Rent the Movie Review

I spent a good five minutes trying to figure out a clever title to this post, but then realized a cheesy one liner would make me as bad as the people involved in this film. I didn't have huge expectations going into the film since the trailers seemed pretty lame, but I figured I'd give it a chance. The final verdict? The Show is far superior to the Movie. And it's not even close:

1) The show had a greater energy than the movie. Obviously, live theater has this advantage, but the cast just seemed to be going through the motions.

2) The limitations of theater actually helps the story. Whereas scenes where people are singing at each other on stage come off poignant, when place in real environments, they come off lame and contrived.

3) The new leads just couldn't cut the mustard. Rosario Dawson was ok as Mimi, but the original lead was much better. Same for the original Joanne.

4) The songs that came off as silly in the musical were downright painful in the movie. This is most notable with the opener, one of the worst songs ever written.

That being said, there were a fair amount of decent things in the film, most notably Jesse L. Martin as Tom Collins. He was probably the best cast member overall.

A dissapointment to be sure.