digitalzen-1 Reviews

The King and I (1999)

Might be OK if there had never been a live version

[2/10 · 3 February 2007]

I saw Yul Brynner play the king about four months before he died. As long ago as that was, his version is etched in my mind. For that reason I may have approached this abomination with my mind already made up.

That notwithstanding, the following: the animation was only passable. That has come to be the norm in cheap TV cartoons for five-year-olds, but a full-length feature based on a well-known story deserves better. Today's computer animation leaves no excuse for a two-dimensional, poorly-drawn screenplay.

The voices are at odds with the drama -- either overplayed or under, rarely right on. Brynner could parody himself and get away with it. Vidnovic isn't up to the job. That said, his accent was enough like The King that it got me a couple of times. The singing is passable, but I swear I could hear the electronics occasionally.

The liberties taken with the plot are unacceptable. They not only detract from and confuse the story line, they grate on the nerves. I suppose they thought only kids would watch this thing. In my own case, I wish they had been right.

Rent the original. See what a real musical with real people is all about. Give this version a pass.

The Choirboys (1977)

Pretty close to the real thing...I know

[8/10 · 21 January 2006]

I was a cop with about 10 years on the street when I read Wambaugh's book, and figured the movie would be terrible. I thought Altman and his crew caught both the flavor of the book and of life on the mean streets of LA dead on.

Maybe you had to have been there. I was a great Hill Street fan (still am), but it was sanitized for TV, and much less like the real thing because of needing to maintain a plot line. Life ain't like that, and neither was The Choir Boys.

Cop humor is hard to fathom for outsiders. Cops are, in fact, a minority group anthropologically, meeting all the same criteria. Life out there doesn't go from A to B to C. It's chaotic. So was the movie, a little. Good job of catching the feeling.