaves behind a cold, metallic aftertaste. I never saw the stage version of "Rent," so I'm not sure if Columbus has cluelessly trampled on Larson's material or, worse yet, merely presented it faithfully. (Larson died of an aortic aneurym just before the play went into previews in 1996.) But either way, Columbus isn't graceful enough as a filmmaker to navigate the story's smiley-face/sad-face twists and turns. The movie feels cluttered and forced; the scenes clunk along with an oompah-band rhythm.

[lynnzop[$]]

I'm going to see the 6:55 showing tonite. I'll let you know what I think.

My mother gave me the obligatory "The Star and Trib panned it" line (why does she have to do that...nothing I like is ever good enough ) and I was surprised to read in Pip's review that it's not all sung, as it is in the musical.

But I'm reserving judgment until I see it for myself.

[lynnzop[$]]

O. M. G.

I am raw. Raw, I tell you. Wow. I was bawling even before the first real line of the film. And didn't quit for most of it.

The singing was splendifourous. The acting was superb. (Screw those who said there's "no emotion" in the film. WTF do they know????)

Maybe because I know the story so well, it made sense and was easy to follow. I'd be curious to hear from someone who hadn't seen the stage production.

I missed a couple of things. "And it's beginning to snow" (I'm not good on song names, but Pippa knows what song I mean) contains one of my favorite rhymes of all time: "Merry ain't in my vocabulary!" and it was decidedly absent. And it's the perfect intro for Maureen....I did NOT care for the way Maureen was introduced....that whole Tango scene with her spoiled the mystique that IS Maureen. And we needed to hear the "Joann...which way to the stage?" that is SO Maureen. I missed the phone/voice mail sing-songs (Mark Coaaahhh-en, Alexi Daaaaaarling). I missed the "Christmas Bells are Ringing" snippets.

Other than that, perfect. And those weren't enough to spoil it or make it anything less than a 9.9 on my scale.

Pippa...the duet between Mimi and Roger in the snow, was that new? I don't remember it on stage.

La Vie Boehem ROCKED. I was ready to get up and dance!

I'm glad I went to see it by myself the first time. And it won't be the last.

[pippadaisy[$]]

I missed the voice mails too, although at least they kept the first one, which always cracked me up. Also miised the "You'll See Boys" segment with Angel and Collins "I like boys... boys like me."

Jesse L. Martin, though? LOVE him... OMG... in the hospital bed? With Angel? WAH!

I LOVED the Tango. I agree that it killed some of the Maureen mystery and the "which way to the stage" but then again, I thought that was contrived in the musical, since it clashed with Benny's "Maureen is protesting losing her performance space." How could she NOT know which way to the stage?

Nope.. that duet is in there... they do it off to the side in the Life Cafe in the stage version. GOD I AM A GEEK!

Missing from the movie: Halloween and Goodbye, Love which KILLED ME. I'd rather have that than What You Own, a song I've never liked. I'm dying for the DVD to see that scene... Rosario Dawson sounds INCREDIBLE on that song on the soundtrack (which I am listening to obsessively).

I sort of did see it alone... LOL. My dad sat two seats away from me and knows to leave me alone. I hate people bugging me during a movie.

[pippadaisy[$]]

theworm said

I really trust you, Pippa, but I'm not sure that I'm going to like this one.

Here is another review.

"Rent"

Who knew a movie musical could be worse than last year's over-the-top travesty "Phantom of the Opera"?

I'm not even going to read it. NOT.

I've seen Phantom on stage three or four times. Saw the movie. The movie SUCKED MIGHTILY. To compare the two is mind-blowing, but then again, it's Salon, and I swear Salon exists just to disparage whatever they can. It is good, Wormie. My father, who hated the stage production, loved the movie. It's powerful, and if that critic could POSSIBLY not want to dance during La Vie Boheme, then it's a distinct possibility that he or she may have already had their soul sucked out and is left with nothing but a cold, sucking vacuum.

[pippadaisy[$]]

Oh yeah.. I almost forgot... I was thinking more about "Which way to the stage?" If I remember correctly, THAT'S the end of Act One. You don't actually see Maureen until Act Two, after intermission, which kept the audience in suspense. Without that break in the movie, it wouldn't have had the same impact anyway.

[lynnzop[$]]

In the movie, they refer to the new year as 1990. So I think that the engagement scene, while it is appropriate for TODAY, isn't in line with the rest of the film. I do like Halloween as an "ending" to all the relationships (It's Over, It's Over, It's Over and then Collin's "It's Over." gives me chills just thinking about it.) better than the film's engagement scene. And other than Maureen's parents saying to Mark that "maybe now, you can get back together" which drew hoots of laughter at our showing, it seemed too "acceptable" by the parents. I didn't get that sense of acceptance in the stage version.

I loved the Santa Fe scene in the film. Don't really like that song all that well, but I did after seeing it in the subway scene.

[pippadaisy[$]]

Who changed the topic thread? I nearly wet my pants.

Yeah, see, that's what bugged me. 1990 New Year, 1990 New York Plates, engagement ceremony. WTF?

I liked Santa Fe better in the movie, too. Then again, there's something about Jesse L. Martin.. as my gf said, she could watch him belch for two hours.