Rating: 
Summary: Mercy Personified
Review: This movie serves its purpose well. You will completely fall in love with the story and want to read the book and see other movie adaptations. The story is so alive and fulfilling, it will not only capture your heart...it will in fact change the way you think. Is revenge sweet? Or, is forgiveness sweeter? What joy is there in the death of an enemy? Is there not more beauty in freeing the soul and making your enemy your friend? In all cases this is not possible, but our actions can speak to the heart. In Les Miserables, Jean Valjean (Liam Neeson) gives of himself continually throughout the movie. He is the example of how a life can be changed through kindness. We find him on parole after 20 years of hard labor for stealing bread. Still unchanged by his punishment, he seeks to steal again from those who sought to be kind to him. While the owners of the house sleep, he steals their silverware. The next day he is caught and returned. What happens next will not only surprise you, but will set the mood for the entire movie. This is a story about two men who are given a second chance. Each takes a path and they then meet at the end again. One soul awakens to the chance to start again, the other, prison guard (Geoffrey Rush), is filled with hate and can think of nothing but revenge. Not only is this about forgiveness but it is also about a father's love for his daughter and what he will give up, even though his daughter is adopted. He treats her as if she is his own child. His daughter falls in love with a handsome "dangerous radical." ;> Who doesn't seem that dangerous. I really wish the story had been longer and they had put more into the character development of both Cosette (Claire Danes who really brightened up the screen), Marius (who needed a lot more character development) and Fantine (Thurman who spent most of her time looking quite ill). My favorite line: "I didn't breath while you talked, I was afraid I'd miss a word." -Cosette The filming on location in Paris is a dream. If you have ever been to Paris, you will enjoy seeing places you might have visited. The city is the most romantic place on earth. There is a feeling you get when you are there that cannot be described. This movie may not be exactly as the story is written, but what movie have you ever seen that captured the complete story? If it makes you fall in love with the characters, then it has succeeded in making you hungry for more. Is that not the point? To get you to read the book? I sure found that to be true. A movie you will want to add to your top 100 collection! I would have loved if this movie had been much more complex. I could have watched this story for 4 or 5 hours! Basil Poledouris' score adds quite an appeal to this story and evokes the right emotions as a great soundtrack should. I also just became a fan of Liam Neeson. His character is almost mercy personified. Truly an inspiration and will change your life. One of the most beautiful movies you will ever see.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely beautiful!
Review: I had never read the book, but had heard of the story numerous times. I'm a huge Liam Neeson fan, so I wanted to see it. I've now watched it six times! It is a wonderful story! Plenty of things going on to keep you waiting to see what will happen next. The characters are so real! You can't help but love and respect Valjean and all the changes he goes through. If only we could all learn from our mistakes as he does! To love a woman so much in so short a time to consent to raise and love her daughter as his own! Oh! Claire Danes is adorable as Cosette (of course!) And Marius - well lets just say it would be entirely possible to fall in love with him at first sight! The passion in his eyes when he speaks to her is enough alone! As I said, I hadn't read the book, so I had no idea what would happen to them and their newfound love. How stressful! I won't spoil it by saying what happens in the end, but let's just say it is well worth the watch! I have told all of my friends and family to get this movie! I have since read the book and am now saving my own copy of the letters Marius wrote to Cosette. If only men these days spoke of love in those words! I promise you, you will love this movie!
Rating: 
Summary: i didnt like it
Review: I seen this Movie in English. and i didnt like it at all. i found it boring and the guyz hittin faintain and it isnt right. my friends and i didnt like it at all. it had a story... buh it was kind of jumpy. we only watched the first part, i would like to see the second part just to see how it all ends and everything. but to be honest i didnt like the movie at all. i am a grade 9 student and i dont think i know anyone who likes the movie. other then the teacher (maybe)
Rating: 
Summary: This totally emits the point Hugo was trying to get across!
Review: This movie is a absolutely terrible version of a wonderful book and a great play. While the actors were good, the way the story was interpreted was not! First of all, Valjean did not beat up the Bishop! Second, Valjean was arrested and jailed again before going to get Cosette. Third, the Thenardiers didn't give up Cosette that easily, and they were omitted from the rest of the story, even though they were meant by Hugo to be major characters. And what about Eponine? She was supposed to save Marius' life! In this movie, Marius is shown as a hopeless romantic, which he was not! And he wasn't the leader of the students until the fighting began-Enjolras was the real leader. Cosette never would have hit Javert, and Valjean never would have hit Cosette. Cosette lived to make Valjean happy-she never would have thrown a fit in his presence! But it was the ending that bothered me the most. It is so incomplete! First of all, Javert jumped off of a bridge, and Valjean wasn't there. And I don't think that Valjean would have run away smiling! How could anyone know what happened to Marius, Cosette, and Valjean? I think that it is a pretty important detail that Cosette and Marius get married, and Valjean dies! This is a romance movie trying to tell a story of hatred, human suffering, and repentance. Need I say more?
Rating: 
Summary: An enjoyable classic!
Review: I can't judge this movie fairly. I have read the book and watched the musical, both live and on DVD. So, naturally, I will be making subconscious comparisons, even though we all know that movies generally undertake their own artistic direction. For one, although some people have claimed the storyline to be jumpy, I thought it was rather smooth-flowing, possibly because I already know the story beforehand. Although changes were made to the original story, for example, Valjean admitting to Cosette that he is a convict when he only did so before he died in the end, and Cosette remembering that Valjean is not her father when it was originally intended for her to believe that he was her real father, these changes were probably made to accommodate the short play time (2 hours is barely enough to fit in a 1484-pages story). Liam Neeson portrayed Valjean to be exactly the way Hugo would have intended Valjean to be. In the beginning, he was a hard, animalistic beast of a man. But Neeson is able to morph into the gentle Mayor with ease, and that highlights Valjean's transformation. Geoffrey Rush is brilliant as Javert. Never was there anyone more suited to play the cold, sadistic inspector. Uma Thurman is surprisingly convincing as Fantine. I had begun to stereotype her as the sort of action-thriller-sci-fi flick girl but this proved me wrong. Watch this movie for these three actors alone, for they bring class to your living room. What I didn't like about the movie was the lack of development on the revolution. Hugo was a revolutionary. He wanted Les Mis to ignite the people's spirits. The revolution was a crucial scene, and the death of the revolutionaries a touching one. Through this movie, I can barely recognize which ones are Enjolras, Courfeyrac, Feuilly etc and yet the character names appear on the credit roll in the end. The change of the ending (with Valjean walking free) did not leave much of an impact on me compared with the original ending. I loved the last page of Hugo's novel, where Cosette read Valjean's letter. Valjean had a tragic life. He was one of the Les Miserables, the underdogs, the wretched. For me, they had distorted the true message of Les Mis by changing the ending of the wonderful classic.
Rating: 
Summary: I thought it was very good.
Review: Would you let an ex-prisoner live at your house? What about the Mayor of Vigau? Or would you let a loving father who makes his living as a gardener live in your house? What if I told you that one man was all of these things and more.
Les Miserables is a fantastic movie. It keeps you on your toes the whole way through. You never know if Jean Valjean will get captured, or escape by horse. Les Miserables is a famous novel written by Victor Hugo in the 19th Century. It was later turned into a play, which is still running to this day. The last thing they made the book into was this enjoyable movie.
The move is about a man by the name of Jean Valjean played by Liam Neeson. He was an ex-convict, who became the Mayor of a city in France. This is where he takes in a woman from his factory, (Uma Thurman) who had a daughter, Cosette, out of wedlock. But when a guard from the prison camp, (Geffory Rush) recognized him, he escaped Vigau, and fled to Paris where he became a gardener at a Catholic Church. He picked up an orphan on the way to Paris, and he raised her as his own daughter, Cosette, whom Claire Danes plays. Cosette falls in love with a man by the name of Marius who is the leader of the rebellion against the government in France. Jean has to save Marius and bring him back to his daughter. All while facing many challenges and he even faced death in the eyes.
The climax of the movie doesn't hit until the end, but Jean Valjean's betrayal from the French police will keep you interested in the movie. Since the book was written in the 19th Century, the movie setting was also from that period of time. The clothing of the characters fit them well for it being the 1800's. The guns looked like guns from back then, rather than the guns from now. They even had a scene where the people of the rebellion were making their own bullets, just like they would have done during that time.
Over all, I really enjoyed watching this movie. Liam Neeson who plays Jean Valjean is also the main character in Shindler's List. He keeps his character so alive; I just want to watch his movies over and over again.
Rating:
Summary: Les Miserable - The Protagonist
Review: It was a rare saturday (last night) when I got to stay at home just to watch HBO and as luck would have it, at 4 in the morning this movie, which seems to be set in the old times somewhere in Europe, starts and catches my attention. I had not heard of 'Les Miserables' ever, but now after seeing what I saw I can't wait to get my hands on the book and also experience the musical.
I found the movie a beautiful peice of art. Set in the old times in France, the movie tries to show the hardships faced by this man, once a convict followed by being a generous mayor then a caring lover of a woman, who spits on his face (I got to say Uma Thuran looks absolutely fabulous in the movie), a caring father-like, and then the saviour of an infamy (among the cops) revolutionary for his daughter. There were two parts in the movie which which particularly left an impression & which I shall never forget:
1) when he lifts Uma in his arms and brings her to the table for having a meal with her;
2) after the inspector tells him, he's free and kills himself, you could see the expression on his face that for the first time in his life he feels free and doesn't having anything to fear... I wish I could read the book forst, so i could judge the adaptation more critically.. but currently, i am high on the performances and the imagerry. Real Nice!!!
Rating:
Summary: Good....but where's the ending?
Review: I had just recently seen the musical when I first saw the movie, and it had to be one of the best plays I had ever seen. When I watched the movie, I did not expect it to be as good, but I did expect a good movie. I got the good movie, but there was no comparison to ending. It was in fact, horrible. I really like the movie, but when it got to the end I could not believe it. I sugest that you watch to movie, but don't expect to be thrilled with the ending.
Rating:
Summary: This "Les Miz" is Les Bomb!
Review: First, of all: WOW! This movie has got to be the best film I've ever seen! Whoa! I've read the book, seen several adaptations of it, and even listen to a drama presentation done entirely without visuals. This has got to be the best adaptation yet! I had to stay home from school the day it premiered on TV. I watched it, taped it, and watched it again all in the same day. PLOT: The movie tells the life story of an ex-convict turned politician, then lover, then father, and last but definetly not least, war hero. PROS: The movie is fast-paced, entertaining, and the music was the most beautiful of any of the 11 other adaptations! CONS: Are there any? FAVORITE SCENE: Marius and Cosette's battle with the evil Javert.
Rating:
Summary: great film!!!
Review: This movie came as a surprise to me. I hadn't heard much about it but found this to be and excellent film. Everything about this movie was done well. Casting, acting, directing, editing, producing, etc. You name it. But what it all boils down to is the story and you couldn't choose a better story to portray life's tragedies and triumphs in a whirlwind of dramatic events.
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