What is so bad about the RENT movie?- Page 2

[all that jazz]

Posted: 5/16/13 at 8:25pm

Did anyone here actually lived in the Alphabet City?

[Wynbish]

Posted: 5/16/13 at 8:26pm

What didn't you like about Rosario?

Just two little quibbles:

1) Her acting
2) Her singing

[all that jazz]

Posted: 5/16/13 at 8:31pm

I quite liked her, maybe it's because she was my first Mimi but I liked her better than the one on stage. She was more believable as an addict.

[Jane2]

Posted: 5/16/13 at 8:54pm

"Did anyone here actually lived in the Alphabet City?"

My best friend did. Ave B betw. 2nd and 3rd. Besides a few shootings in front of his building, he was held at gunpoint and forced up to his apartment where the thief took everything valuable.

[landryjames2]

Posted: 5/16/13 at 8:57pm

Rosario was the only thing I thought was actually good about the movie. Although I am a huge fan of the other cast members on stage, it's like they didn't know how to act for the screen (and possibly because they didn't).

Setting Take Me or Leave Me in a country club (or whatever) was a horrible decision--as was Adam as Roger singing in the desert ala Michael W Smith Christian music video circa 1989.

In short, the direction was terrible although I still love the idea of most of the original cast returning to the movie for posterity sake (despite my earlier comments). And I think all the criticism about them being too old is rubbish. People only think they are too old because they know their ages (from the dawn of film making to the present, actors play characters much younger than their real age)

It does happen to be a guilty pleasure for me though even if I think it's quite a bad movie.

(gosh--my post is full of contradictions. Oh, well--describes my torn feelings on the movie).

[CJ N2N]

Posted: 5/16/13 at 10:05pm

I agree with what basically everyone has said so far and they've all hit the nail on the head in my opinion.

I remember seeing the RENT movie, thinking it was the best thing ever and then getting the OBCR from my local library and being in awe of how many things were missed in the movie.

Aside from the fact it was so "Hollywood" (which is probably the films biggest issue), there are just so many things that don't make sense in the movie. I.E Why does Mimi live in such a crappy apartment if she works in such a large strip club? That weird tango scene in the middle of Tango: Maureen?

What was the point of splitting the first half of the film up into three days? So much urgency was lost by not setting it on just Christmas Eve.

Another thing that bothered me was the orchestrations. Am I the only one who felt the score lost something without the harder, more basic (I might go as far as seeing even garage band) orchestrations of the stage show?

And don't get me started on that huge chunk of "Goodbye, Love" they cut out! "It was an emotional overload"- IT IS THE CLIMAX OF THE STORY IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE!

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 5/16/13 at 10:07pm

They took something totally vanilla and actually made it more vanilla, which is something.

[Wynbish]

Posted: 5/16/13 at 10:53pm

Adam as Roger singing in the desert ala Michael W Smith Christian music video circa 1989

And the setting where Britney Spears pondered on her existence between girlhood and womanhood. Yep, edgiest setting possible.

[AEA AGMA SM]

Posted: 5/16/13 at 11:22pm

"People only think they are too old because they know their ages (from the dawn of film making to the present, actors play characters much younger than their real age)"

To me it wasn't knowing how old or young they actually were, it was how old they actually looked. To be honest, the two who did come off the worst in this aspect were Adam and Anthony. You could make the argument for Jesse as well, but I've always been ok with Collins being a bit on the older side, since I assume he was working on his doctorate when he was expelled from MIT.

I thought Tracie Thoms was a welcome addition (and good for Fredi Walker for realizing that in her mid 40s she was too old to be reprising the role).

[Jane2]

Posted: 5/16/13 at 11:29pm

[finebydesign]

Posted: 5/16/13 at 11:37pm

To me it was the age of the characters. Tracy and Rosario were the only good parts of the film. It was kind of sad, actually.

[sephyr]

Posted: 5/16/13 at 11:42pm

I really enjoyed the movie and liked that they cut some parts out. I've seen the show on stage a few times and some of it just didn't work for me (could've been the acting or the tempos of the recitative) but I liked the cuts to the movie (sans New Year). I also liked the music production. It was my first introduction to Rent and I've liked it the most.

[James885]

Posted: 5/17/13 at 12:32am

To me, the whole film was one big misfire. Chris Columbus never should've directed, they never should've used the OBC, the screenplay was horrendous.

The entire thing was a mess but the worst part was the fact that they cut the second half of 'Goodbye Love', which negates the entire purpose of the song and as a result, a pivotal plot point - Mark and Roger's fight, as well as when Mimi succumbs to the disease - was glossed over in the film.

Updated On: 5/17/13 at 12:32 AM

[adam.peterson44]

Posted: 5/17/13 at 1:07am

For me the cuts to Goodbye Love and Halloween and changes to spoken dialogue on a lot of the songs throughout ruined it. Halloween was very haunting and in my opinion a key insight into Mark's life and feelings, and Goodbye love was important for all the main characters.

The DVD commentary has the director spouting BS about how audiences can't see Roger and Mark singing to each other because that would be weird (WTF!!!). Hello, Mr. Columbus - you were supposed to be directing a MUSICAL! The people who think it is weird for people to sing to each other were never going to be sitting in the audience at a musical film anyway, and the people who do go want to hear a musical - that is why they are there. So he alienated the people who were prepared to like it while not pulling in any new audience as a trade-off.

In contrast to many commenters here, I didn't mind the age of the cast. I did think that Jesse L Martin's performance (especially the subway pole dancing in Santa Fe) made his scenes some of my favorite ones.

[lovebwy]

Posted: 5/17/13 at 2:33am

Anyone who says they like the Rent movie has very retarded taste, in my opinion. It's just moribund. It's DOA (Dead On Arrival). There is no spark to it, no joie de vivre.

[Roscoe]

Posted: 5/17/13 at 9:07am

I'll never forgive or forget the moment, near the beginning of the film, where Collins seeks to escape a mugging by running INTO a dark alley. Add to that Adam Pascal's lackluster performance, with full Farrah Fawcett Majors blonde flowing luscious locks yet, and you've only begun to scratch the surface of the film's problems.

[LYLS3637]

Posted: 5/17/13 at 9:08am

^ I was wondering how long it would take for someone to call someone else's opinion wrong or, in this case, the ever-lovely "retarded".

[LizzieCurry]

Posted: 5/17/13 at 9:36am

I remember going to an early screening of it with Emcee and when the "Gap Commercial" started the audience just burst out laughing.

A friend said she went to a screening that was full of rentheads and the same thing happened to her. I first saw it in a theatre with just a few people in it (very suburban San Francisco Bay Area), but we all still burst out laughing at that scene as well. :)

[Kad]

Posted: 5/17/13 at 9:43am

The one thing that oddly stuck out to me about the Rent film was how there was not a single shot of the World Trade Center in a movie about life in the East Village in the early 90s.

[Jane2]

Posted: 5/17/13 at 9:47am

Kad, Im not sure I get that discrepancy. Can you elucidate?

[lovebwy]

Posted: 5/17/13 at 9:57am

I calls 'em as I sees 'em!

[Kad]

Posted: 5/17/13 at 9:59am

If I recall correctly, the film used shots of the NYC skyline- but only shots that omitted downtown in an effort to be politically correct. But the WTC was such a ubiquitous part of the skyline- and extremely visible from the East Village. It was just such a clearly 2005 choice for a film supposedly set over a decade prior- and just another example, to me, of how the film was cleaned up.

[madbrian]

Posted: 5/17/13 at 10:02am

Just watched Rent on Encore cable channel. To me, the satndout performance is Jesse Martin, particularly the reprise of I'll Cover You.

[winston89]

Posted: 5/17/13 at 10:06am

Kad,

I think you're incorrect. I vividly remember there being a shot of the Twin Towers that is shown when Roger is on his way to Maureen's show (right before he stopps Mimi from buying drugs.) I also remember Columbus stupidly saying on the commentary that he was hemming and hawing over whether or not he should have put them in the movie, then he realized that it would be a "gritty sign of things to come." And, decided to do so.

[Movidude742]

Posted: 5/17/13 at 10:13am

when the film came out I was a little thrilled. I had issues, but I forgave them as I thought it was the best we would get. After they filmed the final performance most of the forgiveness went out the window.

They really messed up Roger's character. So much of his mistrust of Mimi came from how he found out he was sick . . . from a note left by his girlfriend as she killed himself. Also this is why he doesn't leave the apartment. The first thing He and Mark do is go down tot he street to talk with Benny outside. Without that bit of backstory he is just an irredeemable asshole to Mimi. He was a bit of an ass on stage too, but you understood why, and forgave him.

Also, the early ending of the funeral prevented Benny from being at least a little redeemed, paying for the service and all. Sure his wife pulls him out of the East Village location, be becomes less of a cartoon villain and more of a human