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I saw the film (Mamma Mia) last week.

I've got to say that I never cared for Abba (and having seen a tribute show a couple of years ago I remembered why - all the songs are individually great but put them all together and they are a perfect cure for insomniacs!). Therefore, I have not seen the stage production either.

I absolutely adored the film and came out on a real high. OK - the plotline is thinner than a piece of paper but who cares? The cast looked as though they were having a ball making this film and that is reflected in the finished product. It has a huge feel-good factor and I came out on a real high.

Did everyone stay till the credits at the end?? If not - you need to go back and see it again!

Did the audience participate at the end? While no-one was dancing, the rest of the audience was singing and clapping along at the end! (I've heard that in some cinemas here they are making announcements before the start of the film inviting people to get up and dance at the end!).

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Thanks for posting your review, JMcN. I haven't seen the stage version either and so will not be able to compare and contrast, unfortunately. A relative of mine saw it last weekend, loved it, and also reported audience participation.

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I saw the film this evening, and I loved it! It was so much fun seeing "Mrs. Weasley" (Harry Potter films) in such a different role as Rosie (Julie Walters). She was funny and terrific! I never dreamed to see Colin Firth (I loved him as "Darcy") in such a film...I thought the whole cast was awesome. Rarely at movies does the audience break out in applause at the end of a film...This one did!

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I saw Mamma Mia in New York a few years ago and loved it. The film version was awful and just didn't tranfer well from the stage. Meryl needs to stick with acting. Brosnan was a joke. A friend of my husband's who attended with us asked about 30 minutes into the film, "Are we at a point where we can kill ourselves?"

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A friend of my husband's who attended with us asked about 30 minutes into the film, "Are we at a point where we can kill ourselves?"

THAT is one of the funniest lines I've ever heard. I am going to steal it and use it freely since I don't know who to credit it to. It does describe the sense of extreme imprisonment and sensory assault some of the recent movie products induce: I got it from watching the clip of 'Dancing Queen' alone, which is like a cross between rehashing some 'The Sound of Music' Alpine Frolics and Pied Piper of Hamlin, and the old Coca-Cola ad from the 70s 'I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmoneeeeeeeeeee....I'd like to give the world a Coke to keep it companeeeeeeeee....' But I've been seeing thousands of other signs of this in the big things, like the fact of a great actress like Rosemary Harris in 'Spiderman3', which I watched the other night. And it was 30 minutes when I turned it off!!! Fortunately, I was home so I was able to go ahead and kill myself...although I can't blame Rosemary for doing it for the bucks, of course. She's not trying to 'expand her range' by doing May Parker.

The imitation of TV ads is very blatant by now, not just in 'Mamma Mia', but in almost all of the giant-scale productions.

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I think I know what papeetepatrick is speaking of...Movies, in general, seem big on effects and little on substance for the past few years, with some exceptions. How many remakes do we really need, or sequel 2, 3, (usually getting progressively worse) etc? And, don't even get me started on the stoner movies or violence for violence's sake in films :flowers: ...I believe the reason I enjoyed Mamma Mia so much is what JMcN spoke of...the actors looked like they were having a fabulous time making this film, some of them leaping with joy into very different waters than they are accustomed to... Pierce Brosnan probably paid to be in this film (just kidding!) Their joy was contagious! With some of the negative events going on in the world right now, it was just so refreshing to see something that made me feel good and entertained me. I never saw the live version so I have nothing with which to compare.

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I think I know what papeetepatrick is speaking of...Movies, in general, seem big on effects and little on substance for the past few years, with some exceptions. How many remakes do we really need, or sequel 2, 3, (usually getting progressively worse) etc? And, don't even get me started on the stoner movies or violence for violence's sake in films :flowers: ...I believe the reason I enjoyed Mamma Mia so much is what JMcN spoke of...the actors looked like they were having a fabulous time making this film, some of them leaping with joy into very different waters than they are accustomed to... Pierce Brosnan probably paid to be in this film (just kidding!) Their joy was contagious! With some of the negative events going on in the world right now, it was just so refreshing to see something that made me feel good and entertained me. I never saw the live version so I have nothing with which to compare.

Thanks, Gina, and I certainly understand what you are talking about too. I did enjoy 'Hairspray' while I was watching it very much, but it did not stay with me as a whole. 'Spiderman3'--forget it, I couldn't get through so as to be an informed viewer. It's the remakes of real classics that is the most disturbing. Before we knew that 'My Fair Lady' was definitely going to be remade as a musical, sidwich said that there was nobody who could do it now, most likely, and that Hollywood would need a big-name film star. Now that I've gotten used to the idea, I would maybe be interested if they made it with Kelli O'Hara and Jeremy Irons, but that still shows I don't want them to remake it at all, because I can only imagine it if it suggests what I already like; anyway, there's no possbility I get to cast it! 'Mamma Mia' sells because people love the ABBA songs and because Meryl Streep is still big box-office. It's possible I'd even enjoy it too if I had the time for it, but I have definitely found that there is some sort of technique in almost all of the recent film musicals that has been perfected that bombards the viewer as quickly as possible: It is geared to immediate gratification, and that is what I experienced with 'Hairspray' and 'Dreamgirls', but nothing at all of the latter has stayed with me, and only Pfeiffer from the former (which means the movie failed for me, because you are definitely supposed to remember everybody else and sympathize with their maudlin ways, not Pfeiffer's snake-in-the-grass.) 'Rent' didn't manage to engage me even while I was watching it, on the other hand.

But I can see how I appreciate 'Hairspray', at least, for even just that momentary excitement, which we sometimes just need with no thought of 'posterity'.

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Actors need to pay the bills too.

And the Harry Potter series has provided good acting opportunities for a bunch of great British actors. They get a nice paycheck, we enjoy them, everybody wins. (And I loved Alfred Molina in the second Spider-Man.)

Meryl needs to stick with acting.

Thanks for telling us what you thought, lsu. I’ve always liked Streep’s singing, myself.

I believe the reason I enjoyed Mamma Mia so much is what JMcN spoke of...the actors looked like they were having a fabulous time making this film, some of them leaping with joy into very different waters than they are accustomed to... Pierce Brosnan probably paid to be in this film (just kidding!) Their joy was contagious!

The scheduling hasn’t worked out yet, but I’m really going to try to see it during this run and not on DVD. One of the nice things about the reception of the film is that it seems to demonstrate that seeing a movie in the theatre and not at home can add to the experience.

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There are some unbelievably hilarious new youtubes, easily accessible by googling, of this, by Dawn French & Gennifer Saunders, this time accompanied by Joanna Lumley. Hope this doesn't ruffle any feathers, I am a huge fan of 'the girls', they are the host brilliant parodists in history, and F & S claim to be retiring (they say this is their last for the BBC comedy series) although Lumley claims at the end to 'still be looking for work...' There are titles like 'THE SHEER ACTING OF MERYL STREEP' and 'UNBELIEVABLE' and 'IT'S A NONSENSE'. French and Lumley do 'Chicken Tika' as Medieval Organum...and 'Danzin' Queen' with aerosol bottles as mics.

Here they are (mods erase if illegal, I think youTubes are okay by now):

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