Mamma Mia! Reviews

Meryl Streep? Colin Firth? Pierce Brosman? Sounds like a decent cast! And 'Mamma Mia' was a pretty successful musical (haven't seen it though) so this sounds like a good movie! WRONG!!! It's just awful! It was worse than I expected!

Mamma Mia! This is bad! It seems to be badly written (certainly as a film anyway), some of the timings are pretty poor, most of the actors can't sing and Pierce Brosnan is completely annoying! This is even worse than 'Grease 2', which says a lot!

One of the most stupidest movies I have ever seen. It had nothing it was just stupid. I'm not a huge fan of ABBA or anything but this movie is just irritating. It also didn't help with the cast, Meryl Streep who I find highly overrated, her acting abilities and her movies, so it's really no wonder I disliked this movie. Cheesy acting, bad music and endless mawkish scenes that get so ugly and cringe worthy, you just want to hang yourself. I watched this in the cinema, and was well into my popcorn, I lost interest as soon as this started.

I have a somewhat difficult relationship with this flick. A few years back, me and my wife went to see the musical on stage. My wife had been several times to see other musicals (I can't remember which one but whatever...) and she really loved it. Furthermore, she is a huge fan of ABBA, personally, I don't hate their music but it is definitely not my cup of tea. Still, even though it was my first musical, I actually really enjoyed the show. The songs were catchy, the story was rather shallow but it fit the songs pretty well, I liked the performances and the whole thing was rather funny. So, naturally, we had to watch this movie adaptation. Honestly, it wasn't as good as the show as it had lost some its energy and feeling. Still, Meryl Streep can do no wrong with me, and I thought that Colin Firth, Pierce Brosnan and Stellan Skarsgård were all pretty good. Still, while the show was really entertaining, I couldn't help feeling that the whole thing was rather boring. To conclude, if you don't hate musicals and if you don't hate ABBA, and you are looking for some (very) light entertainment, it is actually worth a look, especially if you love those things I mentioned before, otherwise you'd better pass on this one.

I guess someone forgot that musicals are supposed to be entertaining.

In the summer of 2005, I was in New York for a few days with my family and was fortunate enough to see Mamma Mia! the musical. It's actually the only Broadway musical I've ever seen (not because they don't interest me, but because the opportunity doesn't exactly come along too frequently). It was incredibly fun - the mixture of ABBA's contagious songs and the energetic cast made for an extremely worthwhile experience. I figured it was inevitable that a movie would be made about it. I also thought it was inevitable that a film adaptation of the musical would at least come close to being as enjoyable as the actual musical, because, I mean, come on, you can't go wrong with those awesome ABBA songs and a beautiful Greek island as your setting. Well, apparently, you can.

This film is an insult to the musical it is based on and to the tunes of ABBA. It is one of the worst musicals I've seen in a very long time. There isn't a single musical number with any pizzazz or energy to speak of, the dance sequences are entirely lame, and the placement of songs in particular moments is often completely wrong not only in terms of plot coherence, but also in terms of the failure to build up to having the better songs at the end. "Dancing Queen" is a wonderful song with all the potential in the world to make for a great musical number, and it's hard to even begin to describe the mediocrity with which it is handled here. The RT consensus has this just right: you definitely won't feel like "you can dance." And that's a big shame.

The charisma of Amanda Seyfried and Meryl Streep as lead characters Sophie and Donna does very little to keep this from being utterly bad, especially because they are stuck with a severely poor supporting cast. One very significant comparative note I have to make is that, in the stage musical, Donna's friends Rosie and Tanya were extremely awesome and funny characters and the actresses playing them were hugely cheered for at the end; in the film, these characters are massacred by Julie Walters and Christine Baranski, bringing no humor whatsoever to the proceedings, and with the former in particular being severely annoying. The three actors playing the men who are the possible candidates for being Sophie's father (Colin Firth, Pierce Brosnan and Stellan Skarsgard) are not only equally as bad, but give what I can describe as nothing other than terrible singing performances.

Since the film covers all 12 ABBA tracks, it doesn't have much time for plot development, which should be fine, as long as the half hour or so of plot development is handled skillfully, which is far from the case in this film. The only scene that rings true in terms of dramatic effect is the sort-of turning point conversation between Sophie and her fiance Sky (Dominic Cooper) when they each discover that they'd both probably prefer to just travel instead of getting married, seeing as they're so young. But the scene is too short to have much of a positive impact. I mentioned that Seyfried and Streep's charisma is helpful in keeping this from being a painful experience, but their work is absolutely nothing special, and the moment in which I felt most strongly about this is when Sophie asks her mother if she will give her away at the wedding. When watching the stage musical, this was a hugely emotional moment felt by the entire audience and it seemed to bring about a sense that we were nearing the climax of this incredibly fun and satisfying story. However, in the film, it is rushed, awkward and completely unconvincing.

To make matters even worse, the cinematographers here take absolutely NO advantage of the scenery of the Greek island. Sure, it's fine that the movie doesn't have enough time for plot development, but it's NOT fine that it can't provide great vistas as the background to these musical numbers. Considering the cheerfulness of ABBA's songs, it would fit perfectly, yet it's not employed here at all. The camera focus is often completely off, and the outdoor scenes are illuminated by sunlight that couldn't look more fake, so the attempt to have brightness add spice to the proceedings falls totally flat.

As far as purely fun musicals are concerned, last year's Hairspray is a very good example of above-average fare, largely because it featured a final musical number that will get even the most boring and dry person to want to get up and dance. Mamma Mia! is, well, waaaaay below the average. The rolling, fiery ball of energy that the makers of Hairspray created during the film's final sequence with "You Can't Stop The Beat" is something that the makers of Mamma Mia! don't even come close to doing with ANY of the musical numbers, which is a travesty, considering how good most of ABBA's songs are. They say that the only way you'll like this movie is if you actually like their songs; well, I like their songs, and I detested this film, so while that theory should be right, it doesn't seem like it is. This is just wasted potential.

When I first heard about it I thought to myself, "I am not gonna bother with this because I will probably hate it because the 2007 summer musical blockbuster Hairspray remake was awful". Then one day I changed my mind because it has a good cast especially Meryl Streep. When I did see Mamma Mia, I thought it was one of the best musicals I have ever seen. It was a really delightful story that really attracted fans and almost everyone on Earth. This is one of those musicals that is funny, romantic and dramatic that you could watch over and over again. That is something that I could do. I was blown away by how much of a success Mamma Mia turned out to be even though it already was a stage musical. This is like Best Picture Oscar winner compared to Hairspray. What I truly loved about Mamma Mia was that it had a lot of adult humour and a lot of kid humour which makes an almost perfect family film.


At first I was unsure about Meryl Streep being in a film like this because she is clearly the greatest actress of all time even better than the ones who are now deceased and she has never been in a musical before. I was unsure about her singing aswell. Meryl Streep delivers one of her best performances to date. I underestimated her at first because of the singing and the genre but her singing surprised me a lot and she greatly succeeded. She is probably the perfect choice for Donna. Aside from her singing, her acting was very good. Meryl looked really young for her age in Mamma Mia. She looks 40 in the film but Streep is really in her late 50s/early 60s. Two of Meryl Streep's films that have been released this year have given her two of her best performances and also two Golden Globe nominations. Why Pierce Brosnan was actually in this film I have no idea at all. There are many reasons why he was totally miscast for this film: 1. He was a James Bond actor (Former Bond actor in a musical don't exactly match), 2. Awful singer, 3. Bad acting and 4. Didnt make character very believable. Amanda Seyfried was an excellent choice for Sophie because she had every part of Sophie's personality: sweet, beautiful, sexy, hot and charming and also she looks a bit like Meryl Streep. It is weird because plot is about a girl trying to discover who her father is out of the three men she invites to her wedding but the film focuses more on Donna. Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård, Julie Walters and Christine Baranski were all hilarious as well.


It was directed far better than I was expecting. The director didn't make it too rude for kids and she didn't make it too childish either. When comparing 2008's summer blockbuster Mamma Mia and 2007's summer blockbuster Hairspray, Mamma Mia has a storyline with strong characters. There were a lot of songs but they didn't go on for too long and they actually were part of the story. During some of the songs, I think that some were in the character's imagination just like it was in Chicago.


This is the best musical of 2008, it is one of my top Meryl Streep films and one of my top films of 2008. It is one of my favourite musicals but I love Sweeney Todd, Grease, Singin' In The Rain, The Sound Of Music, My Fair Lady and The Wizard Of Oz more. Mamma Mia is a masterpiece that I'm sure everyone will at least like.

Loved and i cant fault it what so ever !! i sung and i danced and watched it 10 times in cinemas alone even morwe than that even wow what a joy its like a drug once uve seen it ur addicted ! it was about a girl called Sophie shes getting msarried to a guy called sky and she dosnt no who her father is! but she finds her mums diary that she kept the year she was pregnant with sophie and finds out she could have 3 posible dads ! so she finds there addresses and sends them an invite to her weddi ng pretending shes donna donna is her mum and she is in a group called donna and the dynamos sophies possible dads accept her invite and are on her way but donna is unaware of her daughters behaviour ! its fun and loveable movie and has the classic abba hits inside much watch movie !

If I could give this film a negative rating, I would. It was worse than bad, it was so bad it made me redefine what I thought 'badness' to be. Mama Mia made me experience the following symptoms:

Nausea
Headache
Fever
Stomach cramps

These real and in no way fabricated symptoms were a result of constant squinting and desperately embarrassed looks away from the tele, my stomach muscles contracted every time a song was introduced into the plot, as seamlessly as Frankenstein's stitching. The fever was a result of my attempts not to scream at the television every time a desperately under-sexed, middle-aged, ropey-looking hippy woman cackled and fell back on a sofa...scenes of such make up 90% if this excuse for a film. I am not lying when I say this film bought about all the symptoms of SARS, except there was no chance of the kind release of death.

I am an ABBA fan, I came out as one a long time ago, I love their songs and I know they're cheesy and tongue in cheek. I approached this film with the same openminded, 'tongue-in-cheekery'...but it cannot be consumed this way. Were it a brit flick, maybe, but it floats somewhere between hollywood blockbuster and cheeky low budget British film, which I found unsettling and awkward to say the least. The whole film was shot disastrously, even the grain seemed to switch, lighting and cinematography were totally erratic, it looked liked it was knocked up by some woefully under qualified, 17 year old film student in his garage with his mate who took a break from writing Brokeback mountain fan fiction, to help with the project.

In some of the songs, the characters seem to go fairly easily from speech to music, but in others they seem to recognise how ridiculous the premise of this movie is, by acknowledging the awkwardness of the links. Moments such as the entry into 'Chica Tita' are acted with asides, almost like soliloquies, which are all very well in theatre but a redundant concept in film where there is no audience to respond. Another moment that left me biting my pillow in embarrassment.

The lead role played by Meryl Streep is supposed to be a single, ageing woman who seems to be recovering from a youth in which she slept with everything that moves. Her obvious slutty past has led her to bring up a reckless and unlikeable daughter who has decided to get married at 20 years old. Amanda Seyfried, who plays daughter Sophie, cannot act, as a result there is not an ounce of sincerity in what she says, she seems vapid and fake. The fundamental problem with this film is the fact that the main characters are so unlikeable, also add the shoddiness of the whole thing and the fact that half of them couldn't actually sing....its just diabolical.

I know I am against the whole world with this review, and my ovaries are begging for me to like Mamma Mia; but I cannot, just cannot fathom how such a premise ever got off the ground, a paper thin narrative around some ABBA songs. Its the same as watching a bunch of old women on a young relatives hen do, trying to prove they still have it by joining in the Karaoke. I barely got through the whole thing without resolving to self harm.

I laughted a lot and loved the good energy of the movie. You feel it. And the scenery is just FANTASTIC at my point of view specialy because I truly love Greece.

Though some things were weird, like when the girl's mother is dancing with her two crazy friends and then SUDDENLY they disappear. And appear again from nowhere. But even that was funny.

Great movie. I really love the energy.