The Best & Worst Of Last Week - Musical/Music-Related Movie Edition

I was on vacation last week and I spent most of it sitting in this chair. I wasn't feeling great, so I played a shit-ton of Everquest 2 and watched movie after movie via Netflix Instant. Sixteen movies and ten episodes of Dragnet to be somewhat exact. There happened to be six musicals/music-related movies on the list of movies I watched, so I figured I would put together one of my best/worst blog posts.

1. Crossroads (1986) - I haven't seen this movie in a long time and I forgot how excellent it is. I'd always remembered it as a solid film, but this viewing pushed it into five-star status. Aside from the excellent music, there is a fantastic story and terrific acting from everyone involved. A classic movie.

2. Duets (2000) - I am sure many people passed on this movie simply because of the karaoke subject matter. They made a mistake. Duets is a wonderful film with humor, passion, depth, and much more. Oh yeah, and there is also some fun karaoke. Plus, it has got Pig Vomit in it. I can't think of a movie Pig Vomit has made that wasn't worth watching.

3. Enchanted (2007) - My first exposure to this movie was seeing the songs performed on the Oscars broadcast. They seemed pretty drab, but I assumed I would see the movie someday. I am glad that I did. I enjoyed just about every minute and laughed out loud several times. The songs really work amazingly well in the movie. A really fun movie. The second best non-Pixar movie Disney released in the 2000s. Do you know what the best one was?

4. Coal Miner's Daughter (1980) - A well-earned Best Actress Oscar for Sissy Spacek. Spacek does an amazing job acting and singing. Tommy Lee Jones is great too. I have seen this three times now and I am sure I will see it again. A great story. Even if you don't like Country music, you should give this a try.

5. Music Of The Heart (1999) - I can't really remember this movie being released in the theaters. One of Meryl Streep's fifty-four Oscar nominations and she is quite good. The story may be familiar, but this movie is elevated into four star territory by some excellent music.

Most Surprising - Colma: The Musical (2006) - I typically put a worst item sixth on the list, so I dialed up Colma because there was a good chance it would be awful. The Netflix Instant description does this movie no favors. It said something about it being set in a town outside San Francisco with more dead people that living. It could have been really bad or really good. I turned out to be somewhat wonderful. This is about the most low-budget musical around. It makes Once look like Moulin Rouge. But that is part of the charm. These are real people living a real life and they just happen to break into song once in awhile. The songs aren't amazing and the singing isn't brilliant, but that just adds to the wonderfulness.  Definitely not for everyone, but give it a half hour and you might get hooked like I did.