Bill Karlsson Mamma Mia Here We Go Again
Mamma Mia! Here We Become Again (2018)
114 min., rated PG-thirteen.
A big-screen adaptation of Broadway jukebox musical smash, 2008's "Mamma Mia!" didn't make the smoothest transition from stage to screen, but its committed cast and their karaoke-similar song stylings of instantly hummable songs by Swedish pop group ABBA gave it a scrappy, charmingly goofy exuberance. Released exactly a decade ago, that airy, toe-borer, eager-to-delight distraction earned a office-sequel, function-prequel, "Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again!" Information technology'due south just as frothy and sometimes downright irresistible, eagerly wanting to give you a good time, fifty-fifty if the wispy connective tissue in between the jukebox musical numbers is a flashback-ridden rehash and even flimsier than it was before. "Mamma Mia! Here We Go Once again!" is every bit unnecessary equally sequels get, but there are marked improvements over the first film, beingness easier on the eyes and the ears. Likewise, how tin can yous resist this?
The costless-spirited, overall-rocking Donna Sheridan (Meryl Streep) might have died a year ago, only on the Greek isle of Kalokairi, daughter Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) is preparing to re-open her mother's inn, now calling it the Hotel Bella Donna in her honor. Sophie has enough on her plate, only she and husband Sky (Dominic Cooper) have hitting a rough patch, with him being in New York and contemplating taking a hotel managing position. When Donna'due south closest friends and old musical Dynamos, Tanya (Christine Baranski) and Rosie (Julie Walters), make it to the island to support Sophie, they reminisce dorsum to when Donna was an Oxford University graduate in 1979. In flashbacks, Donna (Lily James) sets out on a spontaneous adventure, which takes her to Paris, where she meets British virgin Harry (Hugh Skinner), and then Greece, where she meets Swedish sailor Bill (Josh Dylan) and Irish-American architect Sam (Jeremy Irvine). Back in the nowadays, Sophie's one father, Sam (Pierce Brosnan), is already on the island, helping her with the g opening, while her other fathers, Harry (Colin Firth) and Bill (Stellan Skarsgård), are on their way because they wouldn't miss information technology for the earth.
Simply hearing a collection of ABBA songs and surrendering to their free energy is the "name of the game," simply because "Mamma Mia!" already covered the Swedes' catchiest and most recognizable hits, that leaves "Mamma Mia! Here We Get Again" to run through a lot of 2d-tier, B-side tracks. There are piece of cake standouts, like immature Donna breaking out into the lively "When I Kissed the Teacher" with her two pals on the graduation stage and "Angeleyes," as older Tanya and Rosie lead Sophie in the number in the hotel courtyard. While some of the deep-cut covers ("Ane of U.s.a." and "Why Did It Have To Be Me?") are simply passable and sometimes even insipid, the placement of the songs don't feel every bit shoehorned into the narrative as some did in the outset film and serve more than of a purpose to the context of the story. "Waterloo," performed in a Napoleon-themed French eating house past young Harry and Donna, is a large delight, and it'due south no surprise that the most infectious earworms are reprises of the championship song, this time with Donna performing on a rinky-dink phase at a Greek tavern with her Dynamos, and "Dancing Queen," an unabashedly crowd-pleasing sing-along and dance party down to the dock to greet some incoming ships. Taking over for theater manager Phyllida Lloyd from the first moving picture, author-director Ol Parker (2006'due south "Imagine Me & Yous") brings more flair to the musical numbers, relying less on actors hyperactively mugging in front of the camera and awkwardly singing and dancing in front of the camera, cutting only when necessary and having a more than polished sense of blocking, choreography, and placement of the camera. There are also several rather clever transitions from scene to scene, seamlessly bouncing back and forth in time from 1979 to present-day 2005.
The core bandage goes at it again, having the time of their lives. Amanda Seyfried is lovely and radiant as ever every bit Sophie, though she struggles to keep her flailing relationship with Dominic Cooper'southward Sky emotionally involving. Christine Baranski and Julie Walters are such pros and get to a hoot again every bit Donna's gal pals, especially when they set their eyes on the handsome hotel managing director (Andy Garcia). Thankfully for us, Pierce Brosnan doesn't get to embarrass himself this time, even if he does go a light retry of "S.O.South." when remembering the late Donna, while Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgård are still game. The cast has been expanded, making room for the younger counterparts in the extended flashbacks. Lily James is a winsome ray of sunshine with a spring in her step, diving right into playing a younger Donna and, in a way, a younger Meryl Streep; moreover, she can actually carry a tune. Of the other newbies to the cast, Jessica Keenan Wynn (in her feature movie debut) lends the most spark, a expressionless ringer for Christine Baranski as the man-loving Tanya. Hugh Skinner, Josh Dylan, and Jeremy Irvine equally the younger counterparts to Firth, Skarsgård, and Brosnan are handsome and mimic surface-level mannerisms but brand little impression. Though the marketing materials make it seem like Meryl Streep gets more screen fourth dimension than she actually does, when Streep does return, if very briefly, to sing "My Love, My Life," it is a poignant tribute to Donna. If one can set aside the mathematical fact that the musical diva is only three years older than Meryl Streep, Cher makes an 11th-60 minutes entrance as Sophie'south estranged grandmother Cherry and delivers her serenade "Fernando" with show-stopping gusto, complete with fireworks.
Both "Mamma Mia!" and "Mamma Mia! Here We Go Over again" exist somewhere betwixt fun and campy, but they both play out similar painless two-hour vacations from the real world, and that'due south a very practiced matter. It'southward not a deal-breaker that the low-stakes narrative is as light equally a Galatopita custard tart because the buoyant vocal-and-dance performances make the picture click more than than not. Equally most musicals end with a big final number, "Mamma Mia! Here We Get Again" culminates in the final credits with the ensemble's mantle telephone call, all of them performing "Super Trouper" in glittery ABBA-inspired outfits, and information technology's a joyous high annotation to go out on. For a decade-later sequel that's mainly an excuse to see actors having a good fourth dimension warbling, information technology's impossible not to smile and gyrate forth with them. "Mamma Mia! Here We Go Once again" is more than of a sunny, likable escapism than a movie musical all-timer, all the same, sometimes, complimentary-wheeling enthusiasm is all yous really need.
Grade: B -
Source: https://kibsreviews.blogspot.com/2018/07/my-big-fat-abba-sequel-mamma-mia-here.html
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