Tadpole Thinks:
(SPOILER-FREE, for the first time in forever)
Wow, that last post was long!
This month for our comeback, we've decided to review something lighter. And I promise this review will be an actual review, not a rant about the director's choice of camera angles / the actor's singing voice or face / etc... here we go:
Many have said that The Internship is a two-hour Google recruitment commercial. I don't care. Though I've just watched a film which spent a great deal of time on product placement and so I should have that idea incepted into my head, "product placement" didn't cross my mind while I was watching The Internship. I could see why people would say that. I don't know if Google had actually funded the production of the movie and I wasn't too eager to look that up... but they probably hadn't. Reason being: IT'S _ _ _ _ ING GOOGLE! And it's the very same reason why it doesn't bother me even if the film is essentially an advertisement.
Look, the film wouldn't have worked if it's about Yahoo! (...might have worked ten years ago) or say, Swire. They are great companies but they aren't Google. The film might have worked if it's about bulge bracket investment banks but we've all heard unglamorous things about them, while for Google, we've only heard great things (also mentioned in the film) - free food, cool office space and extremely smart co-workers... Guess now we could all get past the fact that The Internship made it like we should all bow down before Google... because maybe we really should?
If you could look past the fact that this film is almost a commercial, The Internship is a very enjoyable movie and I personally like it a lot. For the story, there's nothing new. It's the same old formula. It has its laugh-out-loud moments and touching moments. Some of the gags are extremely funny and relatable and I found myself laughing uncontrollably loud (with people staring, of course). I also found myself slightly touched at some points in the movie, but these moments aren't remarkably memorable and I honestly don't remember that touched feeling now. There are movies that touch you and make you want to turn your life around and change the world, this isn't one of them. But what do you expect? Though I should be fair and mention that this movie has made me consider changing my major to Computer Science for a night, but I've always enjoyed programming anyway. One thing I want to mention (and to remind myself) from personal experience which relates to the movie: if you could choose and afford your choice, always PURSUE YOUR DREAM! Life's too short to play it safe all the time.
The Internship ends with them saying that summer is "one hell of a summer" (come on, this isn't a spoiler! You thought that their summer would suck?). My summer has been "one hell of a summer" too. This review officially marks the end of my summer holiday... ahead of me awaits school work, various responsibilities and an internship (isn't it ironic... don't you think?). I wish everyone a great school (or work) year ahead!
Finally a review in which I seem genuinely pleased... why am I always so bitter? I highly recommend The Internship to those who want to have a good time and laugh really hard and unwind!
Fish Thinks:
*Spoiler Alert
I didn't expect much from the film, thinking it to be another Wedding Crashers type of comedy. However, Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn showed to me and the audience that they are capable to recreate a fresh image of themselves.
One of the things that make the film so laugh-out-loud funny is the brilliantly-created characters, whom each of them have their oddities and specialties, and together they sparked chemistry and splashed colors to the already fantastic plot line. Yo-yo the antisocial and reserved mama's boy is super hilarious and his brow-picking habit of self-punishment drove us all into tears of laughter. Lyle, Stuart and Neha are awkward yet lovable people, and the team's crazy way of dealing with challenges are immensely entertaining! Wilson and Vaughn's brotherhood is nothing new but heartwarming still as they stick together and overcome one obstacle and another.
Another thing I love about the film is that you can find the impossible within the possible. It may sound confusing, but would an office pause for a Quiddich Match for its employees? Where on earth could you find a food paradise in a workplace? The Google Office inspired us that incorporating work and play together actually boost up working incentives and stimulates more creative ideas. Also, in the last bit of the film when scores are calculated to see which intern team gets to be hired, a line hit me: "Google is for disseminating information and benefiting people's life". It really got me into thinking how search engines matters in our lives, and the great impact it actually has on us. A simple searching tool is in fact generated and constantly enhanced by a compact team of intelligent and forward brains, and perhaps because Google is infused in our lives that we overlooked its brilliance. The film manifested how people quietly do their jobs to create a better world for us to live in, and reminded us that we should not take things for granted.
I guess I could connect with the film because I'm a college student going to look for internship. I also am at the age of confronting the fears of choosing careers, struggling between dreams and reality, to take risks or to it safe. The Internship gave me butterflies as well as insights to the path of career search, and perhaps, the attitude towards life. It's sort of like an inner voice that encourages the us to believe in our's own instincts and to grab the chance before it's too late.
The central message of The Internship is to tell people to be brave, try something new, and step out of their comfort zone. Ultimately, what audiences gained after watching the film may be courage to venture the unknown, or a sense of hope, believing that somewhere out there, something is waiting for you to find them, and to change your life.
Tadpole thinks:
(I've tried to minimise spoilers, but they're inevitable)
Whilst I am typing away at my laptop, Theodora’s at a Church activity. The previous line is vague hint at our respective feelings about Les Misérables. In case you don’t catch that, she likes it and I don’t*. Precisely that isn’t obvious, but I need an introduction to my Les Mis review… forgive me. Forgive me for the crappy intro now and the rant (which you probably won’t agree with) in advance.
* After all, faith is an important element in Les Mis. Having gone to a Catholic school for more than a decade, I know the teachings of repentance, forgiveness and sacrifice too well.
Oh, Les Misérables, how you have disappointed me! I have noticed two schools of thought for this film, namely – BEST MOVIE OF 2012 OMGZ and ok this is alright. You should know I advocate the latter school. BEST MOVIE OF 2012 OMGZ seems to dominate though… an interesting phenomenon to note, many of those who are of this school of thought think Les Misérables is an English name that's pronounced as LES MIS-SER-RUH-BUH. I sound mean here, but please do not promote a film as the best film of the year without having done any research. A film is not a mere two-hour entertainment. It is a lesson, be it history or moral. If you enjoy your cinematic experience, do some background research and teach yourself something! I understand that some people may not realise the name Les Misérables is French, since the film itself is English-speaking… but provided you have common sense/have done a bit of research, you will know it’s French!
Besides, I find it bothersome that some fans have no reasons to support their love for the film. As a fiery Aries, heated debate is my thing. I find it uninspiring when you are one of the million blind fans who say something is amazing just because 999999 other people say so.
We're already 300 words in but I've only been raving with no arguments to support my position. To differentiate myself from the blind fans, I am going to voice out my opinions:
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t hate Les Mis. I just didn’t enjoy it as much as I had imagined I would. You know when you had high hopes for a film and it didn’t live up to your expectation? The film would seem to be worse than it actually was if you didn’t expect so much. I'd suspected this is the case for Les Mis until I had a week to think about it. I also suspect you readers are hating me, with your blood boiling. “GET OFF YOUR HIGH HORSE!” you may say. To put out the fire burning in your heart, let me begin by saying what I like about Les Mis. This will be short as you have heard so many good things that any more will begin to bore you.
1. Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman are SO good. We have heard only good things about Hathaway’s short performance. I’m with the majority here. She is stunning. I was quite bored even before the film hit its 30-minute mark. But Hathaway’s “I Dreamed A Dream”? It converted me from a hater (I never really liked her until now) to a fan. As for Jackman, he’s astonishing as Jean Vanjean. You would not say bad things about an actor who shines throughout the whole of the 162 minutes of the film, would you? I was genuinely surprised by his performance and his amazing voice… then I remembered his performance at the 81st Oscars.
2. Tom Hooper’s choice to use the live-sung approach. Live-sung is definitely not new but it has never been used in such a large production. A lot more work had to be put into the production of Les Mis because of this. It was worth it though, since this approach gave the film the much-needed raw emotions.
Now, I’ll talk about what I don’t like. One of the main reasons why I don’t like Les Mis is because I don’t feel the “connection”.
1. It's choppy and fragmented. I contribute this as one of the reasons for my lack of emotions for the film. It’s supposed to be a tear-jerker… so I should really feel the tension and the sadness and etc. But my confusion overcastted my other emotions. Why is this happening? What’s going on? What did I miss? I believe there’s too much to be packed into the film so it has to move at a fast pace, missing some details here and there. It’s OK as this often happens for adaptations. Well, to be very honest, I haven’t read/seen much about the original story so I don’t know if the original story is this fragmented as well. But there’s another point I want to talk about – the story itself is too MELODRAMATIC. As a rational human being, some parts are just not believable… then again, I don’t know about the original story. But the film's killed my interest to read the Victor Hugo’s novel.
2. Camera angles. I didn’t go to film school and certainly don’t know much about films, but at certain times I wish I could tell Tom Hooper he should drop the extreme close-ups. I really like them in The King’s Speech, and this Hooper signature is the one of the main reasons why the “I Dreamed A Dream” sequence is so successful. Close-ups bring us close to the actors so we could see every emotion, every twitch of their noses and every water molecule in their eyes. In short, close-ups are extremely powerful. Yet sometimes, too much is too much. Close-ups lose their effect when they are over-used. As an audience member, my gut instinct told me that I wanted to see more than Eddie Redmayne’s cute freckled face during the student revolution scenes. My brain was shouting inaudibly to the silver screen ZOOM OUT FFS.
3. Russell Crowe. I’m not going to talk about his singing because many have, but this point is also related to the live-sung approach. Obviously, using this approach is unfavorable to actors/actresses without a good voice, the imperfect singing of Russell Crowe didn’t really bother me. His face did. Why did he look so uncomfortable?
4. A minor comment. For musicals, I often get the Original Soundtrack (OST) so I could preach to all my family and friends the songs from the films, a.k.a. singing them out loud really badly in their face… but the Les Mis OST is barely listenable. I listen to it regular, but not on repeat. The songs were not recorded in a studio (hence the album is called “highlights”), theu were recorded during the “live-sung” performance. For most songs, there is no music at first, then the music will slowly fade in. Occasionally, the film’s sound effects would be recorded in and I would jump at a sudden bang.
5. I found myself checking my watch constantly during the screening… Am I alone here? Allow me to say, the film itself was quite hard to pull through.
6. I love being emotional and crying over films. I cried at Les Mis, but I felt that it had failed to evoke my emotions. Somebody told me I would need tissues just five minutes in, so I brought two extra packets with me. I only needed one tissue paper. What a bummer.
If you’ve skipped to this paragraph, hello! I’ll repeat myself – I don’t hate Les Misérables. I just don’t like it as much as I thought I would or as much as other people do. I’d give it 5 out of 10? I can’t bring myself to tell you I love the film because I don’t.
Edited on 11 January 2013: Oscar nominations came out yesterday. Lots of people have predicted previously that Les Mis would receive a double-digit number of nominations. Turned out it only received 8. Bad day for Les Mis, but perhaps it’s really overrated… Though the Oscars aren’t always credible :P
------------------------- Fish thinks: (yep, spoiler alert here too)
Les Misérables, the film-musical fusion dish that was instantly craved by the population since its publication, is surely a grand production. Family members, many friends and reviewers on IMDB all agreed simultaneously without
hesitation that it was a splendor. Personally, I found the movie entertaining and moving at points. Yet, to those who described Les Mis as “impeccable”, I beg to differ.
Let me start with the actors. Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway enhance the film with their
excellent performances portraying Jean Valjean and Fantine. Jackman surprised
me with his bloodshot eyes and cringing back at the very first scene. Knowing
him merely from X-men and Australia, I always thought he could scarcely convey
emotions from his stiff face and eyes that seems only capable of delivering
rage. Les Mis proved him otherwise. Not only he could act, but he could sing
like a lark too. Jackman’s most remarkable act is the scene when he struggled
between good and evil inside the church. He expresses a series of sentiments,
while singing and pacing to and fro the altar- one take through. I was amazed
seeing him transform from despair, realization, anger, and confusion to
swelling with confidence and passion. Say no more, applauses!
Hathaway, though not as eye-catching as Jackman, shone in
her own charming way. Fantine’s terrible encounters and lovely voice earned the
sympathy of the audiences, despite only having a short time on screen. And
salute to her having those beautiful locks of hair chopped off! She displayed
respect for her profession, and evoke ours for her.
Russel Crows was a bit disappointing, and as a result he is
the one I bitched about most of the time. He seems rather reserved and
expressionless, but it could attribute to his character being a conservative
Javert who feels numbs striving to withhold his values that contradict with
reality. In fact, the deeper I review, I realized I had exaggerated on the
actors’ performances and that only Jackman and Hathaway left me flabbergasted. The
movie created a lot of illusions.
Let’s move on to the plot. I think some of the scenes could
be further developed or explained- examples include the Jean Valjean’s dying
process, and Valjean’s father-daughter relationship with the grown Cosette. The
rushing scenes attribute to the rich plot of Les Mis, and the plot could be
trimmed to produce longer and more emotionally profound scenes.
Furthermore, I just couldn’t get myself to cry despite the
plot being touchy and all, because I am conscious that the music wants to draw
our emotions. Before, I was worried that I am heartless and cold-blooded
because while I shuffled on my seat for 159 minutes tearless, my sister’s sniffs could be heard since the
very beginning of the film. To analyze the cause
rationally, isn’t it almost certain that a person may be moved under such music
with such an intensity and facial expressions with such dramatic vigor?
I must confess I really don’t know much about the background
and story of Les Mis (guiltily, because I had studied English Literature during
high school), and actually have mistaken the revolution held by Marius and
Enjolras as the French Revolution (lucky I didn't take History!), so perhaps
this contributed to the doubts I have for the film.
What I like about the film is the
fluidity the scenes flow from one to another, and that the last scene
adequately wrapped up the play, pointing out that the ultimate paradise after
death sweeps all the pain and indignities away and brings them eternal
happiness- all the endurings are worth it. It was also a pleasure to admire the handsome and vibrant faces of
the young men, whose hot blood sizzles with passion for reform
and patriotism. Sacha Cohen (The Dictator) and Helena Bonham Carter (The King’s
Speech) make a dazzling pair whose quirky gestures and wicked flashes of
expressions caused the audience to roll with laughter. Minor characters like
Eponine and the little boy who are both killed during the revolution emit their own rays of sunshine through their voices.
My favorite scene is the very
beginning when Jean Valjean and the slaves sing out the sufferings of their
endless labor, “look down, look down...” It scare the hell out of me that I couldn’t
even recognize the disheveled Jackman. Ipso facto, the intensity of misery already
sinks into the audience, and lasts throughout the film. I could
hardly breathe. “24601!” The serial number is hauntingly impactful. I could feel Valjean’s
helplessness when he was repeatedly addressed with numbers instead of his own
name.
Christian friends of mine
suggested me to read the film in a religious angle. I shall do so when I
rewatch Les Mis another time, because oddly enough, though I was touched by Valjean's pursuit of truth and spiritual fulfillment as a Christian, I didn't have an epiphany regarding the religion when I come to think of it. In a nutshell, Les Misérables is
a good film, but it could go deeper. I’ll just end my review abruptly but I
hope you see my point:)
P.S. I apologize for uploading my review late! Happy new year to y'all!
