"This is the greatest show!" sings P.T. Barnum, personified by Hugh Jackman, in the crowdpleasing musical The Greatest Showman. And for many, it was. But as usual, the hard-hearted cynics at ScreenJunkies have to sharpen their knives and dig into the big screen musical, celebrating the music while pointing out that the songs are the best -- only? -- reason to give this movie a go. Here's the Honest Trailer for The Greatest Showman:
Right off the bat, the ScreenJunkies spoof takes aim at the target demographic for The Greatest Showman: Theater nerds. And without question, the Michael Gracey-directed tentpole was aimed squarely at people who dial into showstopping musical numbers. On that note, the film absolutely delivered. As the Honest Trailer jokes, you almost get to a point in The Greatest Showman where you want characters played by Hugh Jackman and Michelle Williams to STOP talking so that we can get to the next winning musical number (from the creative team behind La La Land).
Some of the swipes have to do with the historical accuracy of the film. However, this was never meant to be a true biopic of P.T. Barnum. More, an exercise to showcase foot-stomping songs. And yet, even here, the ScreenJunkies get in some pretty good jabs about two impossibly beautiful specimens in Zac Efron and Zendaya. Why can't these perfect people find love?!
The Greatest Showman had incredible legs at the box office. The musical opened in December, and stayed on the charts for weeks, even though it was competing for attention, at the time, with likeminded behemoths Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. While it easily could be argued that all three movies served different audiences, it's still fairly amazing that audiences flocked to theaters in support of all three blockbusters. When last we looked, Showman had pushed its cume to $420 million globally, with $172 million of that in the U.S.
Earlier last year, Hugh Jackman opened Logan, his final Wolverine movie, to $88 million and topped $226M in the States. Audiences seem to want to flock to whatever it is Jackman is doing, be it with claws or -- as the Honest Trailer points out -- in top hats.
The Greatest Showman reaches DVD and Blu-ray on April 10, so you can swing by the local store and see what all of the fuss is about. Get ready to sing along. It's all but guaranteed.
