'Les Mis' & 'The Help'

I have been waiting to see 'Les Miserables' since it came out in theaters on Christmas Day and I finally got to see it last week with Neil!  I'm still sick with a cold and finally had a night off so tonight I watched 'The Help' which was another great Award-Winning movie!

I first saw 'Les Mis' on Broadway when I was a Senior in High School and remember being so moved by the story and performances that I cried throughout the whole show.  It was incredible!  Since then, I saw the movie with Liam Neeson and last week got to see the SAG Awards nominated movie and cried throughout the whole movie was well!  I did get my Screener for it in the mail but Neil and I knew we wanted to see it on the big-screen, unfortunately, the surround-sound was out in the theater so I felt like we were missing a little of the dialogue and really feeling like we were in the action.  For the most part I was completely impressed by the movie; to me, the women blew the men out of the water, with just 15 minutes of Anne Hathaway I wanted to see more because the close-up shot of her singing 'I Dreamed a Dream' was heart-wrenching and so honest.  Not only was her singing fantastic the performance she gave was so beautiful and raw and made me excited to be an Actress!  I loved Samantha Barks as Eponine and she nearly stole the show with her version of 'On My Own' which once again brought me to tears with an inspiring performance.  I was surprised to hear Russell Crowe sing, and do it well, but didn't feel like he was obsessed with finding Hugh Jackman, who's acting was incredible and moving as well.  Aaron Tveit was my favorite for the guys as his singing and acting were strong and I absolutely loved his voice and character!  The music was just beautiful and I'm so glad that my choir in High School did a 'Les Mis' Medley and I was able to sing along with all the songs even though I haven't heard most of them in over 10 years.  I'm already looking forward to seeing the movie again!

Tonight I watched 'The Help' which I had wanted to see last year and had just forgotten about it after Awards Season was over.  I thought it would be a little slow-moving but it was actually really interesting and I found myself really loving the movie.  Jessica Chastain and Octavia Spencer were my two favorites in the movie with Emma Stone and Viola Davis as other wonderful characters.  I'm a big Emma Stone fan and am looking forward to her Hosting the Academy Awards this year!  I loved the story and was very moved by some of the performances and found myself angry at some of the women, which means the actresses were doing a great job!  

I'm so glad I got to see both movies...now I just need to catch up on the other SAG Award Nominee's so I can cast my votes for this year's 2013 Awards!

Since I was talking about 'Les Miserables' in this entry it's the perfect time to talk about my Karaoke songs from last week which were: 'Hungry Eyes' by Eric Carmen, 'Love You Like a Love Song' because we had a lively crowd, a couple Adele songs starting with 'Rumour Has It' and then my new song of the week which was Adele's version of 'To Make You Feel My Love'.  I sang 'One of Us' by Joan Osbourne for Judy's Birthday and then closed with 'Heartbreaker' in case I needed to sing something rock & roll at my Myspace Interview last Friday!