A nyomorultak

EPIC! That is the word that jumped into my mind less than a minute into “Les Misérables.” Just the opening shot of prison constable Javert (Crowe) looking down on his charge of prisoners gave me a chill that would last for almost three hours.

In my favorite movie musical, The Apple, a 1980 crapsterpiece about a future dystopia (1994!) where an innocent folk-singing Adam-n-Eve duo named Alphie and Bibi find themselves enslaved by a record industry Satan in exchange for superfame, a lot of...

To transform the much-beloved "Les Misérables" from stage to screen, director Tom Hooper had find a way to maintain -- and amplify -- the emotional power of the original words and music with the trappings of a big-screen production.

Aside from “Newsies,” I don’t prefer musicals. I still know a good one when I see it, and the first big-screen musical version of “Les Miserables” is a very good one.

Les Miserables, believed by some to be the best novel ever penned in French, has been adapted in nearly every form imaginable, including dozens of movies, television mini-series in French and English, loose "thematic reworkings," and comic books.

Think charities that primarily enrich themselves by peddling poverty guilt, through pimping the mass misery of the destitute around the world. Okay, maybe not. But Les Miserables comes awfully close.

There’s a great meta moment early in Tom Hooper’s film adaptation of the ’80s Broadway musical Les Misérables, based on Victor Hugo’s 1862 French novel. After 19 years of hard labor for stealing a loaf of bread and trying to escape his sentence...

Ungainly as a narrative and clumsy as a musical, this adaptation of Les Miserables features powerhouse singing performances so galvanizing that the movie's flaws hardly matter. This is a Les Miserables inspired by Christina Aguilera's "Voice,"...

The film makes a few minor stumbles. I found the first half, which focuses on the desperate existences from which Valjean and Fantine try to escape, slightly more emotionally involving than the second half, which focuses on the revolutionaries.

While there’s nothing as real and immediate as seeing actors and singers performing, emoting on a stage, the film adaptation of the world’s longest-running musical, Les Misérables, is a moving spectacle on a massive scale.

“Les Misérables” is a great big behemoth of a musical, but I rarely felt weighted down by it. It’s based on the Cameron Mackintosh production of Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg’s French stage musical – one of those shows, like “Cats” and...

Although it would be possible to transfer the specifics of the stage version of Les Misérables for the screen, it would be impossible to recreate the experience on screen—the minimalist spectacle of the production is just ordinary when approached in a...

The long-running, award-winning sung-through musical play based on Victor Hugo's 1862 novel “Les Miserables” finally made into theaters on Christmas Day (but I got to see it earlier than that). I found it to be a lot like most musicals, only more so...

There are moments early on in “Les Misérables” when viewers may feel like they’re about to witness a bona fide disasterpiece, one of those spectacular miscalculations that can be almost as entertaining -- almost -- as a superbly executed work of...

Heavily hyped and surrounded by deafening buzz, Les Misérables serves as Tom Hooper's follow up to the Oscar-winning drama The King's Speech and as this year's sole mainstream musical. It is considered a heavyweight in the Best Picture category...

Hollywood had been trying to make a filmed adaptation of "Les Miz" (as the wags call it) for decades. Makes sense: it's the 4th longest running show in Broadway history and regularly appears near the top when someone lists the greatest musicals of all...

In 19th century France, released prisoner Jean Valjean (Hugh Jackman) is hounded for decades by police inspector Javert (Russell Crowe) after breaking parole. Their lives are forever changed when Valjean agrees to care for the daughter of doomed...

Victor Hugo's 19th Century epic set during the French Revolution was first adapted into a stage musical during the '80s and it quickly became a classic period musical on par with "Sweeney Todd" and "Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera," which...

When it became his privilege to direct the movie version of the “Les Misérables” stage musical that has enthralled the world for more than a quarter-century, Tom Hooper made one crucial, momentous decision. Instead of following the normal practice of...

“Les Miserables” is a big, lavish Hollywood production of an equally extravagant Broadway musical. Accordingly, it looks and sounds phenomenal, and the sweeping, epic story profoundly resonates on screen nearly as well as it does when viewed live.

Audiences new to Boubil & Schoenberg’s stage musical — based on Victor Hugo’s novel of historical fiction — may be surprised to discover that the wooly narrative isn't as compelling as they imagined it might be.

In that sense, LES MISÉRABLES is just like “The Hobbit.” It’s a big lumbering mess where you feel every minute of the excessive running time. It may succeed commercially because of the already-existing fan base which has been eager for years to see...

A couple of months ago in this paper’s fall movie preview, I speculated about the film of the musical version of Victor Hugo’s epic 1862 novel. “If this turns out a turkey,” I wrote, “director Tom Hooper … will deserve never to work again.”

As the Oscar-winning director of "The King's Speech," Tom Hooper knows a thing or two about plumbing history for a story that will speak to the movie-going masses. Still, it's one thing to make a movie based on the largely ignored backstory of a...

I wouldn't be surprised if "Les Miserables" became the most popular movie musical since "Mamma Mia!" On stage, both diversions were, and are, easy to enjoy in their diametrically opposed ways. "Mamma Mia!" revels in Greece, glitter and ABBA; "Les Miz"...

If you agree with the ads that say “Les Misérables” is “the most loved musical of all time,” it’s conceivable that you’ve never heard the word “Hammerstein” and might get swept into the emotional maelstrom of this film adaptation.

Here is Victor Hugo’s sprawling novel, which has been adapted to film numerous times and then turned into a smash Broadway musical, and now returns as the movie version of that stage production.

Audiences will be polarized by this brave version of one of the most beloved musicals in theatrical history. The stage play has plenty of baggage, including songs that are second nature to us. It is massive in scope and unashamedly sentimental.

I love musicals, always have — but my feelings about Tom Hooper’s bombastic version of the long-running stage hit “Les Misérables’’ had me thinking about the opening lines of another epic set in Paris, albeit a century earlier.

Tom Hooper’s “Les Misérables,” the best movie musical in over a decade, is what a musical like this should be – unabashed, unashamed emotion painted in vibrant, broad colors across a massive screen.

Based on Victor Hugo’s classic 1862 novel, this epic, cinematic adaptation should attract audiences that have loved the Broadway musical over the years.

The first hour of Les Miserables might have the power to revive movie musicals for years. Filmed with Tom Hooper's unflinchingly intimate camera, with the likes of Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman and even Russell Crowe singing their hearts out...

Since everything about Les Misérables is fortissimo — including but not limited to its unabashed pursuit of awards that are shiny or globular or both — you have perhaps already heard a little about the movie now storming the Bastille of your wallet.

It's arguably the greatest musical ever written. Les Miserables, adapted from Victor Hugo's gigantic novel of the same name, is a thunderous, rousing stage show that has moved audiences for over 25 years.

Based on the original 1980 stage musical of the 1862 novel by Victor Hugo, the monumental "Les Misérables" fittingly finds itself on the big screen (again), directed by Tom Hooper.

Brazenly foregoing the prerecorded vocal tracks on which its contemporaries rely, Tom Hooper's Les Misérables was performed and recorded live on set—a gimmick claimed to be a revolution in the production of movie musicals despite having been standard...

เรื่องราวเริ่มต้นที่ปี 1815 ในประเทศฝรั่งเศส Jean Valjean คือนักโทษหมายเลข 24601 ที่หลังจากถูกจองจำนานกว่า 19 ปี เขาก็ได้รับการปล่อยตัวโดย Javert ผู้คุมนักโทษ แต่สิ่งที่เขาต้องพบเจอคือการถูกผลักไสจากคนทั่วไปและถูกมองว่าเป็นตัวอันตรายของสังคม...

THE all-conquering stage musical Les Miserables becomes an all-conquering motion picture thanks to a flawlessly directed and acted production that wrings every last ounce of emotion and truth from Victor Hugo’s epic story of love, suffering...

Occasionally, like its characters, ragged around the edges, this nevertheless rings with all the emotion and power of the source and provides a new model for the movie musical.

Much has been made of the naturalistic approach to this greatest hits musical with actors singing live to camera, but let’s face it, the beauty of musical theatre is its ridiculousness – the soul-warming idea that there will be a song for every...

LES Miserables is an impressively epic screen adaptation of the smash-hit musical based on the famous book by Victor Hugo.

Despite what its title suggests, ‘Les Miserables’ – based on the longest-running stage musical by Cameron Mackintosh which is in turn based on the Victor Hugo novel – is really a story about hope. Hope here manifests itself in different forms – hope...

he opening shot of Tom Hooper’s cinematic rendition of the long-running musical Les Misérables boldly and unashamedly announces the film’s epic ambitions. As the strains of the overture swell, the camera moves slowly up toward a tattered French flag...

Les Miserables The long-running stage musical finally gets a film version, complete with a first-rate cast that sang the songs live as dialog. This gives the film an intensely personal kick, which it badly needs because the epic story has so many huge...

For his adaptation of the kitsch-fest known as Les Miz, Tom Hooper (The King's Speech) bets heavily on his cast, and mostly wins. His musical strategy is to have the singing done live on set, and to have the camera bore in on the actors, especially...

Do you hear the people sing? Stand outside any cinema in just over one month’s time and you will. Tom Hooper’s screen adaptation of Les Misérables is a heart-soaring, crowd-delighting hit-in-waiting: the Mamma Mia it’s all right to like.

With its Oscar campaign gaining inevitable momentum, this latest adaptation of Victor Hugo's colossal 1862 novel wears its awards ambitions on its sleeve. Short of guns blazing and trumpets blaring, director Tom Hooper - who wooed the Academy last year...

Known in luvvie circles as The Glums, Les Misérables has been seen by so many people since its 1985 London premiere it’s a marvel there’s anybody left to do so.