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Hello, Dolly! (1969)
Entertaining, no chemistry between stars
I had always heard of the 3 big musical flops from 20th Century Fox that basically killed the musical film for most of the '70s and all of the '80s: these 3 being Doctor Dolittle (1967), Star! (1968), and Hello, Dolly! (1969). Since all 3 were bombs at the box office and generally had poor reviews, I figured that they would all be boring, slow, and dull. I was incredibly wrong, at least in the case of Hello, Dolly!. I think too many people write off this film as bad simply because it was a flop at the box office. It is a very entertaining film with good music and choreography. Even though Streisand was too young to properly play Dolly as a middle aged meddler, I still think her performance is good enough to make the character believable. That being said, Streisand and Matthau have NO chemistry what so ever and their "romance" (if you can even call it that) was incredibly forced. Walter Matthau cannot sing either. Michael Crawford was good, but the other clerk wasn't great. On the whole, this is a fun film to watch on a Sunday afternoon, and its surprisingly captivating. It's not The Sound of Music, but that doesn't mean it's bad.
Doctor Zhivago (1965)
Masterfully made
I have been one of David Lean's biggest fans for a long time now, and this is my favorite film of his. I'm not saying its his best, but its certainly my favorite. I loved this film. When I first saw this, I was only somewhat familiar with David Lean and his work - I had seen Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia and loved them both. But the one I had always wanted to see was Zhivago. After putting it off forever, I sat down one day and watched it. And it gripped me. I was surprised how enthralled I was consistently through a 3 hours+ film. By the time Lara shoots Komarovsky, I was completely hooked. Throughout the whole film, not only did the story captivate me, but the images. David Lean is one of the best directors of all time, and I think the framing in his films in some of the greatest ever. If you intimidated by the films runtime, just sit down and watch. It's one of the greats.
Brother Bear (2003)
Beautiful animation, but with a boring characters and sub-par songs.
Let me get one thing out of the way: this film has beautiful animation. I can't help but want to visit Alaska after seeing the beautiful mountain vistas shown in this film. Rotten Tomatoes claims the animation is "so-so" and this couldn't be further from the truth. This film is worth watching just for the animation and Kenai's transformation. But . . . the rest of it kinda sucks.
Phil Collins, who wrote some great songs for Disney's Tarzan, ruined any emotional poignancy the film could of had by drowning out the dialogue of the reveal scene with his awful song. The songs detracted from my over all enjoyment of the film.
The characters were boring. I wasn't invested in the plot because I wasn't invested in the characters. Koda was alright, but I couldn't have cared less about Kenai's journey or Denahi's revenge. The rams (which were on the box even though they were on screen for less than a minute) were not funny whatsoever. The only good characters were the moose. Yeah, it was stupid that their minor spat over "crashing the Mammoth" was what convinced Koda to forgive Kenai, but I thought they were funny.
I think the film was trying to be North American Lion King, and it really shows in some scenes (that scene with Kenai and Koda in the volcanic area is practically identical to the Elephant Graveyard), but it doesn't have the emotional significance due to the blandness of the characters.
The plot twist that Kenai killed Koda's mother was obvious the instant Koda said he had lost his mom that it boggles the mind that Kenai didn't realize sooner.
Rotten Tomatoes ranked it as the worst movie in the Disney Animated Canon. Yes, even worse than Chicken Little. And that's just not true. While Chicken Little's animation physically hurts to look at, this film's animation was stunning. And this one didn't have the awful, stingy pop culture jokes that Chicken Little had.
This film is not awful, but just for kids. While most Disney films can be enjoyed by adults and kids alike, this film is just for kids. It's not Chicken Little, but don't expect The Lion King.