Crowe responds to Lambert's 'Les Mis' slams

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Adam Lambert was one of the Americans who forked over millions ($66 million, to be exact) to see Les Miserables over the Christmas holiday and his 9-tweet review of the film garnered a lot of attention over the weekend.

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"Les Mis: Visually impressive w great Emotional performances. But the score suffered massively with great actors PRETENDING to be singers," Lambert wrote on Dec. 30. "It's an opera. Hollywoods movie musicals treat the singing as the last priority. (Dreamgirls was good). Anne Hathaway as Fantine and Enjolras were the exceptions for me. Helena B Carter and Sasha B Cohen were great too. And I do think it was cool they were singing live- but with that cast, they should have studio recorded and sweetened the vocals. I felt like I should ignore the vocals and focus on the emotional subtext- but the singing was so distracting at times it pulled me out. The industry will say 'these actors were so brave to attempt singing this score live' but why not cast actors who could actually sound good? Sorry for being so harsh but it's so True!"

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Now, an unexpected ally has taken Lambert's side in this debate: Les Miserables star Russell Crowe!

Last night, @BrunetteMom123 Tweeted at Crowe, "Not sure if you saw @adamlambert's comments about Les Miserables. He was pretty opinionated."

The Oscar-winner responded, "I don't disagree with Adam, sure it could have been sweetened, [Les Miserables director Tom] Hooper wanted it raw and real, that's how it is."

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What do you think? Was Adam Lambert right, or was the live singing part of the film's charm? Weigh in below!

[nannasin28]

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[nannasin28]

I would have expected given his lack of experience in musicals. <a title=BS170 href=http://www.hqew.net/product-data/BS170 target=_blank>BS170</a>

[RooMcGoo]

An Incomplete History of Les Miserables: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-vCwLY8DWg

[dpapark]

Adam is welcome to his opinion, but personally I think he couldnt be more off the mark. The performances were amazing and real. The rawness of the performances just makes the overall production have more credibility. Real life is not made up of characters who sing like angels. Most of us have a hard time carrying a tune. I give full credit where credit is due. Crowe's performance was gutsy and far better than I would have expected given his lack of experience in musicals.

In the end, the box office results speak louder than any criticism anyone can offer here. So far, it looks like the people (the only opinions that really matter here) love the movie. For me, Adam Lambert sounds like a crybaby who is disappointed he didn't get a shot at a role in such a magnificently produced movie. To you Adam, I say that you will never understand one simple fact. While I think you are an amazing singer, I would have no interest at all in hearing you play any role in the movie.

To Russel Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Hugh Jackman, and Sasha Baron Cohen I saw BRAVO! Thank you for the best movie experience of the last several years.

[shermjohn]

Have to agree. I'm a hugh..hugh Russell Crowe Fan. He showed a responsible response to Lambert. Russell Crowe certainly showed below par in vocal talent compared to more talented singers like Adam Lambert, however perhaps the day when great musicals should be judged by the caliber of every singing talent in a movie or play is over. Sure the expectations that all singing should be top-quality in a musical is the expectation, but I say does it have to be in order to tell a magnificent story? For there is art in the relative expression. Or in other words, shutting down all musical/singing to only chart-building singing really limits heard singing to only a pre-determined gift few. Isn't this like saying no-one should express themselves by singing unless they happen to have a voice that passes a panel of singing judges. For me Crowes singing wasn't distracting. Yet, I grant that perhaps if all the singing was similar to quality of Crowe's in the film, it would have been. Who knows for sure. Art shouldn't be restricted especially it can and must be appreciated in the context it is placed. Its our job to determine if that placement is deliberate or not.

[Hamilton812]

Lambert is pretty much on the money. I loved the movie as a whole, but some of the actors - and especially Crowe - were simply not up to the task vocally. I think this is a case of a director going with a big name for name sake rather than casting to make the best movie. Anne Hathaway, on the other hand, was simply phenomenal in every respect.