Jul 19, 2008

Mamma Mia! What a movie.

Here are our thoughts about Mamma Mia. We saw it last night. Granted, we saw it last night- when The Dark Knight premiered, so there were about 20 people in our huge, sad, Mamma Mia theater. Not nearly as exciting as a packed Broadway house, so keep that in mind...

Elyse: Ok I want to start off by saying I had never seen Mamma Mia before, especially not in a packed Broadway house. And I've never seen a sentence as theatre-nerdy as the concluding sentence in the first paragraph. 

Annie: Yikes, I know. I might as well have said "the smell of the greasepaint, the roar of the crowd."


E: Thank you for acknowledging your mistake. Alright so I was a little shocked at Mamma Mia. For many reasons. First of all, the movie should have been titled and subtitled, "Mamma Mia: Look at Amanda Seyfried's Boobs Bouncing." Yes. They were that distracting. And who knew Meryl could belt? And who knew her belting song had that many verses? And would last that long? Yes, the winner takes it all.

A: ... after a 4 and a half minute battle. I loved how she changed the belting part at the end, although we all love hearing the final "ALL" belted at the end (London Mamma Mia? Anybody? Nobody.). But her little change previous to that was nice. But all in all- Meryl... ehhhhh....

E: The word "all" has been used so many times in this post. 

A: Back to Meryl. She was my least favorite lead- eek, here come the attacks. But seriously, I feel like she thought too hard about the role. She kind of irked me, and she didn't seem like the type of woman who in the past would have random sex with multiple men. Christine Baranski on the other hand.... LOVE HER. And how about that leg extension? Quite impressive! Speaking of impressive... Pierce Brosnan. Thank GOODNESS they gave HIM the bonus track, the song NOT included in the original show. If anyone deserved the extra, bonus song, it was him.

E: Ha. You all do know she's being sarcastic, right? But I actually didn't hate him at all. He wasn't as bad as most people were saying. The three men were the best part of the movie. 

A: And how much did you all love the beginning of the movie when they showed all three men on their way to see Donna? The slot machine part was lame- with their 3 passport pictures CHING-ing up onto the screen. Sheesh.

E: I thought the bachelor party was perhaps the gayest thing I have ever seen. But kudos to the choreographer for finishing the list of "what can the dancers wear other than dance shoes?" I mean we've had license plates, trash can lids, and now flippers can be added as well. 

A: I was very disappointed by the megamix at the end. Why didn't they sing "Mamma Mia" again? I was happy to hear "Waterloo," though. Favorite song in the movie? "Chiquitita." Again, I loved Christine Baranski. Most awkward song? "Our Last Summer."

E: Agreed. Okay why did Sophie have to wear JUST her bathing suit the whole day? No one spends whole days in just their bathing suits after they turn 10. And she was spending the day with three men. Sitting Indian style. 

A: HA. Another favorite song was "Dancing Queen." The dancing on the dock was cute and fun. Going back to the men, I thought Colin Firth was under-used. Why didn't he get to sing "Thank You For the Music"? Then again, the whole beginning of the movie draaaagged so I guess I'm sort of happy we sacrificed a song toward the start of the movie. OH and another random thing. "Money, Money, Money"- and the girls on the big ship gambling and stuff? That was sort of weird, but I guess they figured since it was a movie, they could do things like that that they couldn't do in the live show.

E: Another thing they couldn't do in the live show? Slow motion. Clearly the director was very excited about the prospect of having Meryl Streep jumping on the bed while singing Mamma Mia in slow motion. I would be, too, I guess? 

All right, signing off. This movie gets One Middle Finger Up.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ha ha ha! I haven't even seen "Mamma Mia" (the movie) and I think everything you've said is absolutely right! This site is so great - I think everyone should read it!

Annie's Blogs said...

Again, thank you mother. You know what? Go ahead and stop posting comments...if anything, it's discouraging people from commenting.

Anonymous said...

Ok so I guess im officially a nerd. But ummm...this blog=I LOVE. Whatev :)

I've never seen or heard Mamma Mia before and have always been skeptical of it. What a relief! This movie was awesome. Elements broken down:

Meryl--LOVED the voice. Acting was awesome, but then again I dont have anything really to compare it to. I think my favorite part here was "Money Money Money," as well as her flinging her arms around singing "winner TAKES IT ALL!!!!!" Haha
Pierce--I think this one's a given. SOS? please.
Main Daughter Girl--awesome voice!
Main Daughter Girl's Friends--what the F? why were they even in this??? Irish accent girl?
Colin--hahahahahaha! Definitely an underrated actor. He was probably the funniest part of this movie.
Donna's friends--LOVED the chemistry. Christine is AWESOME!!!
Music--favorites were Dancing Queen, Mamma Mia, Money Money Money, Lay All Your Love on Me, Honey Honey, Winner Takes All. least favorites were Slipping Through My Fingers (blech. awful) and Super-Trooper-whatever.
Scripting--WORST part of this movie. Thankfully I'm thinking it was borrowed from the play so no fault on the directors!
Photography--gorgeous of course (in Greece, what else?) but had a lot of potential NEVER unlocked. wide angle pans like on Winner Takes All would have worked wonders on other scenes. Color scheme, however, wins big. Teal white and tan. Who knew?

Overall--great! definitely worth watching. way fun. I guess thats like one middle finger up? B+? Three stars? Whatev :)

Anonymous said...

i think this movie got bad reviews because people take it too seriously. its a lame musical but thats what is so great about it. I loved the movie.