West Side Story
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wrote on 29 Apr 2021, 11:42 last edited by
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wrote on 29 Apr 2021, 15:42 last edited by
Maybe
Maria's white dress looks nice
I have to see Officer Krupke before I can make any judgment
At least it appears to take place in the 50s, I don't think I couldn't stand it if they updated it to present day.
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wrote on 29 Apr 2021, 15:47 last edited by
Always hated that one.
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wrote on 29 Apr 2021, 15:54 last edited by
Love West Side Story. It looks like a good rendition, but I'm not sure what Spielberg thinks he is bringing to it. Could it be a vanity project?
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topic:timeago-later,5 months
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wrote on 15 Sept 2021, 14:58 last edited by
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Love West Side Story. It looks like a good rendition, but I'm not sure what Spielberg thinks he is bringing to it. Could it be a vanity project?
wrote on 15 Sept 2021, 15:08 last edited by@mik said in West Side Story:
m not sure what Spielberg thinks he is bringing to it. Could it be a vanity project?
Maybe for the same reason Mallory gave for climbing Everest, because it's there?
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wrote on 15 Sept 2021, 15:16 last edited by
Ok, so the sets are slicker. So what? West Side Story was groundbreaking just like Hamilton is. I still don't see what he brings to it that's new. Perhaps just a desire to make a buck.
It kind of reminds me of the fancy-schmancy Chicago dog you posted this morning.
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Ok, so the sets are slicker. So what? West Side Story was groundbreaking just like Hamilton is. I still don't see what he brings to it that's new. Perhaps just a desire to make a buck.
It kind of reminds me of the fancy-schmancy Chicago dog you posted this morning.
wrote on 15 Sept 2021, 15:37 last edited by@mik said in West Side Story:
Ok, so the sets are slicker. So what? West Side Story was groundbreaking just like Hamilton is. I still don't see what he brings to it that's new. Perhaps just a desire to make a buck.
It kind of reminds me of the fancy-schmancy Chicago dog you posted this morning.
Aren’t there some classics that should be re-done every generation because the themes are still relevant? I mean today’s kids are not likely to know about nor view old versions?
Just thinking outloud.
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wrote on 15 Sept 2021, 16:15 last edited by
No.
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@mik said in West Side Story:
Ok, so the sets are slicker. So what? West Side Story was groundbreaking just like Hamilton is. I still don't see what he brings to it that's new. Perhaps just a desire to make a buck.
It kind of reminds me of the fancy-schmancy Chicago dog you posted this morning.
Aren’t there some classics that should be re-done every generation because the themes are still relevant? I mean today’s kids are not likely to know about nor view old versions?
Just thinking outloud.
wrote on 15 Sept 2021, 16:27 last edited by George K@loki said in West Side Story:
Aren’t there some classics that should be re-done every generation
And @mik said:
No
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wrote on 15 Sept 2021, 16:38 last edited by
The trailer is obviously limited.
I don't hate it yet. I might like it.
The original was terrific.
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@loki said in West Side Story:
Aren’t there some classics that should be re-done every generation
And @mik said:
No
wrote on 15 Sept 2021, 16:41 last edited by@george-k said in West Side Story:
@loki said in West Side Story:
Aren’t there some classics that should be re-done every generation
And @mik said:
No
No issue with redoing them on stage, where they belong. But not movies.
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wrote on 15 Sept 2021, 18:08 last edited by
Lots of movies seem to he aiming for December theaters......
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The trailer is obviously limited.
I don't hate it yet. I might like it.
The original was terrific.
wrote on 15 Sept 2021, 18:18 last edited by@copper said in West Side Story:
The original was terrific.
Me, too. One of my favorites at the time.
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wrote on 16 Sept 2021, 03:39 last edited by
I like Ansel Elgort.
And I think it's super cool that Rita Moreno is in it. But I guess, Spielberg couldn't make the movie without her.
The only movie version of a musical I've ever liked was Hamilton. There's always something missing when stage productions are filmed.
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wrote on 16 Sept 2021, 04:09 last edited by
We watched Come From Away the other night, and had seen the stage version. Great show, but it lacked just a bit of the punch of live.
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wrote on 16 Sept 2021, 05:18 last edited by
I saw the London stage show of Les Miz on video and then saw the movie. I liked them both. The movie was well done, I thought, in that it retained a lot of the look of a stage play. They could have ruined it by moving away from that. I'm glad they didn't.
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wrote on 16 Sept 2021, 15:10 last edited by
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topic:timeago-later,3 months
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wrote on 12 Dec 2021, 23:24 last edited by
I assume Steven Spielberg’s $100 million remake of West Side Story isn’t being advertised quite as heavily in your neighborhood, but on the Upper West Side of Manhattan where I live, you can scarcely take a breath without being hit with advertising for the movie. 20th Century Studios/Disney treated this as an event movie, it had the weekend all to itself, it had considerable critical acclaim/hype and some of the target demographic (the theater community, extending out to everyone who ever performed in the show in high school) was intensely interested.
Unfortunately, the movie also suffers from having no stars (sorry, Ansel Elgort, but you make Timothée Chalamet look like Marlon Brando) and it’s based on a property that may be beloved by people over 50 but is, I suspect, totally unknown to those under 40. People over 50 don’t go to the movies. The single comment I most often hear from people when I tell them I’m a film critic is, “Oh, I haven’t been to the movies in years.” TV is where it’s at these days. West Side Story is on track to gross $10.2 million in North America on its opening weekend — less than the $11.5 million earned by In the Heights in June, even though In the Heights is a little-known property and it debuted on HBO Max the same day. Certainly, the public sense that the pandemic was over in June provided a boost and the reverse is true six months later.
West Side Story is, despite the terrific songs and attempts to update it, still an extremely dated property — corny, maudlin, contrived, phony. I saw it in a huge theater full of enthusiastic fans, and even there reaction was muted. It just isn’t that great. Word of mouth is not going to help this movie earn out.
It’s not really fair to call the movie a flop yet, though; its target audience of women over 25 is, famously, distracted by holiday-season activities, which is why movies like this tend to be released on Christmas Day rather than in early December. People have to see something Christmas Day and Christmas week (if they’re not too scared to go back to the movies), so it should keep drawing interest through the new year. However, it can’t expect much of a boost in January from the Golden Globes, which are not being broadcast by NBC this year due to a scandal, and it also won’t get much of a boost from the Oscar nominations because, as I’ve been writing for several years, the Oscars no longer matter to the average person. The Academy Awards went woke and have, culturally, gone broke. When you’re an awards-granting body and you stop giving out statuettes based solely on merit, people notice. Then they stop paying attention. The Oscars are actually even more corrupted by political correctness than the Golden Globes are by being lavished with goodies.
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wrote on 12 Dec 2021, 23:40 last edited by Mik 12 Dec 2021, 23:41
My daughter is seeing it tonight. On imax.
To call it a dated property is to deny the show’s groundbreaking legacy and style. If this movie serves to open a couple more generations’ eyes to it it will be successful. You might as well call La Boheme dated.