NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

HottWwjdIam There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

Humbersi The first must-see film of the year.

Nicole I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Charles Herold (cherold) Royal Wedding is a must-see film simply for two of Astaire's best solo numbers, one involving a hat rack and the other involving the defiance of gravity. There are also a couple of solid number with his co-star Jane Powell, one a bit of bad-boy shtick and the other a very funny dance on a rocking boat.The movie begins well. Astaire and Powell are a sibling dance team off to England. Inveterate flirt Powell meets her match in an English lord, while Astaire falls for a pretty dancer (played by one of Winston Churchill's daughters!).The early scenes are notable for an unusually casual approach to romance, but of course things get serious later on. And as they do, the frothy start gives way to the grind of a standard Astaire story complete with mild obstacle and easy resolution.Powell sings several forgettable songs in her annoying operatic voice and there are some other decent dance numbers, including one set in Haiti that pretends Haiti that ignores that the country is almost entirely populated by the descendants of African slaves. There's also a lot of English people going "pip pip," and I have no idea if that's any more accurate than the Haiti stuff. It comes across as rather cartoonish, but who knows?Anyway, it's a fun movie. Not great, but enjoyable.

writers_reign This just misses the Olypic Gold because despite Fred Astaire being on top of his game he is lumbered with an inept leading lady and a wooden 'second' leading man. On the other hand Alan Jay Lerner and Burton Lane (later to team again on the Broadway Show On A Clear Day You Can See Forever) deliver a standout score including all-time Great ballad Too Late Now totally thrown away on Jane Powell, an an equally Great 'patter' number in How Could You Believe Me When I Said I Loved You When You Know I've Been A Liar All My Life.The plot is wafer-thin and based loosely on Astaire's real life early partnership with his sister Adele, who actually did marry into the British peerage, and feature's a brother-sister song and dance team who travel to England at the time of the Royal Wedding, meet new partners and heigh-ho. If Sarah Churchill and Peter Lawford were passengers the compensations outweigh the cost of the freight in the shape of Astaire's two all-time great dance sequences first in the gym and later on the walls and ceiling of his London apartment. These sequences alone put this in the ten-star category and make it a Must for Astaire devotees.

Boba_Fett1138 So, basically everybody around the globe knows- and has seen the famous dancing sequence with Fred Astaire dancing on the walls and ceilings. But how many people actually know that, that sequence is from this movie? I'm surprised that a movie with such a famous sequence isn't better known.In essence "Royal Wedding" is your typical MGM musical, with still a couple of extra pluses, that makes this movie distinct itself from the average, formulaic movie musical, from the same time period. Obviously the famous sequence with Fred Astaire dancing on the ceiling is one of them but to me it also was the humor. Musicals really aren't best known for the well placed and original humor but this movie does a great job at providing a couple of genuine good and original laughs.The story is kept simple and formulaic and above all also of course very predictable. The movie doesn't offer an awful lot of surprises but yet the story serves its purpose and that fits the genre just right.There are a couple of great and likable characters in this movie, that help to make the movie an extra joy to watch. Fred Astaire of course steals the show with his acting and dancing but also Jane Powell as his sister was great. Not too happy about the casting of Sarah Churchill (Winston Churchill's daughter). No offense but she just isn't beautiful enough (she has got her daddy's looks, I'm afraid) for her part and also perhaps a tad too old. It just doesn't fit the genre.The musical numbers are all well executed, mainly those by Fred Astaire. The sequences were however a bit too 'stagey' for my taste, although I should admit that the musical genre has just never been my favorite movie genre.All in all an enjoyable to watch typical MGM musical, with a couple of more offerings in it than its fellow genre movies.7/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

tedg Musicals sort of blend into a blur, especially those built around Fred Astair. All the stories are disposable, and you remember them more or less by who his partner was.This one is different. I does stick to the mature template of how the dances fit in: half the dances are part of a show within a show. The other half spring from the story in that fantastic manner we accept as a matter of narrative convention.The dances, though, some of them are pretty darn memorable.To appreciate this, you need to understand the challenge of filming dance. We have the "old" convention in spots here: the camera is in some sort of theater seat and watches a performance on a stage, sometimes a literal stage. There's nothing cinematic about it: you could see the same thing is a live performance.The challenge is in what to do that works with the dance and at the same time leverages cinema, presumably to engage us. The production team here did some rather amazing things with space. I don't know who to credit, but there's some genius here.The idea is by steps bonding the dance to notions of artificial space, the actual containing space. It starts with a simple device: Fred dancing with a hat rack. Its a strange thing, halfway between being a partner and an interaction with the world.Then on a ship, he and Jane dance on a floor that shifts. The notion of an unstable gravity is a pretty amazing notion because Fred's effects all depend on his relationship to the ground and what's on it. The floor shifts and he accommodates, amid moving pulls, rolling oranges and shifting furniture.Then the most memorable dance sequence shifts this on its head, mastering gravity: he dances in a room starting on the floor. Then dances on the walls and ceiling. The effect is accomplished by having the room imperceptibly rotate and the camera with it. But its an extraordinary achievement the way he plays with it. It isn't as wild as Gene Kelly playing with and in the rain because it is more precise and intellectual. But it is a real thrill. You need to see it.Later, in the stage show, there's an acknowledgment of all this, a production number about place, with a map of a place that turns transparent to reveal the place itself.+++++++ There's a strange background here, the actual royal wedding of the period. The tone of that was supposed to be so obvious and strong that merely being immersed in it would overcome hesitations to wed. Its so flat today it shocks, especially the actual footage of the rather ridiculous pomp.(The woman playing Fred's paramour is Winston Churchill's daughter, an odd combination of mannish face, red hair, terrific legs, a studied grace and little charm. The man playing the beau of Fred's sister was one of Hollywood's most promiscuous empty souls — he married a Kennedy.) Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.