Mamma Mia!: The Movie – Blu-ray Review

By Frankie Dees Dec 15, 2008, 11:29 GMT

Join the music, laughter and fun of the irresistibly charming "Mamma Mia! The Movie". Academy Award(R)-winner Meryl Streep leads an all-star cast, including Pierce Brosnan and Stellan Skarsgard - as well as up-and-comers Amanda Seyfried and Dominic Cooper in this musical celebration of mothers, daughters and fathers, true love\'s lost and new one\'s found. Based on the Broadway smash-hit and filled with ABBA Songs you know and love, it\'s the ...more

A mind-bogglingly huge worldwide hit this past summer, Universal's 'Mamma Mia!' grossed almost 600 million worldwide and is one of the most successful musical adaptations of recent memory. With the film’s release to Blu-ray, fans now get all the exuberance of the 'ABBA'-centered musical at home in the glory of high-def!

First off, let me start by saying that I don't mind ABBA - I don't go out of my way to listen to the pop Swede sensation of the 70s but the beats of 'Dancing Queen' and 'SOS' do have a guilty toe-tapping charm and I can certainly understand why they've developed such ardent fans. 

With the over-the-top beats of 'ABBA', it was only a matter of time before a musical extravaganza was built around the inherently stage-friendly concoctions. The result was 'Mamma Mia!' obviously taken from the '75 ABBA song of the same name and it popularized the 'jukebox musical' genre. After its London premiere in 1999, the musical was a phenomenon all its own. 

So with all the commercial success of the film adaptation, it has got to be good, right? Well, I imagine I'll take some flack for this, but no. The film is ridiculous and fascinatingly incompetent despite the big-name cast and lavish budget. In fact, I'm not quite sure what constitutes as legal torture these days, but a second viewing of 'Mamma Mia!' certainly may fall under that definition for me - the Ludovico Technique springs to mind.

Let's disregard the joyousness of all the songs for a sec (admittedly the only real reason why anyone could respond to this film) and watch in horror at the worst dance choreography I've ever seen in a big-screen musical (and yes, that includes 'Can't Stop the Music') - if one could actually call the cavorting and seizure-like movements of the cast choreography.

I understand that Streep and Brosnan are busy people but one rehearsal session or singing lesson couldn't have killed 'em.

If ABBA's music wasn't driving this film, one could have easily seen ‘Mama Mia!’ disappear into the big-screen musical folly purgatory along with 'Xanadu' and 'The Apple'. To be fair, I imagine the film, stars, director and audience are all aware of the campiness of the whole affair, but I just couldn't get past the badness to enjoy the campiness. 

Oh, I haven't gotten to the story yet? Well, let's dive in. The opening scenes give us obvious set-bound postcard images of a small Greek island where insufferably cute Sophie Sheridan (Amanda Seyfried) is all set to marry insufferably cute Sky (Dominic Cooper) ... Sky?! This Greek island doesn't offer much but a quaint bed and breakfast run by her ex-hippie mother Donna (Meryl Streep).

Having never known who her father was, Sophie sends out invitations to three suspects - a sly traveler Bill (Stellan Skarsgard), wealthy investment banker Harry (Colin Firth) who is, well, Colin Firth and suave divorcee Sam (Pierce Brosnan) who is, well, Pierce Brosnan, but a Brosnan with a singing voice slightly akin to that damn cat in the alleyway who keeps me up all night with his caterwauling. 

Donna along with goofball old friends Rosie (Julie Walters) and Tanya (Christine Baranski) laugh and talk about memories past while making wedding preparations. Sophie plays musical dads trying to figure out who might be her real dad all the while trying to keep her intentions hidden from her mom who still holds a bit of bitterness for all three. 

This all emerges in the wedding sequence coup de grace where the show-stopping finale powers on tirelessly through the end credits. While I can't say I've had the pleasure of the stage version, I can imagine all that singing and dancing on stage was lively and a damn sight more conducted than this mess. With actual choreography and professional singers playing out in front of you, this could have been fun.

But both screenwriter Catherine Johnson and director Phyllida Lloyd make their big-screen debuts here (stage vets) and obviously have a rough time finding a similar rhythm on film with poorly lit, dubbed, and edited musical sequences. Whether this was due to a lack of cinematic tech knowledge or an attempt to work around actors not necessarily adept at singing and dancing is anyone's guess. 

At the end of the day, the 'Mamma Mia!' film is pretty much an extended promotional piece for 'ABBA' and not much else. I realize there are apparently millions of fans of the film out there, but for me the film held no emotional pull or drive. It was just a lot of catchy songs presented by a handful of name actors that have nary a natural moment between them. Streep at this point is beyond reproach, but even she flounders for me. 

Some good news comes in the very strong 1080p AVC transfer framed at 2.40:1. A lot of blue screen backdrops and bright contrast is used to give the film a stylized, fairy-tale look so there's a lot of lush blues and greens. Detail is strong and while the film has a distinctly fake look to it, that works for the high-def transfer. 

A DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track is provided and does a serviceable job with the many musical sequences but it doesn't quite have the clarity that you would expect to find. 

Tons of extras were provided which start off with an audio commentary by director Phyllida Lloyd. Affable and informative (they actually had extensive voice rehearsals?!), this is a fine listen for fans.

A half-hour 'Making of' presents the usual behind-the-scenes footage and interviews. 'Becoming a Singer' is a quick look at how ABBA's Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Anderson and music supervisor Martin Lowe guide the stars through some of the songs. 

'Anatomy of a Musical Number' details one number 'Lay All Your Love on Me'; 'A Look inside Mamma Mia' is a really quick three-minute look at the phenomenon of the musical - oddly short.

We get eight minutes of 'Deleted Scenes', mercifully cut and a music video for 'Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!' Oh, and there's a 'Sing-Along' version of the film that gives us subtitles for the songs.

We also get some Blu-ray exclusives, the highlight being the U-Control Picture-in-Picture track which provides pop up windows of interviews and behind-the-scenes material throughout the movie. Also U-Control is 'Behind the Hits' an informative pop-up graphic overlay that details info about the songs and albums.

Two cool BD-Live features that I imagine will become standard for Universal releases are 'My Chat' where you can watch the film simultaneously with other users and chat along with the pic. Cooler yet is 'My Movie Commentary' where you can record your own video commentary (webcam obviously required) which will play back like a PiP track. You can upload it to share with friends. You'll find my 'Mamma Mia!' video commentary online pretty soon but fair warning...I'm drunk, naked and doing the karaoke 'sing-along' version of the film. Just sayin'.

ABBA fanatics are gonna eat up this film no matter what, but what I found here was an incompetent film with stars doing bad karaoke versions of good songs. There is some entertainment value to be had with the songs and the tackiness of the whole shebang, but once that hangover wears off, you may find yourself looking over at that 'Mamma Mia!' DVD or Blu-ray on your pillow with a strong pang of regret.

The film itself would barely qualify for two stars but the Blu-ray package is quite impressive with great special features, very cool BD-Live exclusives and even a digital copy of the film for a limited time. My personal opinion on the film aside, you can't do much better than this BD for fans.

Mamma Mia!: The Movie is now available at Amazon. Visit the DVD database for more information.