Review of Mamma Mia! (2008) by Johnny T — 29 May 2018

It's a delightful piece of filmmaking with a marvelous cast topped by Meryl Streep in one of her smartest and most entertaining performances ever. Likable, serviceable, and eminently danceable. The chorus backs the soloists powerfully, and they are as fresh as the rest of the film: fat and fit, homely and handsome, young gods and old codgers - in short, people you might really see in Greece. Reality in a musical? That alone makes it worth your open-eared attention. It makes bursting spontaneously into song seem like a perfectly reasonable--indeed, highly desirable--thing to do, and it leaves the audience wanting to do the same. I see a big uptick in late-summer karaoke parties. An exuberant if not always brilliantly crafted adaptation of the campy ABBA musical.

VERDICT: "Full Price" - My second highest rating (Positive to Mixed reaction). This is a rating to a movie I view as very entertaining and well made, and definitely worth paying the full price at a theatre to see or own on DVD. It is not perfect, but it is definitely excellent.