Saw 'Mamma Mia'.....

F

FAST FRED

500+ Posts
....with my sweet wife and lovely daughter and we each enjoyed it.

My musical favorites alphabetically range from Aerosmith to ZZ Top, but I've never been partial to the songs of ABBA.

I guess "Dancing Queen" is my favorite and it's featured twice in this cinematic offering.

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This movie featuring their pop songs, mostly with a familiarly heavy dance beat with one notable exception, certainly didn't transform me into a big ABBA fan, but it was a well-made flick and a whole lot of fun to watch.

I never paid enough attention to ABBA's lyrics to understand exactly what their songs were about, so if these movie makers wanted to make those songs fit into this story that worked OK for me.

Having enjoyed the moody, violent fantasy of "The Dark Knight," as did I, I found the mostly happy, actually mosty silly, fantasy in "Momma Mia" to be a complete opposite and think each is good movie for the right audience.

If you like musical movie entertainment, you'll probably appreciate this flick and I highly recommend it to those folks.

If you don't, I strongly advise you watch something else......as if you didn't already know that.

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I really enjoy watching talented people perform and here Meryl Streep obviously has an absolute ball singing, dancing, emoting and doing physical comedy alongside the other members in this stellar emsemble cast.

I thought the colorful costumes, the clever choreography and the musical performances were really fun to see.

Meryl Streep and Christine Baranski are excellent musical performers and the rest of the cast was good too.

Pierce Brosnan isn't anywhere close to being as good at singing and dancing as Christopher Walken was in "Hairspray," but he is a trouper and was a good foil for the talents of the others.

For me, comparable recent movies include "A Prairie Home Companion" also featuring Streep, "The Banger Sisters" with Goldie Hawn and Susan Sarandon and "Hairspray."

I liked these flicks for their entertainment value and recommend all of them to anyone who liked any one of them.

"Mamma Mia" has the vibe and musicality of "Grease," is actually set in Greece, has much better dancing than Zorba the Greek and as much excitement, although of a completely different kind, as "The Guns of Navarone," which also was set in Greece.

This movie is fast paced, funny and even exhilarating, if you appreciate stage and movie musical entertainment.

But, it will be a slow paced, painful, even suffocating experience, if you don't.

Men. if you're in either of those categories and do go, then taking a chick or even two as I did, will make it much better.

Trust me.

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I was tricked into seeing it yesterday. Maybe i would have liked it if someone had told me that it was based on a musical or that there was a shitload of singing, but it took me about 3 songs to realize that. When the second song started, I thought "WTF??? Another ******* ABBA song? What the hell is this? This might be the dumbest movie idea ever."

I had no idea what Mamma Mia was until afterwards when the SO and her mom explained that it was a musical.

I remember there was one point when probably the 800th song started and it was Bronan signing that I stuck two fingers under my chin and feigned blowing my head off and a couple of guys a few seats down started laughing and were instantly shushed by what seemed like about half the theater.
 
I went with my wife and daughter to the movie theater. They saw Mamma Mia. I saw X-Files, then I came in and caught the last 10 minutes of Mamma Mia. That was enough for me.
 
It didn't suck as bad as Moulin Rouge.

I was never much of a fan of ABBA. Waterloo is about their only song that I really like.

I had some issues with Mamma Mia. Oddly, Pierce Brosnan's bad singing is not one of them. I did enjoy the staging of the first Dancing Queen -- I thought it was well-done and looked like a whole lot of fun.

But I found myself looking at my watch about halfway through, and I discovered that I was more concerned about the inconsiderate women a few rows down who were looking at their cell phones during the movie.
 
if you asked me to name 1,000,000 movies that this movie might be compared to in fred's review, i still wouldn't have come up with guns of navarone.
 
My daughter is almost 11. Is she old enough to see this movie by herself? Kidding...

Without sounding like too much of a wuss, I do like much of ABBA's music. I'm just not sure I could watch Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan sing and dance for 90 minutes.
 
I have a question for those who have seen this movie. I have an 11 year old and 9 year old daughters who are chomping at the bit to see this movie. I'm sort of a prude when it comes to letting my girls watch movies of "questionable content." Can someone tell me (1) why this is rated PG-13; and (2) if it's appropriate for girls 9 and 11 years old?
 
Spoilers ahead, HornFinc!!!!




















The story of "Mamma Mia" revolves around Meryl Streep's character's daughter's wedding.

Streep has never known exactly who her daughter's father was.

Back in the day, she sang in a all girl rock vocal trio and had "lots of fun."

The daughter reads her mother's secret diary and determines that her father must have been one of three men whom her mother hasn't seen in 20 years.

Then the daughter, without her mother's knowledge, invites these possible fathers to the small Greek island location of her wedding.

Meryl Streep and her old friends, male and female, cavort, dance, sing and reminisce about la vida loca.

The bride's young friends, male and female, cavort, dance, sing and fantasize before and after the ceremony.

One gay man comes out and finds a partner.

One vibrator is used briefly as an unidentified prop in a scene somewhat like when the Pink Lady's initiated Olivia Newton-John's character, Sandy, in "Grease," wherein she sang about "summer loving, every night, summer loving, feels so right' and they beg her to "tell me more, tell me more...."

And there are some pretty lewd comments, from Christine Baranski and Julie Walters, Streep's old band mates, about things of a sexual nature that have gone on in the past or could go on in the future.

Again just like Stockard Channing's character in "Grease" was wont to do, but here it's somewhat more blatant.

An admittedly prudish parent would probably have good reason to object to such on screen behavior as that and I suggest you preview the movie, if you have concerns.

There's lots more innocent funny stuff, including much physical comedy.

And there's plenty of self evaluation, self re-evaluation and general soul searching from all the main characters, plus copious singing that's sufficiently excellent (including the croaking of Pierce Brosnan, if you recognize that musical comedy is the main intent) and entertainingly exuberant, bacchanal-like choreography.

No good deed, bad deed or thought goes unsung, undanced or unpunished in this musical comedy.

I've studied a bit about and seen some modern versions of Greek stage productions, like in that Woody Allen movie "Mighty Aphrodite."

I believe the Greeks would have fully understood and even loved this production, once they got back up to watch it after being knocked out of their seats by the initial outburst of modern technology

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But there is no nudity, no foul language and no sexual action or innuendo past what I have mentioned.

The plot contrivances are like those found in "Grease" or Annette Funicello/Frankie Avalon's "Beach Blanket Bingo" along with activity akin to the content of "The Banger Sisters" or a Shakespearean play or a Gilbert and Sullivan operetta farce.

I suspect some high school choirs will not be allowed to perform this musical as their Spring gala, but I think maybe some will depending on the varied sensibilities of different communities and the stroke of their choir teacher.

My kids at 9 or 11 would have been allowed to see it had they wanted to with my wife and/or I taking them.

Having sex before marriage is something my wife and I and all three of my now older kids have experienced and we are comfortable with that.

Other parents can decide about this movie for their kids and I hope my post gives you some pertinent information.

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As a responsible and responsive parent, I could have easily explained to my kids about anything which happened or was alluded to in "Mamma Mia" at any age they were curious.r>
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On the other hand, ideally, seeing "The Dark Knight" would have needed to wait until my kids were teens because of the sadism, cruelty, evil, violence and torture depicted in it.

At that older age, I would have gone to see the latest Batman flick with my kids and later talked with them about such inhumane human behavior, on screen and in actual practice.

Because the new Batman movie is pretty darned scary and younger kids would, IMHO, need to fully understand that film fantasy is not real and can't really hurt them.

I think nightmares should be expected if young kids see it.

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I would be more concerned that "The Dark Knight' would affect, disturb or scar my kids than would anything from "Mamma Mia," but parents, kids and family child rearing comfort levels differ and from your description of your concerns I advise caution.

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Fred,

How rude of you to be so vague...
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Seriously, that was a great synopsis. I appreciate you taking the time to do it!
 
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