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Solamortis
Reviews
Suicide Squad (2016)
OK film
Overall the movie was fairly enjoyable.
Harley Quinn was awesome and made for most of the funny moments in the film, though her scenes with Joker suffered.
Will Smith would not have been my first choice as Deadshot but his performance was typical Smith.
Waller was extremely well acted.
Jared Leto's Joker was horrible. His character was more like a small time gang leader with bad teeth than a mob boss. The sounds that he kept making were annoying at best.
El Diablo's back story was the best and his fight at the end while predictable was fun to watch.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)
Disappointing Sequel !Spoiler Alert!
Before going into detail the best way I can explain my thoughts about Spiderman 2 is to compare it to Star Wars II and III. The dialogue from Andrew Garfield felt just as wooden and contrived as many of Hayden Christensen's lines. When he was Peter Parker it was painful watching him. As Spiderman things felt more natural.
Jaimie Foxx is a great actor but the role as Electro/Max Dillon was not a good fit. In large part I believe this to be because of the atrocious writing. If they had given him a straight role instead of turning him into attempted comedy relief like Jar Jar Binks it may have been better.
While watching the character of Harry Osborn I kept having flash backs to Edward Furlong in Terminator 2. I don't know if it was the makeup or the acting.
Lastly what is it with remakes that requires the death of main characters?
Big Spoiler Alert!! Do you remember the first x-men series? Cyclops, Jean Grey and Prof X die. Unfortunately Spiderman 2 follows the same formula. Instead of writing a well developed story lets create small stories and kill off the loose ends so we don't have to deal with them. Norman Osborn...dead and to make room for a new love interest lets kill off Gwen Stacey too. I mean they already killed of her father.
The only moment in the movie that stood out was about 5 minutes from the end when a kid decides to fill in for Spidey.
All in all the money spent at the theater was a waste.
Les Misérables in Concert: The 25th Anniversary (2010)
A big let down!
My first experience with the Musical Les Mis was the 10th anniversary concert in 1995 which was broadcast on PBS. I fell in love with it. I bought the CD of the concert and even went to see the US version of the show when it came to my town.
You would expect a 25th anniversary special to be huge with a great cast. I just finished watching it and a huge disappointment is how I would describe it.
First the Pros: Alfie Boe has a good voice and while not as good as Colm Wilkinson he is one of the better singers in the cast. Samantha Barks has a beautiful voice and was a credit to the roll of Eponine. Ramin Karimloo in the roll of Enjolras has a strong voice and is well suited for the part. The singers making up the supporting members of the ABC group also did well in their rolls. Jenny Galloway returned to sing the part Madame Thénardier and as before was perfect.
For the most part that's all the good I can say. Let move to the Cons: The first thing I noticed were the changes they made to the songs. While in some cases they did help the story, in many cases they made the songs seem jumpy and chaotic. Nick Jonas in the role of Marius was absolutely awful. He did not have the vocal strength or emotion for the role. Why Matt Lucas was picked to be Monsieur Thénardier I will may never know. The role calls for energy and the ability to provide comedic relief through gestures and voice. Mr. Lucas had neither and his voice was worse. Robert Madge played the role of Gavroche and his voice was OK at best. The weird looks he gave the audience while singing were ridiculous and overall he was not believable. Lastly the Part of Javert was sung by Norm Lewis. His voice again lacked strength and emotion. In some cases it was almost as if he was singing in a monotone manner or reading his lines.
As a final note, at the very end, the original cast appears and puts this new cast to shame.