Sunday, 17 August 2008As we often find it difficult to see all the films we want to at the cinema, we thought we would make the most of yesterday and so saw Mamma Mia! as well. Now I've never been fond of the idea of a musical based on a single band's music. For example, I'm a big Queen fan but have no particular interest in going to see the musical We Will Rock You which uses their music to tell a story. I'm also not a huge ABBA fan (I have been known to dance to their music when drunk, but who hasn't?) so have never really been interested in going to see the stage show version of Mamma Mia! It isn't that I don't like musicals (I've been to see quite a few over the years, including Starlight Express) I just could never really imagine how songs that were written as individual pieces could be crafted together to create a good musical -- I always thought it would seem that the songs were forced to fit the story.
Even when I heard there was going to be a film version of Mamma Mia! I wasn't that interested until I saw the trailer. It looked funny, and the performances of the songs sounded pretty good. So I decided that maybe it would be worth seeing. In fact it was really, really good. Ignoring for a minute the fact that Pierce Brosnan can't really sing, the whole thing worked really well. I won't spoil it for you by giving away any of the plot, but I will say that if you go to see it at the cinema don't leave until the white on black scrolling credits appear otherwise you will miss some hilarious dancing and singing.
So for those who haven't seen it yet here is the trailer:
WALL-E, My Rating:
The film lived up to my expectations from the trailers and I'll certainly by buying the DVD later in the year.Mamma Mia!, My Rating:
A truly brilliant film, much better than I would have thought given the premise of turning ABBA songs into a musical.
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