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Mama Mia!

Daughter and I plan to get the DVD this weekend. (busy week/hubby's dr.s/school etc) and are looking foreward to making hubby watch it as we sing along :lol::p;)

It is one of those movies we can always use to cheer us up.
 
I thought it was terribly made. They should've gotten a proven director. The shots on the soundstage looked incredibly fake compared to the location stuff. It lack the visual rhythm of a musical, meaning the camera would cut away from the actors' faces when there was a big note or moment. They also failed to film choregraphed scenes in wide shots, or they did but edited it so we'd see a second of dancing and then close ups upon close ups. Big no-no. The male actors looked bored and miscast (no, seriously, Stellan Skarsgard?!?!?!). Christine Beranski and Julie Walters went way too big. Meryl Streep held her own but the one person who kept this from being a complete failure of vision is Amanda Seyfried who was so incredibly adorable and was the only one who seem to come ready to be in a musical.
 
Bleah. I grew up when ABBA was in its heyday. I have no desire to be overloaded with that level of schlock ever again.

That being said, Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus can write some decent songs. That is to say, Chess. :)
 
I wonder how this movie would've played if, instead of Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard, they had Daniel Craig and Timothy Dalton. :)
 
Well, if Craig and Dalton can sing better than Firth and Skarsgard...

I blind-bought Mamma Mia! yesterday, and I have to say that while it's not going to win any Oscars*, it was a blast to watch. I now kind of wish I'd found some friends to go see it with when it was in the theaters.

Only Brosnan's singing seemed really bad. I know back on page 1 I made a comment about Firth's performance on the soundtrack, but in the context of the film both his and Skarsgard's singing came across as better than Brosnan's. Then again, they also had fewer songs where they were in the lead. ;)

*Though I do see that the movie got a Golden Globe nomination for Best Comedy/Musical, and Meryl Streep got a Best Actress nod.
 
Oh ... my ... God!!! I just remembered something ...

Julie Walters = Mrs. Weasley (Ron, Ginnie, George & Fred's Mom) in the Harry Potter movies

(One of whom I called "the two ugly bitches")

For some reason, I kept thinking Julie Walters was another actress.

:o
 
Not to derail the thread, but she's a really versatile character actress. Have you seen her and Rupert Grint in Driving Lessons?
 
Nope, but I realize she's a well known British actress. There was another British actress who played "Madam Rosmerta" in The Prisoner of Azkaban. Julie Christie, perhaps? I get confused easily.
 
Yes, that was Julie Christie.

Anyway, Driving Lessons was a great deal of fun. Sort of a British Harold & Maude without the icky grandma sex. ;)
 
My wife and I and the kids rented this out a couple of nights ago. All of us had already seen the musical on stage and enjoyed it and enjoyed the movie for the most part.
I was kind of disappointed that a couple of the songs were cut ("The Name of the Game"-available on a deleted scene however and "Under Attack") but I wouldn't necessarily say that it detracted from it too much. I think that they snuck in a new song at the end (the wedding dinner song sung by Pierce Brosnan)
I thought that they were (obviously) able to do props and sets much better given the movie format and the entire cast looked like they were genuinely enjoying doing the movie. Some of the parts in the movie were a bit risque, which was a bit embarrassing since we were letting our kids watch it but I don't think they picked up on anything.:devil:
The singing wasn't as good as the stage version I saw nor the original cast recording but that's o.k. I think it was nice that they let the cast do all of their own singing.
One minor nitpick on the casting. While meaning no disrespect to Meryl Streep (who is still rather attractive despite her age), I think that they probably should've cast some younger actors and actresses given that Sophie's mother (Donna) should've been chronologically 39-40 years old since, according to the story, she had Sophie when she was about 20 and that Sophie's age is supposedly about that at the time of the story so it probably would've made more sense to cast some younger and not quite-so-middle-age actors and actresses perhaps for the parts of Donna, Bill, Sam, Harry, et. al. but in the end it doesn't matter a whole lot.
When it comes right down to it, the movie was FUN which I think is the most important thing and what ultimately makes it work. I'm on the fence about whether or not I'll buy it but probably will when it gets discounted.
 
I bought the dvd for my mom for Christmas. I wrapped it last Wednesday and its been in my nightstand drawer since then.

She thinks I bought her a silver cooking pot that you can put over a burner.

Aragorn said:
I wonder how this movie would've played if, instead of Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard, they had Daniel Craig and Timothy Dalton. :)
Click to expand...

and then Roger Moore shows up as the grandpa just cause he's Roger Moore.
 
I have a couple of lady friends at work who have both seen the stage show (one also saw the movie). I got each of them a DVD for Christmas. :)
 
butlerd said:
When it comes right down to it, the movie was FUN which I think is the most important thing and what ultimately makes it work. I'm on the fence about whether or not I'll buy it but probably will when it gets discounted.
Click to expand...
That's what I liked most about Mamma Mia. It's just two hours of pure, uninhibited fun. It's not trying to solve the world's problems or provide thematically deep statements about the meaning of life. And sometimes you need to watch a movie like that.
 
Hairspray is also good for that, IMNSHO. I also thought it was the better of the two, but Mamma Mia was definitely a lot of fun as well.
 
^I borrowed Hairspray from the library, and enjoyed that, too. I think the only thing that tripped up Hairspray for me was John Travolta. Whereas I could suspend my disbelief and accept all the other A-listers in the cast as their characters, every time Edna was on screen I was like, "Oh... it's Travolta in drag and a fatsuit."
 
Holy Sweet Jesus!!!! I just sat through this assault upon my senses and mind and will now be haunted by the screeches of the so called singing in this abomination. I mean MY GOD!!! How did this make half a billion dollars?
I guess I'm not a lonely, divorced, middle aged to older adult woman trying to relive my youth and reaffirm all my poor choices in life. I can't think of anything positive about this experience except for..........nope nothing.

How hard do I have to hit myself in the face with a hammer to make the inevitable night terrors go away? Please help me.
 
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