Film fans give their verdict on Mamma Mia! the movie
EXCLUSIVE MAMMA MIA! Fans' verdict on the movie
It's as camp as a row of tents and cheesier than a kilo of camembert. After months of hype, Mamma Mia! finally hit cinema screens yesterday leaving Abba obsessives in raptures.
An all-star cast, including Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan, a flipping fabulous soundtrack and the Greek island of Skopelos, perhaps the most perfect setting for a film. What could go wrong?
Er, plenty, actually. I've always loved Abba's music. My mum used to sing Chiquitita and Waterloo to me when I was little.
Dancing Queen has been a staple of my girlie nights out (oh how we laughed at the line "you are the dancing queen, only 17" while frequenting drinking establishments underage).
I Have A Dream narrowly missed being No.1 in the charts when I was born - kept off the top spot by Pink Floyd's Another Brick In The Wall.
A fact my Floyd fan dad is very proud of but something that has niggled away at my Abba-diehard mum ever since.
Through my grunge, indie and hippy phases, Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny and Anni-Frid have been my guilty pleasure.
However, I'm a bit of a sceptic when it comes to these sorts of musicals. I adore the traditional shows-West Side Story, Chicago and Oklahoma.
It's the We Will Rock Yous, Tonight's The Nights and Mamma Mias of this world I can't bear, with their clunky storylines, desperately contrived to fit around the music.
Nevertheless, if you switch off your brain as you walk through the cinema doors, then Mamma Mia's not that bad.
Particularly if you remember to put your earplugs in every time poor old tone-deaf Pierce Brosnan does his very best impression of strangling a cat.
And the scene where the stag night boys strut their stuff in their flippers along the pier to Lay All Your Love is pure genius.
The bodies of the younger cast members are gorgeous - waxed pecs, deep tans and rippling torsos as far as the eye can see.
And lead girl Amanda Seyfried is enchanting as Sophie.
Meryl Streep steals the show with one single scene on the morning of her daughter's wedding. If that doesn't bring a lump to your throat then, goddammit, you have a heart of stone.
And the negatives?
The normally brilliant Julie Walters turning into a complete ham and overacting to the point where I feared she was about to spontaneously combust.
The sometimes excruciating attempts by certain cast members to hold a tune.
And the fact that brain switched off or not, there's only so much daftness and total implausibility a girl can take.
Despite the flaws, fellow cinemagoers were, on the whole, impressed.
David Vaguar, 33, said: "It was great. Meryl Streep deserves an Oscar." Steady on, Dave.
Peter Borer was celebrating his 61st birthday with wife Christine, 59. He said: "Our feet were itching to dance in the aisles. I've read how much fun they had making it. I think you can tell they had a ball."
Sisters Orlanda and Matilda Elliott admitted they were fairly cynical going in, but came out Abba converts.
"It's very cheesy," said Orlanda, 24. "But it's good, clean fun - we liked it."
And Abba fanatics Sandro Mattos and Alex Klein loved it so much they wanted to go back in and watch the next showing.
"We laughed, cried, sang and danced," said Alex. "I've seen the musical on stage but the film is even better."
Abba fans will love it. But two hours of classic tracks being coldbloodedly murdered by Pierce, Meryl and Julie?
No, thanks. I'd rather whack on my Abba Gold CD, listen to the songs performed as they were originally intended and dance around like a lunatic in the privacy of my own living room.
Superfan's view
Vaughan Davies, 46, is the UK representative of the official international Abba fan club.
I've seen the film twice already - at the London and Stockholm premieres - and I can't wait to see it again, it's fabulous. The location is stunning, the cast amazing and the movie weaves in what is admittedly a feeble storyline better than the stage show.
There's something for everyone to relate to. The single mum, the gay guy, the teenage traumas - it's very reflective. I've loved Abba since 1974. I stuck with them through the 80s when they weren't cool.
My wife Gina is a heavy metal fan so you couldn't get two more different tastes in music!
It's time for feelgood music to make a comeback. Everyone's feeling the pinch and this movie will lift them out of the doldrums.
Thank you for the music - Our writers' favourite Abba hits
Polly Hudson: Knowing Me, Knowing You
The best Abba song? Without a doubt Knowing Me, Knowing You.
Three reasons. One: How brilliant bitter songwriter got his future ex-wife to sing: "We just have to face it this time, we're through".
Two: The turning faces to the side thing in the video.
Three: Without it, Alan Partridge might never have been. A-ha!
Jim Shelley: The Winner Takes It All
An anthem to divorce, this had an awesomely, gloriously depressing video. It's like the whole of Ingmar Bergman's career in miniature. Best of all, this is the Abba song that nobody can make you dance to.
Danielle Lawler: Dancing Queen
This song reminds me of my first nightclub, the Paradox.
I still have fond memories of hearing the song start and all my friends running to the dance floor to create a circle, handbags on floor, drinks in hand - thinking we looked like Dancing Queens. We'd point at each other, screaming, sorry, singing, 'You can dance, You can jive' having the time of our lives taking turns turns to show off our moves in the centre. Horrific images I know, but we thought we looked great.
Brian Reade: Waterloo
Thank You For The Music fills my soul with joy. It was the song Dave Lee Travis played while committing Radio 1 hari-kari - resigning on air.
But because buttocks have never filled powder-blue trousers so sensually or beige platformed boots swayed so erotically it has to be Waterloo. Shame they had beards.
Kevin Maguire: Money Money Money
It's a rich man's world today more than it was in the 70s and 80s.
But back then I sang Money Money Money as a mock anthem - it's Abba with the slightest of political edges. People did seem to work all night and all day to pay the bills.
And though I didn't want to get "a wealthy man", a wealthy woman would have been nice!
Original Source : http://www.mirror.co.uk/showbiz/latest/2008/07/11/film-fans-give-their-verdict-on-mamma-mia-the-movie-89520-20639349/
