I find this hilarious and it shows how much 2 box office runs can vary.
I thought Greatest Showman was fine as a movie, but what really bothered me was the PT Barnum character is essentially 2 dimensional. It ignores how PT Barnum's defining trait was being America's greatest con man. He's responsible for us believing T-Rexes stand on their hind legs (the bones he bought were unimpressive so he stood the thing upright). (I'm an idiot at research sometimes). And of course his famous quote "There's a sucker born every minute" is never really addressed in the movie. He is, by all accounts of the movie, just a poor hero with a dream to accomplish.
The worst part is that the movie wants us to believe he "gave 'freaks' a place to belong." Let me just say... there's a reason why freak shows aren't prevalent anymore. I highly recommend watching The Elephant Man for that story. Nominated for 8 Oscars (including Best Pic, Director, Screenplay, and Actor). David Lynch's directing is spot-on, and John Hurt and Anthony Hopkins give impeccable, haunting performances. Fun fact: Mel Brooks is an uncredited producer, and he hired Lynch based on Eraserhead.
If you're going for the triple feature, I recommend "Freaks" (1932).
This movie was pretty divisive. Critics were not fans but audiences were way more kind to it and it definitely seemed to grow a following, especially with musical theater fans. But, I gotta be honest, I wasn't impressed with it.
I dunno, I feel like this movie is to musicals what Transformers is to action movies. The latter franchise has never been critically acclaimed but managed to have 4 movies that did well at the box office because people loved about it what they came for, which is the action (mainly robots beating the shit out of each other). Not many people are really going to argue they were well-written movies but they liked them for what they were. I guess Greatest Showman is the same way, many people came because they loved the music and there was enough people that loved the music to turn the movie into a sleeper hit despite a lukewarm opening weekend.
But the music's just not really my cup of tea. I'm not a fan of autotuned contemporary pop and that's exactly the genre most of these songs are in. I do like a couple of the songs (This is Me and From Now On) but the rest are just too autotuned for my tastes. And, because I personally wasn't a big fan of the songs, they just didn't really blind me from the movie's many, many flaws.
I mean, I get they had to sanitize Barnum's story a bit to get a family crowd in but did they have to replace literally EVERYTHING with cliches? Barnum and Charity didn't grow up together, Barnum wasn't a poor kid who was struggling to make ends meet until he started his circus, Barnum never had some obsession with being accepted by rich people, why add all these cliches in and not just use, you know, the stuff that really happened that doesn't have to do with him owning slaves or abusing his workers? Like, for example, why not have him talk about all those businesses he owned before creating his circus? If you're going to be historically inaccurate, fine, but if your going to change stuff, why change it to stories we've already heard millions of times?
Also the whole pro-diversity/anti-prejudice message feels really forced in, like they only have said message because it's a hot topic in the news. For all the movie preaches about how diversity is great (a sentiment I do agree with), the movie doesn't flesh out the crowd meant to be the diverse crowd, Barnum's freaks, at all and seems uninterested in really spending any time with them as opposed to spending more time with Jackman and Efron, a.k.a. the Pretty White P
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First time on this subreddit so sorry if this has already been talked about...
How did this sub receive The Greatest Showman? I finally watched it last night (partially because I had no idea until then that it was a movie musical) and my girlfriend really liked it but I took exception to how the songs sounded less like traditional musical songs and more like pop pieces.
Can we only expect movie musicals to be autotuned to heck be fused heavily with cg over practical effects going forward?
So I was just going back and listening to the soundtrack on YouTube and something made me think for a bit...The final act, The Greatest Show (reprise). He gives his hat to Efron (sorry don't remember the name of the character) and says "I'll be watching my daughters grow up". What does he mean by that? Does he transition to like the business side of the circus at that point? So he's still getting money but just managing it instead of being away from home and doing the act himself?
Or did he make so much money he just retired completely and chilled until he died then?
The results are in. 'The Greatest Showman' gets the highest rating from the weekend's newest releases while 'Downsizing' is the lowest of the newest releases. Also, 'Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle' has the same rating as the original film while Pitch Perfect 3 has the same rating as the second installment. https://www.cinemascore.com/
Top 10:
- The Greatest Showman - Soundtrack (=)
- George Ezra - Staying at Tamara's (=)
- Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody: Soundtrack (=)
- Lady Gaga & Bradley Cooper - A Star is Born: Soundtrack (=)
- dodie - Human (NEW)
- James Blake - Assume Form (NEW)
- Jess Glynne - Always In Between (-2)
- Thunder - Please Remain Seated (NEW)
- Fleetwood Mac - 50 Years: Don't Stop (-3)
- Queen - The Platinum Collection (+2)
Top 40 New Entries:
16: Future - Future Hndrxx Presents: The Wizrd
17: The Twilight Sad - IT WON/T BE LIKE THIS ALL THE TIME
25: Maggie Rogers - Heard It In A Past Life
30: Sharon Van Etten - Remind Me Tomorrow
36: Papa Roach - Who Do You Trust?
38: Steve Mason - About The Light
The Greatest Showman should finally be knocked off again next week by BMTH.
In honor of Kinda Funny doing Logan I thought I'd share this here. Fandom posted these images on Twitter of a Wolverine Shout out during the opening credits of "The Greatest Showman" I thought the BF's out there may appreciate it so here it is.
https://preview.redd.it/48dps6pvx3h11.png?width=1024&format=png&auto=webp&s=24f2c62a5d37a690c01f728ad4c1b15254a5fb70
https://preview.redd.it/7dvry2q1y3h11.png?width=368&format=png&auto=webp&s=fb33d13104339a21b203daa092c6239964a98b9d
War of the Worlds - S33E5 ‘The Greatest Showman' - Live Episode Discussion - West Coast
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They just suck. They're over the top and have that 'I am magnificent, you can't say anything to me' cliche . It's also repeated everywhere I go: the radio, everyone singing it and even at the suggestions at school events. I just want it to stop.
