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Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do The Time Warp (Yet) Again! (2016 Fox) - General Discussion


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A testament to how removed I feel -- I've been noting the bloopers.  All both of them.

It's Dana Andrews, not "then Andrews".  And, "...maybe the rain IS really to blame" ("isn't to blame" makes no sense here).

I didn't like the BBCAmerica's rerun of the stage anniversary show, either.  Am I just too far gone with the original?  Eh.

Agreed that Lambert did well, and I would actually buy a ticket to him as Frank.

And Riff: would totally hit that.  Never felt that way about Richard O'Brien.

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I was not going to watch this, having been a RHPS fan for ... ahem... decades and seeing more midnight showings than I care to remember.  But last minute curiosity got the best of me.  Let me say, overall, it wasn't as bad as I thought it could be.  I get that this is a reboot/homage/reinterpretation of RHPS, but frankly it had no soul.  RHPS is about being sexy, gritty, fun, and a tad naughty.  Kind of like watching a burlesque show when you're a bit too young to be seeing such things.  This production was klunky in many spots and the music/vocals had a bit too much Disney polish - some of the lines were delivered with such a weird cadence, it made me uncomfortable.

Laverne Cox just wasn't a good fit for Frank, IMO.  The concept is the character is a male, but sexually fluid and an odd mix of evil/sexy/campy.  Her costumes were great for the most part, her vocals were fine, she's pretty to look at, however...seeing TITS TITS TITS TITS in just about every shot of her just killed any semblance to the Frank character for me - well, that and the bad "1985 Tina Turner does a British accent".

Loved this Riff Raff's voice maybe a bit better than Richard O'Brien's.  Columbia was actually a great comic relief in this version. She kind of took Little Nell's version of Columbia and Bronxed it up and made her scenes fun to watch.  Loved, Loved Loved the older broad with the severe pageboy haircut in the scenes with Tim Curry - a nice addition to the narrator scenes.  Loved Tim Curry, but also felt so bad for how the stroke has affected him, but he did do some singing near the end there... which was a nice touch for those of us who remember him from the original.  The rest of the cast was just Glee "the new class".

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God Almighty.  What did I just watch?  My 12-year-old neice's middle school rendition of "Annie" was more sexually charged than that.  As a brand spanking new "OITNB" devotee, I feel that I can reliably testify to Laverne Cox's badassery, but WOW, was she miscast.  The singing was absolutely awful.  I kept telling myself to tone down my expectations.  I mean, how do you top Tim Curry?  Short answer: You don't.  You just act your ass off and try to get as close to the mark as you can.  Cox's singing and her attempts at the original Frank's ultra-posh British accent were just . . . no.  She sounded guttural and the vocal fry was cranked up to 11 throughout.  So many big moments landed with a big thud of disappointment.  The whole meta "live" audience thing fell pretty flat, too.  My favorite song/scene is "I'm Going Home."  Sadly, what was supposed to be a wistful, repentant song of regret is a campy, overdone farce.  Frank should not have looked that fabulous as he lay dying, either.  As another poster said above, there was too strong a focus on appearances over the quality of the singing and acting.  Speaking of acting, I'll be kind and not even mention Victoria Justice as Janet.  Again, no.  Just no.

Edited by SuzyLee
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West coaster, and I didn't remember this was on so I came in just as Rocky was created.

This is so sad. No comic timing, Frank ought to have chemistry with everything but instead has chemistry with nothing, wtf with the random theater "audience" who aren't even hitting all their lines. OK, Brad's got the gormless look down, but Janet doesn't even come close. I was sad to see Eddie liven things up because I knew he only had the one scene. I'm only still watching because there's nothing else on and I just want to see how badly this train is going to wreck.

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Can't remember if it's been mentioned, but LOGO's running the original, back-to-back.  I feel like I'm sorbet-ing myself, frame by frame.

Flashback: Before I saw it for the 1st time, a friend who loved the film & crushed wildly on Frank, showed me the soundtrack album cover.  My 16-year-old self looked at the shot of Tim Curry and said, "Eeeuuueeewww, really??"

Then I saw the movie.

Then I got it.*

In fact, I had such a thing for TC that I saw Annie eight times.  First run.  Just to watch him bounce to "Easy Street".

*same disbelief-turned-obsession I experienced over Prince & Purple Rain.

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The usherette at the beginning was really good.

Scene by scene, huh?

That newspaper Janet was using to keep dry wasn't exactly made of newsprint.

I like the conceit that the castle is the old theater.  And I also like Riff's neon guitar. 

Columbia is awesome.

Reeve Carney is a lot better looking than his uncle Art.  :)

Not enough interaction from the audience.

I never thought of Adam Lambert as rough trade, but he pulled it off.

I'm really shocked by how much got through the network censors.

Ben Vereen is the star of this, by far.

I didn't care for Magenta at the beginning, but she grew on me.

Love Frank's golden blonde curly wig.

Really, really bad commercial break right in the middle of the swimming pool scene.  That was terrible. And another one right after Columbia was shot.

I thought Laverne Cox did a really good job.

Edited by Silver Raven
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I didn't feel any of the sexiness of the original.  Tim Curry sold Frank-N-Furter as being intensely sexual and someone that people were drawn to.  Laverne is a beautiful talented woman but she didn't sell the sex.  The key problem to me is she's a woman - a sexy, curvy woman - playing a transvestite.  The incredible thing about Tim Curry's portrayal was that with the extreme make up and corset and platforms on, he was sexy, appealing and ultimately tragic.  It sounds weird but Laverne was too beautiful for this role. 

I missed Adam Lambert.  I'll have to see if I can find a clip.  Ben Vereen was great, as always, and I loved Columbia.  But overall the show felt very flat.  Also, there were so many bad lip synch moments it totally ruined the illusion. 

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Still musing and stewing over it.  

The original wasn't "burdened" by decades of camp classicdom.  The cast was made up -- mostly -- of actors, not performers, and -- even though they knew it wasn't Shakespeare-- to a man, they turned in sincere performances.

Now it's people climbing over each other to get in there and pay homage. Possibly why the re-dos tend to come off as amateurish and shallow.

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5 hours ago, WendyCR72 said:

I had read rumors that Adam Lambert was offered the lead role of Frank-N'-Furter but declined. I can't help but wonder if this would have been salvaged had Lambert played the role. But probably not, given some of the other cast and the broadcast constraints that plague this.

I don't know if he was offered the role but I think I remember reading that he was talked to about possibly playing Frank but he felt it'd be better to cast a transgender actress in the role and to have him do something else.  I get that sentiment as erasure of transgender actresses is a problem in Hollywood but Frank is a transvestite.  Transvestites don't necessarily suffer from gender dysphoria.  Unless I'm missing some origin story of this show, like transvestite was all they could get away with at the time, I think they could have gotten away with casting a cis male for the role.  Cis male or transgender female, either way, they neeed someone who could bring more sexual menace. 

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6 hours ago, WendyCR72 said:

I had read rumors that Adam Lambert was offered the lead role of Frank-N'-Furter but declined. I can't help but wonder if this would have been salvaged had Lambert played the role. But probably not, given some of the other cast and the broadcast constraints that plague this.

I tweeted that I would've been interested to see Lambert in the role. Like several posters have already mentioned, the whole androgynous aspect of the original characterization is lost with Laverne Cox. Tim Curry genuinely seemed like he would sex up Brad or Janet or Rocky and damn near everybody else in the cast at will, but that scene between Cox and Victoria Justice was just, no.

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Haha people comparing this to glee.  First off glee was a high school production and was only did small parts. 

This was a full on production and should have been so much more. 

I never got the hype about this show in the first place.  Really  unless you see it with a crowd  and have all the interactions it loses most of its appeal.

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I still don't get why they had Eddie crash through a window instead of a freezer door.  He was being held prisoner by Dr. Furter, and he breaks INTO the castle?  I know none of it is supposed to be logical, but at least keep the freezer.

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Thrilled to see Tim and Adam Lambert. This production didn't work for me. IMO, Tim brought a fragile, vulnerable physicality to the role along with an edge of danger. Laverne was just a bit too robust for me in the role. 

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7 hours ago, voiceover said:

*same disbelief-turned-obsession I experienced over Prince & Purple Rain.

Fantastic comparison.  I rolled my eyes for years whenever people mentioned RHPS, but when I finally cued it up on the computer and watched it . . . dear Lord.  Part of me thinks that my utter disdain for the remake last night is unfair because nothing and no one can top Tim Curry in this role, but then I remember all of the truly terrible moments and I'm justifiably pissed again.

Still crying purple tears after six months,

SuzyLee

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Disappointing. As much as they advertised some of the "say-its" with audience cutaways, a lot of the other ones didn't work anymore. The bannister is no longer lucky.

As great as Cox looked, her singing was inconsistent and her chemistry with the players lackluster.

Also minus 20 points for burying the line, "that's a tender subject".

I enjoyed the opening song best, I think.

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11 hours ago, Silver Raven said:

The usherette at the beginning was really good.

Overall, but the sexy moves she was trying to do as she moved through the theater were awkwardly timed. I blame the director because there are similar issues sprinkled throughout (at least the first hour before I tuned out) and I don't think there's anyone else to blame for how badly Frank's entrance was fumbled.

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After reading the comments and watching clips, I'm so glad I didn't waste my time by seeing it live. Rocky Horror holds a special place in my youth, and to watch it be sanitized and made into a crappy prime time variety show hurts my heart. The usherette was an interesting idea but no LIPS??? Aaaaargh.

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I used to think nothing could compare to the original movie, until a local offbeat theatre company began doing a yearly October run of The Rocky Horror Show. The first time I went, I didn't have high hopes, but it turned out, the show was FANTASTIC! Like, ten times more fun than going to see the movie. I realized that you don't need Tim Curry to play Frank in order for the character to be dynamic, compelling, and deranged in all the right ways. They didn't stick exactly to the movie, and made some stylistic changes that just flat-out WORKED for their vision of the show, and while the audience participation aspect was a bit unpredictable (encouraged, but you didn't always get the openings you expected), I don't think I've ever had more fun at the theatre in my life. Because they GET IT. It had a different energy than the movie, but everything that made the movie great shone through in every moment.

I say this, because I see a lot of people in this thread not seeming to know whether they were unsatisfied with FOX's version because it genuinely missed the mark, or because they just have too much love and nostalgia for the original to really get on board with any other interpretation. Believe me, when it's good, when it's made by people who love the original for the right reasons and genuinely want to join the fun, you will love it. And if you didn't love this version, you have no one to blame but FOX.

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7 minutes ago, cynicat said:

After reading the comments and watching clips, I'm so glad I didn't waste my time by seeing it live. Rocky Horror holds a special place in my youth, and to watch it be sanitized and made into a crappy prime time variety show hurts my heart. The usherette was an interesting idea but no LIPS??? Aaaaargh.

It wasn't sanitized, just a really really  poor production. There  were lips at  the end.

It would have been better with Carney playing Frank.

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14 hours ago, HighMaintenance said:

Laverne Cox just wasn't a good fit for Frank, IMO.  The concept is the character is a male, but sexually fluid and an odd mix of evil/sexy/campy.  Her costumes were great for the most part, her vocals were fine, she's pretty to look at, however...seeing TITS TITS TITS TITS in just about every shot of her just killed any semblance to the Frank character for me

Totally agree, I was coming here to say this. The whole "I'm just a sweet transvestite" song was just...wrong. Laverne Cox is not a transvestite. So I just got distracted wondering if she was trying to play this entire role as a man dressing like a woman, but then yeah, she has a female body, so....my brain hurts.

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14 hours ago, HighMaintenance said:

Laverne Cox just wasn't a good fit for Frank, IMO.  The concept is the character is a male, but sexually fluid and an odd mix of evil/sexy/campy.  Her costumes were great for the most part, her vocals were fine, she's pretty to look at, however...seeing TITS TITS TITS TITS

This. I watched, but I couldn't really put my finger on what was wrong. 

 

24 minutes ago, ClareWalks said:

Laverne Cox is not a transvestite.

Exactly. 

I felt the production seemed rushed, as well.

And, I feel that Barry Bostwick was a much better Brad. Last night's Brad was way too stiff.

Edited by ennui
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54 minutes ago, Slovenly Muse said:

I see a lot of people in this thread not seeming to know whether they were unsatisfied with FOX's version because it genuinely missed the mark, or because they just have too much love and nostalgia for the original to really get on board with any other interpretation.

Some things are better left alone and only suffer by comparison by attempts to remake them. 
We only watched this out of nostalgia for the movie.   ... And then spent the entire time comparing it to the movie  -- how things felt 'off' and not very daring or risque. Which is kind of sad, considering the movie was released over 40 years (!) ago.  
(Why was Rocky wearing loose glittery shorts ?!?)

So, this "experience" just felt like a halfhearted attempt to take advantage of the love for the original. It only made us want to re-watch the 1975 movie again. (Although hearing the songs again was enjoyable.)

And the stunt casting of Frank was not a good choice. It was as if the showrunners did not understand the concept of a transvestite. Or they blatantly chose to ignore how off-centered it would make the entire production feel ... because ... ??? they wanted a semi-well-known name ?? 

Edited by shrewd.buddha
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I constantly had to remind myself that Christina Milian was NOT Raven Symone. She played the whole damn thing like a manic Raven Symone.

Generally speaking, this wasn't very good. Adam Lambert did well, he seemed in his performance like he may have been the only actor who had been a legit fan of the original (before being cast in this). Ben Vereen, of course, out-acted everyone.

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37 minutes ago, ennui said:

Forgot to say, all through the show last night, I kept thinking "Tim Curry has better legs."

Tim Curry as Frank made me question everything I thought about what sexy is. It is where I got my fetish for men in stockings. His entrance in the elevator still gives me the vapors. Laverne might have been adequate if Tim Curry hadn't come first but she was destined to pale in  comparison.

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Wow, watching these clips makes me glad I didn't bother tuning in. Janet's constant stank-face is not charming. Laverne Cox's makeup is way too perfect and overdone. Frank N' Furter is messy, grungy, not afraid to jump in the pool and let everything get smeared up. He doesn't spend hours putting on his makeup. When Laverne was cast I really thought they were going to change around the lyrics so it was "sweet transexual from transvestite, transylvania." Leaving it as is doesn't make sense, are we supposed to assume that Frank is wearing a silicone breastplate but never taking it off? It's all too sanitized, there's nothing subversive about this.

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I've been thinking about this since last night.

First the blame lies squarely with the director. It is seriously miscast and does no one any favors. The costumes and sets were just wrong.

And as someone here said it doesn't have to be Tim Curry.

But the point of the story is white bread Brad and Janet are exposed to gritty, edgy aliens. These aliens would have been happy on Ork with Mork or on Third Rock. Good Grief, Janet was edgier than Magenta. Riff Raff and Columbia seemed to understand but were obviously reined in by the director.

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3 hours ago, Slovenly Muse said:

I see a lot of people in this thread not seeming to know whether they were unsatisfied with FOX's version because it genuinely missed the mark, or because they just have too much love and nostalgia for the original to really get on board with any other interpretation. Believe me, when it's good, when it's made by people who love the original for the right reasons and genuinely want to join the fun, you will love it. And if you didn't love this version, you have no one to blame but FOX.

The New York Times said this version is "soul-killing in the same way that hearing a cherished rock anthem used in a television commercial is."

http://nytimes.com/2016/10/20/arts/television/review-rocky-horror-remake-fox.html

Edited by editorgrrl
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16 hours ago, Irlandesa said:

Unless I'm missing some origin story of this show, like transvestite was all they could get away with at the time

Ahem. It was the seventies.  It's hard to get across to anyone who wasn't alive then just how much wilder it was then, than it is now.  There is NOTHING they couldn't have gotten away with.  Bless Laverne Cox for trying, but she shouldn't have been cast.  Nobody will ever top Tim Curry anyway in this but if we're casting a woman she has to be giving Bette Davis, not Greer Garson.

I saw the Rocky Horror Show ( a couple of times in fact)  during its Los Angeles run at the Roxy in 1974 and while there was obviously no "audience participation" stuntery of the kind that developed during the film's run as a  midnight movie (although the Roxy is a small place and the cast was in and out of the audience as part of the show)  the audience for this right from the beginning was glitter kids (like me at the time) and there was as much sleazy genderfuck androgyny in the audience as on the (tiny) stage.  Part of the reason, I think, it killed in LA and later bombed in NYC is that LA, then as now, had little or no real musical theater culture so the show attracted a non-theater audience of young rock and roll people since the Roxy was a rock club - it didn't have to attract the musical theater people.  I think the problem with this was not even the broadcast TV thing, but that this was a Today's Broadway thing.  No bueno.

Edited by ratgirlagogo
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I ran for the comfort of the original after trying to sit through the remake last night and finding that I was more interested in reruns of Martha Bakes. Part of the horror I experienced (pun intended) was the woeful miscasting of Laverne Cox as Frank N. Furter and Adam Lambert as NOT Frank N. Furter.  The overly glossy Laverne just threw me out of the production every time she was on screen. 

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23 hours ago, aradia22 said:

Well, Adam Lambert sounds like Adam Lambert. I'm not complaining. 

Adam Lambert was one of the few good things about this version, along with the always-entertaining Ben Vereen and, naturally, Tim Curry. But I still preferred Meat Loaf as Eddie.

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Quote

I say this, because I see a lot of people in this thread not seeming to know whether they were unsatisfied with FOX's version because it genuinely missed the mark, or because they just have too much love and nostalgia for the original to really get on board with any other interpretation. Believe me, when it's good, when it's made by people who love the original for the right reasons and genuinely want to join the fun, you will love it. And if you didn't love this version, you have no one to blame but FOX.

No, I would have enjoyed it if it had been good. I knew a lot of the cast going into this and I was pulling for them. As for other versions, I wish I'd been able to see Terrence Mann as Frank n Furter. 

As for it being sanitized, again, I don't think it was squeaky clean. But A) the acting was off so a lot of the jokes and emotion didn't land and B) the direction (damn you, Ortega!) lost all sense of grit or salaciousness. The camera didn't shoot this lovingly. It was either embarrassed or just inept and generic. There were wide shots at the wrong times. Sometimes it was too static. Sometimes it was too erratic. I could have gotten over the crisp HD colorful look if the acting and direction had been more purposeful and motivated. Am I surprised that the man whose most notable credits are Disney channel original movies mishandled this? No. 

Quote

Nobody will ever top Tim Curry anyway in this but if we're casting a woman she has to be giving Bette Davis, not Greer Garson.

To continue in this vein, Tim Curry was more Joan Crawford. Putting up a front of civility and class but underneath, scrappy and a little vulnerable. Whereas Laverne was just playing it posh. Of course, I still think it was a major problem that they weren't directed to play their parts like they had something to lose. I don't know how you could watch this never having seen the movie or the stage show and understand the stakes. Everything was moving so fast and the acting wasn't there to convey what the characters were feeling.

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On 10/20/2016 at 11:33 PM, HighMaintenance said:

Laverne Cox just wasn't a good fit for Frank, IMO.  The concept is the character is a male, but sexually fluid and an odd mix of evil/sexy/campy.  Her costumes were great for the most part, her vocals were fine, she's pretty to look at, however...seeing TITS TITS TITS TITS in just about every shot of her just killed any semblance to the Frank character for me - well, that and the bad "1985 Tina Turner does a British accent".

When the project was announced this was my misgiving, despite my fondness for Vaverne and a desire for her to be offered significant work.  This is still unwatched on my dvr for this very reason.  I don't see any point in a woman being cast in this part. I was a fan of Glee in the day and I tried to accept Frank being cast as a woman  as a highschool production need to desexualize the show.  The casting choicedidn't work in for me that production despite loving the actress.  Not sure when I'll look at this.

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34 minutes ago, aradia22 said:

As for it being sanitized, again, I don't think it was squeaky clean.

I don't think the problem is that it was squeaky clean. The problem is that a lot of "sexy stuff" came off as too overt or manipulated. Something truly naughty has to feel dangerous. Like someone got away with something they shouldn't have. This mostly felt like "sexy" stuff got tossed in to fill a quota (so it didn't feel dangerous or real). 

I did appreciate a few naughty things tossed more quietly in the background. For example, while the Usherette slinked around showing us her cleavage and stockings, winked at us, and seemed to promise a good time if you joined her in the back row when the lights went out (overt, but even still one of the more successful "sexy" bits in the whole thing), the actual wittier naughty stuff was happening BEHIND her on the movie screen. 

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I wonder how many people didn't even notice those. Which is why I actually loved this sequence, as bad as what a lot that followed got.

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I liked it. I viewed it as a shadow cast with a high budget, which is about all it could be. The cast seemed to be treating it the same (although I thought new Rocky and new Brad were better than their original counterparts; Brad in the floor show was genuinely great and Rocky had some great facial expressions). They all seemed to be having fun, so I had fun. Also, they can all sing very well.

I've been in and seen plenty of shadow casts with a female Frank, and I don't think it changes the stakes that much, so I didn't have any problem with Laverne Cox in the role. There's still pansexuality, but it's displayed through Columbia and Janet instead of Eddie, Brad, and Rocky. Columbia and Magenta's role in Toucha Toucha was sanitized, and Magenta/Riff-Raff as well, but the implications were all there. It only threw me for Sweet Transvestite... in a shadow cast with a female Frank, there's still Tim Curry and the presumption of a male Frank as the real Frank. In this one, I'm not quite sure how Frank was a Sweet Transvestite. I think they should have had her dress in a drag king look for that song to make it make sense. 

The main failures to me were Time Warp--which was just strangely choreographed and shot--and the ending of Toucha Toucha, which got weirdly childlike instead of sexy.  I also did not love the cuts to the audience. I got that it was trying to establish the shadow cast idea, but it just did not work and should have been cut after the Usherette open.

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10 hours ago, Zuleikha said:

I liked it. I viewed it as a shadow cast with a high budget, which is about all it could be. 

The money was actually a big problem, because you could almost see thought balloons floating over the heads of some of the cast thinking "Shit, Fox spent a lot of money on this I'd better not screw it up!" 

Which is a big part of why so much of it seems unnatural. It wasn't organic. It felt tight, not loose--nobody seemed to be enjoying themselves or what they were doing.

And the edit on the music (dubbed of course, but so was the original) made it even worse, because they cleaned that up too much as well. 

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