Skip to main content

Fox's The Greatest Showman: Passionate and Top-Notch

Photo courtesy of William Edward Beavers, V
In a major step away from his usual action film roles, Hugh Jackman managed to move me to tears of joy in his role as entertaining legend P.T. Barnum. With a fascinating cast and musical numbers, Twentieth Century Fox's The Greatest Showman was a dynamic production to see as the year 2017 draws to a close. The film basically chronicles Barnum's plan to create the greatest show on Earth. Through support of his wife (Michelle Williams) and children and playwright Philip Carlyle (Zac Efron), he is able to defy protesters and negativity of critics to put on a circus that will push audiences out of their comfort zone and become satisfied throughout the country.  Their undying love for entertainment and breaking down societal issues is what makes them interesting for all to see. The rest of the cast includes famous singer Zendaya Coleman (we know as simply "Zendaya") and Swedish actress Rebecca Ferguson from Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation. The musical soundtrack was beautifully sung, the most moving for me were "A Million Dreams", "Rewrite the Stars" ,"From Now On", and "This Is Me" by Keala Settle.
I never saw the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus growing up, and after seeing the film,
part of me regrets it. Nevertheless, it was a fantastic artistic creation to see with my mother.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Superman-Great Past and New Hero Magic

Superman (2025) poster. Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures. James Gunn's iteration of  Superman  was a well-thought-out film. I give it a 9.4/10 for both the occasional references to the Christopher Reeve film from the late 1970s and for standing out with different presentations of the iconic Man of Steel and his colorful supporting characters. This was my first time seeing David Corenswet, but he was great acting out the drama and heroism in the lives of Clark Kent and Superman. It was also great to see Rachel Brosnahan bring some gumption and humor to her role of Superman's love interest, Lois Lane, and it was great to see former X-Men actor Nicholas Hoult bring some vigor to his role of Superman's ruthless archenemy, Lex Luthor. In this Superman, it stood out by skipping the intro of Kal-El leaving Krypton as a baby and instead showing Superman, played by Corenswet, in his third year of protecting Metropolis and the world. In his quest to prove Superman a threat to humani...

'Roofman': Channing Tatum Played a Lovable Thief

Poster for 'Roofman.' Courtesy of Paramount Pictures and Miramax. Channing Tatum played Jeffrey Manchester, an ex-Army Reserve soldier and divorced dad who had a penchant for details and thieving. He was known as "The Roofman" for breaking into his targets by drilling into their roofs. It was like Tatum channeled Sam Dawson and Scott Lang into one as his character managed to find a way to sneak out of prison underneath a truck with skills from prison shop, then make a home in a corner in a 2004 Toys 'R Us.  It was pretty funny and amusing how Jeffrey sort of took control of the store after closing. How he snacked on M and M's, skated around on Heely-like shoes, he acted like a grown man with a kid's bedroom with inflatables and Spider-Man merchandise, and he kept security with baby monitors. It was also kind of funny how he made money out of stealing and pawning a bunch of video games. While trying to get out of the country after fleeing to the store, Jeff...

'Sarah's Oil': A Sharp-Willed, Inspirational Tale

Poster for 'Sarah's Oil.' Courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios. Naya Desir-Johnson triumphed as the eponymous character of Sarah's Oil . She channeled intelligence, comic relief, and proud spirit in her role as child oil baron Sarah Rector. I also enjoyed Zachary Levi's role as Sarah's business partner Bert Smith with his Southwestern charm and protectiveness over Sarah. You'll also appreciate the performance of Sonequa Martin-Green as Sarah's mother,  the costume designing by Michael T. Boyd, the scoring by Kathryn Bostic, and the filming in Oklahoma where the story took place. In the early 1900s, Sarah Rector, played by Desir-Johnson, was granted land that, unbeknownst to people of power at the time, had crude oil gushing underneath the infertile land. With help wildcatter from Bert Smith, played by Levi, and her family, and eventually others in Oklahoma, Sarah shows certain racist people that she will stop at nothing to drill for that oil and make a great l...