Howiefan

Did anyone buy it?

I'm wondering if the transfer is good?

Drexl

HighDefDigest says it's really good. It's a movie that's only about 2 years old, and the DVD looked great, so that's not surprising.

I would have bought it by now, but I'm waiting for it to be included in a B1G1 deal (if those actually continue now).

Gizmo

I actually was in a BOGO at Frys the week it came out (along with Zorro). \

Doughboy

Yep, I picked up both. Technically, they were each $9.99. You don't have to buy 2 titles in those Fry's promotions.

I watched a little bit of Rent a few weeks ago. It looks and sounds great. If you're a fan, it's an easy recommend. Especially if you can find it for 10 bucks.

dvdman47

Does anyone know if this has gone out of print?

shaun3000

No idea, but this comes out in February: http://www.amazon.com/Rent-Filmed-Li...0592085&sr=1-1

It's the final Broadway performance, recorded live at the Nederlander Theatre in New York City. I'd much prefer that recording to Christopher Columbus's version!

videoguy

I actually really liked the movie version. I guess you either love it or hate it. I thought it gave a great deal of clarity to some parts of the broadway show that many times has a big idea in only one line of song.

I think this movie was dumped on because it came out not too long after Chicago. A lot of people hate the "break out into song" format of movie musicals, but you know it's kind of the way musical movies have always been done. Chicago was great, but not every movie musical can now all of a sudden take the form that Chicago was done in.

shaun3000

No, people dump on the Rent movie because it took a play that is mostly sung and converted large chunks of sung dialogue to spoken. They did the same thing in the Phantom of the Opera movie. Words that are beautiful and moving when sung sound cheesy and contrived when spoken. Combine that with goofy interactions between the cast and awkward silences and scene transitions and you have the makings of a horrible screen adaption.

Cases in point:
Compare the opening scene of the movie:

To the opening scene of the Broadway show:



And from my Phantom example:

Compared to the stage play:


In my opinion, the movie versions sounds completely ridiculous compared to their stage counterparts.

videoguy

transistions aside (I agree with you and Chicago's transitions put Rent's transitions to shame), I don't think opening the movie with singing right away over the film footage would have set the right tone.

But really, if I remember, there really isn't that much spoken dialogue, just enough to get to the songs. The movie really keeps most of the songs there. Rent the show's major characteristic is that in the area where there'd normally be spoken dialogue it is instead sung for only the artistic purpose of singing, in my opinion there really isn't much of a tune in those parts, it's kind of just up and down up and down in tone. True, it helps transition and melt into the actual songs, but it's kind of a matter of taste with those areas if you like that better than spoken dialogue and it definitely differs from the movie in that regard. But the movie is really faithful to the show, and I still love both the movie and the show.

Skoobooz

It hasn't gone out of print.

Giles

but the thing with Chicago is that largely the musical numbers are set in an alternate parallel world, the characters rarely break out into song outside of that context, the only song that doesn't do that is the deleted song 'Class'. 'Rent' (play version) is a like a pseudo opera where it's largely all sung.

shaun3000

Rent starts with a monologue to set the scene. It would have been a much better way to start the movie than speaking the normally sung intro. ("December 24, nine PM, Eastern Standard Time...")

GenPion

I sort of expected this to be about the movie, but another part of me also suspected a chat about the poor selection, availability, and pricing on renting BD's. That is something that really needs to change.

Giles

I missed the sung line 'Christmas Bells are ringing' from the film version.