FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Micah Lloyd Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Skyler Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

mharah "The Sound of Music Live!" is an interesting take on a much-beloved show that isn't all that good to begin with. It was written for Broadway darling Mary Martin, who was crowding 50 when she played Maria, way to old for the role. It was Rodgers and Hammerstein's last show; Hammerstein was already very ill and died shortly after. It made good use of children and nuns and Nazi villains, so they got away with it. And then the film version seven years later froze it in time. Television versions of Broadway musicals in recent years have all been filmed for broadcast. We haven't seen live Broadway musicals on TV since the 50s. Kiss Me Kate, Brigadoon and Carousel all saw TV versions then, and they all were adapted specifically for broadcast, with commercial breaks planned for and changes made to accommodate the air time available. "The Sound of Music Live!" (TSOML), never having been done for television before, was faced with this challenge as well. A lot of cuts had to be made, and mostly they didn't work. A number of plot lines were truncated and happened very abruptly. Musical numbers were often cut short as well. There was virtually no choreography. Pauses for commercials often came at strange intervals. An additional problem facing TSOML is the existence of the film version, which was assembled very differently from the original stage version. Many of the changes made for the film worked very well and should have been integrated into the television version. For the most part they were not. Essentially, TSOML came off as a stage show being tweaked for television, particularly when it came to the casting. The von Trapp children were talented enough. However, their TV-film experience was very limited, and it showed. Rolf, the messenger boy, was too old. He probably could have gotten away with it on stage; it didn't work on television. And of course Carrie Underwood, while singing quite acceptably, wasn't up to the challenge as an actress. Her dialogue was very flat, almost mechanical in places, and the character showed no growth. With the image of Julie Andrews from the film haunting the show, Carrie was very handicapped from the get-go. (Cuts from her role, probably due to time considerations, didn't help either.) The script adaptation itself was a problem. Keeping the two songs, "How Can Love Survive" and "No Way to Stop It", often cut from stage productions because they aren't in the film, was a good decision. They go a long way toward demonstrating the Captain's dilemma, but they were compromised by other cuts in the dialogue. In short, the adaptation had to make too many cuts to conform to the time frame. Staging a Broadway musical for television, especially done live, requires a re-imagination of the entire script. Just as film musicals are very different from stage musicals, so television musicals are different from either of them. TSOML tried to cut-and-paste. It really didn't succeed. However, since The Sound of Music is pretty much a bomb-proof musical - it is charming no matter what you do to it - NBC managed to pull it off.

QueerVamp20 I never would've imagined that Carrie Underwood would go on to play Maria in The Sound of Music LIVE! You have to remember that this is live, so there is no room to redo a mistake - Carrie Underwood is by no means Julie Andrews - But what Ms Underwood does is bring a different feel for a wonderful classic - the feel isn't bad - I had to remind myself several times that this was not going to be like the original - Was I impressed - Yes - I must say I had my moments of unhappiness - but somehow I managed to fall in love with this production - It's nice to see one of my favorite movies revamped - I liked the change (after watching a few times) - My grandmother didn't like it very much - but I try to remain open minded with remakes or different versions of classics - If you like musicals and if you like the original - It's worth a watch - even just to educate yourself - I don't want to go into details about the production - but I will say this "The Hills Are Alive!!!"

Stephan Quinland Maria captured my attention the moment she arrives in the atrium and holds it for the entire movie. She was perfect on the first dance with the Captain, she was rightly guarded after hearing the Captain was falling for her (and she for him), and she was sublime when she tells the Captain "your decision is my decision" regarding escape from Nazis. She would have to be some professional stage actress from UK with a slight Bristish account, and what a pleasant surprise, Carrie Underwood ! All the mean-spirit critics who gave less than scintillating respone to Underwood, have we watched the same movie? Now the rest of the movie was not perfect. The scene of Listl and Rauf I remember took place under moon light in a green house, floated softly like a dream scape in the original movie. In this movie they used the same mountain background, no green house. What a disappointment! The Captain needed more girth. When he first appears I thought he was the butler. Rauf, the budding nazi boy should have short blond hair but in this version he has greased black hair. The children however were flawless, each one has own personality. The other high point of the movie in the Abby where the Rev mother councils Maria to go find her life could have been more astounding. The song "Climb Every Mountain" wasn't sung as well as it should have been.Overall this is great family entertainment for a Christmas weekend and guys Carrie Underwood was great!

David Farris and the word barftastic comes to mind. Would have scored it a 1 but I only wretched 3 or four times.I guess acting wasn't a qualifier for casting. Then again the singing is trite and uninspiring. Watching this made me cheer for the Nazi's. Well only in capturing and locking away the family for crimes against artistry. Even the evil administrator made me want to turn on monster truck wars or something more entertaining. And whoever had the bright idea of putting a guitar in her hands, should resign from ever writing again. It looks robotic and bizarre. The whole look and feel of the movie seems faked, thrown together and in the end, this is a remake that should never have been done.