INTO THE WOODS

Walt Disney Pictures

Rated PG

Running time: 125 Minutes

Click below to watch the movie trailer of Into the Woods.



In Walt Disney Pictures Into the Woods, a childless baker James Corden and his wife Emily Blunt must find certain items for witch Meryl Streep in order for her to remove the curse that she had put on their family tree.

Based on the Tony Award winning Broadway musical by Stephen Sondheim, and Directed by Rob Marshall, this live-action musical movie intertwines the fairy tales of Little Red Riding Hood - Lilla Crawford, Cinderella - Anna Kendrick, Jack and the Beanstalk - Daniel Huttlestone, and Rapunzel - Mackenzie Mauzy, between Corden's and Blunt's original story quest of going into the woods for items from each of these fairy tale characters.

While I have never seen the theatrical production, Into the Woods seems well-adapted as a movie. It is a shame that due to the low budget, Director Rob Marshall decided not to shoot the movie in 3-D Adapting a stage production into a movie seemed perfect, especially moving the camera through the woods, as well as the direction/choreography of the artificial waterfall for the duet of Chris Pine and Billy Magnussen singing the song Agony. Actually I thought Chris Pine was much better as a singer than I thought he would be. Although several songs from the theatrical production were cut from the film, I love the ensemble cast of the movie with Corden and Blunt leading the way, and Streep singing her own songs live. Crawford's and Huttlestone's performances I thought were wonderful considering their ages, but then Crawford and Huttlestone are veterans of musical theater with Huttlestone appearing in Les Miserables.

This a a dark movie - and people should remember that, despite the Disney name, this is a Steven Sondheim musical and not your typical Disney family oriented animated movie musical. This is the second Broadway adaption that Disney has made, and the style and themes of the movie are slightly different from Disney, being a darker, existentialist, and more adult movie - along with the consequences of wishes as the major theme of the movie since the musical was not originated from Disney and does not follow the happily ever after fairy tale endings that we have all grown up with.

Even though Johnny Depp is credited in the movie, Depp's performance is really just a cameo appearance in the movie. The movie is not about Depp, but his performance did capture his character as it was based on the Zoot suit wearing Wolf from the old 1940's Tex Avery cartoons.

Click below to watch another movie trailer of Into the Woods.



Rated PG for violence and sexual intentions. Running time: 125 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

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JOYFUL NOISE

Warner Bros. Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running Time: 118 Minutes



Click below to watch the Joyful Noise trailer.



In Warner Bros. Pictures Joyful Noise, Queen Latifah is made church choir director over Dolly Parton after Parton's husband, choir director Kris Kristofferson, passes away during a church choir competition.

A combination of Sister Act 2 and Footloose, this film is very uneven. While the music is great, most of the songs are popular secular songs used during church services - which felt very awkward for me. Very few of the songs the various church choirs sings actually mention Jesus or the Lord - and, of course, the songs are supposed to give greater glory to God. The film also is more about the relationship between Latifah's daughter Keke Palmer and Parton's troubled grandson Jeremy Jordan, who arrives at Parton's home after being kicked out of his mother's house. Despite the roughness of Jordan's background, Jordan is drawn to Palmer and joins the choir and is also a good influence and teacher to Latifah's son Dexter Darden who appears to have a form of autism. Darden liked one-hit wonders, especially Walk Away Renee by The Left Banke. I have always loved Walk Away Renee ever since I heard Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes do a cover song of this. The best scene in the film, the one that got to me, was when Darden was questioning why Latifah loves God so much - when Darden is really ticked off with God for making Darden the way he is. The scene was so heart-wrenching to me, and it really made me feel for Darden.

As a tenor singing in my church choir, I could not believe that there is hardly any rehearsal done in the music. There is choreography rehearsal, but no vocal rehearsals - which is where most of the work of a choir is, especially if you are singing harmonies. For such a small town/congregation, there seemed to be a large out of proportion amount of music ministers. It looked like there were more people in the music ministry than there was in the congregation. Are there that many musically talented people in a small town? In my church, out of 3,000 registered families, only .01% of the people are music ministers. Also, you only get to know half of the choir in the movie. The other choir members are just background singers and instrument players, and you do not know the instrument players at all. There was a relationship that was developing between two choir members Francis Jue and Angela Grovey which would have been a nice contrast to the dysfunctional relationships in the rest of the movie, but Jue's and Grovey's relationship ended up as a cheap joke. Although Kris Kristofferson has a song, Kristofferson has an extremely brief cameo in the movie - which was much less than I expected for the movie when I found out Kristofferson was involved in the movie.

The story itself is like a soap opera, with the focus of the movie on the rivalry between Parton and Latifa as well as the romance between Palmer and Jordan. There is no interaction with the parishioners of the church, just interaction with these members of the choir. Even Pastor Courtney B. Vance was more interested in the "business" of the church, instead of tending to his flock of people - and given the smallness of the town, you should have seen Vance more with the people as the church is the center of the community. Vance tending to the people is especially important with the town struggling with the economy and the closing of the local businesses. It is because of the economy that Latifa's husband Jesse L. Martin went back to the military for a paycheck to send back to his family, although nurse Latifa does not see it that way. All she cares about is that he left her. The theme of the movie was more like ME! ME! ME! instead of glorifying God.

Considering that Parton just lost her husband, you never got any grieving from her - and what happened to her family? Her sons were at the service and you never saw them again - and you never saw her daughter. No grieving or support for Parton after that. A couple of scenes after the service of grieving would have made Parton a little more believable. I have no idea whose child Jordan is as Parton's grandchild. That is how little Parton's family had an impact on me. I'm sad to say, just after seeing the movie - I found out my cousin had passed away, so Parton's lack of grieving and lack of support from her family had really upset me.

Rated PG-13 for language and sexual situations. Running time: 118 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

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