MovieSorter

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Cabaret
Really Great 66 Points 1972

This paean to lost licentiousness in the face of fascism won eight (8!) Oscars, losing out only on Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay (both to The Godfather for Pete’s sake). The movie that made Liza more famous for her talent than her…

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WikChip Image Sexy Brilliance.
Burlesque
Barely OK 66 Points 2010

Life is a cabaret ol’ chum, but Burlesque ain’t. Unlike Bob Fosse’s classic, this awkward knock-off can’t muster a single memorable song, criminally underuses its cast, and is poorly produced.

Oh, it has the winsome Christina Aguilera, she of the powerhouse voice. And it has the ageless Ch…

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WikChip Image Charming girl, huge voice, lame movie.
Blue Hawaii
OK 66 Points 1961

Elvis returns to Hawaii from the Army and proceeds to shake things up with a bunch of girls, his flustered parents and the local tourism industry. Notwithstanding the King’s undying charisma, Blue Hawaii is a disappointing lark, especially since it contains no great songs and lacks a great fem…

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Paint Your Wagon
OK 66 Points 1969

A big budget disaster when it came out at the end of the Sixties, Paint Your Wagon is a modestly entertaining extravaganza today. Faint praise? Indeed, for a musical comedy that is long on star power and short on memorable songs and effective humor.

Oh yeah, it’s also long on time. I watc…

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WikChip Image Jean Seberg: lovely, not distinctive
Gentlemen Prefe...
OK 66 Points 1953

A sparkling Marilyn Monroe and one terrific song don’t fully rescue this Howard Hawks musical-comedy from the dregs of cheesiness. The song? Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend, a theatrically produced Song and Dance number performed by the inimitable MM in an iconic pink dress

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WikChip Video Watch this and skip the movie.
The Sapphires
Great 66 Points 2012

Sweet soul music forms the soundtrack of this infectiously enjoyable Australian musical-comedy. Telling the truthy tale of four black girls from Down Under who performed American soul music for U.S. GIs and Marines in Vietnam, The Sapphires tickles, touches and torches in equal measure.

Bla…

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WikChip Video The Sapphires' smoking hot What A Man
Jersey Boys
Very Good 66 Points 2014

This long movie is no longer than the smash stage show it brings to the Silver Screen. It just feels like it. Clint Eastwood apparently couldn’t come up with a way to transform the show for the screen, with middling results. I can’t think of a way either, but that doesn’t change the underwhelm…

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WikChip Video Jersey Boys @Tonys: This U can dance 2
Funny Face
Great 66 Points 1957

Audrey Hepburn is the spoon-full-of-sugar who makes the cultural imperialism go down in Funny Face. Stanley Donen’s musical – done Broadway style – is an intoxicating Vogue-tini, a Size 0 fashion fantasy.

Richard Avedon famously created the opening titles, which are perfectly high fashion. …

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WikChip Image Avedon's timeless portrait of Hepburn
Pal Joey
Great 66 Points 1957

Frank Sinatra won a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical as the womanizing nightclub singer in Pal Joey. Sandwiched between the glamorous Rita Hayworth and the luscious Kim Novak, he’s at his lounge-lizard best in this mid-century paean to pre-liberation sexual politics. It’s a wh…

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WikChip Video The Lady is a Tramp - Sinatra simmers
The Greatest Sh...
OK 66 Points 2017

The Greatest Showman is …who again… Hugh Jackman or P.T. Barnum? This is Barnum’s biopic but Jackman’s show, designed to feature who? Jackman, singing and strutting as only Hugh Jackman can do.

The Greatest Showman’s greatest problem is that Jackman likes to be liked. Unfortunately, lik…

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WikChip Video "Everything you'll ever want?" Uh, no.