MAMMA MIA became a West End smash when it hit London back in late nineties. With a story framed around the music of the Swedish pop band Abba, crowds loved its raucous, dance party... more
Mamma Mia! [DVD] [2008]
The delirious sight of Meryl Streep leading a river of multigenerational women singing ... more
"Dancing Queen" is one of the high points ofMamma Mia!, the musical built around the songs of the hugely popular pop group ABBA. The plot sets in motion when Sophie ...
Mamma Mia! [DVD] [2008]
The delirious sight of Meryl Streep leading a river of multigenerational women singing ... more
"Dancing Queen" is one of the high points ofMamma Mia!, the musical built around the songs of the hugely popular pop group ABBA. The plot sets in motion when Sophie ...
Mamma Mia Movie Poster
Original UK Quad; Rolled Poster; Poster Condition: New; Size: 40 x 30 inches approx. All ... more
our items are despatched from the United Kingdom. Starring - Pierce Brosnan, Meryl Streep, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård, Julie Walters We offer *** WORLDWIDE *** Delivery!, Manufacturer: MoviePostersDirect
Mamma Mia! Movie Poster
Original One Sheet; Rolled Poster; Poster Condition: New; Size: 27 x 40 inches approx. All ... more
our items are despatched from the United Kingdom. Starring - Pierce Brosnan, Meryl Streep, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård, Julie Walters We offer *** WORLDWIDE *** Delivery!, Manufacturer: MoviePostersDirect
Hal Leonard Mamma Mia
Hal Leonard, Piano Play-Along, Mamma Mia: The movie soundtrack, For piano with melody line ... more
and guitar chords, With Playalong CD, Songs: Dancing Queen, Gimme Gimme Gimme (A Man After Midnight), Honey Honey, Lay All Your Love On Me, Mamma Mia, S.O.S., Take A Chance On Me, The Winner Takes It All
Mamma Mia! Movie Poster
Original UK Quad; Rolled Poster; Poster Condition: New; Size: 40 x 30 inches approx. All ... more
our items are despatched from the United Kingdom. Starring - Pierce Brosnan, Meryl Streep, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård, Julie Walters We offer *** WORLDWIDE *** Delivery!, Manufacturer: MoviePostersDirect
Mamma Mia! Movie Poster
Original One Sheet; Rolled Poster; Poster Condition: New; Size: 27 x 40 inches approx. All ... more
our items are despatched from the United Kingdom. Starring - Pierce Brosnan, Meryl Streep, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård, Julie Walters We offer *** WORLDWIDE *** Delivery!, Manufacturer: MoviePostersDirect
Mamma Mia!
From the smash hit stage show comes this larger than life musical epic. Bringing you an ... more
all star cast, the songs of ABBA and an extravaganza of dancing and laughter, Mamma Mia! The Movie is the feel good film of the year.Bride to be Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) is on a quest to find her father before her big day. There is just one problem... she's just not sure who it is. After secretly reading her mother Donna's (Meryl Streep) old diaries, she discovers he is one of three past loves. Knowing her mother would not approve, she invites them all. Sophie desperately tries to keep their presence hidden but it's not long before the secret is out and the fun begins.
A review by Seresecros on Mamma Mia! September 1st, 2008
Author's product rating:
Did you enjoy it?
Disliked it
Characters / Performances
Unmemorable
Soundtrack
Average
How does it compare to similar films?
Weak
Advantages:
Good songs, some of the cast are having fun
Disadvantages:
Poor singing; invisible choreography; badly written script; miscast actors; you want more?
Recommend to potential buyers:
no
Full review
There are two things which are required to make a musical great. The first, perhaps obviously, is that the songs should be good. The second, and this is less obvious, is that the plot should be memorable in it's own right. In other words, you should get the story down first before you start writing the songs. Write the film without any songs in it, stand back, and decide if you think it could get made. Then write the songs and put them in-between to make a delicious cinema cake filled with goodness that everyone will love. It's a simple thing to check out, and films like West Side Story, The Sound Of Music, Fame, they all makes sure that their songs come complete with a story to make them meaningful.
Mamma Mia is about a young girl (played by Amanda Seyfried, who looks disconcertingly like a mermaid) who is preparing for her own wedding on a deserted island somewhere in America. It's not made clear whereabouts this island is at any point during the film, but she has an American accent so presumably she lives somewhere nearby the ol' USA. She's not happy to get married until she finds out who her real father is, because it turns out her ma Donna (Meryl Streep) had her way with three different men in the month she got pregnant, and none of them know about it. So the girl decides that the best way to solve her paternity problem is to send a message to each of the three, inviting them to the wedding, firm in the belief that she'll be able to work out which one is her father. At the same time, she doesn't want any of them to see her mother; her mother to see any of them; any of them to work out why she invited them; and she expects them all to turn up on the spur of the moment.
Streep, to her credit, makes her character's shady past seem entirely likely. Her character is an ex-hippie chick, and the fact she isn't allowed to play this role during the film is criminal. Instead, the film asks her to play a put-upon mother who is either overbearing or not bearing enough - we're never told which one we're expected to think of her as. You get flashes of character, but there's not much for her to play with. This grows typical of the movie in general, as she trades off her usual magnetic presence for a lighter touch. This lack of grit or real feeling becomes sorely missed as the movie continues. Without Streep scene-stealing like she does in The Devil Wears Prada, the film is forced to look elsewhere for the lead role, and we focus on the arrival of the three possible fathers, played by Stellan Skarsgard, Colin Firth, and Pierce Brosnan respectively. The plot of the film requires that each of the three men are equally likely to be the father of Sophie, but we quickly realise that Brosnan is far and away the most important of the three. He is the one whom Meryl looks at most, and thus the only one of the three to get any serious character exposition. Firth is mostly played for laughs, while Skarsgard is miscast and misused in his role, sat in the background almost the entire film as if he wishes he were somewhere else.
As more guests arrive for the wedding, we meet Donna's old friends Julie Walters and Christine Baranski, who cackle away like they're having a ball throughout. These two characters are here to bring some sparkle back to Donna's life, although she's either happy where she is or desperately unhappy where she is. The film, again, neglects to tell us where to fall with our feelings for Donna. Meanwhile Sophie bumps into the three fathers accidentally, all at once, and panics, sending them to a remote goathouse because she figures it the best place to hide them from her mother., who promptly walks straight into there and meets them. Given this chance to kick the plot into gear, the writers then stop doing anything and the film stalls for roughly an hour and a half before any of this is picked up again properly. Granted, the idea of a film like this is to provide sparkle and fun, and use the plot as a springboard to muck around. You don't come to a film based around Abba to see something dramatic, after all. The problem is that, as a result, the film attempts to ratchet up tension when there's nothing going on, and the need for songs slowly gets more and more desperate as a way of filling up time. None of the characters get any development at all during the middle of the film, with songs being used as a way to plug in the gaps instead. We are given the entrance of all the characters, and a setup for what could've been a fun film with a strong resemblance to Shakespearian comedies like Much Ado About Nothing (which would've been a superb title for this film), and then ignored while the cast enjoy some karaoke.
But hey, at least the songs are by some of the strongest songwriters of all time. Benny and Bjorn put together some undeniably powerful songs about a variety of subjects, and some of these fit in perfectly with the type of story the makers are trying to tell - "Slipping Through My Fingers" appears towards the end, as Donna laments her daughter's leaving home (even though we've already been told she isn't moving anywhere), is well staged and works well. Likewise, when Donna finds the three men she belts out "Mamma Mia", and it fits like a glove to the situation, and several other songs slip into proceedings effortlessly, with the last hurrah being "Take A Chance On Me", the introduction of which is one of the first successful stabs of humour that the film achieves. And occurs around ten minutes before the movie ends.
The strange trend though, is to have the character sing the first verse/chorus on their own, before boosting them with a backing track that renders them inaudible. This could be for a number of reasons, but the most likely one is that Lloyd realised she had a musical filled with actors who can't sing, and she wanted to distract us from this. Brosnan suffers the most, as he's given several big numbers to stumble through, including a moody version of "SOS" complete with creepy extras who shout at him as he tries to fix a light-bulb. He sings that one with Streep, during a part of the film which makes no sense to anyone watching for the first time. Mamma Mia is, perhaps, a film which works best on the second viewing. For her part, Streep is a game player, adding froth to an already overflowing film but doing so in a way which tries desperately to add to the film rather than detract. She's the only performer who you look forward to hearing, here. Indeed, aside from Streep; Seyfried's over-cute numbers (the nauseating highlight of the movie is her 'duet' with the previously mentioned fiancé of hers, with whom she has no chemistry); and Brosnan's Irish crackle - a new idea for a breakfast cereal if ever I heard one - you don't get anyone else performing proper songs. Oh sure, Baranski gets a song in, but her character and side-plot (which comes from nowhere, incidentally) seem to be in the film purely so they can shoe-horn in "Does Your Mother Know". The two other dads are forced to share their only song "Our Last Summer" with Brosnan, before being forgotten entirely.
Only two songs have any fabulousness in them at all, a crime where Abba are concerned, and those two happen to be the credits sequence version of "Waterloo", played for laughs, and the somewhat poignant rendition of "Super Trouper". In these scenes, one of only three to have any emotional resonance, we see the old guard of Streep, Baranski and Walters as they reunite their old band for the benefit of Sophie's hen night. It's a nice scene, carried off well by the three women as they share a mix of nostalgia, humour, and happiness with their crowd and the outside audience. The song accepts the campness of the situation, unlike the other songs which are aimlessly slotted in around realist moments. As far as the writers are concerned, the plot has either been ignored in favour of more karaoke songs, or pushed aside with no space left because of all the songs. In any case, we get all our conclusions at once, in the final scene.
You get the sense that Mamma Mia is more a chance to watch Celebrity Karaoke than a real film, because we have a beginning and an end, but no connection between them and a lot of useless padding in the middle. There's a gaping hole in the film where an actor should have marched in and taken over the show - like Catherine Zeta Jones in Chicago, for example - but instead we get a limp film which is barely lifted by the middling execution of all the songs. For what the film offers, they might as well have just given us longer songs, less bothersome dialogue between Sophie and whoever she's shrieking at whenever, and more pizzazz and sparkle. More camp factor! Surely that's what Abba were all about, anyway?
You can read a bigger, more DIVASPARKLE version of this review over at http://wilftonville.blogspot.com
Advantages: Uplifting Disadvantages: Drags at times
Mamma Mia as I’m sure you’ll all know is the 2008 smash hit musical based on the songs from Swedish 70’s pop band ABBA. Infact Mamma Mia was so successful that it actually broke the record originally set by Titanic way back in 1997 to be the highest grossing film in the UK of all time. The film was made on a budget of $52,000,000 and grossed an estimated $601,651,799. Mamma Mia has also become the biggest selling DVD of all time too, not bad eh? ... ...30th June 2008. Mamma Mia is directed by Phyllida Lloyd who’s well known for her extensive work in theatre. She was offered the chance to work on Mamma Mia way back in 1999. Mamma Mia, with exception to maybe the Ocean films probably has one of the best line ups I’ve ever seen. It stars: Meryl Streep (Death Becomes Her), Amanda Seyfried (Mean Girls), Pierce Brosnan (James Bond), Colin Firth (Bridget Jones’s Diary), Stellan Skarsgård (Pirates Of The ...
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Advantages: funny, ful of energy and the great timeless ABBA songs Disadvantages: bit too silly in places, no really surprising plot turns
...elsewhere, but here in Prague Mamma Mia! has become a symbol of this summer, full of fun, dancing and singing, love, sun, friends, joy and happy ends. It was my first time that sitting in the cinema I would feel all the ppl there shared sth and created such a happy and cheerful atmosphere like this time when everybody sang along to the songs.
Cast
Meryl Streep - Donna
Amanda Seyfried - Sophie
Pierce Brosnan - Sam
Colin Firth - Harry
Stellan ... ...I think her performance of Mamma Mia! was the best song in the whole movie and the little show she gave with Christine Baranski and Julie Walters as The Dynamos was sheer fun, without any depth, but fun. As Streep herself said: "I'm really doing this to embarass my 20-sth-year-old children. The dancing will mortify them and they'll have to move to Alaska or some place like that." Streep's duet of The Winner Takes It All with Pierce Brosnan felt a ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Great music and atmosphere Disadvantages: Hideously cheesy at times
When Sophie, who lives on an idyllic Greek island with her mother Donna, decides to get married, she wants absolutely everyone there. And that includes her father, whom she doesn't know. Finding a diary of her mothers from the year she was born, she discovers three possible names - Harry, Sam and Bill - tracks them down and sends each of them an invitation to her wedding, without informing Donna. Needless to say Donna is rather taken aback to see ... ...one is Sophie's father? And will finding out change her life? I was unsure about watching this film - I like old-fashioned musicals, but I wasn't sure what this would be like, particularly with a slew of well-known and respected actors suddenly turning into singers. However, rave reviews piqued my interest and as a child of the seventies/eighties I've always had a soft spot for Abba. And despite some reservations, I did enjoy the film - it is so ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Funny, warm, great cast, great songs, a real feel-good film that will make you smile Disadvantages: Very slightly inferior to the stage version
...to the cinema to see Mamma Mia with my mother-in-law (while my husband, son and youngest daughter saw Hancock). I saw the stage version of Mamma Mia in January this year and thought it was brilliant. I'm also a big Abba fan and have been for about thirty years, so I'm in the ideal demographic for this movie.
The cinema was almost full and those seeing Mamma Mia were admittedly mainly women, but from the elderly down to young kids. There was a bit ... ...The basic plot to Mamma Mia (on stage and screen) is that Sophie is getting married. She's twenty and lives on a small Greek island with Donna, her single mother. Being brought up never knowing her father, Sophie discovers an old diary of her mother's and reading through it, she realises her father is one of three men - Harry, Sam or Bill. So she invites all three to her wedding, hoping that she'll recognise which one is her father and her wedding ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: fantastic feel good film Disadvantages: none
Just a note before I start to say that this is a film only review due to the fact that as far as I know the DVD has not yet been released!
I had a fabulous evening out at the cinema yesterday watching what must be the ultimate feel good film of the year! I had heard a lot about it and I was not disappointed - in fact I don't think I have smiled and laughed so much at a film for a long time! If you have not seen it it is well worth going to see!
... ...- the music of Abba (definitely a blast from my past!), a fun story line, an excellent line up (including the gorgeous Colin Firth and the fabulous Julie Walters) and all this against the beautiful backdrop of a Greek island! What more could I ask for!
So what's it all about then? Well first of we meet young Sophie Sheridan who is soon to be married. She lives on a beautiful Greek island with her mum, Donna, but she has never known her dad. After ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Such fun all over Disadvantages: Not sure about some of the casting
...Every now and then a film comes along that I am persuaded to watch, against my better judgment, and I end up liking, although not sure why. These films are somehow a mismatch of casting talent, and some strange plotline, but weirdly, it works. MammaMia is one such film, with its all star cast and glitzy dance routines and a soundtrack to make any 70s and 80s child grin, whether they like Abba or not.
MammaMia as a stage production seemes to baffle me. I had never seen it, and wondered how they could make a musical full of Abba songs without it having anything to do with Abba's lives at all. Now I have seen the film, I understand - it is a story created around the words of the Abba songs, cleverly woven into each other, and with some comic elements. The 1 hour 42 minutes is packed with fun on a beautiful Greek island setting, and is...
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Advantages: A Real Family Film Disadvantages: None
...This review is for the film only.
It was actually my twins that wanted to go and see MammaMia as they love musicals, I was a bit sceptical but we went any way and this is what I thought about the film.
A Bit about the Film -
The film is set on a idyllic Greek island.
(Meryl Streep) who plays Donna is a single mum who owns her own hotel and has a daughter (Amanda Seyfried) played by Sophie who is getting married to (Dominic Cooper) who plays Sky.
She is desperate to invite her father to her wedding because she wants him to walk her down the aisle, only she doesn't know know who it is, all she knows is that it will be one of three and she only knows this because she secretly read her mums diary and found out that she was with 3 men all around the same time.
(Colin Firth) who plays Harry is a proper gent,
(Pierce...
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Advantages: Everything, singing, casting, storyline Disadvantages: Men cant sing lol
...MammaMia
The story of a girl with no father who secretly investigates through her mother's diary to find out who he may be, in order to invite him to her wedding and give her away. She discovers that she has 3 possible fathers, so she invites the three of them to their motel in Greece behind her mothers back.
As this movie is a musical, it makes use of the songs by Abba, The Swedish pop band of the 80's, all sang by the cast of the movie. Songs Include Honey Honey, Does your mother know, I have a dream, Money money money, Dancing Queen, super trouper, SOS and many more?.
The Cast:
There is a top cast in this movie including Meryl Streep, Pierce Bronson, Colin firth, Amanda Seyfield and Julie Walters
Meryl Streep plays Donna, a hotel owner on a Greek island who lives alone with her daughter Sophie. In her younger days, she...
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Genre: Musicals & Music Films - Musicals & Other Music Films
Classification: Parental Guidance
Production Year: 2008
Official Website: http://www.mamma-mia-themovie.co.uk/
Consumer Advice: Contains mild language and sexual references
Video Category: Feature Film
Country Of Origin: United States of America
Plot: MAMMA MIA is the story of Sophie, a young woman living on a picturesque Greek island with her mother, Donna. Together, Donna and Sophie run a ramshackle island inn, and they are in the midst of preparing for Sophie's wedding. As the wedding approaches, Sophie becomes troubled by the fact that she has never known her father. She was the result of one of her mother's summer flings, and her mother has never revealed her father's identity. When Sophie stumbles upon her mother's diary, she learns that there are three possible men who could be her dad. Without telling her mother, she invites all three to her wedding. When Harry, Sam, and Bill all arrive at the same time, Donna is of course shocked and overwhelmed by seeing her old lovers again after such a long time. She turns to her two best friends, Tanya and Rosie, for their support, and vows to just get through the wedding and weekend. Meanwhile, Sophie spends time with each man, determined to learn the truth.
Release details
Studio(s): UNIVERSAL PICTURES UK
Languages
Main Language: English
Technical information
Sound: Dolby Digital
Professional reviews
Review: Cute, clean, camp fun, full of sunshine and toe tappers (Empire, 09/07/2008)
Ciao
Listed on Ciao since : 19/07/2008
DVD Description
MAMMA MIA became a West End smash when it hit London back in late nineties. With a story framed around the music of the Swedish pop band Abba, crowds loved its raucous, dance party vibe. Now it comes to the silver screen, with some truly delightful performances from the likes of Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan. It is the story of Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), a young woman living on a picturesque Greek island with her mother, Donna (Streep). Together, Donna and Sophie run a ramshackle island inn, and they are in the midst of preparing for Sophie's wedding. As the wedding approaches, Sophie becomes troubled by the fact that she has never known her father. She was the result of one of her mother's summer flings, and her mother has never revealed her father's identity. When Sophie stumbles upon her mother's diary, she learns that there are three possible men who could be her dad. Without telling her mother, she invites all three to her wedding. When Harry (Colin Firth), Sam (Brosnan), and Bill (Stellan Skarsgard) all arrive at the same time, Donna is of course shocked and overwhelmed by seeing her old lovers again after such a long time. She turns to her two best friends, Tanya (Christine Baranaki) and Rosie (Julia Walters), for their support, and vows to just get through the wedding and weekend. Meanwhile, Sophie spends time with each man, determined to learn the truth. Major hi-jinks and confusion ensues, all amidst the utterly romantic scenery, and the rather irresistible, swelling love ballads. Streep has a lovely singing voice, and to watch her throw herself into this whimsical role is truly a delight. She looks like she is having a ball, and it is hard not to shimmy along with her. Baranski reliably delivers an over-the-top showstopper, and Brosnan's tender singing voice makes his character all the more touching. The film strives to be a jubilant celebration of mother/daughter relationships and the love between good friends, and it is hard to resist its many charms.
Compare Mamma Mia! to other similar Musicals & Music Films
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18.10.2008
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