So anybody that knows me is probably going to be very surprised that I went and saw this. Even as I write this I’m kind of surprised myself. A musical about a circus show.
In 2017 a friend of mine and I bought this $35 deal from Regal where you could see every Best Picture nominated film as much as you wanted for a week. We saw all nine of them that week, many a few times (yes, I was exhausted by Sunday). This included La La Land which I would have never seen except this deal. Believe it or not, I have seen a number of musicals in my life. My parents were into it when I was a kid, I was married to a music major for over 10 years.
La La Land was horrible. It was bad just by itself but made worse when compared to Hidden Figures, Fences, Hacksaw Ridge, Hell or High Water, Lion, Manchester by the Sea and the best picture winner Moonlight. Just in that category a movie like Hidden Figures, which I very much enjoyed was obviously put in that category because of the actual great true story, not because of it being a great film. You expect that when it comes to the Oscars but it in the case of La La Land, it was so bad that I lost all respect for the Oscar process.
Ok, all of that said about La La Land, zero expectations for Greatest Showman. My youngest daughter really wanted to see this. She did and wanted to see it again so I took her. I went into it same way I went into any Disney Princess movie, there for her and that’s it.
I was very surprised by it. The signing was really good, not something I’d go and buy the soundtrack but I could very much appreciate the talent. The story was entertaining enough that I didn’t fall asleep. And I’m sorry to bring it up again but if I were to just rank La La Land to Greatest Showman, La La Land would get somewhere in the negative and Greatest Showman would get a 10+.
Since I’m not ranking this compared to just one movie and instead overall, I give this a 6 out of 10. A movie I’d strongly recommend if you have kids under 14.