Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Movie Review Madness - Beauty and the Beast

A tale as old as time….Beauty and the Beast gets a live action Disney remake that is absolutely gorgeous and worthy. Go see it on a monster big screen. Spring for the good theater with XD fancy screen and sound. Get the big tub of popcorn and bask in an old fashioned musical.  Not much new to the story. Belle (Emma Watson) is the odd girl in an old French town. She reads books, for goodness sake, and dreams of more to life. No, she does not want to marry Gaston (Luke Evans) – the hot male in town who’s an egomaniac.  Her father (the always good to see Kevin Kline) is eccentric and when he goes off to market loses his way and ends up a prisoner in an odd creepy castle. His faithful horse shows up and takes Belle to find him. There she says, “Step into the light” and meets the Beast.

This formerly vain prince had a curse placed upon him and his castle.  Now, until a final rose petal falls, he must remain a hideous creature and his servants are stuck as candelabras (Ewan McGregor), clocks (Ian McKellan), teapots (Emma Thompson), and the fancy wardrobe (Audra MacDonald- fabulous voice),  etc.   Belle swaps places with her father and shows her strong will. She’s not going to put up with crap from the Beast. But slowly she realizes he is her match – he’s well read, has a fabulous library, and she slowly makes him less selfish. Meanwhile, she charms the characters and they love her.


Emma Watson is perfect in this role. She projects intelligence. Her interplay with the Beast (a charming and worthy Dan Stevens) works. And he slowly wins her favor and ours. Deep down he is human, he does care, and does need and seek love. Can she fall for him in time to save them all?  Oh, you must enjoy the film to the end – bask in the lavish numbers (Be Our Guest). Love is unpredictable, and sometimes you do have to look into the soul, into the core of a creature to find what’s worthy.  So, yes, a bit of a lesson in this day and age. But the supreme goal of Beauty and the Beast is to entertain, to tell a tale as old as time…and golly gee, it will win your heart. 

12 comments:

  1. Sounds like they recaptured the magic of it indeed. I'll watch on Netflix maybe as this whole cartoon to real person thing is starting to get as bad as remakes.

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  2. Wow! What a great review! Whenever I see yet another remake has been made from an old movie, I generally get annoyed. Rarely do I like the remake anywhere near as much as the original, but from what you've written, it sounds like "Beauty and the Beast" may be the exception.

    (The bazillionth remake of "King Kong" movie, anyone?)

    From what I've seen on the Weather Channel, it looks like you got your one obligatory day of summer before plunging directly into summer. It's in the low 80s here, which is fine and dandy. It's way too early for ninety-degree days. (Time to start floating around in your pool...)

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    1. Pool is still cool and this is a worthy remake. In my humble opinion. What the heck- matinee price!!

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  3. Everyone I know who has seen this absolutely loved it. I love Emma Watson. Sadly, I am just not a person who likes musicals very much at all. I never saw the Disney animated one either for the same reason.

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    1. They don't sing the whole time...you are missing out

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  4. I've heard so much hype about this one. It sounds as if it was well-deserved. I am hoping to see this one. It sounds magical and fun. :)

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  5. Sounds great Joanne, thanks for sharing.

    Yvonne.

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