Movie Review: Mamma Mia!

I have to admit that going into the movie I've had my reservations. I remember how I looked forward to seeing Chicago and ended up being slightly disappointed by Renee Zellweger and Richard Gere's singing. Also one of the leading lady was played by Amanda Seyfried, the same girl that played the (I'm sorry) dumb blonde in Mean Girls with flying colors and I was afraid that I couldn't shake her old character out of my head and although I'm listening to ABBA over and over again, but I still don't think I remember the lyrics that well, but the movie was surprisingly pleasant.

If you, like me, haven't seen the musical yet, the story is about a 20 year old girl who's about to get married and she really wanted her father to be there to give her away. She didn't know who her father was, so she found her mother's diary during the time she was conceived and found three names who's potentially her father and invited them to her wedding. The movie is about self discovery and it celebrates love, motherhood and the freedom of being a woman at any age. The whole movie was set in a Greek island. It's like Sex and the City, only more joyous, more celebratory and more dancing and singing to the soundtrack of ABBA's Gold.

I was expecting a sing-along but someone sitting close to me got shushed at the very start, so it wasn't as good as I thought it could be. I thought I would have the most fun with a movie like this would be with a gay audience, when did people become so stuck up? Amanda Seyfried is quite adorable from the very start when she was singing I Have A Dream she has already got the attention of the audience by her portrayal of innocence. Meryl Streep, playing her mother the inn owner, can sing! Like all musicals, the movie goes in and out of songs very often and it might be a little awkward at first but it's often done in a humorous way and we all loved the familiar ABBA classics. "You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life, Ooh... see that girl, watch that scene, digging the dancing queen." Who doesn't love that? The Greeks were portrayed as eccentric people that love to sing in the background and do backup dance.

Pierce Brosnan seems to have suffered the Richard Gere syndrome as he can't really sing. Maybe he can, but let's say his a 80s Rock kinda guy and not really Musical or ABBA friendly, but I still can't get my eyes off of him. The guy is 55 and in marvelous shape and handsome as hell. His whole back is delicious and a really nice chest too, although I think he dyed his chest hair. I always like Colin Firth as well, but the ladies, Julie Walters and Christine Baranski pretty much stole the show. Dominic Cooper who plays the young fiancee has a pretty nice body too although he's a bit too young and I'm not into chickens. One thing that NeighborBear had advised me to do is too stay behind after they rolled the credit because they have a new trend of saving additional footage until all the credit has rolled. They did that with X-Men 3, Iron Man and Wanted and I've been kicking myself for missing some footage. For this movie, there are two song-and-dances at the end that accompanied the credits and they were really exciting and hilarious.

Although I didn't get my global chant karaoke moments and Pierce Brosnan's singing IS a bit awkward, I still had a mighty good time. The songs are very infectious and the cast charming. For some reason I thought the song Fernando was in it but it wasn't. Still, it's a solid B+

"Don't go wasting your emotion, lay all your love on me..."


*** Addendum ***

Apparently not everyone liked it as much, read what Victor and Kyle have to say.