You know who would be a great fit for El Gallo? Antonio Banderas. That way, even if the movie turns out bad, it's pretty likely that he's going to be one of the bright spots in it.
My biggest problem with the film is that it robbed the audience of the ability to use their imagination. The stage directions are explicitly clear that the stage is to be fairly plain and blank, and the audience is trusted with filling in the spaces however they like. (And obviously it works). I always thought that they lived in a row of houses like a suburb or Privet Drive. And the costumes and set date the show. There is a real timeless quality with this show and setting them in a period specific place looses that
This is the only musical I went out of my way to find the stage performance after watching the review. A deconstruction of star crossed lover stories about how parents manipulate their children and leave them unprepared for the real world? Exactly my jam!
What weirds me out about El Gallo in the movie is that he's just...kind of creepy. In the show you get the impression that he does genuinely want to see these kids grow ("I hurt them for that reason...and myself a little bit, too."), and he does play the part of a gentleman well enough to convince even the audience. The fact that this El Gallo doesn't even apologize for giving Luisa a bruise before kissing her wrist just cheeses me off.
Amie Fortman even then in the show, his “I’m sorry...” really isn’t a true apology. He’s telling her what she wants to hear so she agrees to honestly whatever he says
Hi, Diva! I really love your work, and I look forward to your critiques. I only saw The Fantasticks at a production at Queens College (Flushing, Queens, NY) a few years ago. I thought the show was cute. The beginning of Act II, where the characters tried to hold their "happily ever after" poses from Act I, really brought the theme home. Then I saw the movie on TV about a year ago, and yes, the film seems drained of charm and focus.
My high school theatre troupe did this in the late 90’s and it was wonderful, biased as I am. Our Fine Arts Department was full of truly talented faculty and students. The boy that played El Gallo went on to play the Music Man his senior year. He embodied both characters so perfectly.
This movie is AWFUL, the kind that turns anyone off of ever watching musicals. 1. Does anyone else live in this town? In this world?! Is this some awful alternate universe where the Depression (I'm guessing it's the Depression, because Luisa has a picture of Jean Harlow in her room) also brought the Plague, wiping out all but 30 or so losers? 2. "Much More" made me want to apologize to Rob Marshall for any time I criticized his editing. Michael Ritchie should have watched the opening musical numbers to "The Sound of Music" or "Beauty and the Beast" to see how this kind of musical number is done. 3. I confess I'm not the biggest fan of "Try to Remember" (I find it kinda boring), but it manages to be fairly charming in the hands of a strong singer. Jerry Orbach (damn, I still miss him) made the song his own, I'm sure Robert Goulet sang the hell out of it, and Josh Groban covers it on his "Stages" album. Jonathan Morris, on the other hand, is such a pitiful singer that he only emphasizes the song's weaknesses rather than its strengths. It doesn't help that he has the charisma of applesauce and looks like a cross between Tommy Wiseau and Michael Bolton. 4. Not only is Joey McEntire a lousy actor and only so-so vocalist, but his Boston accent is hilariously distracting. It's like watching a cut scene from "Good Will Hunting". 5. You forgot "Ohai, Tony Cox!" 6. I'm torn: on one hand, Luisa is a fickle, gullible twit who deserved to lose her necklace; on the other hand, El Gallo was still a douche for keeping it (in addition to everything else he's done). 7. So the mask in "Round and Round" gives the wearer Genovese syndrome? Interesting... or maybe Luisa's just an air-headed bitch. 8. I'm sorry, but I read the Wikipedia synopsis of "The Fantasticks" before I saw the movie, and I find the whole story silly at best, repellant at worst. The fathers' whole scheme is just creepy. Even before the whole fake abduction scheme, it's just gross and horrible how they're playing puppet masters with their kids' lives... unless my earlier theory is actually correct and they're among the last people on earth and they need Matt and Luisa to help repopulate.
Mmm...I know the scheme seems a little creepy, but the story (which was based on an 1894 Edmond Rostand play called Les Romanesques) is meant to be a critique of the adolescent view of love (if anything, the original play's young lovers are even MORE gushy and sappy)--that is to say, more in love with the IDEA of love, the trappings of romance, than with the other person, imperfections and all. The fathers' scheme backfires because they don't take into account that real love and romance can't thrive on that kind of illusion. (And it's funny you should mention the fathers being "puppet masters"--I've just read about a production where the main actors are puppets with El Gallo as the puppeteer.)
Hi! Ex-Luisa here! Luisa sees in El Gallo what she had read in all of her books growing up and vowed to Matt during a fight they have that she’d have an affair to get revenge, which ends up being El Gallo and his bravado and charisma. Round and Round is him showing her this amazing world that he had built it up to be for her, which ends up being filled with these horrors that she had never heard about and he convinces her that it’s all okay and as long as you have a mask on that it’s all beautiful. So gullible she may be, but air-headed no. She is such a smart character (in the stage production at least. This movie sucks) and I can attest that she is neither fickle or a twit. Gullible, yes. Those other things, no. ☺️
And yes, from the perspective I have with this show, El Gallo is a douche for taking the necklace. He should know better than take advantage of this poor girl but I can’t attest for his choices as I played the victim of his choices haha
+Kacie Broadfield Ex-El Gallo here (in a sat-down public reading but still...) He takes the necklace because, as the narrator, he's aware of his role in Matt and Luisa's story as "the bad guy". His ultimate aim for both Matt and Luisa is to make them essentially grow up so that they can actually have a meaningful relationship with each other - with Matt, he does this by humiliating and physically hurting him, and with Luisa he does this by taking the necklace and hurting her that way. Yeah, it's a douche move but he's aware of it, doesn't feel happy about doing it and has (in his mind) an ultimately good reason for doing it.
I like your point about this being a meta-theatrical musical, and I feel like this point can actually be applied to Into The Woods. I know a lot of people liked it, but I felt that without the limitations of a stage, a lot of charm and humor was lost. The budget was too big and they were too free to do whatever they wanted. It just didn’t click at all as a movie for me. Pippin is another one that comes to mind, I hope to god no one ever tries to adapt it to film. Not to say it can’t be done, but some musicals are written strictly for the stage, and taking it to the screen can fuck it up big time.
Another Musical I hoped would never be adapted into film is Merrily We Roll Along. The whole thing is crazy meta-theatrical with the group numbers between people that don't really occupy the same space, a chorus that starts as a group of college kids in the first scene, then turns into party guests and then just an expository chorus. And just the way the story is written just wouldn't work at all on film! I mean, just think about the cast standing on a realistic theatre stage, in a realistic film, and the breaking into "it's a hit" while the audience in the film just kind of stands there and applauds when the score needs them to! And then their producer suddenly get's on stage? That would be INSANE on Film. But they are making the film. They are seriously making that film. (Not that the cast or creative team couldn't put something together, I mean BEN PLATT for gods sake, but that the material wouldn't really work on film as written, and I don't think a lot of cutting or rewrites would benefit the basically perfect score.
A limited budget (15 - 20 million dollars) would've worked better for the movie especially for The Fantasticks' meta-theatrical aspects. Heck The Shape of Water costed 20 million and that was a hit.
I grew up with a lot of musicals that were just filmed performances, not movie adaptations. I feel like some should just be kept that way. You retain most of the atmosphere from a particular performance, and it enables you to use those theater specific moments. My favourite (the 1994 Australian performance of pirates of Penzance) includes a moment where the pirate king swings on a rope over the audience and orchestra and then loses a fight with the conductor over this behaviour. That just can't happen in a movie.
To be fair to them, there's no stage musical I can think of that lends itself less to a film adaptation. You simply can't do the stage piece as a film, there would have to be drastic alterations. Best to leave well enough alone.
Let it be noted that Act One of The Fantasticks is, almost word for word (in English) a one-act comic play "The Romantics" by Edmund Rostand, who wrote "Cyrano de Bergerac". The very strong roots explain the musical's longevity; the Godawful film treatment belongs at the feet of director Ritchie.
I think the Rostand play IS in two acts, with pretty much the same storyline. I've read the full version online--a translation by "George Fleming" (actually a woman) from 1900 which actually had the title "The Fantasticks" (it was the closest English approximation she could find for "Les Romanesques").
I first saw a stage production of this and it was great. Only saw the film because my sister was a huge NKotB fanatic. Not only is it dull but they took out several songs, including Plant a Radish, which would have given the fathers more to do in the final act.
The most bizarre thing I've come across in researching the Golden Age of musicals is the utterly bizarre prevalence of Rape songs. Not just in this musical, but: Little Bird in Man of La Mancha ( th-cam.com/video/Qw0h8IwWPs4/w-d-xo.html ) Little Red Hat in 110 in the Shade (no matter how innocently its staged, listen to the lyrics: th-cam.com/video/wetkT4CPSCs/w-d-xo.html ), Sobbin' Women from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers ( th-cam.com/video/1Ob2iKO7IHk/w-d-xo.html ), Angela Lansbury's shocking yet peppy mazurka I Never Did Imagine from Prettybelle ( m.th-cam.com/video/DZpncFKD9bE/w-d-xo.html ) and countless others. It really does show how the world has changed in a positive way that these are now bizarre if melodic relics.
Several years ago I saw that this was going to air on TV. I knew nothing about "The Fantasticks" except that Jerry Orbach was in the original cast, it was the longest running musical of all time and that Joel Grey was in it. I couldn't wait for it to start! I was so disappointed and I couldn't understand why such a long running musical would be so boring and bad. Back then it didn't really occur to me to think that it might be the fault of the adaptation and not the musical itself. Learning about the production drama surrounding its release, I guess I wasn't the only one who thought this movie was terrible.
Terrific episode, Diva! I saw a production many years ago, and though it's not my favorite musical, it was enjoyable. El Gallo really needs to be a strong, mysterious, charismatic character. I'm not really getting that from the man in the movie.
In the original musical, El Gallo was the catalyst who set the entire chain-of-events in motion for the greater purpose of teaching a harsh life lesson to the protagonists. He even admits to the audience that, in the process of making the lovers suffer, he caused himself pain as well. In the movie, however, El Gallo doesn't make his introduction until later, nor does he relay the larger purpose in why he does what he does. And there's certainly no indication that he's the mastermind behind the entire plot. Instead, he comes across as a sociopathic opportunist who merely gets kicks out of the misfortune of others. One who had never seen the play before would wonder why he's singing "Try To Remember" at the end, as he reveals no warm-hearted intentions behind his deceptive actions. He simply showed up one day, did the fathers' bidding with an elaborate set-up, broke a young woman's heart, stole her treasured necklace, and then got out of town. Thus, the benefit over the lessons about love and maturity that the main characters ultimately receive seems more incidental and less by design. This clearly shows how the filmmakers seem to have lost the entire point of the story, to begin with.
Agreed. I've only seen the 1964 version in full but I really liked how El Gallo in that is really just helping all four of them to learn and grow. After all the fathers have a lot to learn too, and even if his methods are harsh we can see he ultimately means for these people to become better.
I'd like to see this show done as a live TV musical (as, indeed, it was in the sixties on Hallmark Hall of Fame, in a shortened version). I think it kind of loses something with the realistic sets a movie demands--as you said, the stage version leans so much into its own stylization with its Our Town-esque sets, and that's kind of the point. (BTW, are you going to do an At The Source of Rostand's Les Romanesques?)
14:26 The first time I watched this review, I was expecting Matt to convince El Gallo to train him as a swordsman so he could be the hero Luisa wanted him to be. If anyone wants to make a version of The Fantasticks in which this happens, go right ahead. You can even use a modified version of the song Do it for Her from Steven Universe for this sequence.
The thing I'm wondering about with the silent film sequence that you didn't bring up, where's the house musician(s) silent cinemas had during everything set in it? Would you have preferred they go for the more faux-stage stylings of, say, Oklahoma's (iirc - been a while. I know there's at least one film adaptation of a stage musical that brings in stage effects such as revolving floors without hiding their artifice) film adaptation, or something more... Expose the artifice of Hollywood for the segments that are part of the artificial relationship built for the couple, complete with seeing them walk between sets, and El Gallo as the director of the film the couple don't know they're in? Because from the way you describe it, a film adaptation of this production would have needed one of the two - deliberately low-fi or regular hollywood but part of the film being done as behind the scenes documentary style with some of the characters not noticing.
I'm thinking more of a magical-realism style, like La La Land (film had its problems, but damn the visuals were gorgeous). Like for example, in "Soon it's Gonna Rain" when El Gallo throws glitter over the couple, have it become starlight sparkling around them, things like that.
To me Jerry Orbach will always be known as the incredibly suave and sophisticated lumiere from beauty&the beast and the wisecracking and street smart detective Lennie Briscoe from law&order but when it comes to the former Howard Ashman probably knew him from this show
For the first time since April 3, 2020, I'm about to rewatch this episode. EDIT- 6:01 P.M.: *finishes episode 22 minutes later* I still wonder if the edited cut of "The Fantasticks" is easier to sit through than the original cut. 🤔
The real pity is that this *could* have worked, but it needed Rob Marshall to pull it off. I understand Marshall is looking at a film version of FOLLIES, and I hope they let him do it. Enjoy your reviews enormously. May I ask where the ditsy wedding scene came from?
"Reefer Madness," the musical version of the cult anti-marijuana movie. It's got Alan Cumming and Kristen Bell (among others) in it and is awesome! I agree Rob Marshall could have done some amazing stuff with this material. Certainly he'd have been more creative with it.
I hated our local theater's production of this too much to feel any pain at the movie's suck-itude, but I'm glad to learn there are apparently actually charming versions being staged somewhere.
My uncle played in a version of this in Pittsburgh. They had a girl represents the wall between the properties. It was meant to be artsy and cause you to focus on the actor and the themes.
This is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE musical (that I never appeared in)... and maybe my favorite of all time. So imagine how thrilled I was to find it had been made into a movie. Yes, I know... how could such an INTIMATE gem get a wide, wide world setting? Wouldn't that ruin it? Well, as bad as the setting disaster was it's hardly even close to the worst issue with this excrement of a movie!! Please - - Do NOT go find this movie. Instead, go find the Fantasticks out there. It's HEAVENLY!!
I stumbled across the 1964 Hallmark ver and though I havent finished it I'm finding the general cheesiness of that setting really ties in so well to the fake fantasy elements of the show
ISCWSLABMUZ = The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!?, a 1964 movie. I looked up the acronym on Google. www.imdb.com/title/tt0057181/
Perhaps my favourite stage musical of all, and yet when I watched the blu-ray of the film I switched it off about halfway through and have no plans to go back. So sad.
I for one enjoy watching Jesus Christ, Superstar (1973) over and over again. Yes, you can pick at flaws, but the movie overall is good, IMO. Man of La Mancha does falter. I hate that they cast Sophia Loren, instead of a more accomplished musical theater actress, as Aldonza. I never saw a stage production, but I understand that the show is "stagey" and would be hard to adapt to film. Still, I'm looking forward to Diva's critique. I saw and liked Annie onstage, and the film Annie (1982) is awful. The little girl in the title role is all wrong. Much production choices and plot developments are overblown. I liked much better the TV movie of 1999. I haven't seen the 2014 film yet. I loved The Producers the cast album! I saw the Broadway show on 9/14/2001 (note the date); I enjoyed it but felt a little let down. Someone substituted for Nathan Lane that night. The film was not as good as it could've been because they edited out most of the best parts, including "King of Old Broadway" and some of the Little Old Lady Land sequences. I saw the outtakes on the DVD and I was laughing!--and then I wondered, "Why did they cut all that?" I never saw Hello, Dolly onstage, but the Streisand movie leaves something to be desired, and I suppose it deserves to be picked apart by Diva.
There’s a 1964 TV version starting Ricardo Montalban as El Gallo. I haven’t seen that one but I’m sure it’s a thousand times better than this one. Ricardo Montalban is great in everything he’s in but the casting of him as El Gallo (who based on your description kinda sounds like Khan) is absolutely perfect and we often forget that he was a Broadway performer who was nominated for a Tony award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical.
My college theatre Directing professor wrote the teleplay for the Hallmark production. He shared some good stories from that production, including that Ricardo Montalban was not taped below the waste due to an infirmity he had with his legs. John Davidson, Bert Lahr and Stanley Holloway were also in that production, but Mr. Lahr was not well when he appeared in it.
Great video! Can't wait to see the next one! I recommend "Lovestruck: The Musical" It's a made for tv jukebox musical Im sure you'll get plenty of material out of.
A community theater in my town is doing a production of the play, and the first time I've heard of the play was literally 3 weeks ago. I feel ashamed as a fan of theater. XD
I was wondering when you'd get to this awful film adaptation... I found one of the most off-putting bits in Act 2 was Teller posing as some kind of courtesan with exposed papier-mache breasts--in a scene that dragged on and on and on...
The drama department of Washington State did a steampunk interpretation of the Fantasticks, which is how I was first exposed to this musical. I then saw the film on TV and..... the best adjective I can think of is flat. The film just seemed very flat and unimaginative compared to the stage version.
Savannah Simpson But it's a stupid hot mess, not a fun one. Trust me, I did the show in high school, and it sucks. The music is generic, the lyrics are laughable and the story is an uncreative attempt at homage and genre blend.
MC Wyman There are a few theater productions of Zombie High on TH-cam. I'm kind of afraid to watch one of them since you said it was poorly executed and wasn't fun.
Andrew Del Pilar If you want a taste there was a short film adapted from it about 10 years ago that has a bunch of the songs in it. Unfortunately, it cut out the best ones. But RuPaul plays the principal Miss Strict and that character is one of the few genuinely enjoyable things about the show. It's on TH-cam.
A pretty bad film. But it still has the score and Joel Grey. It would be interesting to see the original cut, as "Finian's Rainbow" indicates, that Coppola should not be let near any musical ever.
Yes, a pretty sucky film, especially in comparison to the show, but one thing I do like is that it's filmed in the same location as the 'Oklahoma!' film forty years previously (remember the train station?). So there's that bit of nostalgia virtue, for whatever it's worth.
Joey Joe is the one on the Farthest Left, Then you got Donnie Wahlgerg, Jordan, and Jonathan Knight, and Danny Wood, Who had his Sky Blue Undies Flashed by Oprah.
Okay I was kinda upset at first when I saw you were reviewing this movie because I’m really fond of the musical and the score of the movie. I can agree that the acting needs work and the filming could have been better.
@3:55 to 4:06 I could probably say a similar thing when explaining Hilary Duff to kids who probably haven't heard of her. "Hilary Duff? You know... Our equivalent to Ariana Grande?"
I am good friends with a retired theatre professor and she will go on record as saying that The Fantasticks is her least favorite musical of all time. Like she would rather see an amateur production of Cats than see a professional production of The Fantasticks. I once listened to her rant about her hatred of the show for about ten minutes straight. It was glorious
That was a very disappointing film; given the history of the play, making it cinematic is a challenge that is difficult to envision. The underlying premise of the show is the magic of touching the audience in a small and intimate theatre, not a 40-foot tall movie screen that is separate from the audience. It belongs on the stage, and will be performed again and again as long as there is room for sentiment and nostalgia in the human heart.
The story itself sounds fascinating and El Gaio sounds like the best part of the musical. I would love to see "The Fantasticks" on stage or, at least, in a better movie adaptation. It's such a shame that this is all we've got.
I've heard of this musical, but I had no idea what it was about. Now that I've seen this review, I really wish I could see it live or at least a good film adaptation. This kind of seems like "Into the Woods", where the first half is the fantasy and the second half is the unpleasant reality.
El Gallo? So, The Rooster.. or the Cock. With that name, any suaveness is gone gone gone XD 18:03 I think it takes place in the Murder House from the first season of American Horror Story.
@@manicpixiefangirl4189 sounds like a review I'd avoid. Lupa is cynical. But ... To be fair as much as I love the movie it's not absolutely great in any sense of the word
Well at least Henry styles did show he can act and sing go watch Dunkirk but I think people should be a little more careful when they cast pop stars films like this .
They really screwed up here. I disliked the movie. Sure, it's not Rent, but everything's better than Rent. If they started off with Try to Remember and used it as narration over a long establishing shot (and even the Deleted Scenes failed on that front), you might get a better movie. If you set it more in a real small town where you'd at least see three more houses behind the two important ones, you might get a better movie. If we actually cared about what's going on, it would at the very least be relatively watchable.
This feels like you're reviewing the Coppola cut as opposed to the work print version (sadly only released as a special feature on the limited release blu ray). Granted, until we had an available copy of the work print/pre-Coppola version, there was no way to compare. The long cut gives more background on El Gallo, incorporates missing bits and pieces (and as I recall more complete songs). It's very flawed, but better than what Gower Champion wanted to do with it when MGM/UA optioned the rights, originally. Evidently, the big push was to shoot the project in Italy and (assuming, here) draw closer ties to Romeo and Juliet as opposed to the original source material, Edmond Rostands Les Romanesques. To further throw in my own two cents worth, I really feel like relating this to Shakespeare dumbs it down for the audience too much and really defeats a level of creativity----but then again, I really freaking love me some Rostand. Thanks for schlepping through my nerding :)
It's a pity, 'cos Michael Ritchie was an extremely promising director back in the 70s, with "Downhill Racer", "Prime Cut", "The Candidate" and "Smile" being sharp and witty minor gems of tgheir decade. But then he just...petered out, badly. PS -- Barnard Hughes as the player-- brilliant actor. I was lucky enough to see him on stage in NYC.
Could you review Descendants 2 and/or The Producers 2005? Also, why the hell wasn't everyone's favorite French candelabra/NYC cop in this as the villain? He wasn't that old at the time, he totally could have done better than this guy!
You know who would be a great fit for El Gallo? Antonio Banderas. That way, even if the movie turns out bad, it's pretty likely that he's going to be one of the bright spots in it.
honestly my first thought was Cary Elwes cause the way she described the character sounded like a rapey Dread Pirate Roberts
Very late, but it also comes off as kinda "We Have Cary Elwes At Home."
My biggest problem with the film is that it robbed the audience of the ability to use their imagination. The stage directions are explicitly clear that the stage is to be fairly plain and blank, and the audience is trusted with filling in the spaces however they like. (And obviously it works). I always thought that they lived in a row of houses like a suburb or Privet Drive. And the costumes and set date the show. There is a real timeless quality with this show and setting them in a period specific place looses that
This is the only musical I went out of my way to find the stage performance after watching the review. A deconstruction of star crossed lover stories about how parents manipulate their children and leave them unprepared for the real world? Exactly my jam!
"Let her go!"
"Very poor choice of words."
Joker origina stories?
What weirds me out about El Gallo in the movie is that he's just...kind of creepy. In the show you get the impression that he does genuinely want to see these kids grow ("I hurt them for that reason...and myself a little bit, too."), and he does play the part of a gentleman well enough to convince even the audience. The fact that this El Gallo doesn't even apologize for giving Luisa a bruise before kissing her wrist just cheeses me off.
Amie Fortman even then in the show, his “I’m sorry...” really isn’t a true apology. He’s telling her what she wants to hear so she agrees to honestly whatever he says
Looking at the set, I’m surprised I didn’t hear the score from American Horror Story: Freakshow.
Hi, Diva! I really love your work, and I look forward to your critiques.
I only saw The Fantasticks at a production at Queens College (Flushing, Queens, NY) a few years ago. I thought the show was cute. The beginning of Act II, where the characters tried to hold their "happily ever after" poses from Act I, really brought the theme home. Then I saw the movie on TV about a year ago, and yes, the film seems drained of charm and focus.
Oy jeez, what a dismal, lackluster presentation of a good musical. Thanks for your great work as always. I'm such a huge fan of yours :)
New Kids on the Block your Parents equivalent of One Direction. Best description ever.
My high school theatre troupe did this in the late 90’s and it was wonderful, biased as I am. Our Fine Arts Department was full of truly talented faculty and students. The boy that played El Gallo went on to play the Music Man his senior year. He embodied both characters so perfectly.
This movie is AWFUL, the kind that turns anyone off of ever watching musicals.
1. Does anyone else live in this town? In this world?! Is this some awful alternate universe where the Depression (I'm guessing it's the Depression, because Luisa has a picture of Jean Harlow in her room) also brought the Plague, wiping out all but 30 or so losers?
2. "Much More" made me want to apologize to Rob Marshall for any time I criticized his editing. Michael Ritchie should have watched the opening musical numbers to "The Sound of Music" or "Beauty and the Beast" to see how this kind of musical number is done.
3. I confess I'm not the biggest fan of "Try to Remember" (I find it kinda boring), but it manages to be fairly charming in the hands of a strong singer. Jerry Orbach (damn, I still miss him) made the song his own, I'm sure Robert Goulet sang the hell out of it, and Josh Groban covers it on his "Stages" album. Jonathan Morris, on the other hand, is such a pitiful singer that he only emphasizes the song's weaknesses rather than its strengths. It doesn't help that he has the charisma of applesauce and looks like a cross between Tommy Wiseau and Michael Bolton.
4. Not only is Joey McEntire a lousy actor and only so-so vocalist, but his Boston accent is hilariously distracting. It's like watching a cut scene from "Good Will Hunting".
5. You forgot "Ohai, Tony Cox!"
6. I'm torn: on one hand, Luisa is a fickle, gullible twit who deserved to lose her necklace; on the other hand, El Gallo was still a douche for keeping it (in addition to everything else he's done).
7. So the mask in "Round and Round" gives the wearer Genovese syndrome? Interesting... or maybe Luisa's just an air-headed bitch.
8. I'm sorry, but I read the Wikipedia synopsis of "The Fantasticks" before I saw the movie, and I find the whole story silly at best, repellant at worst. The fathers' whole scheme is just creepy. Even before the whole fake abduction scheme, it's just gross and horrible how they're playing puppet masters with their kids' lives... unless my earlier theory is actually correct and they're among the last people on earth and they need Matt and Luisa to help repopulate.
Mmm...I know the scheme seems a little creepy, but the story (which was based on an 1894 Edmond Rostand play called Les Romanesques) is meant to be a critique of the adolescent view of love (if anything, the original play's young lovers are even MORE gushy and sappy)--that is to say, more in love with the IDEA of love, the trappings of romance, than with the other person, imperfections and all. The fathers' scheme backfires because they don't take into account that real love and romance can't thrive on that kind of illusion. (And it's funny you should mention the fathers being "puppet masters"--I've just read about a production where the main actors are puppets with El Gallo as the puppeteer.)
Hi! Ex-Luisa here! Luisa sees in El Gallo what she had read in all of her books growing up and vowed to Matt during a fight they have that she’d have an affair to get revenge, which ends up being El Gallo and his bravado and charisma. Round and Round is him showing her this amazing world that he had built it up to be for her, which ends up being filled with these horrors that she had never heard about and he convinces her that it’s all okay and as long as you have a mask on that it’s all beautiful. So gullible she may be, but air-headed no. She is such a smart character (in the stage production at least. This movie sucks) and I can attest that she is neither fickle or a twit. Gullible, yes. Those other things, no. ☺️
And yes, from the perspective I have with this show, El Gallo is a douche for taking the necklace. He should know better than take advantage of this poor girl but I can’t attest for his choices as I played the victim of his choices haha
Fair enough, Kacie Broadfield. Thank you for your perspective! :)
+Kacie Broadfield Ex-El Gallo here (in a sat-down public reading but still...) He takes the necklace because, as the narrator, he's aware of his role in Matt and Luisa's story as "the bad guy". His ultimate aim for both Matt and Luisa is to make them essentially grow up so that they can actually have a meaningful relationship with each other - with Matt, he does this by humiliating and physically hurting him, and with Luisa he does this by taking the necklace and hurting her that way. Yeah, it's a douche move but he's aware of it, doesn't feel happy about doing it and has (in his mind) an ultimately good reason for doing it.
I like your point about this being a meta-theatrical musical, and I feel like this point can actually be applied to Into The Woods. I know a lot of people liked it, but I felt that without the limitations of a stage, a lot of charm and humor was lost. The budget was too big and they were too free to do whatever they wanted. It just didn’t click at all as a movie for me. Pippin is another one that comes to mind, I hope to god no one ever tries to adapt it to film.
Not to say it can’t be done, but some musicals are written strictly for the stage, and taking it to the screen can fuck it up big time.
Another Musical I hoped would never be adapted into film is Merrily We Roll Along. The whole thing is crazy meta-theatrical with the group numbers between people that don't really occupy the same space, a chorus that starts as a group of college kids in the first scene, then turns into party guests and then just an expository chorus.
And just the way the story is written just wouldn't work at all on film! I mean, just think about the cast standing on a realistic theatre stage, in a realistic film, and the breaking into "it's a hit" while the audience in the film just kind of stands there and applauds when the score needs them to! And then their producer suddenly get's on stage? That would be INSANE on Film.
But they are making the film. They are seriously making that film.
(Not that the cast or creative team couldn't put something together, I mean BEN PLATT for gods sake, but that the material wouldn't really work on film as written, and I don't think a lot of cutting or rewrites would benefit the basically perfect score.
A limited budget (15 - 20 million dollars) would've worked better for the movie especially for The Fantasticks' meta-theatrical aspects.
Heck The Shape of Water costed 20 million and that was a hit.
I grew up with a lot of musicals that were just filmed performances, not movie adaptations. I feel like some should just be kept that way. You retain most of the atmosphere from a particular performance, and it enables you to use those theater specific moments.
My favourite (the 1994 Australian performance of pirates of Penzance) includes a moment where the pirate king swings on a rope over the audience and orchestra and then loses a fight with the conductor over this behaviour. That just can't happen in a movie.
So what you're saying is that David Lynch should remake this.
Seeing this show live is an absolutely indescribable feeling, and I wish the movie did it justice
To be fair to them, there's no stage musical I can think of that lends itself less to a film adaptation. You simply can't do the stage piece as a film, there would have to be drastic alterations. Best to leave well enough alone.
When you said the drama student line, I was looking at Louisa's shoes, thinking - "aren't those character shoes? Is this a stage play or movie?"
The least likely place I'd think to find Lego Star Wars clips.
Let it be noted that Act One of The Fantasticks is, almost word for word (in English) a one-act comic play "The Romantics" by Edmund Rostand, who wrote "Cyrano de Bergerac". The very strong roots explain the musical's longevity; the Godawful film treatment belongs at the feet of director Ritchie.
I think the Rostand play IS in two acts, with pretty much the same storyline. I've read the full version online--a translation by "George Fleming" (actually a woman) from 1900 which actually had the title "The Fantasticks" (it was the closest English approximation she could find for "Les Romanesques").
you can't just flash a pic of young Jerry Orbach like that and not warn us what a smouldering dreamboat he was!
I first saw a stage production of this and it was great. Only saw the film because my sister was a huge NKotB fanatic. Not only is it dull but they took out several songs, including Plant a Radish, which would have given the fathers more to do in the final act.
The most bizarre thing I've come across in researching the Golden Age of musicals is the utterly bizarre prevalence of Rape songs.
Not just in this musical, but:
Little Bird in Man of La Mancha ( th-cam.com/video/Qw0h8IwWPs4/w-d-xo.html )
Little Red Hat in 110 in the Shade (no matter how innocently its staged, listen to the lyrics: th-cam.com/video/wetkT4CPSCs/w-d-xo.html ),
Sobbin' Women from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers ( th-cam.com/video/1Ob2iKO7IHk/w-d-xo.html ),
Angela Lansbury's shocking yet peppy mazurka I Never Did Imagine from Prettybelle ( m.th-cam.com/video/DZpncFKD9bE/w-d-xo.html )
and countless others. It really does show how the world has changed in a positive way that these are now bizarre if melodic relics.
Several years ago I saw that this was going to air on TV. I knew nothing about "The Fantasticks" except that Jerry Orbach was in the original cast, it was the longest running musical of all time and that Joel Grey was in it. I couldn't wait for it to start! I was so disappointed and I couldn't understand why such a long running musical would be so boring and bad. Back then it didn't really occur to me to think that it might be the fault of the adaptation and not the musical itself. Learning about the production drama surrounding its release, I guess I wasn't the only one who thought this movie was terrible.
Terrific episode, Diva!
I saw a production many years ago, and though it's not my favorite musical, it was enjoyable.
El Gallo really needs to be a strong, mysterious, charismatic character. I'm not really getting that from the man in the movie.
In the original musical, El Gallo was the catalyst who set the entire chain-of-events in motion for the greater purpose of teaching a harsh life lesson to the protagonists. He even admits to the audience that, in the process of making the lovers suffer, he caused himself pain as well.
In the movie, however, El Gallo doesn't make his introduction until later, nor does he relay the larger purpose in why he does what he does. And there's certainly no indication that he's the mastermind behind the entire plot. Instead, he comes across as a sociopathic opportunist who merely gets kicks out of the misfortune of others.
One who had never seen the play before would wonder why he's singing "Try To Remember" at the end, as he reveals no warm-hearted intentions behind his deceptive actions. He simply showed up one day, did the fathers' bidding with an elaborate set-up, broke a young woman's heart, stole her treasured necklace, and then got out of town.
Thus, the benefit over the lessons about love and maturity that the main characters ultimately receive seems more incidental and less by design.
This clearly shows how the filmmakers seem to have lost the entire point of the story, to begin with.
Agreed. I've only seen the 1964 version in full but I really liked how El Gallo in that is really just helping all four of them to learn and grow. After all the fathers have a lot to learn too, and even if his methods are harsh we can see he ultimately means for these people to become better.
So, this movie is Into The Woods without the fun or cleverness. And no, I'm not going to say "So the movie", because I liked that movie.
I'd like to see this show done as a live TV musical (as, indeed, it was in the sixties on Hallmark Hall of Fame, in a shortened version). I think it kind of loses something with the realistic sets a movie demands--as you said, the stage version leans so much into its own stylization with its Our Town-esque sets, and that's kind of the point. (BTW, are you going to do an At The Source of Rostand's Les Romanesques?)
14:26 The first time I watched this review, I was expecting Matt to convince El Gallo to train him as a swordsman so he could be the hero Luisa wanted him to be. If anyone wants to make a version of The Fantasticks in which this happens, go right ahead. You can even use a modified version of the song Do it for Her from Steven Universe for this sequence.
The thing I'm wondering about with the silent film sequence that you didn't bring up, where's the house musician(s) silent cinemas had during everything set in it?
Would you have preferred they go for the more faux-stage stylings of, say, Oklahoma's (iirc - been a while. I know there's at least one film adaptation of a stage musical that brings in stage effects such as revolving floors without hiding their artifice) film adaptation, or something more... Expose the artifice of Hollywood for the segments that are part of the artificial relationship built for the couple, complete with seeing them walk between sets, and El Gallo as the director of the film the couple don't know they're in? Because from the way you describe it, a film adaptation of this production would have needed one of the two - deliberately low-fi or regular hollywood but part of the film being done as behind the scenes documentary style with some of the characters not noticing.
I'm thinking more of a magical-realism style, like La La Land (film had its problems, but damn the visuals were gorgeous). Like for example, in "Soon it's Gonna Rain" when El Gallo throws glitter over the couple, have it become starlight sparkling around them, things like that.
Musical Hell Just seeing clips from La La Land are incredible because of the visuals. The film is so well shot.
Perhaps the basis for this, Les Romanesques by Edmond Rostand, would be a good At the Source.
5:28 Lol, was just thinking about the Romeo and Juliet song when you posted a clip from it.
Great review, Diva! I've never heard of Sci-Fi High, but I'm excited for next month.
To me Jerry Orbach will always be known as the incredibly suave and sophisticated lumiere from beauty&the beast and the wisecracking and street smart detective Lennie Briscoe from law&order but when it comes to the former Howard Ashman probably knew him from this show
For the first time since April 3, 2020, I'm about to rewatch this episode.
EDIT- 6:01 P.M.: *finishes episode 22 minutes later*
I still wonder if the edited cut of "The Fantasticks" is easier to sit through than the original cut. 🤔
The real pity is that this *could* have worked, but it needed Rob Marshall to pull it off. I understand Marshall is looking at a film version of FOLLIES, and I hope they let him do it.
Enjoy your reviews enormously. May I ask where the ditsy wedding scene came from?
"Reefer Madness," the musical version of the cult anti-marijuana movie. It's got Alan Cumming and Kristen Bell (among others) in it and is awesome!
I agree Rob Marshall could have done some amazing stuff with this material. Certainly he'd have been more creative with it.
I loved how you compared El Gallo to The MC and Jaredth‼️
Also the song Metahpor had its lyrics changed to the point where it doesn't make sense?‼️
You know if Brent Spiner was younger he'd make a great El Gallo‼️
I hated our local theater's production of this too much to feel any pain at the movie's suck-itude, but I'm glad to learn there are apparently actually charming versions being staged somewhere.
"Sci-Fi High"? I've never heard of it, and neither has TV Tropes. Can't wait.
Found it on IMDB. Looks like it should make for a fun episode.
www.imdb.com/title/tt1454542/
AmyIncarnate Most of the info comes from the reviews of the movie. It'll be interesting to see her review "Sci-Fi High".
Love the Sweeney Todd reference you made :)
My uncle played in a version of this in Pittsburgh. They had a girl represents the wall between the properties. It was meant to be artsy and cause you to focus on the actor and the themes.
I think the staging of the Romeo and Juliet thing would be cool if they got transported into the roles of the characters in the film.
This is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE musical (that I never appeared in)... and maybe my favorite of all time. So imagine how thrilled I was to find it had been made into a movie. Yes, I know... how could such an INTIMATE gem get a wide, wide world setting? Wouldn't that ruin it? Well, as bad as the setting disaster was it's hardly even close to the worst issue with this excrement of a movie!!
Please - - Do NOT go find this movie. Instead, go find the Fantasticks out there. It's HEAVENLY!!
I stumbled across the 1964 Hallmark ver and though I havent finished it I'm finding the general cheesiness of that setting really ties in so well to the fake fantasy elements of the show
If they made a parody of this, would it have been called 'The Fantaschticks?'
I recommend "Hunchback of Notre Dame 2". I have a question what's your thought on Kingdom Hearts? Just curious.
This movie would've worked better if it was Chicago-esque abstract.
I saw New Kids on the Block in concert when they were big. It's weird to see them referenced here. LOL!
Where is that "Red flags, get your red flags here!" gif from?
Star Wars: Droid Tales, aka "The Best Way to Watch the Remake Trilogy."
Musical Hell ... Thank you! Oh, by the way, I've loved your reviews for a while. Keep up the good work!
Excellent "ISCWSLABMUZ" reference!
Nicely played, Diva!
HEDGE1011 What did Diva reference?
The Incredibly Strange Creatures who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies, a movie from MST3k
ISCWSLABMUZ = The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!?, a 1964 movie. I looked up the acronym on Google.
www.imdb.com/title/tt0057181/
Perhaps my favourite stage musical of all, and yet when I watched the blu-ray of the film I switched it off about halfway through and have no plans to go back. So sad.
I paused the video at 9:16 because I thought one of the people in the mural was wearing Wonder Woman's tiara 😂
I love the reference to reefer madness lol
Please review the film versions of Hello, Dolly!, Man of La Mancha, Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), Annie (1982), and The Producers (2005).
Jeffrey Kare I didn't even know Man of La Mancha had a movie adaptation. Then again I didn't know Godspell had one and I'm actually in Godspell.
Aw. I like the Producers. The worst I can say about it is that it plays a bit stagey and cuts out a couple good songs.
I overall didn't mind The Producers as a movie musical. I'm just curious to hear what Musical Hell has to say about it.
I for one enjoy watching Jesus Christ, Superstar (1973) over and over again. Yes, you can pick at flaws, but the movie overall is good, IMO.
Man of La Mancha does falter. I hate that they cast Sophia Loren, instead of a more accomplished musical theater actress, as Aldonza. I never saw a stage production, but I understand that the show is "stagey" and would be hard to adapt to film. Still, I'm looking forward to Diva's critique.
I saw and liked Annie onstage, and the film Annie (1982) is awful. The little girl in the title role is all wrong. Much production choices and plot developments are overblown. I liked much better the TV movie of 1999. I haven't seen the 2014 film yet.
I loved The Producers the cast album! I saw the Broadway show on 9/14/2001 (note the date); I enjoyed it but felt a little let down. Someone substituted for Nathan Lane that night. The film was not as good as it could've been because they edited out most of the best parts, including "King of Old Broadway" and some of the Little Old Lady Land sequences. I saw the outtakes on the DVD and I was laughing!--and then I wondered, "Why did they cut all that?"
I never saw Hello, Dolly onstage, but the Streisand movie leaves something to be desired, and I suppose it deserves to be picked apart by Diva.
Yes! Ruin The Producers (2005) ! Ruin Annie (1982)! I need more semi-good musicals ruined, dammit!
There’s a 1964 TV version starting Ricardo Montalban as El Gallo. I haven’t seen that one but I’m sure it’s a thousand times better than this one. Ricardo Montalban is great in everything he’s in but the casting of him as El Gallo (who based on your description kinda sounds like Khan) is absolutely perfect and we often forget that he was a Broadway performer who was nominated for a Tony award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical.
My college theatre Directing professor wrote the teleplay for the Hallmark production. He shared some good stories from that production, including that Ricardo Montalban was not taped below the waste due to an infirmity he had with his legs. John Davidson, Bert Lahr and Stanley Holloway were also in that production, but Mr. Lahr was not well when he appeared in it.
Oh I found that on youtube! He's a good narrator and as a character he seems to have seen this all before
Great video! Can't wait to see the next one! I recommend "Lovestruck: The Musical" It's a made for tv jukebox musical Im sure you'll get plenty of material out of.
A community theater in my town is doing a production of the play, and the first time I've heard of the play was literally 3 weeks ago. I feel ashamed as a fan of theater. XD
I was wondering when you'd get to this awful film adaptation... I found one of the most off-putting bits in Act 2 was Teller posing as some kind of courtesan with exposed papier-mache breasts--in a scene that dragged on and on and on...
The drama department of Washington State did a steampunk interpretation of the Fantasticks, which is how I was first exposed to this musical. I then saw the film on TV and..... the best adjective I can think of is flat. The film just seemed very flat and unimaginative compared to the stage version.
I'm getting Pirate Movie vibes from this film.
...The way this film adaptation is put together reminds me of the classic Twilight Zone episode "It's a Good Life".
I love the Reefer Madness reference.
You should review Zombie Prom ! Now THAT'S a hot mess of a musical.
That's kinda the point..
Savannah Simpson But it's a stupid hot mess, not a fun one. Trust me, I did the show in high school, and it sucks. The music is generic, the lyrics are laughable and the story is an uncreative attempt at homage and genre blend.
MC Wyman There are a few theater productions of Zombie High on TH-cam. I'm kind of afraid to watch one of them since you said it was poorly executed and wasn't fun.
Andrew Del Pilar If you want a taste there was a short film adapted from it about 10 years ago that has a bunch of the songs in it. Unfortunately, it cut out the best ones. But RuPaul plays the principal Miss Strict and that character is one of the few genuinely enjoyable things about the show. It's on TH-cam.
Andrew Del Pilar Here's a link: th-cam.com/video/dECttRgbWW0/w-d-xo.html
I just noticed, this is the most times in a review you've used the "Ohai" cast member joke in your review
There's a lot of people to say "ohai" to in this one.
Anyone who can ruin such a hilarious plot so badly definitely earned their spot here
A pretty bad film. But it still has the score and Joel Grey. It would be interesting to see the original cut, as "Finian's Rainbow" indicates, that Coppola should not be let near any musical ever.
Yes, a pretty sucky film, especially in comparison to the show, but one thing I do like is that it's filmed in the same location as the 'Oklahoma!' film forty years previously (remember the train station?). So there's that bit of nostalgia virtue, for whatever it's worth.
Joey Joe is the one on the Farthest Left, Then you got Donnie Wahlgerg, Jordan, and Jonathan Knight, and Danny Wood, Who had his Sky Blue Undies Flashed by Oprah.
Can you please reveiw belle's magical world ? (Like if you think she shuold !!!!!!!)
because iambored *Should
because iambored Please! That's horrific and an insult to the peerless Beauty and The Beast! Why does Disney tamper with their classics?!!!
Is it musical though?
Okay I was kinda upset at first when I saw you were reviewing this movie because I’m really fond of the musical and the score of the movie. I can agree that the acting needs work and the filming could have been better.
Diva, look at the ABC Family musical "The Misle-tones". Three words: Tori...Spelling...singing.
@3:55 to 4:06
I could probably say a similar thing when explaining Hilary Duff to kids who probably haven't heard of her.
"Hilary Duff? You know... Our equivalent to Ariana Grande?"
I am good friends with a retired theatre professor and she will go on record as saying that The Fantasticks is her least favorite musical of all time. Like she would rather see an amateur production of Cats than see a professional production of The Fantasticks. I once listened to her rant about her hatred of the show for about ten minutes straight. It was glorious
That was a very disappointing film; given the history of the play, making it cinematic is a challenge that is difficult to envision. The underlying premise of the show is the magic of touching the audience in a small and intimate theatre, not a 40-foot tall movie screen that is separate from the audience. It belongs on the stage, and will be performed again and again as long as there is room for sentiment and nostalgia in the human heart.
The story itself sounds fascinating and El Gaio sounds like the best part of the musical. I would love to see "The Fantasticks" on stage or, at least, in a better movie adaptation. It's such a shame that this is all we've got.
Weve got the 1964 version too
I've heard of this musical, but I had no idea what it was about. Now that I've seen this review, I really wish I could see it live or at least a good film adaptation. This kind of seems like "Into the Woods", where the first half is the fantasy and the second half is the unpleasant reality.
It's about time.
El Gallo? So, The Rooster.. or the Cock. With that name, any suaveness is gone gone gone XD
18:03 I think it takes place in the Murder House from the first season of American Horror Story.
Some delightful references in this one!
Omfg they're like the dad in the tempest
Review the 2017 remake of Dirty Dancing.
Wait. Just now I realized... Matt and Louisa are the names of the two most recent X Factor winners. Talk about a funny coincidence.
1:33 Speaking of him, how about reviewing the movie musical “Finian’s Rainbow”?
So El Gallo is like Clopin from Hunchback of Notre Dame (mischievous character/narrator)?
6:26 Well, I think we found the best character in the movie.
4:05
I was born in 1999, but my parents had kids late, so actually their version of 1 direction was probably the Beatles or the Monkeys
I heard the longest running show was 'Pippin,' then it was 'Phantom of the Opera,' now it's 'The Fantasticks'? Make up your mind, people!
Sinclaire Thomas those were longest running broadway musicals. Fantasticks only had an off-broadway run and is the longest running musical period.
Seems weird that they set this in such a dreary, barren landscape when it's at least supposed to START OUT looking idyllic and pastoral.
Actually A NBC live musical in the vain of there Peter Pan May really work here
Gallo looks painfully familiar
Edit:. OMG IT'S ASH!!!!!!! Sorry I'm a HUGE Vampire Journals fan
Starr Clarke Oh crap, you're right. Never would have noticed. Though to be fair I've only ever seen the Obscurus Lupa review of it.
@@manicpixiefangirl4189 sounds like a review I'd avoid. Lupa is cynical. But ... To be fair as much as I love the movie it's not absolutely great in any sense of the word
New review!
Well at least Henry styles did show he can act and sing go watch Dunkirk but I think people should be a little more careful when they cast pop stars films like this .
They really screwed up here. I disliked the movie. Sure, it's not Rent, but everything's better than Rent.
If they started off with Try to Remember and used it as narration over a long establishing shot (and even the Deleted Scenes failed on that front), you might get a better movie. If you set it more in a real small town where you'd at least see three more houses behind the two important ones, you might get a better movie. If we actually cared about what's going on, it would at the very least be relatively watchable.
17:34 His eyes look similar to gwyneth paltow's. Do you see the resemblance? (even if you don't want to)
For some reason, I always misread the title as "The Funtasticks" lol
Hoping you'll get around to The Return of Captain Invincible soon.
At 5:27 Where's that "We are just like Romeo and Juliet" clip from?
Reefer Madness: The Movie Musical--highly recommended!
I suppose the Lion King is gonna try to beat the record since it seems like it will be running until the end of time.
As it should
This feels like you're reviewing the Coppola cut as opposed to the work print version (sadly only released as a special feature on the limited release blu ray). Granted, until we had an available copy of the work print/pre-Coppola version, there was no way to compare. The long cut gives more background on El Gallo, incorporates missing bits and pieces (and as I recall more complete songs). It's very flawed, but better than what Gower Champion wanted to do with it when MGM/UA optioned the rights, originally. Evidently, the big push was to shoot the project in Italy and (assuming, here) draw closer ties to Romeo and Juliet as opposed to the original source material, Edmond Rostands Les Romanesques. To further throw in my own two cents worth, I really feel like relating this to Shakespeare dumbs it down for the audience too much and really defeats a level of creativity----but then again, I really freaking love me some Rostand. Thanks for schlepping through my nerding :)
It's a pity, 'cos Michael Ritchie was an extremely promising director back in the 70s, with "Downhill Racer", "Prime Cut", "The Candidate" and "Smile" being sharp and witty minor gems of tgheir decade. But then he just...petered out, badly. PS -- Barnard Hughes as the player-- brilliant actor. I was lucky enough to see him on stage in NYC.
I’ll give this a listen definitely!
Diva, can you please review the 2 Disney movies "The Arisotcats" and "Oliver and Company"?
Sin: McIntyre's acting.
Me: Well I was gonna say...
Could you review Descendants 2 and/or The Producers 2005? Also, why the hell wasn't everyone's favorite French candelabra/NYC cop in this as the villain? He wasn't that old at the time, he totally could have done better than this guy!