Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Rent Review



Simply put, Rent is the best movie musical to come out in years. Based on the Broadway musical of the same name (which was a remake of an older play called La Boheme), Rent truly is a fun movie to watch and hear. More importantly, the film has a real heart and soul, something sorely missing from most Hollywood produced movies today. Rent will stay with you well after the ending credits roll.

Starring a cast of drag queens and drug addicts (but boy can they SING!!!).

I'm not saying that it's a perfect movie. Infact, it's far from perfection. There were a couple scenes in the movie I felt were entirely expendable, and hurt the flow of the story. For example, the scene with Maureen's protest could have been cut waaaaaayyy down, or even out of the movie. Another point to be made is that Rent has a few very campy moments, which I didn't mind, but I've read other critic reviews that disagree with me. Basically, it suffers from flaws that every musical does, the fact that some people think it's funny when people break out into song. I personally found it refreshing and electric, but I'm sure that there are many who won't.

And now time for something competely different.

Which leads me to the music. Oh sweet lord, I loooovvee the music! From "Seasons of Love" to the film's finale, Rent boasts an outstanding array of songs. Unlike films like Chicago, these songs are actually based on subjects you can relate to on a personal level, making the whole feel far more human then any recent musical fair.

In conclusion, it's a musical tour de force. If you can't stand musicals, you'll feel like jabbing your eyes out thirty minutes in. If you're like me, however, you're gonna enjoy yourself. It's not a great movie, it's not even a particularly well made movie, but it's an entertaining and touching one. In my opinion, IT WAS RENT-TASTIC!

Rating: B

Kaleb Approved Rent Clips
Life Support: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz-JI-SaCck
Seasons of Love: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3SBqnT5KP8
You'll See Boys: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ekdh0ZYfODw

4 comments:

A Deranged Young Person said...

I was actually surprised how much I liked it, shadowjak. It was quite good!

A Deranged Young Person said...

LOL, never seen The Producers, but I think I should now that you've mentioned it. Although, I doubt I'll connect to the music like I did with Rent (unless there's songs about "Seasons of Love" or some mushy gushy stuff like that).

Anonymous said...

Awwww. I'm glad there's rentlove around besides me. so many peeps seem to hate it. nice review, and nice blog.

and a small tear formed on my eye after seeing your vid-reccomendation list.

=D tty another day,

--feathersfall

A Deranged Young Person said...

Yay!! Another Rent-Head! I don't understand how you can hate Rent. I can understand not liking it because there's alot of singing.... but hating it? LOL