Les Miserables

Though I saw Les Mis on Broadway back in the 90’s, I completely forgot the entire story and the scores of wonderful music. How could that be? Maybe I was just too young then to fully understand the emotions behind each song sang. I had not lived life yet. I was still naive and full of dreams. I believed in a life better. I guess 10 years later, those dreams are just shattered and Ive become a hardened person. Today, when I went to watch Les Mis in the theaters, I couldnt stop crying. If you were to pay attention to each word sang, you couldnt help but empathize. I think its because I lived enough life now to understand this misery and to be wretched. Particularly when Anne Hathaway sang “I dreamed a dreamed”, I began sobbing. Just be prepared to walk in there with a box of tissue. All I heard in the audience was sniffling and tissue crackling. Of course, Hathaway did a wonderful job as Fantine. Her acting is getting better in each production and I have to admit, I was surprised at how wonderful she sang that song. But for this song, I have to say, I miss Lea Salonga’s voice. For some reason, it was now that I fully felt the emotions of that song. This movie reminded me of my innocence and how I once was so naive. I believed in true love and all these dreams. Hugh Jackman did a fantastic job in displaying the wretched soul of Jean Valjean. Life throws us these loops and we become hardened and angry. Yet, Jean Valjean is touched by the grace of God and his heart is softened. In the end, his words, “..to love another person is to see the face of God”, my heart kick into high gear and that’s when a stream of tears just came falling. My heart has been hardened by life in general, but I am reminded that love truly is the greatest gift. There is nothing more amazing than to love another person and sacrifice everything for them. It is when you fall in love, that you see all your sins and imperfections. There is this overwhelming sadness and pain that goes with this love, yet its the most joyful moment of your life and you cant imagine losing it.

The entire movie was superb. The only fatal flaw was Russell Crowe. I just didnt see how he could be in a musical. His voice was stagnant and lacked any emotion. He was not convincing at all when it came to his singing abilities. The one surprising factor was this actor that has been a hidden gem in hollywood, Eddie Redmayne. His baritone voice brought such power to his character, Marius.  He had an amazing control over his voice and the stretch of each word sang. I absolutely loved his performance. Watch out for this actor. After Les Mis, Im pretty certain we will see more of him. All in all, this movie is a must see if you feel like you need a good kick in the face and be reminded about what life is really all about.

The movie is definitely long, but its because there is so much character development in this musical. Not a single moment is felt wasted in this movie. Each scene was needed to lead you to the full story. What is more amazing is the emotion that you feel in each scene. Each actor, with the exception of Mr. Crowe, was able to draw you into their life and feel what they feel. The pain, anger, excitement, despair, innocence and shame. Once you walk into this movie, your heart will feel a range of everything. The best movies are the ones that you dont want to end and you just want to stay for more. Les Mis 2012 does exactly that for this Asian American Fob. Here I end with the “People’s Song”. Sorry it isnt from the movie, but I really like this concert version since it was performed live.

Asian American Fob gives this movie 5 thumbs up, eventho I hated Russell Crowe’s performance.

Dark Knight Rises – Spoiler Alert

Is it me or does Christian Bale‘s voice get raspier at each new Batman movie that follows? I was barely able to understand what each character was saying due to the overload of IMAX theater surround sound, the heavy artillery gun shootings in the movie, extreme dramatic music and the freakish masks on every actor’s face. I could have watched this movie in Farsi and it would mean the same to me. Ok, Farsi is Persian – an Iranian Language. If you didnt know what Farsi was. By the way, I ended up watching this movie twice to really understand what the characters were actually saying. Conclusion: Christopher Nolan did another great job at creating a extreme evil antagonist with this conflicting morality.  Every character in this movie had this flowing theme, that we are human and none of us are perfect. We strive to be good but due to circumstances and survival we make choices that lead to negative consequences. Mr. Nolan tries to plug in some socio-economic justice issues about income disparity but ultimately cant really complete that task. The end just became an extreme case of Occupy Wall 3.0. A quote by catwoman aka Anne Hathaway would say in the movie, “There’s a storm coming, Mr. Wayne. You and your friends better batten down the hatches, because when it hits, you’re all gonna wonder how you ever thought you could live so large and leave so little for the rest of us.” Basically, this line is giving us Mr. Nolan’s ultimate message. Unfortunately, his evil character Bane, played by Tom Hardy, doesn’t really show concern for “the people”. There really isn’t any social morality to Bane for  his distaste of Gotham City. Rather, in the end we find it was all for a woman. Now isnt that a typical reason for anything a man does? It’s to impress a woman.

I have to admit the new Batman gadgets really was awesome to watch. It got hotter when Catwoman sat on the Bat-motorcycle aka Batpod.  Check it out! I wanna look that cool!

I love that the Batpod was able to switch it up and make all these flipping turns. Even if I didn’t understand anything the actors were saying, at least I got to enjoy the latest technology. Honestly, I think what made this movie for me was Anna Hathaway. Truthfully, I dont really enjoy watching Hathaway’s movies. But I have to admit, she plays a really freaking hot and spicy Catwoman. The fact that she can stretch her legs as high upto a 5′ 10″ man’s face wearing 4-inch heels is AWESOME!  Hathaway plays Catwoman perfectly. She has this internal conflict between doing good and doing what’s necessary to survive. Isnt that the truth in all of us?  I guess I really like Catwoman because I identified with her. Basically, Catwoman betrays Batman 2x in the movie. She is willing to do anything for self preservation and to erase to her past. Yeah, dont we all want to do that.

Then you have Christian Bale playing Batman. He’s plays the same role as usual. This sad, morbid, and dark person who cant face the world because of his hopelessness towards mankind. This character is played out too much and its getting old. Sometimes, I just want to see a happy Batman.  Yeah, it wouldnt hurt to have Christian Bale break a smile. This Batman is sadistic and has no fear of death. We later find Christian Bale in some hellhole trying to break free by climbing out of this hellhole. The only way he does it is by learning to fear death again. I dont understand much of Batman’s character. Maybe because I never experienced such hopelessness. But for all you hopeless people out there, dont lose hope, because Batman didnt.

The rest of the actors you can figure out. I dont want to spoil the ending for you, but beware of all the different characters in the movie because the real villian isnt Bane. Oh and as for Joseph Gordon-Levitt, I really liked his wannabe Irish/Bostonian accent.  Between Gordon-Levitt’s accent and the NYC skyline, I wasnt sure if Gotham City was suppose to be New York City or Boston.

For a summer blockbuster, I guess this is as good as it gets now a days. This Asian American Fob is giving Dark Knight Rises: 4 thumbs up. That’s only because Hathaway kicked-ass!