Musicals & Music Films > O Musicals & Music Films > Lloyd, Phyllida

Not Just For Abba Fans

Advantages: Great performances, great fun, the songs (If you like Abba)
Disadvantages: Younger cast are a bit flat

...Christmas, my mum asked for Mamma Mia! on DVD because my dad wouldn't let her rent it. Come Christmas day and after eating copiously and drinking similarly we sat down (dad excluded) to watch (mercifully not the sing-a-long version). I was apprehensive. I'm not good with musicals and I'm definitely not good with Abba. Begrudgingly I joined in willing my loathing along. From minute one I thought, 'this is horrid', but by the end I was toe tapping ...
...on what makes this film so enjoyable but somehow it is, and somehow I'll try. So, the story. Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) is due to get married on a Greek island but prior to exchanging her vowls she wishes to find out the identity of her father. She secretly invites the three potentials (Colin Firth, Pierce Brosnan and Stellan Skarsgård) to the wedding without letting her mother (Meryl Streep) know. What ensues is her quest to find out his identity, ...

Nixu1980 29.10.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Mamma Mia!

Thank you for the music, Mamma Mia! triumphs

Advantages: Great music, vivid scenary, great setting
Disadvantages: Storyline could have been improved on.

As members of the british public will know, the musical is a genre that has died out over the last few years. Yes, we've had high school musical and that was good for the kids. But what about us adults? Anything since saturday night fever worth watching? That debate is for another time, but this film brings back the musical genre, in full Abba style. From start to finish this film does not disappoint with the fantastic toe-tapping, karaoke dream ...
...focus of attention sometimes, fits lovely into the songs. Anyone who has seen the stage show, will have walked away playing all the songs over and over in their head and be humming them all the way home. The film does exactly the same. From the opening of I have a dream, to Thank you for the music running over the credits, you almost feel like you have been watching an abba concert, your voice is sore. Even if you are not an abba fan, or generally ...

stozzerman 17.01.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Mamma Mia! (Blu-Ray)

How Can I Resist You? Let Me Count the Ways...

Advantages: Some decent performances.
Disadvantages: A series of Abba songs being murdered by unqualified performers (Brosnan, I'm talking about you...)

Sophie lives with her bohemian mother Donna on a remote Greek island where they run a hotel together. She is about to get married to her fiancé Sky, but there's one thing missing in her life; a father. She reads her mother's diary from the summer before she was born and discovers there are three possible dads - Harry, Sam and Bill. Unbeknownst to her mother she invites all three to the wedding, hoping she will know which is her father when she meets ...
...wedding and Donna is in for the surprise of her life. This is only director Phyllida Lloyd's second stab at directing for the screen, having spent most of her career helming stage operas. Sadly her inexperience shows with a musical that never really expands beyond its stage origins. You don't get the impression of a world existing beyond the bounds of the screen. Although some of the exteriors were clearly shot around the Greek islands, Lloyd doesn't ...

afy9mab 21.10.2008 · Read full review
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Review of Mamma Mia! (DVD)

Fabba!

Advantages: Great songs, well cast, enjoyable, fun, a great tribute to a great band and musical
Disadvantages: None!

...and one of these was Mamma Mia. I had wanted to see it at the cinema but never got around to it, so I got it for myself for a treat with an Amazon voucher when it first came out. I never managed to see it, so was determined to do so at Christmas! Well, I've been so tired every evening that I've been in bed too early to watch a film, but tonight I put it on at 8pm as I really wanted to see the bloomin' thing at last! And was it worth the wait? Mamma ...
...the film, from title song Mamma Mia, to Dancing Queen, to lesser known Honey, Honey and Slipping Through my Fingers which was an amazing emotional performance from Meryl Streep...I was welling up throughout that song! It modernises the classic hits but keeps the feeling of nostalgia, and you just cannot stop yourself singing along because its so catchy! The cast all have great voices and do all of the songs justice, none more so than the wonderful ...

mummy2harry 06.01.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Mamma Mia! (DVD)

Who's Your Daddy?!

Advantages: really funny, heartwarming good old fashioned fun!
Disadvantages: Pierce Brosnan...actually nah, its fantastic!

...far, the best characters in Mamma Mia are Donna played by Streep, her sidekicks played by Julie Walters (just sheer brilliance!) and Christine Baranski and Colin Firth. Pierce Brosnan, as I'm sure you have heard, is an absolutely AWFUL singer, and both times I went to the cinema the audience reacted the same way - with horror, discomfort at seeing James Bond make a fool of himself, and eventually everyone just seemed to collapse in hysterics. I say ...
...saw an interview with him where he admitted that the singing was atrocious but that he enjoyed making the film immensely. In fact, everyone in the film looked like they had the most amazing time, after the film is over there is a sing along with all the cast characters in ABBA costumes, they looked like they were just having a blast and that everyone got on really well - which in my opinion just makes the film special. There are some teary moments, ...

burtybookworm 08.09.2008 · Read full review
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Review of Mamma Mia! (DVD)