Is Les Miserables (2012 Film) Worth My Time?

Acting: 4.5

Acting for this particular move also involves singing, as this was a musical.  All around, from everyone, the acting was superb.  If this were purely acting it would have received a 5.  I only have a few complaints about the singing, and the biggest one is a stylistic thing.  I do not particularly care for the way the sound was from some of the signers, some of the time.  I felt that occasionally it was too much of a swallowed sound for me.  I am sure the music director had their reasons, but I would have preferred a brighter sound in some places.  The next thing, which is pretty minor, is that I felt the Main stars, generally, did not sing as well as the "extras."  Now mind you, the "extras" are Broadway Actors/Actresses who perform this musical for a living, so one might expect that they would do a fantastic job.  And lastly I was disappointed by Russel Crow's singing.  He sang well, but I think a better singer could have been found.  A few times I felt he lacked the same amount of emotion that others had in the film.  This could have just been his interpretation of his character.  So overall these are very small things, and hardly hurt the overall score.

Cinematography: 4.75

I have decided to include makeup/costumes in this section as well.  There are some really fantastic cinematic shots that really catch the scope of what is happening.  To name one, the way the film starts, extraordinary.  The .25 loss of score comes from a two things.  1. Some of the special effects needed some polishing.  Obviously, not a huge deal, but still keeps it from being a 5.  2.  Helena Carter's costuming.  I do not know how much say she had in her costuming, but I think she had a fair amount of say, and this is where a majority of the 1/4 of a point comes from.  I do not know how many movies you have seen her in, but she seems to always have a style about her, a kind of pre-modern style.  In films such as Sweeney Todd, it fits, it adds to the story, gives some flair to a character.  Well it was present in this film as well, and I thought it seemed to take away from the historical credibility of the film.  

Plot: 4

The story is amazing.  Fantastically put together and I think highly enjoyable.  There are a few lulls in the plot, and I think it can be attributed to the fact that 90% of the movie was in song, and songs are really good about expressing how someone feels, and too much of that can put the breaks to the plot, even though it really helps with character development.  Again, because so much of the movie is in song we run into the problem of unclear events, especially in the beginning.  If the viewer is unfamiliar with the story it is very likely that they will become lost in the first half an hour or so, but after that the issue stops, the story slows down a bit and does not depend to highly on a full understanding of the beginning.  That being said, if you know the story, at least a bit, you should have no problems following it.  

My Score: 5

I have been so nit picky in the last sections I wanted to express here how much I enjoyed this movie.  I love music.  I love movies.  But generally I hate musicals in movie form.  I find them to be cheesy, unrealistic, and poor musically.  However, I have really been getting into the dark musicals, like this one and Sweeney Todd.  The music in this film was better than anything I had hoped for.  

I remember when I first watched Sweeney Todd.  I had no idea it was a musical, I just knew that it had Johnny Depp in it and I had heard how good it was.  So I sat down by myself to watch it and was presently surprised to find out it was a musical.  Even better yet was that the film did three straight songs with minimal talking between them.  I had hoped that the whole move would be that way, and was slightly disappointed when more dialog found its way into the movie.  Since that day I have been dreaming of a serious musical that had none to little talking.  I looked and looked but could not find one.  I had resigned to the idea that there was not one to be had, nor could it ever happen.  

Now, I knew that Les Miserables was a musical, but when I heard that it had accomplished this, I immediately thought my source was just exaggerating, after all it was ABC News Good Morning America.  I cannot express to you how pleased I was that it went the entire movie and used less than a page of spoken dialog. (That is not a fact, it is just an approximation  it may have been more than that, but I promise, it is not much more than that.)  Not only did it involve tons of music, but it was so successful in telling the story.  It could have very well failed at telling a cohesive story with all that music.  If this is the future of musicals, we have many exciting movies coming our way. 

Overall Average: 4.6

The movie runs about 2.5 hours.  I think it draws to a close after a correct amount of time.  It is rated PG-13, and I think that may be a little young.  Some of the ideas and events depicted may be suited better for a slightly older audience,  just use good judgement.  You know your children better than I do.  If you do not like musicals, just stay away from this movie, read the book, or watch one of the older versions, the one that is not a musical, 1950 something I think.  Otherwise have some tissues handy, and be prepared to be in awe the entire time. 

Is 1984 Worth My Time?

1984 By George Orwell

I am an Education major at school.  We have a professor who has a subscription to scholastic.  Every now and then she picks a helper to do the work for this subscription.  She picks a new helper when her current helper goes into student teaching.  The helper basically puts the order forms out, collects them, orders the books, and then passes the books out.  The helper then gets points to spend on scholastic, based on how much money you raise scholastic, and then the helper orders books, for free.  I am the helper and I have been building my collection of young adult / high school literature.  This is the first book I finished from that collection.

In high school we were expected to read 1984.  I did not.  I was not much into reading at that time, well I was, but for some reason assigned reading just seemed like work, and that was not what I wanted to read, instead I read mostly Harry Potter throughout high school. I wish I would have read this book then, like I was supposed to.

It is a fairly dense book.  Not much dialog, and lots of introspective thoughts.  Orwell created a very believable environment.  So believable, in fact, that  it could happen.  I think that is why it is such a successful book.  It is so easy to draw parallels with the book and the real world.  Even more scary than that, is the fact that it was written in 1949.  Orwell seemed to know what the future held for us if things do not change.  Yes the year 1984 came and went, but the year is ambiguous, it could be 2084 or 2149, it does not matter.  What does matter is the intuitiveness he showed in writing what the world could look like.  I enjoyed it very much and I think some of you will as well.

Is "Blank" of Dune Worth My Time

Paul of Dune
Winds of Dune

By Brian Herbert 
and Kevin J. Anderson

In short, no.  I know, my first real poor review of books from the Dune Universe.

If you really like the universe, and you really want to learn more about it, you should read them.  I have a few reasons for not liking them.

I knew what was going to happen, basically   Because of where the books are in the series I just knew what needed to happen to fit the story, but how we got there was sometimes unexpected.  Both books are similar in structure, they involve two stories in one book.  Think of it as a flashback, every few chapters we go back in time to learn about the past.  Honestly, I found the flashbacks of the books to be more enjoyable than the main story.  There was very little character development, mainly because it is mostly done in other books, that were written awhile ago.   

These books provide good facts about events that happened, but do little in expanding those event to anything special.  To be fair, to make them to special would surly steal some thunder from previous books, which would not be good either.  These books just give the feeling of filler, something that was unneeded,  doesn't really add anything special, and just fills some small gaps.  I do not regret reading them, but have no real desire to read it again.

If you want to know where they fit chronologically, here you go.  Red titles are by Frank Herbert, the rest by Kevin and Brian.

Dune The Butlerian Jihad

Dune The Machine Crusade

Dune The Battle of Corrin

Dune House Atreides

Dune House Harkonnen

Dune House Corrino

Dune

Paul of Dune

Dune Messiah

Winds of Dune

Children of Dune

God Emperor of Dune

Heretics of Dune

Chapterhouse Dune

Hunters of Dune

Sandworms of Dune

These authors have released a new book, Sisterhood of Dune.  From what I understand it is the first book in a new trilogy.  I will not be reading it until the other books are released as well, as I do not want to read it, then have a year or so to forget what is in it and then read the next one.  

Is "The Dark Knight Rises" Worth My Time?

I want to start using a more set way of grading movies.  So I made a rubric.  You can find it on my other blog.  I will first address all the things on the rubric, and give you comments to explain the grade given.  After the rubric I will give you my personal over all score, and reasons.  Then I will average all the scores together.


Acting
5.  All of the characters felt real to me.  The had real personalities.  They had real problems, and real dilemmas.  They made choices that you could tell they either regretted or supported.  Very well done.

Cinematography

4.  Everything was good.  The camera angles and background were not legendary by any means.  They were good, but not great.  I felt like Batman's motorcycle seemed fake sometimes.  They way it moved, and bounced.  But that is it.  There were a few little lighting issues, at one point it was snowing and sunny.  Again not a huge issue.    Mostly the set enhanced the story.  There was one scene that a city street was wreaked by an explosion before an explosion happened.

Plot

4.  I wanted to give it a five here, but after looking at my rubric, I could not do it.  The beginning seemed a little too sluggish, but it quickly sped up.  There was one thing that was very predictable, but to share would spoil it for some of you.  The movie had some really fantastic themes.  And I feel it ended all the plots lines that were opened up throughout the three movies.  

My Score

4.  In comparison to "The Dark Knight," the movie fell just a little short.  Just a little.  It did not reach the same level of intensity.  Still a very very good movie.  Fits well into the story, and adds some great details, and ties the three movies together.  

Overall Average

4.25.  The movie runs about 3 hours, and a short 3 hours it is.  Appropriately rated PG-13.  It is not nearly as dark as "The Dark Knight," but defiantly has an appropriate feeling for the series.  The end might have been a little too romantic for some, but not for me.  A fine conclusion to an awesome series.  Go watch it, you will not be disappointed.  

Is Dune (The Finale) Worth My Time?

Hunters of Dune
Sandworms of Dune


By Brian Herbert 
and Kevin J. Anderson

These two books were planned by Frank Herbert, but he passed away and was unable to finish the series.  In fact, the notes for the books were in a safety deposit box, which lay unopened for years after Franks's death.  Brian, his son, came across the notes, and eventually Kevin and Brain crossed paths, and decided to start working of the Dune story once more.  Brian had helped his father on some of the original books, and Kevin has written many books on his own.

So if they had all these notes to finish the series why not finish it, why write all these other books?  Well, simply they wanted practice.  But a deeper reason has to do with the story.  There are some vital elements that need to be understood before you read the last two books.  That was their thinking, and now that I have read the last two (and all the books written before them), I agree with them.

The two books are very good.  Even better than the last three. They bring the story to a great close that I think could really be related to current life, in many different ways.  I did not expect the ending, and it was far better than what I could have came up with.  I think these two men have done a fantastic job in keeping the Dune Universe true to franks dream, but instead of trying to emulate him, they made it their own, and they have done a wonderful job at it.

As to the order to read the series I recommend this. (I am only going to include books up to the point I have read.  There are three more, but at a later time I will tell you where they should be read in the set.)

Start at: 

Dune

Dune Messiah

Children of Dune

God Emperor of Dune

Dune The Butlerian Jihad

Dune The Machine Crusade

Dune The Battle of Corrin

Dune House Atreides

Dune House Harkonnen

Dune House Corrino

Heretics of Dune

Chapterhouse Dune

Hunters of Dune

Sandworms of Dune

That is just my opinion, feel free to read them anyway you want.  I am reading them in the order they were written.  And because of life, the lengths of the books, and my poor memory, I felt like by the time I got to Hunters and Sanworms, I had forgotten important things from Heretics and Chapterhouse.  


An alternative place to start would be Dune The Butlerian Jihad.  And continue to read them in chronological order.  When I catch up to the authors (that's correct, they are still writing books) I will read them in the chronological order.

I think the order I have given you is the best of both worlds.  Because if you start the series at Dune and do not really care for it, its a self sufficient story, and needs no other books after it, making it a good place to start. And if you do like it, you can explore the universe in an order that should help you retain the information needed most to understand the end.

Is Dune (The Machine Trilogy) Worth Your Time?

Dune The Butlerian Jihad
Dune The Machine Crusade
Dune The Battle of Corrin


By: Kevin J Anderson and Brian Herbert

If ever there was another place to start the Dune series, this would be it.  No real background on Dune is needed.  Just jump in and go.  As you progress through the trilogy, the books get better.  There are lots of characters to keep track of, and lots of things happening all at once.  And in these books, I think the authors did the best job yet of really bringing the events together seamlessly.

Not only that, but if you know where the books are headed, you still find them very enjoyable.  I was always trying to figure out how the books would get to where they needed to be for Dune.  It was always kept me guessing, and they even threw in some unexpected twists.  Although the books are long, and there are lots of characters, I feel that many of the characters have lots of depth.

I would not be at all surprised if there, eventually, comes a few books before these.  I think there is fabulous potential involving the rise of the "Bad Guys."  The newest book, Sisterhood of Dune,  is the start of a trilogy between this trilogy and The House Trilogy.

This trilogy has many of the same issue that the House Trilogy did.  It moves slowly, and at times it lacks the grandiose feeling of the original.  However, I think they are the best ones yet by these two authors.  And please keep in mind, that although they are not written by Frank Herbert, they are written based on his notes, and they do a fantastic job of making it their own.  Not only do these three come highly recommended, the whole series dose as well.

Is The Devil Inside (2012 Film) Worth My Time?

I had heard so many bad things about this movie.  My opinions are usually nicer that my peers.  So I wanted to see if this movie was as bad as I had heard.  I expected an awful movie, and at the very least I could laugh at how bad it was.

Rated R, for good reason, and at just over 1 hour, seemed a little short.  No noteworthy stars, producer, or directer. The ending seemed a little abrupt, but was actualy a fine ending, in my opinion.  I saw quite a few continuity errors, but I was looking for them, kind of my pet peeve.

The director really tried to make it seem like a real documentary.  Minus the continuity errors, he did a fine job.  A few times the "realness" was broken, again mostly from the continuity errors.  The movie showed some real potential at the beginning, but as the movie went along, it failed at meeting that potential.

It is not a movie I would call scary, just kinda gross.  I was only scared once, but that was one of those cheap scares, a barking dog during a conversation outside.  Some of the movie I found humors, in a strange way, some of the spoken dialog from the possessed people was just comical.

Not a movie to see in the theater.  It might be worth it from RedBox.  And if you have the chance to watch it for free, go for it, as a last pick.