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Post by d'James on Aug 3, 2018 18:54:28 GMT
Im very glad they didn’t do Dancing Queen AGAIN. This version of Super Trouper is really great (not perfect unfortunately) and is one to get the party going more than the original. The original is perfect but not as much of a party song for me.
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Post by Jon on Aug 3, 2018 21:45:41 GMT
Just read an interesting interview on Digital Spy today. Apparently the addition of Super Trouper was a late addition to the film according to Judy Craymer. Without a finale song, and the costume designers told to create something without knowing what song would be used, the original plan was a redo of Dancing Queen but this was rejected by Benny and Bjorn so ST was plan B. Though the question I want an answer to is why not use The Day Before You Came. A great version on the movie soundtrack so hopefully something might turn up on the dvd extras when the film gets its dvd release. I guess they wanted to send the audience out on a happy note after the somber My Love, My Life.
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Post by sf on Aug 4, 2018 1:36:24 GMT
Though the question I want an answer to is why not use The Day Before You Came. A great version on the movie soundtrack so hopefully something might turn up on the dvd extras when the film gets its dvd release. Because they wanted to send the audience out on something upbeat, and the (wonderful) slowed-down version of 'The Day Before You Came' on the soundtrack album makes Bergman's 'The Seventh Seal' look like a Police Academy film? Having said that, instead of 'Super Trouper', which is in the first film, I might have gone for 'Summer Night City' as the big finale.
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Post by basdfg on Aug 4, 2018 23:17:58 GMT
I do think they would have gotten away with the timeline if they'd simply said 25 years ago rather than 1979 Or 30- so that everyone aged realistically.
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Post by anthony40 on Aug 5, 2018 7:18:46 GMT
Or they could have just performed some sort of upbeat musical montage of all other songs not used in either film.
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Post by missbabs on Aug 5, 2018 11:27:08 GMT
I think that I enjoyed this even more the second time around. It might have helped that the audience was ever so slightly tipsy, laughing and sniffling in all the right places.
I don't think that I have ever been in a screening when the audience applauded at the end but they did both times that I have seen MM2 and all the times that I saw the original film. They have an incredible effect on people.
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Post by poster J on Aug 5, 2018 14:24:01 GMT
I had a cinema screen all to myself for viewing number 3 today - it was bliss and I may have allowed myself to sing along a bit...this film just fills me with joy (but at least I don't have to report myself to the bad behaviour thread as there was no one else there to be bothered by it!)
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Post by anthony40 on Aug 5, 2018 15:17:39 GMT
I had a cinema screen all to myself for viewing number 3 today - it was bliss and I may have allowed myself to sing along a bit...this film just fills me with joy (but at least I don't have to report myself to the bad behaviour thread as there was no one else there to be bothered by it!) Quick question. Did you sing loudly?
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Post by itsemily on Aug 5, 2018 16:17:13 GMT
Just been to see this and really enjoyed it, the first film is one of my favourite films ever so this film had a lot to live up to. Really loved the cast of the young dynamos, Jessica Keenan Wynn is fabulous as Young Tanya, she really could have been a younger version of Christine Baranski. Really enjoyed the more obscure Abba songs that I was less familiar with as well as the songs they had reused from the previous film, Super Trooper was a particular highlight for me! Can't wait to see it again and I am about to pre-order the DVD!
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Post by poster J on Aug 5, 2018 16:19:48 GMT
I had a cinema screen all to myself for viewing number 3 today - it was bliss and I may have allowed myself to sing along a bit...this film just fills me with joy (but at least I don't have to report myself to the bad behaviour thread as there was no one else there to be bothered by it!) Quick question. Did you sing loudly? No, just the odd line under my breath! I actually like listening to the younger cast, Amanda Seyfried, Christine Baranski and Cher sing!
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Post by anthony40 on Aug 5, 2018 16:21:01 GMT
Quick question. Did you sing loudly? No, just the odd line under my breath! I actually like listening to the younger cast, Amanda Seyfried, Christine Baranski and Cher sing! Oh. Because if you had sung out loudly, I was gonna say well done!
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Post by poster J on Aug 5, 2018 16:23:00 GMT
No, just the odd line under my breath! I actually like listening to the younger cast, Amanda Seyfried, Christine Baranski and Cher sing! Oh. Because if you had sung out loudly, I was gonna say well done! Nah, I'll leave that for my living room when the DVD comes out - waste of the good sound in the cinema to have to listen to myself singing rather than the cast!
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Post by talkstageytome on Aug 14, 2018 22:58:13 GMT
Finally saw this tonight.
Took a while for me to fully get into it, but I loved it. I laughed, I cried... I pretty much grinned through half of it actually!
I think for me the flashbacks were my favourite bits, and I kind of wished the whole film was in flashbacks. The younger counterparts were great (oh and me and young Bill are eloping.... thought you all ought to know).
All in all, fabulous. I can't wait to see it again! 💕
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Post by Deleted on Aug 15, 2018 6:07:49 GMT
I saw this last week and really liked it, much more than the first film. I went in completely spoiler free, so I had no idea what was going to happen. Let’s just say I cried within the first 25 minutes, and again at the christening scene near the end.
I knew Cher would appear, but I didn’t know how or when. We got to Dancing Queen and I realised she hadn’t appeared yet, so when I saw the high heel step out of the helicopter, I thought it would just be “Cher” visiting Kalokari and not a character.
A few instances of bad behaviour to report. 2 old grannies in the back row constantly singing, laughing, clapping, crying and pointing very loudly. a mum and daughter behind me where the Mum had to explain what was happening every 5 minutes, and in front of me, there was a man in a VIP seat (he probably didn’t pay the extra £3. Nobody ever does) who took off his shoes and put his gross feet up on the seat in front of him.
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Post by 49thand8th on Aug 30, 2018 17:50:32 GMT
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Post by david on Aug 30, 2018 17:56:11 GMT
Thanks for posting this. I’ve just signed up for the ticket alert.
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Post by poster J on Aug 30, 2018 20:26:44 GMT
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Post by anthony40 on Aug 30, 2018 20:28:00 GMT
Yay!
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Post by danb on Aug 30, 2018 20:37:23 GMT
I’m doing charity work in Rwanda that night...soz x
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Post by Dr Tom on Aug 31, 2018 9:24:46 GMT
Thanks. I walked past the venue for that in Stockholm recently and meant to check what it was. There were a lot of security around if I remember. I imagine it gets quite rowdy. No real desire to attend, but it sounds perfect for the O2.
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Post by katykate on Sept 2, 2018 7:26:14 GMT
Saw this last night after loving the first film. I don’t think the smile left my face the whole time! Pure escapism! Loved the cast - young Bill is to die for! Highlights were Lily James’ voice and portrayal of young Donna and loved how endearing Amanda plays Sophie as in the first film. Will definitely be watching again next time I need a bit of unapologetic cheese!
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Post by Nicholas on Sept 9, 2018 11:21:44 GMT
Well. When they announced the sequel, I was worried it would be some naff reunion, the old guard back with no new faces. Then Cher joined the cast. That’s a new face.
I was surprised at just what an emotional kick I got just seconds into the film, with Amanda Seyfried’s older (Hollywood older) Sophie back in her hotel on her island. I’m not a huge fan of the original which I’ve only properly watched as a cinematic piece of art once and have big problems with; I do admire it for Phyllida Lloyd’s gender politics, mind. However, since then, how many times have I seen clips, how many parodies have I watched, how often have I listened to the soundtrack, how many parties with the soundtrack have I been to? It’s become a feelgood classic, Pierce Brosnan’s singing has become a ubiquitous joke (albeit a well-spirited one), and that film’s naffness a touchstone. If it’s on TV, however far in, channel flipping, that’s my evening. We’ve since had Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan and theatrical genius David Bowie dabble in the genre, not to mention the Citizen Kane of jukebox musicals Sunshine on Leith, but when you say ‘jukebox musical’ people think of Mamma Mia, and when people think of Mamma Mia they smile. Over the last ten years, Mamma Mia has become no better a movie, but it’s become much, much bigger than a movie.
Here We Go Again is, too, much bigger than a movie – but it’s actually a bloody good movie too.
The genius of Mamma Mia is that it’s a Phyllida Lloyd joint and does to Hen Night entertainment what Lloyd did to Shakespeare. Yes, it’s just silly celeb karaoke, but to quote Skarsgård: “Colin Firth, Pierce Brosnan and I were the bimbos. We weren’t expected to have an interior life, we were just to come in and be a little sexy and a little silly. So making Mamma Mia!, I understood how actresses normally feel.” As escapism goes, Abba karaoke’s great, but having James Bond, Mr Darcy and the Max von Sydow of his generation all still in love with, and sexually attracted to, a sexagenarian, and making (and showing) arses of themselves – there’s something subversive (for Hollywood) in there (Lloyd, of course, has form in reframing well-worn narratives to refocus on the female). The problem is, nothing’s at stake, it’s too happy-clappy, it’s objectively sh*te. “Slipping Through My Fingers” aside, by trying too hard to make sure you’re always grinning, it grates. Here We Go Again leaps over that first film’s great problem – there’s everything at stake here. In both new timelines, there’s greater love, more painful loss, and that ending that is just, completely, beautiful. And, where Mamma Mia was a hen night directed by a stage Shakespearean, Here We Go Again is written by a rom-com maestro and directed by a cinema man – on screen it’s a proper movie with more fanciful choreography and camera work, and in the script, characters now get bigger, better backstories that pack, oh my god, so many emotional punches. Both Mamma Mia and Here We Go Again are karaoke parties and boy do I love karaoke parties, but Mamma Mia sacrificed stakes for slush, whilst Here We Go Again was unafraid to give pause for sadness, sentiment, sacrifice and, even, reality. It also uses “The Name of the Game” which is currently my fave Abba song. In my (un-air-conditioned) sold-out cinema, you could tell everyone was HUGELY enjoying it (no singing along, but sporadic applause for songs and some for Cher and LOTS at the end), but the silence between songs was the silence of people fully focused and fully invested. I think this film satisfies its target audience’s need to laugh AT what’s on screen (helloooo Colin Firth stop pretending you’re not enjoying every second), but because Curtis and co don’t mind letting heartbreak be heartbreak and loss be loss, this will stay with me a lot longer than the original did – we can both end on a megamix and end on a note of loss and closure and hope and Meryl and oh bugger it I’m crying again
But as I say, Mamma Mia is more than a movie – it’s a party to which everyone (EVERYONE – old, young, shy, outgoing, gay, straight, disabled, racially diverse, any body type – EVERYONE) is invited. And so is Mamma Mia: Here WE Go Again (to which, again, EVERYONE is invited). When we return to Sophie, to Sam, to young Donna, and very, very crucially NOT to Meryl, it’s perhaps like seeing how tall Dan and Rupert and Emma had gotten since the last film, or even more pertinently, recreating that romantic pang of returning to Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. Where are they in their lives now, actually older as we all are? Sky and Sophie are together, having problems, but aw he still loves her! She’ll be a mother, exactly like her mother! Donna’s friends are still Sophie’s friends! Harry and Bill and Sam have become true fathers! Sophie’s grandmother’s forgiven her and found love and yeah this subplot would be ridiculously underdeveloped and makes no sense but oh my god it’s Cher! Sam’s doing “SOS” again badly, but so iconic-ly bad is the original (“When you’re gone” “WEN YAW GUN”) that it’s strangely Proustian hearing that tune in that voice, memories cascade… For all the praise rightly heaped on Lily James, and religiously heaped upon Cher, I think Seyfried is the film’s emotional centre by dealing with Sophie’s loss and adulthood with poise and realism, and Seyfried navigates that with a sudden sense of adulthood that first film didn’t need, but which Sophie now does and oh bugger it I’m crying again
Don’t get me wrong – it’s objectively sh*te. Sometimes we zoom from one hit to another hit after three lines of dialogue not because emotion demands it, but the soundtrack does. The three young fathers are totally underdeveloped except maybe Bill but he’s the eye candy; Donna’s also somewhat underdeveloped by her ‘world trip’ being “Oxford, Paris, sex, Greece, sex, wanderlust satiated” (this problem could have solved by making the film five minutes longer with years of Donna’s travelling life a montage under this). The visual style of “Waterloo” is from an entirely different movie, this was the only song I didn’t like. Like all jukebox musicals there’s awful clunkiness in introducing specific pre-existing emotional beats (though given the film embraced it, I wish they’d referred to Andy Garcia as Fernando throughout, just to string us along until…). And to be wholly detached, some killjoy can try and logically explain the timelines. But here’s the thing. Like a hen night at a Nandos, Mamma Mia was objectively sh*te, but once you get into the party spirit who cares – and if you didn’t get into the party spirit (as Lloyd’s stagey production values made it occasionally hard to do) it was two hours of Abba Karaoke and where’s the fun in that oh wait that is my ideal Friday night. But whilst Here We Go Again was absolutely the party of the year (“Dancing Queen” with Colin Firth doing Titanic! Cher does “Fernando”!), compare the (equally jubilant) hotel party scene in Part I with Part II: Donna singing with the Dynamos got the party started, by being wish fulfilment and defying ageist Hollywood but just being a laugh really, whilst Sophie singing with the Dynamos (two of whom are still defying ageist Hollywood) got the party started, but by touching upon a deep emotional nerve ten years in the making it said something very sweet and surprisingly profound about family and loss and dreams and oh bugger it I’m crying again
Why see Mamma Mia 2 when I say I didn’t like Mamma Mia? Because I don’t like Mamma Mia as a film that much, but it’s become more than a film, a strangely iconic point in the sand – like the Harry Potter saga or the Pixar films, it’s a topic of conversation or a party theme or a way of life – and I love the legacy it’s left. And now Mamma Mia 2 is like Harry Potter 8 or Toy Story 3 – our inexplicable sentimentality returned to, aged and matured, paid off, chapter closed. My main issue with Mamma Mia was that its naffness felt over-egged and the lack of stakes too careful – but boy it is fun. Mamma Mia 2 is fun fun FUN, but more than that, it made me laugh and opened my heart and oh bugger it I’m crying again
P.S.
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Post by danb on Jun 6, 2021 21:11:58 GMT
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again...SO much better than the first film, genuine emotion and much better songs. So pleased I just caught the end of it.
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Post by craig on Jun 8, 2021 11:24:34 GMT
Both films are great fun but the second is undoubtedly better. The snobbery around the films actually makes me like them more. Imagine taking yourself so seriously.
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Post by Seriously on Jun 8, 2021 13:45:29 GMT
Imagine taking yourself so seriously. Say waaaa?
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Post by craig on Jun 8, 2021 14:02:20 GMT
Imagine taking yourself so seriously. Say waaaa?
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Post by danb on Nov 13, 2021 16:23:55 GMT
I noticed in the ‘Heathers’ programme that Liam Doyle took part in a workshop for Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again. Does this mean we can expect to see it some time soon.
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Post by c4ndyc4ne on Nov 13, 2021 17:01:28 GMT
Was it the workshop for the second movie? Stage performers sometimes do that for films before they get green-lit (like Jeremy Jordan and The Greatest Showman).
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Post by anthony40 on Nov 13, 2021 19:12:45 GMT
Given the success of the latest album it would be foolish (would it not) to include of the newer songs in the latest film when its made?
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Post by anthony on Nov 14, 2021 1:44:46 GMT
Given the success of the latest album it would be foolish (would it not) to include of the newer songs in the latest film when its made? Pretty sure Cramer confirmed this would be the case mere months after the release of the 2nd movie. I'm assuming she hadn't heard the songs at that point, so I wonder how development may have changed as a result...
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