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What was wrong with the RENT movie?
What was wrong with the RENT movie?
Steel Pier Fan
Featured Actor Joined: 4/11/11
#1What was wrong with the RENT movie?
Posted: 5/28/11 at 2:05pmIt is a guilty pleasure of mine, so I obviously love it. I haven't seen the stage show so that might be the problem. Why didn't you guys like it? (Not just for RENTheads)
#2What was wrong with the RENT movie?
Posted: 5/28/11 at 2:08pm
https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.php?thread=1007755
https://www.journalfen.net/community/fandom_wank/843081.html
"This thread reads like a series of White House memos." — Mister Matt
#2What was wrong with the RENT movie?
Posted: 5/28/11 at 2:09pm
At the time I hadn't seen the show live on stage, so I loved the movie. After seeing the production on Broadway and on tour with Adam/Anthony, I realized just how lifeless and dull the movie is.
In some ways I love that the performances of Idina, Wilson Jermaine Heredia and Jessie L. Martin among others are preserved on film, many of them could not convincingly play the character's ages. Are we really supposed to believe they are all in their 20's?
The screenplay was also dulled to the point of RENT: School Edition. Chris Columbus was also the absolute wrong choice.
But I admit, it's one of my guilty pleasures.
"Oh look at the time, three more intelligent plays just closed and THE ADDAMS FAMILY made another million dollars" -Jackie Hoffman, Broadway.com Audience Awards
#3What was wrong with the RENT movie?
Posted: 5/28/11 at 2:35pmFor one, the cutting of the smaller songs (tune up, christmas bells, etc.). The smaller songs helped the each scene transition very well.
#4What was wrong with the RENT movie?
Posted: 5/28/11 at 2:55pm
You know how the wrap on Lea Michele on Glee is that she really oversells all of her singing performances? It looks fine on stage but on film? Goodness. Idina seemed to be the biggest offender but I think aside from Rosario Dawson and Jesse L. Martin, the rest of the cast had those kinds of moments.
The movie did not look the time and place I always imagined (I was sort of wondering if they retconned the time of the story) with Rent and as somebody mentioned it was dull. Wrong director and it showed with some run of the mill music video quality stagings of the songs.
#5What was wrong with the RENT movie?
Posted: 5/28/11 at 3:05pm
* The Bon Jovi music video-setting of Roger's later scenes
* The strip club looking like a BIG budget (high-paying) Vegas showplace
* Many of the songs being spoken vs. sung
* The aforementioned obvious age-problem
* Rosario playing Mimi fairly well, but with vocals auto-tuned to almost Glee level
* The "up with people" tone of many scenes vs. the slightly darker tone they needed
* Some anachronistic time errors (possibly intentional)
* The gay marriage scene that's treated like "no big deal" by two large families -- in the 1990s. No way.
I didn't hate it by any stretch, but thought it was in the wrong hands and about 5 years too late.
#6What was wrong with the RENT movie?
Posted: 5/28/11 at 3:09pmSimply put, everything other than Rosario Dawson and Tracie Thoms.
SporkGoddess
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/27/05
#7What was wrong with the RENT movie?
Posted: 5/28/11 at 3:12pmChris Columbus. 'Nuff said.
Jimmy, what are you doing here in the middle of the night? It's almost 9 PM!
#8What was wrong with the RENT movie?
Posted: 5/28/11 at 3:13pmIt was way too glitzy in my opinion. It was not true to what life was really like for the struggling characters. I also did not like that they used the original cast either. I really would have liked for them to use different actors.
"There’s nothing quite like the power and the passion of Broadway music. "
#9What was wrong with the RENT movie?
Posted: 5/28/11 at 3:22pm
It romanticized the time period and the characters even more than the source material- which is saying something.
It sanitized the material even more.
As mentioned, the adaptation of the dialogue is terrible.
Anachronistic in many ways. If this is intentional, it's a bad choice. If it's not, it's bad research.
Nearly all the cast members are too old for their roles, and aren't competent film actors.
Bizarre staging and set pieces. Roger singing on a canyon is ridiculous to the point that it should be a meme.
"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."
#10What was wrong with the RENT movie?
Posted: 5/28/11 at 4:16pm
- The cast except for Tracie Thoms & Rosario Dawson - the original actors were too old, and totally unbelievable as a group of young bohemians. Several of them came off as wooden and unengaging.
- The horrendous screenplay - cutting the recitative, but just having the actors speak the rhyming lyrics was an awful decision.
- Chris Columbus, one of the 'safest' directors in Hollywood, was absolutely the wrong choice to direct this film. I would've loved to have seen another director play up the grittiness
- the cliff scene during "What You Own" - 'nuff said
"You drank a charm to kill John Proctor's wife! You drank a charm to kill Goody Proctor!" - Betty Parris to Abigail Williams in Arthur Miller's The Crucible
#11What was wrong with the RENT movie?
Posted: 5/28/11 at 4:34pmAnyone who witnessed Alphabet City (East Village past Avenue A) in the early 90's knows how far they missed in capturing the scary desperation of that time and place. And despite some good production design choices (thought the loft was well-done), there's no way San Francisco (where they shot the film) can ever really pass for the East Village.
wiggum2
Broadway Star Joined: 9/21/03
#12What was wrong with the RENT movie?
Posted: 5/28/11 at 6:15pmAll I know is that I had no desire to ever see Rent. I was dragged to the movie theatre by some friends and I fell in love with Rent! Is the movie perfect? No but it's not as bad as people make it out to be.
#13What was wrong with the RENT movie?
Posted: 5/28/11 at 6:38pmI don't think there's anything wrong with it. I know I'm in the minority here, but I like it just fine. I think it's a very good movie (perhaps not a great one, but not crap, either).
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
#14What was wrong with the RENT movie?
Posted: 5/28/11 at 6:40pmI think the movie comes across much worse if you've seen the show on stage. Definitely a guilty pleasure of mine, and I didn't notice anything to criticize until I saw the show's original intention when performed live. That being said, I think the movie definitely sparked an interest in Broadway for many people my age.
"Rather than ignore those who choose to publish their opinions without actually talking to me, I am happy to dispel any rumors or misconceptions and am quite proud to say that I am a very content gay man living my life to the fullest and feel most fortunate to be working with wonderful people in the business I love."
-Neil Patrick Harris
#15What was wrong with the RENT movie?
Posted: 5/28/11 at 7:07pm
I think the movie comes across much worse if you didn't live in NYC with Jon and his friends when he was coming up with the idea for "Rent." So many people who were in diapers then think they know what his intent was and "what it was like to be there" and how it should have been sung and who should have been in it and how they should have acted the parts.
I've seen the show on stage, and I still like the movie. I lived in NYC in the mid-to-late '80s when Jon Larson was living there, and I also knew him personally. I was a struggling actor/singer/writer then, too.
I'm not negating anyone's opinion of it here. Your opinion is based on your perceptions and your own experiences. But don't negate mine because you think I don't know the material well enough or don't understand the time.
I know it, I knew it, I knew him, I was there.
I still like the movie.
"Jaws is the Citizen Kane of movies."
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
Updated On: 5/28/11 at 07:07 PM
blocked: logan2, Diamonds3, Hamilton22
amoni2
Featured Actor Joined: 3/4/06
#16What was wrong with the RENT movie?
Posted: 5/28/11 at 9:18pmEven if you didn't know it was shot in San Francisco, it never had a gritty New York feel.
Steel Pier Fan
Featured Actor Joined: 4/11/11
#17What was wrong with the RENT movie?
Posted: 5/28/11 at 10:12pmYea, I saw pictures of Alphabet City and the buildings were collapsing. Then I saw RENT and thought they tried to make it look nicer than it was, but they were inside most of the time.
Actor2
Featured Actor Joined: 1/12/08
#18What was wrong with the RENT movie?
Posted: 5/29/11 at 1:38amI agree with best12bars. Sure there were foibles, but it was well done, and in certain ways I prefer it over the musical. I find the stage libretto disjointed at times.
#19What was wrong with the RENT movie?
Posted: 5/29/11 at 1:52am
It will take 525600 minutes for me to tell you.
Minute One...
"Ok ok ok ok ok ok ok. Have you guys heard about fidget spinners!?" ~Patti LuPone
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
#20What was wrong with the RENT movie?
Posted: 5/29/11 at 7:48pm
Speaking the lyrics was a beyond weird choice (Phantom's movie did the same thing I seem to remember). While I think it just shows that they shouldn't cut the sung dialogue if they are going to, get someone to write good dialogue. *shakes head*
I dunno I just find the movie really kinda laughable--I enver find it touching, which, despite my many issues with the musical on stage, I always do.
#21What was wrong with the RENT movie?
Posted: 5/29/11 at 7:59pm
"For one, the cutting of the smaller songs (tune up, christmas bells, etc.)."
Christmas Bells is a *smaller* song!?
Jon
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/20/04
#22What was wrong with the RENT movie?
Posted: 5/30/11 at 11:48am
I saw the original cast just a few weeks after the Broadway opening. There was this incredible energy on that stage. The performers had a real "edge".
In the movie, nearly 10 years later, the same actors looked too old, and they looked tired. The pacing of the movie was dull, and it looked like they had smeared vaseline on the camera lens. No sparks.
#23What was wrong with the RENT movie?
Posted: 5/30/11 at 11:51am
I wish they had given this to John Cameron Mitchell. He lived RENT.
One thing they got right was giving Anna Deveare Smith a cameo. That woman is a GOD!
Srah Silverman? WTF?
"The sexual energy between the mother and son really concerns me!"-random woman behind me at Next to Normal
"I want to meet him after and bang him!"-random woman who exposed her breasts at Rock of Ages, referring to James Carpinello
#24What was wrong with the RENT movie?
Posted: 5/30/11 at 11:57am
What was wrong with the film? Daphne wasn't in it. I don't give two shlts about her being "too old" when you have other 40 year olds running around pretending to be 20.
People always said "Well there's that line in the song where she says she's 19!" I'll repeat how I think they could have gotten past that -
Roger: You Look like you're (Mimi shoots Roger a "You better not say I'm old" look) 16..
Mimi: I'm...(jokingly) 19 (Roger gives her a "Oh, please" look) But I'm old for my age. (Roger gives a little laugh)
There. Make a quick little joke about Mimi's age and you're done. I'll never like this film for the fact she wasn't a part of it and when I want my RENT fix I watch the 10 year reunion.
Updated On: 5/30/11 at 11:57 AM
