SummaryA charismatic young Irish guitarist and a sheltered young cellist have a chance encounter one magical night above New York's Washington Square, but are soon torn apart, leaving in their wake an infant, orphaned by circumstance. Years later, performing on the streets of New York and cared for by a mysterious stranger who gives him the nam...
SummaryA charismatic young Irish guitarist and a sheltered young cellist have a chance encounter one magical night above New York's Washington Square, but are soon torn apart, leaving in their wake an infant, orphaned by circumstance. Years later, performing on the streets of New York and cared for by a mysterious stranger who gives him the nam...
I'd rather August Rush went the whole way than just be lukewarm about it. Yes, some older viewers will groan, but I think up to a certain age, kids will buy it, and in imagining their response, I enjoyed my own.
Acclimate yourself to the frenzied vibe, and you'll feel the movie grow into itself as an urban fairy tale whose rapturous finale stakes a wishful claim on the redemptive power of love and art.
This is an excellent movie I don't know why other review cynically,but it was a emotional ride with tears of joy at then. If you are a parent you would probably feel as I do about this movie its a 10 hands down. I normally dont like this type of movie,but this is the exception I would say outstanding and beautiful .
The dialogue is dippy. And there's no real suspense: The filmmakers are so deadly earnest about the power of music and love and all that stuff, you just twiddle your thumbs waiting for the inevitable.
August Rush is a rather prosaic, oddly anxious, contemporary take on Dickens' Oliver Twist, with Williams – in nasty-man twee mode, a newish one for him – thrown in for bad measure.
Williams's overacting, Russell's pinched melancholy, and Highmore's unflagging chirpiness would be trying enough on their own, but the convoluted story, with its pileup of obstacles and coincidences, makes this sophomore effort by director Kirsten Sheridan (Disco Pigs) an exercise in dissonance.
I can't understand why this movie was received badly ! For me, it's definitively one of the best movies ever ! Yes, the plot is a little bit unlikely... But a good story is rarely made of common events.
1. This is a movie about Music. It's not a matter of mysticism or things like that : it's a matter of faith. Someone believe that the music has a power, someone don't. It's like a religion, everyone has the right to believe in what he choose to believe.
2. There is a brilliant cast : I considerate Freddie Highmore as one the best boy-actor. Jonathan Rhys-Meyer is excellent, too, and he has a beautiful voice (perfect for the role). Keri Russell and Robin Williams are very different but both are heart-moving, in a different way.
3. We are very attached to those characters : the little prodigy of the music ; the guitarist, wasting his life with an other woman ; the cellist, who can't play anymore ; even the manipulator who just want to make money with children is captivating !
4. Some themes in this movie are beyond all description !! And I think it's not a movie about ONE thing, only : it's a friendship movie ; a romance ; a movie about music...
And if the message is that there is something about us who guides us, it's not a "pseudo-mysticism" movie, for all that. It's... well... like an other religion !!
I liked the movie up until the end. No explanation about ANYTHING. It just ended.. CRAPPY ending. I can't bring myself to watch it again because the ending is just painful to watch.
O...M...G...I don't know what to say. Mixed bag doesn't even describe it!
First off, this movie wasn't THAT bad. It just wasn't great. If it had been an independent film, I would of rated it higher, since I would of respected it's production values more as the movie would of been harder to make. In fact, the production values are not half bad for a company produced movie, but that doesn't shake my "mixed bag" sort of feelings of this movie. I have never watched a "realistic" movie that is so ridiculously unrealistic! It just boggles my mind! I'll get to why that is soon, but since this is a review, I'll start with the story. The movie starts with a very cliche "bad orphanage" that a child called Evan has had to live in ever since his parents, Lyla and Louis, were forced to split up after Evan's conception. The story centres around Evan's parents then.....never seeing each other again.....WHAT!? The scene where they are getting split up makes next to no sense, and them never being able to find each other ever again especially in a world where social media rains supreme and they were supposed to be FAMOUS just seems ridiculous to me! Long story short, the kid finds and uses his talent for music (which is kinda well integrated with the story) to find his parents again. The story is basically a fairytale brought into reality, which I like. Sadly, at points, the story suddenly skips around, which can lead to confusion. At the end, I was simply starring at the screen in awe, completely oblivious to what was going on. The main character, Evan, was leading the orchestra, WITH NO BUILD-UP WHAT SO EVER!!! Touching though it may be, I needed SOME build up, or explanation or anything! The acting is okay for a big budget movie, in fact, it's sort of good in general, so I don't have much to say on that. Before I get into the main positives and negatives though, I'd like to tell you about a little...nope, big...nope, huge...nope, COLOSSAL nitpick I've had over the years about this movie. Evan can play ANY instrument of ANY kind without ANY experience, ANY practise, or even ANY knowledge of it! The worst part of this instrument factor is this movie's weird lack of knowledge for guitars.
1) You cannot play a guitar by slapping it the way Evan does.
2) For some reason, at the beginning, a guitar makes harmonica noises.
When it comes to the overall product, I'll start with some of the positives. The movie has some catchy music here and there, and it has some really nice shots. I'm gonna call a win for the director of photography and head director here! Finally, The movie is paced at a perfectly decent rate (minus random jumps and confusing edits). However, the negatives include a somewhat confusing script, laughable acting at times (though this is rare, and I know I said it was usually good before), and the fact that by the time ten minuets has elapsed, there are still freaking title cards playing! Okay, this review has gone on long enough, so it's time to wrap it up. I know I was a bit controversial with with my "Pay it Forward" review, since I know a fair amount of people really like it, (and yes, I admit it had a good moral, apart from the dying part.) and I know I'm probably going to be a bit controversial with this too, even though most critics seem to dislike both movies. "August Rush" has some good, some bad, and some okay. Simply put, decent for those who like this genre, and probably not decent for others.
R.I.P Robin Williams
No part of this movie feels genuine, except that this is genuinely awful. The music in the movie is either bad, fake or doesn't fit the character. The band the dad is in feels like it is trying to be pop-punk ska and heartfelt sad girl music, but it ends up feeling like Christian rock made by a divorced dad or just a shojo intro thirty years ago. It feels like the person who made it doesn't understand anything about how universities, music, or just guitars work. Anytime they talk about music it feels like a doctor who trying to sound smart (which isn't a bad thing if it's been played for jokes but this is taken completely straight.)
All the characters are completely insufferable. (I also refuse to learn the names of the characters) Robin Williams despite being a great actor feels very rehearsed and mean. Not in a hateable way or in a snarky way just in a petty and insufferable way. I refuse to believe any of the celebrity actors deserved these embarrassing roles.
I would rather hear a symphony of dying elephants (actually play with the rest of my band class) than watch this embarrassing corporate slop. I feel like I have aged after watching this.
The movie adores the character of August Rush, who is seemingly flawless, but it fails to give good reason for his flawless nature or how everything around him goes so smoothly when it really shouldn't. Plot aside, a lot of reused techniques are in this movie, and while there's a lot of them none of them are executed all that well.