Hugh Jackman is The Greatest Showman on Earth

[sueb1863]

Was hoping to see this today but my sister and I both got sidelined by the flu. Hopefully next week!

Glad to hear it's doing well though!

 

[Quasimod0]

I just saw this with my whole family and I really enjoyed it! The music was very good and I got quite emotional at times. It's not even close to the real history of Barnum but I don't think that matters. I had a very good time

 

[Pink Ranger]

A fun movie. Cool to see so many Pippin alumni in the background. I feel this movie is best interpreted as a modern fable on diversity and struggle, using a fictionalized PT Barnum as a storytelling tool, rather than a real bio of the man himself.

One thing: am I being an ass in thinking that Rebecca Ferguson not doing her own singing is a negative for the movie? For me, it's 2017/8, it's a movie musical, the actors should be doing their own singing, or they should have cast someone who can. I think Rebecca Ferguson's a great actress, but that part bugs me.

 

[JP]

From what I gather from interviews Rebecca can actually sing, and went to school for music, but felt that since she's playing the worlds best singer, she should be able to do the song justice. It's a huge song, and I actually admire that she knew she probably wouldn't sing it as well as it should be sung.

BTW, it's still my favorite song and scene in the film.

 

[TheVileOne]

A fun movie. Cool to see so many Pippin alumni in the background. I feel this movie is best interpreted as a modern fable on diversity and struggle, using a fictionalized PT Barnum as a storytelling tool, rather than a real bio of the man himself.

One thing: am I being an ass in thinking that Rebecca Ferguson not doing her own singing is a negative for the movie? For me, it's 2017/8, it's a movie musical, the actors should be doing their own singing, or they should have cast someone who can. I think Rebecca Ferguson's a great actress, but that part bugs me.

Emma Watson's singing is terrible in Beauty and the Beast. Russell Crowe and Amanda Seyfried couldn't do it well in Les Miserables either.

 

[InfinityWar]

The 'critics' ripped this film, but everyone i talked to and everything from forums liked it. I thought it was excellent. Not as good as La La Land though, but a worthy musical, and the best musical of the year, imo. Hugh Jackman, Zendaya, Efron - awesome casting. Glad it turned out good. And the music was awesome.

 

[search_4_truth]

I actually enjoyed it more than La La Land. I know critics loved La La Land, but I never could get into the story. I didn't like the music in La La Land either, which was odd since I do love jazz music - and while Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone did a good job, in no way did I feel they deserved the awards they got. By contrast, I would be totally okay with Hugh Jackman winning the Golden Globe for Greatest Showman. I understand that Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone were not supposed to be great singers and dancers because their characters were amateurs, but I am much more impressed with the level of talent displayed by Jackman, Michelle Williams, Zendaya, Keala Settle, etc. in Greatest Showman. I thought Rebecca Ferguson's acting was amazing in this movie too. It didn't even bother me that she didn't sing Never Enough. Hell, I loved everyone's performance in Greatest Showman. Took me back to my childhood.

 

[InfinityWar]

I actually enjoyed it more than La La Land. I know critics loved La La Land, but I never could get into the story. I didn't like the music in La La Land either, which was odd since I do love jazz music - and while Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone did a good job, in no way did I feel they deserved the awards they got. By contrast, I would be totally okay with Hugh Jackman winning the Golden Globe for Greatest Showman. I understand that Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone were not supposed to be great singers and dancers because their characters were amateurs, but I am much more impressed with the level of talent displayed by Jackman, Michelle Williams, Zendaya, Keala Settle, etc. in Greatest Showman. I thought Rebecca Ferguson's acting was amazing in this movie too. It didn't even bother me that she didn't sing Never Enough. Hell, I loved everyone's performance in Greatest Showman. Took me back to my childhood.

I'm glad you liked it too.....I rank it in my top 5 musicals, but i am not much of a musical person, so not saying much...La La Land, Moulin Rouge!, Greatest Showman, Sweeney Todd, and Nightmare Before Christmas.

 

[ComicChick]

i saw this tonight and really enjoyed it.

the music is great. This is Me, Rewrite the Stars and Never Enough are the ones i remember the most. Loren Allred sang the voice of Jenny Lind, and I remember her from being on the Voice. I don't remember her sounding that good back then though, so kudos to her, because her voice was amazing on that song.
Lind got the shaft though in this film. Everything I've read about her and been pretty positive, and they made her a jilted non-even-lover in this one.

I recognized Settle from Les Miz. I think it was one of those anniversary shows, or she was on the national tour at one point. I know I've seen her play Madame Thenardier. The guy who played Barnum's dad in the beginning was in Les Miz too.

i know a ton of it was fake or dramatized, or shown out of order. i know some characters were based on real ones, and others were fictional, but that's fine. i can separate film and history. i just really had a lot of fun seeing this on screen and i gotta admit, Zendaya's singing really impressed me. I'd never heard her sing before.

 

[Mysteryman]

This was a fun movie.

 

[JP]

I recognized Settle from Les Miz. I think it was one of those anniversary shows, or she was on the national tour at one point. I know I've seen her play Madame Thenardier. The guy who played Barnum's dad in the beginning was in Les Miz too.

Yes, she was in the Broadway revival as Madame Thenardier. Will Swenson was Javert in that production. He played Barnum's dad.

And they were both in Priscilla Queen of the Dessert!

 

[search_4_truth]

This is actually one of the few musicals where I literally liked every single song. From Now On is my favorite song in the movie, but I really did love them all. The last musical I can think of where I loved every song was Sound of Music. So it's been a while to say the least!

 

[danoyse]

Yes, she was in the Broadway revival as Madame Thenardier. Will Swenson was Javert in that production. He played Barnum's dad.

And they were both in Priscilla Queen of the Dessert!

And they were both in Waitress, although not at the same time. Although the guy who played Cal in Waitress was the ticket taker guy in Greatest Showman, so that works too.

I also saw The Post last week, which had Jessie Mueller as a columnist. Basically, I spent my week off refusing to rest until I could see the entire cast of Waitress on the big screen.

 

[search_4_truth]

The Greatest Showman soundtrack is apparently #1 on the Billboard charts out of ALL albums, even beating out people like Taylor Swift!

https://www.billboard.com/articles/...reatest-showman-soundtrack-no-1-billboard-200

 

[sueb1863]

Cool!! Didn't the Les Miserables soundtrack also go to #1?

 

[Pink Ranger]

Looks like the movie is getting some legs now. That's what I find with musical movies; the better one are always to polarizing when it comes to critics.

 

[TheVileOne]

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/

One thing I will say in favor of the movie is that despite bad reviews, it's clearly struck a chord with audiences and managed to build some strong word of mouth. You rarely see a major release like this start so low, less than $10 million, especially in 2017-2018, and now the film could end up making over $100 million domestic.

It definitely benefitted as strong counter-programming for the holiday season.

 

[ComicChick]

This is Me wins the Golden Globe for Best Song!!!

 

[Quasimod0]

That's good to hear!

 

[Pfeiffer-Pfan]

I saw the film last night and really loved it. Excellent songs and choreography, with Jackman on top form.

So glad this one seems to be beating the odds.

 

[DACrowe]

Belated thoughts...

I REALLY wanted to like this, but it was just very cloying and treacly. I can enjoy a good saccharine movie as much as the next person, but the musicals that pull that off earn their sentimentality. I'm thinking of ones like Meet Me in St. Louis or The Sound of Music, which this is trying to emulate. Instead it just felt schmaltzy with no depth, because its storytelling is always in montage and onion with never a breath to actually buttress it with any real characterization beyond broad archetypes. I liked some of the songs too, but most of them sounded like four-chord wannabe Top 40 from 10 years ago. Still the way the musical scenes were shot and the gusto the cast brings to it was nice.

As for comparisons to La La Land, this has better singers... but La La Land is better in just about every other department. The story has more depth and earns its rather bittersweet sentimentality at the end, the film is directed well throughout with stunning precision, as opposed to this film's kind of kitchen sink mentality, and personally, the songs were better too.

I'll give Greatest Showman this though, it has a lot of heart and passion, it just didn't translate to much for me.

 

[JP]

Well this bombed.

Has Jackman had a successful movie outside of X-men? I can’t really think of any except maybe Les Miserables

This didn’t age well.

 

[Schlosser85]

I really enjoyed this a lot.

 

[Quasimod0]

Saw it again tonight and took my wife, who normally doesn't love musicals. And she loved it!

 

[flickchick85]

This movie's box office performance has been fascinating to watch, so I decided to finally check it out for myself, and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it. Yes, it was cheesy, saccharine, treacly...all those things people call it and completely in denial about the real story, but it was so gung-ho and earnest about it that I simply didn't mind? If that makes any sense. The music and choreography were on point, and there wasn't any terrible singing, which frankly is a rare feat for a modern day musical so kudos for that.

On a side note, I'm very curious to hear Rebecca Ferguson's real singing voice, because I've heard she could sing before and was hoping to hear that here, but I totally respect her reasons for going with a voice double on this one given the context.