Best movies 2017 uknown movie#

Best movies 2017 uknown movie#

With the release of West Side Story closing out a year featuring a record six stage-to-screen adaptations, it feels as good a time as ever to reevaluate the products of this 21st century movie musical renaissance, from the razzle dazzle-iest to, as the French say, les miserables. That includes four appearances by Meryl Streep, three films by Rob Marshall, two entries in the Mamma Mia Cinematic Universe, and one perfect shot of Dame Judi Dench in a cat basket lifting her leg like a horny queen. Good, bad, or ugly, there have been 20 major stage-to-film adaptations since the start of the 21st century. Subsequent movie musicals tried to retain the original Broadway productions’ casts to shaky results, while others muted the excesses of the genre with realism, a head-scratcher when people are prone to burst into song and dance. Many tried to mimic Chicago’s success, but few did.

Stage musical adaptations were, in their minds, bankable again. In 2002, a bewigged Catherine Zeta-Jones stepped into the spotlight, her character Velma Kelly having just murdered her husband, and belted out “All That Jazz.” No one could resist the rendition on a wave of critical and commercial success, Chicago picked up the Oscar for Best Picture (the first movie musical winner since 1968’s Oliver!), and studio executives hunted for movies that could replicate the magic.