Opening Night (2016) Reviews

• Awesomeness

  Laiath2017-06-07

  Well color me happy there's a sofa in here for two! This must be one of the most entertaining movies I've seen in a long time. Such an amazing script (all those hilarious lines, all the pop culture references in every other sentence, the light-hearted self deprecating humor...), and such fantastic delivery, I tried to will it not to end. Excluding the cheesy AF unrealistic ending, I loved every scene. One has to be well-versed in the music and celebrity tidbits of the past three decades to get everything, to say the least, though. There was also quite a bit of soul-searching for quite a few characters, and amazingly, it was all done smoothly and with just the right amount of depth. That's a tough thing to accomplish in such a short time, but they nailed it! So yeah, I definitely recommend it. "Treat yo self".

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• Never the 'twain shall meet

  belialalberts2017-07-16

  I love movies and i love music(being a musician myself) but for me it's a case of "Never the twain shall meet". In short I hate people singing in my movies. But this was bloody well done, just the right amount of singing and it made sense. In an era where most "comedies" try to depress the hell out of you for an hour (with a few scattered chuckles thrown in), before the funny and "poignant" ending. This was funny from the start and kept going all the way through. Definitely worth a watch and very entertaining.

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• Take this 1 with a pinch of salt

  kevr19772017-06-23

  Other people are saying this movie fails because it's copying other movies about the behind the scenes of theatres , but this film is so much cleverer than that. It's wholly based on old 1 hit wonder songs that we all know, the movie is not about taking it serious at all. Some of the songs will take you back to places that some people will remember. It's no masterpiece of a movie, it's meant to be cheesy but it's still a clever production. Give it a go.. it's all about having a little bit of fun.

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• A Movie about Show Business that Doesn't Take Itself Too Seriously

  svikasha2017-07-07

  In the 2016 musical comedy, "Opening Night", Topher Grace from the iconic "That 70's Show" plays a failed Broadway singer turned production manager who struggles to save a show that is seemingly doomed to fail because of its selfish cast. Every character in "Opening Night" is a caricature of some of the worst things about Broadway and show business. The film takes off in the spirit of the Oscar winning film Birdman, but fails to deliver a compelling plot by the end despite delivering a few noteworthy laughs. Topher Grace is mildly funny in his role as a production manager struggling to keep a Broadway show going on opening night after things get particularly awry when the main singer gets humorously knocked down by a toothpick. Witnessing the chaos on stage is amusing and the comedy offers a respite from the singing. Musicals aren't everybody's cup of tea. "Opening Night" even acknowledges this fact by making plenty of quips making fun of both musicals and the people who attend them. But, despite making fun of musicals, "Opening Night" is a musical. So the critique of musicals in a musical film was clever to say the least. While Opening Night isn't profound or enlightening, it is highly entertaining and simply funny. The domains of show business and Broadway theatre tend to take themselves too seriously. "Opening Night", on the other hand, doesn't take itself too seriously and consequently offers a refreshing change of pace from the usual fare. In fact, the film even offers a few brief moments of clarity about the price of fame and its nostalgic quality despite its short runtime. In one intense scene, the audience witnesses the old Broadway star coronate the newcomer. As she does this, she reminds the young singer to cherish the moment because a star's first opening Night, "It's the best it's ever going to get".

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• Fun! - well mostly

  cekadah2016-12-26

  I jumped at this movie because Anne Heche is in it. Unfortunately she's only in it briefly, but that's not a real problem. The real problem is that the story starts as a fun goofy comedy musical and becomes a sentimental love story and the segue is poorly done. The plot revolves around Nick (Topher Grace) who is the back stage manager for a musical titled One Hit Wonders. The lead singer Brooke (Anne Heche) is knocked out and her understudy Chloe (Alona Tal) must take over and it's opening night with a full house. The rest of the cast is made of 'has-beens', 'hopefulls', 'burn-outs', and 'wanna-bes'. There are some fun musical numbers both on stage and back stage. We learn that Nick was once a popular singer that gave up singing and he and Chloe are in love. Nick must learn a lesson and take a big step (for him) or he will loose Chloe. In the mean time everything that can go wrong back stage does go wrong and Nick is torn in two directions. Finally he takes his big step to get Chloe back and that moment in this musical comedy is too romantic and sentimental to blend into the previous comedy and screwball humor. Watch it and judge for yourself!

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