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  1. #1
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    Mama Mia - Early Review

    I had written something really long and fabulous (yeah right!) after seeing this film last night but a tragic computer shutdown made it all go away and now I am starting over again from scratch. Grrrrr.

    Anyway, here is somewhat of a recreation of what I wrote --

    In Hollywood the thing you do if you want to make a big hit film is you appeal to a few key moviegoing demographics. The best one is young men (like 15-35). After that is slightly younger women (15-25). Then comes pre-teens, aka "family films." The consensus is that it is very hard to have a big hit without one of these demographics on board with your film. It happens, but is fairly rare.

    Earlier this summer, Sex and the City bucked the trend by being a fairly decent hit appealing almost exclusively to older women. Now, along comes another film aimed at that crowd -- and I think there is a decent chance Mama Mia will do the exact same thing... maybe even better.

    I'll get to my feelings on the film in a moment, but what struck me coming out of it was the near unanimous adoration I heard from women in the audience. I saw a mother and daughter nearly in tears, holding each other and talking about how they felt closer for having shared the movie with each other. I heard one woman say she planned to come back and see it again on opening night, "and I might go see it again the next night and the one after that too," she added. I heard groups of women talking about the friends and co-workers they planned to recommend this film to.

    Yeah, they liked it.



    As for me, I too enjoyed myself, but it was a film with some flaws. From an acting standpoint this flick is very solid starting with the always magnificent Meryl Streep. She displayed a remarkably good singing voice and managed to act/emote quite well while singing. Her rendition of "The Winner Takes It All" is just fabulous and was one of the best scenes in the movie. I also really enjoyed Julie Walters (better known as Molly Weasley) as one of Streep's best friends. She was a fabulous comedic presence throughout the film and really steals many scenes. I won't be shocked to see her get some Supporting Actress award recognition at the end of the year.

    The rest of the cast was having fun -- a lot of fun, it really shows on screen -- but I still think a few of them were misplaced in this film. Christine Baransky was looking a little too old for her part, IMO, and her singing voice wavered at times. But, the one person whose lack of singing ability really betrayed them was Pierce Brosnan. I know the producers of this film (Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson) really wanted a big name guy in the lead male role, but WHEW did they pick a guy with a lousy singing voice!! The film tries to cover up fro Brosnan by mixing his voice with backup singers when they can, but it just does not work. He was painfully bad at times. Still, I applaud him for giving it a shot.



    I saw Mama Mia on Broadway (and loved it), so I knew what I was getting into. For those of you unfamiliar with it, they story is pretty simple and is really just an excuse to take us from one Abba musical number to the next. At times, the musical numbers and the story just soar. I already mentioned "The Winner Takes it All," but the real highlight is the middle of the film when they do "Dancing Queen." It is a fabulous scene, as good a musical number as you will see on film and the entire crowd was cheering at the end of it. Some people even rose to their feet in applause even though we were in a darkended movie theater and it was the middle of the film.

    However, the film suffers in some of the slower musical numbers. There are a few where that feel really extraneous, having nothing at all to do with the story and involving not well-known Abba tunes. During these you could see people checking their watches and shifting uncomfortably in their seats as they longed for the story to move along and take us to the next scene.

    The bottom line for me was I enjoyed the film. I think they did an excellent job of translating a stage production to the much bigger scope of a film. The scenery, on a Greek island, is magnificent and breathtaking at times. There was a fun mix of humor and romance -- I found it funnier than the stage production. It was very bawdy and risque at times -- almost Benny Hill style, though I enjoyed these moments and laughed out loud several times. Certainly, there are jokes (involving body parts and mechanical toys) that are not appropriate for many teens or younger. Still, it was not over-the-top and the humor was very clever.



    Women are gonna be all over this flick and will enjoy it (though my wife was not in love with it-- she says she tends to enjoy "guy flicks" more than "chick flicks"). It is a fun date movie, for sure. I am sure guys will not like it as much as women, but it is not painful to sit through -- not by any stretch. Obviously, you need to be familiar with the music of Abba to really enjoy it.

    --Jason "I predict an ok opening, nothing spectacular, but long legs for this film" Evans

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Very informative review, Jason. Thanks.

    In fact, a good enough review that I feel better about my decision to have my wife go see it with her best girlfriend rather than dragging me along (which I can get away with since I released her from the obligation of seeing The Dark Knight with me )

  3. #3
    I noticed in one of the trailers playing on TV that one of the characters is wearing a Duke basketball tshirt at one point. It's not often that Duke bball comes up in a film.

  4. #4
    Join Date
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    Quote Originally Posted by HaveFunExpectToWin View Post
    I noticed in one of the trailers playing on TV that one of the characters is wearing a Duke basketball tshirt at one point. It's not often that Duke bball comes up in a film.
    Yeah, one of the bridesmaids wears it throughout the first "day" of the film. Because of the way the Duke shirt has been cut to display the bridesmaid's cleavage, the shirt is definitely a "featured player" in the first 20-30 minutes of the movie.

    --Jason "it is not really implied that the girl went to Duke, as she has a British accent" Evans

  5. #5

    curiousity

    Jason, feel free not to answer of course, but are you still doing movie reviews as a job but for another agency now that you are no longer with CNN? Just curious about one of the DBR's main pillars.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
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    New Orleans, Louisiana
    Quote Originally Posted by JasonEvans View Post
    --Jason "it is not really implied that the girl went to Duke, as she has a British accent" Evans
    Why can't hot British girls who cut their shirts to display their cleavage come to Duke? This should be part of the goal of any Diversity Initiative.

    Thanks for the review. I couldn't get a handle on how good/horrible this movie was going to be. I saw the in-house production here in Las Vegas, in perhaps the only audience that wasn't dancing in the aisles at the end. It was cute, and clever to see how the slim plot would be configured to squeeze as many existing ABBA songs into context as possible. But otherwise it wasn't that great of an experience.

    Thanks for mentioning Julie Walters. When I saw the cast for this film, I could pretty much figure out what each actor would bring to the production (Meryl Streep being Meryl Streep, Christine Baranski being Christine Baranski, etc.). But Julie Walters is the lone interesting choice for what I recall being the most amusing role. If she knocks it out of the park, then the film is worth seeing.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by JasonEvans View Post
    --Jason "it is not really implied that the girl went to Duke, as she has a British accent" Evans
    Didn't Deng have a bit of a British accent?

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
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    Quote Originally Posted by murpho View Post
    Jason, feel free not to answer of course, but are you still doing movie reviews as a job but for another agency now that you are no longer with CNN? Just curious about one of the DBR's main pillars.
    Thanks for asking-- no, I am not currently doing movie reviews or DVD reviews for anyone, though I am looking into a couple potential outlets for it. The whole "reviewer" thing has taken a big back seat in my career lately as I was really working politics over the winter and spring at CNN until I left a month or two ago.

    I'll get back to being a professional reviewer soon... as soon as I get some other professional stuff worked out. It is a looooong series of stories

    --Jason "I just do the reviews here for fun... and hopefully to help some of ya'll spend your moviegoing dollars more wisely" Evans

  9. #9
    Very good and I do enjoy your movie reviews, which I forgot to include in the original post.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Los Angeles
    I also saw Mamma Mia on Broadway and had a great time. (Especially LOVED the fact that the audience was packed with tweeners and young adults!!)

    Despite trailer and commercials that look intriguing, I don't think the film will top the live show, but...that said, can't wait to see it. Give me a good score, and people such as Streep and Firth, and "you've got me at hello."

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
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    Just a little BTTT for this thread seeing as the movie just opened this weekend.

    Did anyone go see it as an alternative to Dark Knight?

    --Jason "now this film is the 'date movie' of the weekend" Evans

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