| Studio: | Universal Pictures |
| Release: | July 18, 2008 |
| Genre: | Musical/Performing Arts and Adaptation |
| MPAA Rating: | PG-13 for some sex-related comments |
| Overall Grade: | B- |
| Story: | B- |
| Acting | B- |
| Direction: | B- |
| Visuals: | B |
When I heard that the musical based on ABBA songs was going to be a movie, I was excited. Which means I waited a long time for this movie to come out. The trailer promised a fun movie, what with Meryl Streep singing and dancing on screen.
I have to admit that although I enjoyed this movie, it wasn't as good as I thought it would be. The trailer already contains snippets of most of the good numbers. There are scenes that are on the verge of boring, and musical numbers that make one cringe.
I must say that all scenes that have all or any of the three primary male characters are hilarious. Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgard and Pierce Brosnan remain in character even to the end of the movie where they have a musical number with Meryl Streep, Julie Walters and Christine Baranski. Especially Colin Firth.
Now while the three guys are cool throughout the movie, Streep, Walters and Baranski were most of the time acting like the middle aged mother characters that movie teens would be embarrassed to have their friends see. There are some moments that are supposed to be funny but I just end up cringing at the execution.
The story is probably not original, but it's not that old that it wouldn't work here. It's the shift to the song numbers that isn't always working. As with most musical movies I have seen, and that even includes the tween High School Musical movies, I expected the shift from dialogue to song to be seamless. Mamma Mia sort of fails in that area. One wonders if this is due to direction or editing.
Amanda Seyfried was good. The actor portraying her boyfriend is handsome, but his screen presence kind of fades beside Amanda. It may be intentional, as Sky is not really a major character.
Greece is wonderful, although the white walls and blue window frames of the Villa Donna hotel makes me chuckle because it reminds me so much of some pictures I've seen of Batanes.
No comments:
Post a Comment