Spiceworld The Movie - Region 2 DVD

Made at the height of the Spice Girls’ fame, Spiceworld’s paper-thin plot finds the girls moving between a series of light excuses for a song, before arriving at the obligatory big concert at the end. It’s brainless stuff, of course, but the wise move here was to bring in a variety of names to help give the film a little more credence. Richard E Grant, for instance, works well as the band’s manager, and while you’d hardly say it’s the best film on the CVs of Roger Moore, Richard Briers or Alan Cumming, their presence does Spiceworld no harm.

It’s the five Spice Girls, of course, whose raw enthusiasm (as it was back then) powers Spiceworld though, with a surprising number of laughs, and enough moments to enjoy. And while the band may bear little relation to their older selves now attempting to relight the success they enjoyed, for the Spice Girls, Spiceworld proved to be a successful project, and one worth giving another spin. It was never an Oscar winner, but it can still raise a smile. --Jon Foster