Mamma Mia!

Rating: 9/10 (19 July 2008)

Mamma Mia is a live action version of the Broadway musical which is set to songs from the 70's pop group Abba. The film takes place on a Greek island where a young woman named Sophie is set to be married in a few days. All her life, Sophie, has never known who her father was, so she comes upon her mother's old diary and decides to invite all the men who could possibly be her father. Throughout the next couple of days Sophie learns to think for herself and we can see the close bond between her and her mother and family who are all a little shall we say eccentric. This results in a lot of old fashioned style musical numbers and dancing and a lot of over the top yet fun characters. Much like the Abba songs featured in the film, Mamma Mia is very sugary, playful and sometimes downright silly, but it all makes for an enjoyable time at the theatre. A lot of the film's characters, the actors playing them and the plot can be ridiculously over the top and silly at times, but you can tell the cast is having a great time here and there are a lot of laughs to be had and overall this isn't a movie to be taken too seriously, it's just a fun night out and an entertaining two hour diversion that is actually a lot better than this summer's movie fare so far and how refreshing it was not to see a film that was based on a comic book, or overloaded with mediocre to bad special effects. Basically the weekend I saw Mamma Mia was also the opening weekend of The Dark Knight, and it doesn't take a nuclear physicist to figure out that The Dark Knight will be the top film at the box office, not only for this weekend, but for many weekends to come. I myself am a little tired out of all these big action superhero films and I'm still debating whether, or not to even see The Dark Knight, but for those who want something just a little different, but still fun and entertaining than I think Mamma Mia will be the film for you. Just like this year's Sex And The City movie, Mamma Mia is being thought of and bad mouthed as a film strictly for the girls with no redeeming value for the male viewers. Being a male viewer, I actually found a lot to enjoy in this big ball of fluff. The songs which I would never go out and buy or anything, are still catchy and even though all the performers are really camping it up they are still having fun and you will have fun watching them. There are a lot of visual and sly in-jokes in the film that will be sure to cause a chuckle and like any of the old traditional musicals that this film is modeled after it is basically a big vibrant and joyous film with big flashy musical numbers and a lot of hamming it up from the cast and crew. I overall had a very good time with this film and while it may not be as good as some other past musicals from this decade like Dancer In The Dark, or Hedwig And The Angry Inch, it is still a very good time to be had and for those looking for something different than The Dark Knight, I think this is a good film to try.