Posted on 12/16/2021 8:34:21 PM PST by Borges
The new “West Side Story” is, so far, a box-office flop. Steven Spielberg’s much-anticipated remake of the landmark 1961 musical received rave reviews and has been called a masterpiece. Yet its first weekend theatrical release yielded only $10.5 million, which Variety called “a dismal result for a movie of its scale and scope.”
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It’s not woke, it’s wonderful. “America,” that most American of songs, so knowing but not jaded, is done differently from the original but better, more communally, and it’s just as joyous and comic.
The Journal’s Joe Morgenstern used exactly the right word to describe this movie: “Exultant.”
It’s good that this story, this music and these lyrics, enter the world again.
The whole thing makes you feel that America has a chance.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
There’s no market or audience for it.
I saw it.
Thought it was good.
Well there is but that audience doesn’t like going to movie theaters anymore.
Everyone I know who has seen it loved it. It has a very high user rating on IMDB.
They have chased us out of movie theaters. They were mostly struggling with streaming anyway. Two years almost now of lockdowns. At least in California. Patterns change. People aren’t that flexible.
Why hasn’t the Kancel Klan called out the ‘colorism’ as they did with Lin Manuel Miranda’s “The Heights”? It seems they can be selective on which targets they go after.
The actress who plays Anita is Afro-Latina
It’s a lot better than the 1961 version.
I saw it on the NY stage in the late 50s with Carol Lawrence.
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Well, well, well, Peggy...you Manhattan cocktail party girl, guess what? Many of us never lost faith in America.
Oh sure, we have terrible presidents every now and then (like now), the Media (read: you) suck, and classic rock statio a continue playing Springsteen ad nauseum.
But as long as free men and women can breathe, America's chance is never in doubt.
Maybe from your lofty perch on that tropical little island off the coast of America called Manhattan, America is domed and you need a movie remake to raise your spirits. How typical.
It’s a musical, people don’t like musicals because they’re gay.
“Hey gang, wadda ya want ta do?”
“Let’s go roller skating!!”
(break into song)
“Rooolla skating rollaaa skating
Doooont be hating we’re going rolllla skating”
Yeah that’s why movie musicals were so popular in the 40s and 50s when gay culture was everywhere in the U.S. right? /sarc
Many people aren’t Americans anymore. Many of those that ARE Americans don’t live near NY , nor go to a theater.
The mistake was the remake not just being Pats and Bobbies, all genders , with purple and green hair. You know, normal Americans.
I stopped going to theaters decades ago. Why pay to sit behind adults who pull out their cell phones with brightness set at the highest several times during the movie, talk constantly, and laugh at everything regardless if its funny or not. It use to be children were the problem but now its young adults who never learned how to act in public much less in a theater. When I was a kid anyone who wore a hat indoors, especially a theater, would have it nocked off their head before getting ten feet inside. Now they never take them off. Besides with my 4k home theater projector and ATMOS sound system I can wait the couple of months now for the video release and watch it at my leisure. The popcorn is a heck of a lot cheaper too.
Indeed, I'll go to see the reissue of a classic even if I own a home copy for the superior sound and image quality. It was my pleasure not long ago to take a young nephew to see E.T. as it was meant to be seen.
Last movie seen was C'mon C'mon which was nice in spite of the f-bombs (a couple of them nuclear!) which, while uncomfortable, helped drive the story.
Never cared forWest Side Story...
Good article.
Peggy Noonan ....Meh
I stopped caring about her opinion many moons ago.
Spielberg has said that it’s not a remake of the movie. It’s his take on the original stage production.
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