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Reviews
Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away (2012)
A Christmas gift for fans of Cirque's Las Vegas shows!
I - LOVED - IT!!!!!!!!! I want to see it again! And I will...going back two or three times next week.
Yes, I have seen mediocre reviews, but there are couple of requirements to enjoying this movie: 1. You have to LOVE Cirque Du Soleil. Not just "like"...you have to love them.
2. Don't spend even one second trying to analyse the plot. It's about a young woman who is mesmerized with a young male aerialist and she tries to find him again when they are separated. Everything else are sections of different Las Vegas Cirque shows and even in their entirety don't always make sense. If you try to understand why this is here or that is there, you will run out screaming.
3. It helps a lot to have seen at least a few of these shows in Las Vegas because the movie selects some of the best parts from each.
4. Did I mention you have to LOVE Cirque du Soleil? I think one or two people did walk out but those who stayed applauded and stayed all the way through the end credits (which were very lengthy because they listed each LV show, each hotel, and each person on the crew of the individual productions).
The film did present some of the best moments from each show, and getting close added to it, giving us devotees a new look at it. And with the battle scene on the rotating steel plate from "Ka", a look from different angles was a blessing.
My favorite Cirque show in Vegas is "The Beatles' Love" and other fans of that production will be very happy. There are about six scenes from it (with Beatles music in the film, too), including "Get Back," "Octopus's Garden," "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds," "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!", "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," and the film ends with a group shot of curtain moments for the different show casts set to "All You Need Is Love." Cinematography is excellent. And the 3D is spectacular! Is it just a huge commercial for Cirque du Soleil's Las Vegas shows? Yes. Do I recommend it? Yes! Yes! YES!!!!
Pina (2011)
Avoid, avoid, avoid!
I went to see this last night, and though I barely retained my sanity to the end, there were many times I wanted to go screaming from the movie theater.
Most of the film is filled with weirdly interpretive dance sequences that were crazy enough to make you want to bang your head against a wall (some of the dancers actually did that during dances), but maybe it wouldn't have been so horrible if we were told what they were supposed to be interpreting. I discussed it with one other person (there were only four of us in the entire theater) and I said to her that "Okay, she wasn't crazy because these people swore loyalty to her for so many years, but from these dances...no, she was crazy." Let me give you a few examples...
A dancer comes out with two pieces of meat, and yells, "This is veal!" And then she dances for several minutes with the veal in her ballet slippers.
One male dancer is walking along and another places a branch on his right shoulder, then another on a left shoulder, crux of the elbow, and so on, until he has several balanced on different parts of his body.
A female carries a pillow on a real subway, making monstrous noises with every step, while a make dancer sits at the back of the subway car wearing some kind of weird animal-type ears.
One female dancer carries a potted tree on her back around a lake. No dancing, just carries a potted tree around on her back.
One woman throws shovels of dirt at a crouching female dancer.
This is just a small group of examples. The film had two hours of similar W-T-F routines!!!
It is no wonder the dancers in the film all looked so miserable when interviewed! I am hoping to flood myself with other images from TV or wherever now in order to wipe out those memories caused by this film.