I can't say I was exactly excited to see MAMMA MIA! HERE WE GO AGAIN. As a matter of fact, it was probably with a bit of eye rolling and grumbling that I entered the theatre.
By the way, the New ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE in Tempe is fantastic, great food, huge variety of beer on tap, it.....oh yeah, I'm supposed to talk about the movie.
Okay.
If you LOVED the first one, I bet you love this one too.
The end.
All right, let me try and be positive.
The photography is fantastic.Wherever this was filmed, Tamara and I want to go.
Lily James (Baby Driver) is really talented, shows all the same screen presence she did in that film and holds her own playing a young Donna in flashbacks.
Maryl Streep played Donna in the original film and she makes a glorified cameo in this one, sparking the best ten minutes of the movie.
As Donna's daughter Sophie (Amanda Seyfried, returning from the original) prepares to have a baby with her boyfriend Sky (Dominic Cooper, a LONG way from "Preacher" here), the film flashes back to how Donna ended up in the scenario with three possible baby daddies.
Promiscuity in the Greek Islands not withstanding, we meet the three young versions of the Dads from the first film.
OK, enough nice, the first hour of this movie was like being waterboarded. I wanted to text one of my fellow attendees and see if there was any rope handy in the lobby. (Alas, Alamo might have thrown me out for texting, making me unpopular with my fellow attendees).
The songs are bad, the choreography goes from horrible to pedestrian and I found myself counting off the songs, thinking "OMG, I still have 25 to go..."
Anytime Colin Firth popped up on screen, my interest peaked and Pierce Brosnan does just fine, talk-singing through one short reprise this time in a bow to the millions that remember the original film.
Christine Baranski and Julie Walters play off each other perfectly, begging for better material.
Once the boatloads of folks arrive at Donna's hotel for its grand opening, the last 20-25 minutes are actually kind of entertaining, with the whole cast clearly enjoying being together again.
Cher shows up as Sophie's grandmother (Streep's mother, even though she's only like 4 years older than Streep in real life) and does exactly what you think she'd do. I was so torn in an inner dialogue around "Cher looks great for her age AND Holy crap, what has Cher done to her face?" that I kind of got lost for 15 minutes to be honest....
Streep's closing scene with her grandaughter IS really well executed and the best song/staging of the movie, but whether its worth waiting two hours for is in the eye of the beholder.
MAMMA MIA I am never watching this again.
It gets a C-. (Cher, Streep & Lily James save it from a D.)
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