'August Rush' - High-Def Digest Review

[Attebery]

Peter's review of 'August Rush' is up. He's not a big fan of this manipulative weeper. As an HD DVD release he say's it's a mixed bag, with solid video and audio offset by a very weak supplements package. 'August Rush' is a rental at best.

Full review here:
http://hddvd.highdefdigest.com/1345/augustrush.html

[bish]

I actually enjoyed this movie quite a bit more then Peter did, but I can understand why some people wouldn't like this movie.

I would like to point out though that this movie is using Charles Dickens Oliver Twist as the basis of the story which is also full of coincidence and contrivances so you can blame the "Stupid Story" on one of the greatest writers in history hehe.

It's also meant to be a fairy tale of sorts set in the real world. Fairy tales always have a magical element too them (call it fate, and in this case music is the representation of fate) that ties everything together and is usually never really fully explained. Fairy tales are meant to be stories that could never really happen but we wish they could. I personally never found myself being pulled out of the fairy tale. I think that since it was trying to be a Dickens style story it would have been a bad choice to make it ultra-fantastical ala a Julie Taymor movie (I like her work by the way) Dicken's Oliver Twist is a fantasy story set in the gritty real world of Dickens time and although August Rush isn't quite as gritty it tried to keep that real world (New York City) feel with a sense of the fantastic that trumps the real world in the end.

I thought the performances were fine, and Williams was a perfect choice for the Fagin character. Fagin in Dicken's Oliver Twist is an over the top character as is Williams character Maxwell (or "The Wizard" as he is known to the kids he recruites) but I actually think Williams, surprisingly, downplayed the Fagin character a bit too good effect. Once again blame Dickens for Williams complete turn to evil at the end, but really he was evil all along. He uses children to make money and then treats them horribly when they fail him. He is the bad guy and always was in this story. Williams performance reminded me more of his work in the Fisher King then one of his more comical roles, which always makes me happy because I think he can be a really good actor when he tries.

I'd also like to point out that the boy's name was not August Rush at the beginning it's Evan Taylor, August Rush is the name he chooses as his "stage name" later in the movie.

Anyway just my two cents.

-bish

[Brad1963]

I think August Rush is an underrated gem. It was fantastic in my opinion.