I am one of the smaller percentage of people who views things as though the glass is half full. Being a fan of many remakes, but more so being a fan of Idina Menzel could make this review somewhat bias. However, I will review this movie remake as though my love for Idina Menzel wasn't reason enough to love it.
I love several of Bette Midler's movies. My favorite is "For The Boys" costarring James Caan. Bette has an interesting way of singing that comes off as though she developed the ability to sing through training alone. Sometimes Bette's singing bothers me. Loving her remake of Gypsy but not truly feeling the classical atmosphere as the original could easily make the average critic not enjoy it.
But we are here to review her movie remake "Beaches" with Idina Menzel and Nia Long. The following are the reasons why I love this remake.
1) New music. You have to be able to stomach Idina Menzel's voice to love the music in this movie. Wicked the musical and both Frozen movies are only 2 places you will hear her amazing unique way of delivering a song.
2) Diversity, I love how her best friend in this movie was a different color than in the original, Being a white male who has connected and related to mostly African american women gives me a personal connection to the changes in this remake.
3) A shorter movie. Sometimes I think people make movies way too long, and sometimes not long enough. The original movie was way too long, often taking extended moments of nothing important going on making my attention span shorter than usual. I felt like the pace in this version was way better.
I am not going to talk about what I didn't like about it because, again I am looking at the glass as half full. Lower budget, smaller names, being a lifetime movie is what hurt the execution and costuming, set, etc that made this movie look less than the original. Plus there isn't much of a backing score when CiCi is not singing. Anyway, I loved it, and will always love it because I am the one who generally loves the remakes everyone else hates - I love Idina Menzel, love Nia Long (Single Mom's Club) - and I find Idina Menzel to have far greater talent in singing than Bette Midler - Love the original - but love this one more
I love several of Bette Midler's movies. My favorite is "For The Boys" costarring James Caan. Bette has an interesting way of singing that comes off as though she developed the ability to sing through training alone. Sometimes Bette's singing bothers me. Loving her remake of Gypsy but not truly feeling the classical atmosphere as the original could easily make the average critic not enjoy it.
But we are here to review her movie remake "Beaches" with Idina Menzel and Nia Long. The following are the reasons why I love this remake.
1) New music. You have to be able to stomach Idina Menzel's voice to love the music in this movie. Wicked the musical and both Frozen movies are only 2 places you will hear her amazing unique way of delivering a song.
2) Diversity, I love how her best friend in this movie was a different color than in the original, Being a white male who has connected and related to mostly African american women gives me a personal connection to the changes in this remake.
3) A shorter movie. Sometimes I think people make movies way too long, and sometimes not long enough. The original movie was way too long, often taking extended moments of nothing important going on making my attention span shorter than usual. I felt like the pace in this version was way better.
I am not going to talk about what I didn't like about it because, again I am looking at the glass as half full. Lower budget, smaller names, being a lifetime movie is what hurt the execution and costuming, set, etc that made this movie look less than the original. Plus there isn't much of a backing score when CiCi is not singing. Anyway, I loved it, and will always love it because I am the one who generally loves the remakes everyone else hates - I love Idina Menzel, love Nia Long (Single Mom's Club) - and I find Idina Menzel to have far greater talent in singing than Bette Midler - Love the original - but love this one more