LogFAQs > #933612331

13. Oliver!

Karo: 2
Genny: 4
Johnbobb: 12
Scarlet: 12
Inviso: 23
KBM: 26
JONA: 30

Karo - The live action version of that disney movie with the dogs, only now with people in london.
The songs are the big draw here, it is one of the few films in this project that felt like a 'real' musical what with the big involved musical numbers featuring dozens of people.
The only black mark is Oliver himself and his weird adult woman dubbed singing voice. If this boy is unable to sing by himself, why the hell would you cast him as the lead character in a musical?
Still it tells a good story, and it is just a lot of fun to watch in the same way Mary Poppins is and is well deserving of its best picture win.

Score: 83/100

Best Song: 'Consider Yourself'

Genny - Even though he's naive and bumbling I couldn't help but to root for Oliver. His angelic voice and big doe eyes are just too innocent for this world. Everything from the choreography and songs to the acting is compelling and I have no complaints about anything aside from Nancy staying in that toxic relationship, but I suppose that couldn't be helped without deviating from the source material. Food, Glorious Food might be the most memorable number, but the catchiest to me was You've Got to Pick a Pocket or Two. Oliver's voice is so sweet in Who Will Buy? it's hard not to love that as well. Really just an all-around lovely soundtrack where nothing feels like a waste.

Johnbobb - Every aspect of Oliver! is done well, to the point that it's hard to find faults. The acting is mostly excellent (Ron Moody and Shani Wallis are particular standouts), the costuming and set design are all well put together, the songs are catchy and fun. A good movie based on a good musical. Having trouble thinking of much else to say beyond just "yes, very good."
Favorite song: It's a Fine Life

Scarlet - Nostalgia makes me guilty of potentially overranking this piece; having played a role in my local communitys production of Oliver, I fondly recall every number and likely overlook all of the technically poor aspects of the film.
Best Song: Consider Yourself

Inviso - I know this film won an academy award, but that doesnt mean I need to show it any kind of respect. Its just SO dull for SO long. I know people give Oliver & Company a river of shit, but at least it had a pulse and had some fun and some energy. Oliver in this movie SUCKS. He cant act and spends the entire film acting like a timid little bitch. Really, far too much of this film revolves around child actors and child singers, so right off the bat it does NOTHING for me. The ONE saving grace, and the reason the film ranks THIS high, is Nancy. She is by FAR the most interesting character in the film, starting out as desperately in love with Bill Sikes (who is totally an abusive boyfriend), only to develop a conscience and slowly work to help Oliver gain a life beyond just living as a street urchin. The Oompapa song was the only really memorable musical number in the film, and it served a purpose of Nancy using it as a distraction, showing her wit and strength in the face of a man who physically assaulted her. Sadly, she meets a tragic end, but her story alone makes the back half of the movie far superior to the front half, and thus far more enjoyable than others Ive watched.

KBM - Why I Chose It: The 1960 British stage show Oliver!, written by Lionel Bart and based on Dickens' novel Oliver Twist, was a huge hit worldwide, becoming especially popular in British schools on account of its hummable tunes and age-appropriate roles. Alain Boublil also credited the show as his inspiration for writing a musical based on Les Misrables, saying that seeing the Artful Dodger singing and dancing on stage made him envision Gavroche doing the same. The 1968 film adaptation of the show, directed by Carol Reed was also a rather large success, winning six Academy Awards including Best Picture, but also signified the end of an era as the last G-rated film to ever receive the Best Picture Oscar, as well as the last musical to win the award for 34 years (2002's Chicago finally ending the dry spell). It is often considered the very last hurrah of the golden age of movie musicals, as the genre became far less omnipresent until its 21st century revival.

My Thoughts: Oliver! lives and dies on the appeal of its lead child actor. And I hate to say it, but God, I really just cannot stand Mark Lester's performance here, with his over-the-top cutesy persona and his incredibly weak singing voice. Jack Wild, Oscar-nominated for his supporting turn as the Artful Dodger, comes off a bit better, but he and Ron Moody (also Oscar-nominated for his role as Fagin) have the opposite problem, where they're just constantly playing to the back of the house, not seeming to realize that they're in a film. Some of this overplaying can be attributed to the rather dated style in which the movie was made, but that doesn't account for how much better and more restrained similar performances are in earlier films such as West Side Story and My Fair Lady. As it turns out, despite the music, of course, being catchy (though maybe a bit too omnipresent for me, being in the musical theatre world, to find a lot of the songs not irritating - Consider Yourself, for instance, goes on FOREVER), this whole movie just hits a whole bunch of wrong notes for me. The choreography is also hokey and over-the-top, and filmed as it often is by Carol Reed in such an awkward, stagey way, it just makes me wonder how this managed to get all the acclaim and awards hardware that it did. It's not all bad, of course Harry Secombe's awesome tenor vocals are underrated in the role of Mr. Bumble, and Shani Wallis is great as Nancy, even if the film does her dirty by shooting her death so awkwardly and distantly that it's not even clear Sykes has killed her until well after the fact. I'll admit that Oliver! isn't REALLY my kind of show in the first place, but in my opinion, it could have been executed a lot better than this. The songs are catchy, though, and hey, that does count for at least something.

Favorite Song: As Long As He Needs Me

JONA - This movie must have caught me in a particularly bad mood because I could not give a shit about this movie. I hated Oliver. I hated his singing. I just didnt care about whether he would get shelter or not. The other characters are more likable, but not by a significant amount. The songs are just generally whatever, with none of them particularly sticking out to me. I also hate the big overproduced dance sequences for a good amount of the songs.