Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1148 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-08-14
• Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Dubbed, PAL
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Icelandic, Dutch, Romanian, Greek, Czech, Italian, Hungarian, Bulgarian, English, Arabic, Turkish, Hindi, Polish
• Dubbed in: Italian
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 129 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Rent, the show that in 1996 gave voice to a Broadway generation, has finally become an energetic, passionate, and touching movie musical. Based loosely on Puccini's La Bohème, it focuses on the year in the life of a group of friends in New York's East Village--"bohemians" who live carefree lives of art, music, sex, and drugs. Well, carefree until Mark, an aspiring filmmaker (Anthony Rapp), and Roger, an aspiring songwriter (Adam Pascal), find out they owe a year's rent to Benny (Taye Diggs), a former friend who had promised them free residence when he married the landlord's daughter. Roger has also attracted the attention of his downstairs neighbor, Mimi (Rosario Dawson), while Mark's former girlfriend, Maureen (Idina Menzel), has found a new romance in a lawyer named Joanne (Tracie Thoms). Philosophy professor Tom (Jesse L. Martin) finds his soul mate in drag queen Angel (Wilson Jermaine Heredia). But because this is the late-'80s, the threat of AIDS is always present.

The remarkable thing about Rent the movie is that nearly 10 years after the show debuted on Broadway, six of the eight principals return in the roles they originated. They're a bit older than would be ideal for their characters, but they do have the advantage of having learned the show directly from creator Jonathan Larson (who died of an aortic aneurysm while the show was in previews), plus they started young--we're not exactly talking Sarah Brightman and Michael Crawford here. Alongside a polished performance like Rapp's--sometimes observer-commentator, sometimes participant in two of the score's showstoppers, "The Tango Maureen" and "La Vie Boheme"--the two new additions (Thoms in place of Fredi Walker, Dawson in place of the edgier Daphne Rubin-Vega) slip comfortably into the ensemble; the pivotal Dawson makes a seductive case as Mimi when she tempts Roger in the mesmerizing "Light My Candle" or burns up the stage of the Catscratch Club in "Out Tonight." Moviegoers who have an aversion to people who break into song while walking down the street probably won't have their minds changed by Rent (even if they are singing rock songs), and the gritty subject matter and lack of big-name stars make it unlikely to cross over to general audiences the way Chicago did. But fans of musicals should find "Seasons of Love" as stirring as ever, and the show's passionate admirers--the "Rentheads"--probably couldn't have wished for a more sympathetic director than Rent fan Chris Columbus, or a more faithful representation of the show they love. --David Horiuchi

Synopsis
A modern spin on the opera LA BOHEME, RENT tells the story of eight friends dealing with life and love in Manhattan's Alphabet City in 1989. Director Christopher Columbus (MRS. DOUBTFIRE, HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER'S STONE) adapts the hit Broadway musical of the same name to the big screen. Wannabe filmmaker Mark (Anthony Rapp) and singer/songwriter Roger (Adam Pascal) are facing eviction at the hands of their former roommate and current landlord, Benny (Taye Diggs). Benny has married rich, moved out of the neighbourhood, and wants to build a state-of-the-art studio where the local tent city stands. Their downstairs neighbour, vivacious Mimi (Rosario Dawson)--who strips at a local club to feed her heroin habit--takes a shine to Roger, a self-imposed recluse and former junkie whose last girlfriend died of AIDS. Their friend Collins (Jesse L. Martin) returns to town and quickly falls for Angel (Wilson Jermaine Heredia), a glamorous, gracious, HIV positive transvestite. Finally, there is Maureen (Idina Menzel), a performance artist who is planning a protest against Benny’s plans and has dumped Mark for cerebral Joanne (Tracie Thoms), a lawyer. Over the course of a year, the friends face poverty, drug addiction, break-ups, reconciliations, eviction, and AIDS. Despite these challenges, they find support, hope, and acceptance in each other, all the while embracing the bohemian lifestyle that was so much a part of the Lower East Side. Newcomers Dawson and Thoms mix seamlessly with the original cast members, and Columbus introduces some interesting staging locations. With a concept, music, and lyrics by the late Jonathan Larson, RENT is an exuberant rock and roll musical with the underlying message that love can prevail despite all odds and that, ultimately, there really is no day but today.

Customer Reviews

Emotionally Fantastic
Rent is a brilliant musical set in New York, following a story of friendship, love and music. The cast, most of whom starred in the original broadway production, are fabulous, and make the movie extremely worth while watching. The songs are fantastic, ranging from the lively 'La Vie Boheme' to the saddening 'Without You'. The film made me Laugh and Cry, and overall it is Fantastic. The whole film becomes EVEN BETTER when Maureen (played by Idina Menzel, who's got a brilliant album, I Stand) appears. She brings light to the film with a slight comedy, but overall just her brilliant acting skills.
This film is a MUST SEE. Once I saw it, i fell in love with it, its THAT GOOD! :D

Superb big-screen re-telling of an amazing show
First up, Rent (the movie) isn't going to appeal to everyone. Not so much due to it's subject matters, but more so to do with the fact that it's a movie that includes it's cast belting out around songs. Whilst the likes of Moulin Rouge & Chicago appealed to a different audience than maybe your standard cinema-goer, Rent won't necessarily appeal to fans of these movies either because it's an edgy tale of modern-day struggles featuring a soundtrack that stretches from Rock to Gospel. The Sound of Music, this ain't !!!

I saw the show on Broadway a couple of years after it first opened & whilst the story mainly passed me by, the music moved me more than anything had for years. I'd grown to love the soundtrack for the majority of ten years so when the movie was released I was eager to see it but without really being a "fan", I have to say the movie blew me away.

I wasn't sure if Rent as a movie would work but Chris Columbus did an amazing job in making the whole thing work. It was a superbly effective move to bring in the majority of the orignal cast of the show & I hope that creator Jonathan Larson would be proud of how the movie showcases the heart of the original story whilst breathing new life into the songs without being dis-respectful to the "originals".

I have to admit, if I picked up a copy of the Rent DVD without knowing anything about it & read the summary on the back-cover, I'd put it straight back down as neither the subject matter or the genre of film usually appeals to me, it's therefore refreshing to witness something different quite as superbly written & directed featuring around a dozen numbers of truly brilliant quality, each one heightening the emotion as the story unfolds.

As a movie, it's superb, but a word of warning, epsecially if you're a fan. The UK DVD offers little in terms of extra's but the 2 disc Region 1 Edition features some superb extra's, the main thing being the awesome feature-length documentary covering the tragic life & loss of Rent creator Jonathan Larson. I'm a big fan of movie documentaries & this documentary is quite simply as good as it gets.

To summarise, Rent may not appeal to all but if you're open minded or simply enjoy great music and/or a truly moving movie experience - pick up a copy of Rent.

You either love it or don't understand it
RENT is a masterpiece of song, dance, and acting. I've now seen it at least eight times and have yet to find any major flaw. All of the negative reviews that I have seen for it are from people who
a) Simply didn't understand it (I maintain that a lot of people loved the stage version because of the big noise and smoke but still didn't understand it, so when the noise and smoke had to go when it was transferred to film, they didn't enjoy it)
b) Have memorized the music (as I have) and thought that the spoken lines were badly-acted (They're not. If you know exactly, word-for-word, what's going to be said next, it will always sound wooden)
c) Love the stage version and are upset at all of the changes that have been made (A few songs have been taken out or cut shorter or made longer, although there are no new songs in the video, the locations of some scenes have been changed, and all of the other minor changes that always occur when translating a stage production to video)
d) Won't let themselves enjoy it because of the subject matter (Either they are homophobic or do not want to listen to characters addicted to heroin or cross-dressers)
e) Simply don't like musical film and only watched it because they had liked the musical
In any case, if you are open-minded and enjoy musical film, I can guarantee you will love RENT. If you watch it, though, there are some things that are important that aren't for most movies:
a) You have to pay attention at all times, even during the songs. If you miss even five minutes, you'll understand it less. It's hard to understand (I didn't understand it enough to enjoy it until the second time I saw it and didn't understand it completely until the fourth time), so make sure you're paying attention!
b) You have to be open to issues of homosexuality, HIV, heroin addiction, poverty, and the Bohemian lifestyle. Try not to be too shocked and focus on the message of the movie.
c) You have to open yourself up to the heart of the movie. There's a lot of big feelings in it and you have to let them hit you.
d) Relax and enjoy it! It's a musical. People sing almost nonstop the whole time. There are barely two scenes in a row without a song.
Those who say it's dated also don't understand it. Maybe East Village has changed. But there's still AIDS, homosexuality, cross-dressing, drug addiction, poverty, and homelessness in today's world. And, most importantly, there's still love. It's a movie about love in the end of the day - not a love story, but a movie about love.
If there were more stars, I'd give them to RENT, because five out of five doesn't seem like even close to enough.