Saw it last night, here are my thoughts

Colm Wilkinson as Priest / Bishop = Great to see him in it
Amanda Seyfried = superb
Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter = casting genius
Russell Crowe = appalling, but I have never liked him.
Anne Hathaway = simply astonishing, felt you were watching something genuinly special
Hugh Jackman = very good but due to uncanny likeness to Guy Martin I expected him to start talking about ‘grafters’ all the time.

Set was a bit rubbish, felt a bit cheap.

Still very good, but Russell Crowe let the film and role down

8/10

Still very good, but Russell Crowe let the film and role down

Were you not entertained?

This has been doing the rounds (via reddit):

Personaly i thought i was a bit rubbish, built up and built up by the media,and thats what they pull off.

I was not entertained.

Were you not entertained?

very good. 🙄

I was, just not by his soleless, flat, unimaginative, wooden droning.
I did quite like the bit when he made a crunching noise near the end (trying to avoid spoilers)

The other thing, I spent the first 10 minutes of the film trying to work out if it would have actually been possible for men to pull a warship into dry dock.

You are letting down your nom de plume by totally ignoring two of the three finest vocal performances – Samantha Barks and Eddie Redmayne. IMO of course!

I agree about Eddie Redmayne, he was very good, great voice and really understood the emotion of Marius. I liked him a lot.

Need to look up Samantha Brks, was she poor old Eponine? If so, where exactly does he put her meals, she does not actually have a waistline? She is tiny!

She was indeed! For me she was one of the stars.

(trying to avoid spoilers)

Pretty sure CaptJon already did that.

Sacha B-C and Helena B-C were the highlights for me. Although I have to ay that Anne hathaway was mesmerising.

franksinatra – Member
The other thing, I spent the first 10 minutes of the film trying to work out if it would have actually been possible for men to pull a warship into dry dock.

Yeah, this had me baffled. Surely the point of a dry dock is you open the gates, flood it, pull the floating boat it, close the gates and pump it out (or wait for the tide to go out and then let the water out)

there’s no way any number of men would be able to drag a ship of that size into an empty dry dock.

Apologies if i spoilt anything – mods to the forum please.

Yeah, this had me baffled. Surely the point of a dry dock is you open the gates, flood it, pull the floating boat it, close the gates and pump it out (or wait for the tide to go out and then let the water out)

there’s no way any number of men would be able to drag a ship of that size into an empty dry dock.

Yeah, they got that bit a bit wrong. They would use men and ropes to pull a ship in, but they wouldn’t be in the dock itself, they should be high up, on the edges.

Otherwise, I thought it was rather good, and I’m not a musical fan. Thought Crowe did a good job, even if he’s not the best singer.

Samantha Barks was incredible, slightly in love with her. I’d happily give it an 8/10

Yeah, this had me baffled. Surely the point of a dry dock is you open the gates, flood it, pull the floating boat it, close the gates and pump it out (or wait for the tide to go out and then let the water out)
there’s no way any number of men would be able to drag a ship of that size into an empty dry dock.

Who cares? Slaves are free

who cares? Slaves are free

Yes, but whips aren’t.

I think the idea was that the warship was so damaged (it was listing, mast broken etc) that they could not float it into the dock, hence dragging it in.

HMS Victory weighs 3,556 tonnes. Assuming this ship is much smaller it could be perhaps 1500 tonnes. Even if you had 1000 men dragging it, that is still 1.5 tonnes each. The same as dragging a very large car, with it’s wheels removed.

I could perhaps be accused of thinking about this too much1

Some really good bits some mediocre bits and a couple of bad bits. On the whole pretty good and worth going to see – favourite film of the year 😉

Women seemed a lot better than the men on the whole.

Blimey, yes, the cinema was surprisingly dusty at the end. Great film. Didn’t think Wolverine had it in him.

Is a good question about the dock. Also if they have to drag it into the dock, then how do they get it out?

At the end Wolverine’s sideys were getting so long I was just about expecting him to jump up and start carving people up.

I thought it was okay, perhaps a victim of the hype surrounding it.

I did let out a very loud “LOL’ at ‘Courgette’ though. Brilliant.

I found it a very long 2 hours 40 minutes. Russell Crowe really wasn’t good enough, Hugh Jackman sounded very strained most of the time. My main problem was all the bits that weren’t really a song but weren’t really acting either – don’t most musicals have normal acting interspersed with songs?

Reminded me of R Kelly Trapped in the Closet the way they kept going into that funny half-song with the same tune all the way through. After a big buildup the ‘revolution’ bit was very disappointing as well.

Anne Hathaway does have a great voice though, and I liked Sasha Baron Cohen.

After a big buildup the ‘revolution’ bit was very disappointing as well.

Yeah I agree with that – a few blokes on some tables. Not exactly ‘opening scene of Gladiator’ was it?

Blokes go and see musicals? Who knew? 😯

I have seen a few actually. And ballets too. My wife used to drag me along but now I actually go willingly.

Blokes go and see musicals? Who knew?

Dragged along by the missus – probably never again, though I quite like the look of the Mormon musical by the writers of South Park.

Went to Les Mis when in 6th form many moons ago, was good. Following year went to Cats which I thought was bilge.

Cats is rubbish – utter drivel. Agreed.

I have never watched a film before and genuinely wanted to be at work, it was never going to be my type of film though.

I watched the 1952 version on tv a couple of nights ago and thought it was excellent.