Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter

Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter 2012

• Director: Timur Bekmambatov
• Based on novel by Seth Grahame-Smith
• Cast: Benjamin Walker, Dominic Cooper, Anthony Mackie, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Rufus Sewell, Joseph Mawle, Alan Tudyk
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Dominic Cooper – The Lady in the Van, Mamma Mia 1&2, Summer in February, Starter for 10, My Week with Marilyn, An Education
• Anthony Mackie – American Violet, Half Nelson, Million Dollar Baby, 8 Mile
• Mary Elizabeth Winstead – Scott Pilgrim vs the World, Factory Girl
• Rufus Sewell – The Tourist, A Knight’s Tale, Pillars of the Earth, The Holiday, Amazing Grace, Paris je t’aime, The Taming of the Shrew Re-told, Hamlet, Cold Comfort Farm, Middlemarch
• Joseph Mawle – Made in Dagenham, Merlin
• Alan Tudyk – Rogue One, A Knight’s Tale, Maze Runner the Scorch Trials, Serenity, Firefly, 28 Days
•  Why?  How can a history teacher resist this title?
• Seen:  28 July 2019

 As a boy Abe (Walker) witnesses the murder of his mother. He swears vengeance. It turns out the murderer was a vampire. As a young man Abe encounters the disgruntled vampire hunter Henry (Cooper) who reluctantly teaches Abe the necessary skills to hunt vampires and Abe becomes quite the expert.

He also becomes president and commander in chief of the union army during the Civil War. We even meet Harriet Tubman. There are vampires in the White House, vampires on the battlefield. The confederacy, and President Davis, are supported by vampires, who want their own nation. I won’t tell you how the Battle of Gettysburg is won by the Union soldiers.

In other words, history is just slightly rewritten here.

Walker and Winstead are completely wrong as Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln but Sewell, Mawle and Tudyk (disgracefully uncredited) add some class and there are moments of real pathos and real despair in this outlandish mishmash of a film. Furthermore, despite the excessive gore, it’s entertaining.

3½ * of 5

Full Frontal

Full Frontal 2002

• Director: Steven Soderbergh
• Based on the novel: no
• Cast: Julia Roberts, David Duchovny, Catherine Keener, David Hyde Pierce, Blair Underwood, Enrico Colantoni, and various cameos including Brad Pitt
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Julia Roberts – August Osage County, Closer, Mona Lisa Smile. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Erin Brockovich, Runaway Bride, Notting Hill, My Best Friend’s Wedding, Michael Collins, Mary Reilly, The Pelican Brief, Hook, Sleeping with the Enemy, Pretty Woman, Steel Magnolias, Mystic Pizza
• David Duchovny - The X Files, Things We Lost in the Fire, Return to Me, Twin Peaks, Working Girl
• Catherine Keener – The Soloist, Genova, Into the Wild, The Interpreter, Being John Malkovich
• David Hyde Pierce – Sleepless in Seattle, Fisher King, Little Man Tate
• Blair Underwood – Gattaca
• Enrico Colantini – Veronica Mars, Contagion, Third Rock from the Sun
• Why? The cast
• Seen:  26 July 2019

        Is this a film or a film about making a film? It starts with interviews of a lot of different people. They seem to be connected, or on their way to becoming connected. Or something. Actors. Journalists. Directors. Magazine editors. All in the form of a Dogma-type documentary.

       We started watching this film once before, quite a long time ago. Then we gave up after a few minutes but we’ll stick it out this time.

       It’s…weird, absurd….what’s going on?

       Brad Pitt plays himself.

       This makes no sense. Several of the cast play more than one role which doesn’t help.

       But in their little bits the actors are very good, especially Julia Roberts. Which makes it somewhat above 0*.

       But mostly it’s boring.

2* of 5. (Hal gives it 4 ½ *! Because it was so different!)

Absolutely Fabulous the Movie

Absolutely Fabulous the movie 2016

• Director: Mandie Fletcher
• Based on novel: no
• Cast: Jennifer Saunders, Joanna Lumley, Jane Horrocks, Julia Sawalha, June Whitfield, Lulu, Kathy Burke, Celia Imrie and dozens of cameos
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Jennifer Saunders – Absolutely Fabulous
• Joanna Lumley – Absolutely Anything, Absolutely Fabulous, Ella Enchanted, Cold Comfort Farm, Shirley Valentine, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
• Jane Horrocks – Sunshine on Leith, Absolutely Fabulous, Gracie, Born Romantic, Little Voice, Life Is Sweet
• Julia Sawalha – Absolutely Fabulous. From Lark Rise to Candleford, Cranford, In the Bleak Midwinter
• June Whitfield – Doctor Who, Absolutely Fabulous, Friends, Jude
• Lulu – Whatever Happened to Harold Smith, Absolutely Fabulous, To Sir with Love
• Kathy Burke – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Twenty Thousand Streets under the Sky, Once upon a Time in the Midlands, Elizabeth, Absolutely Fabulous, Nil by Mouth, Sid and Nancy
• Celia Imrie – Mamma Mia Here We Go Again, The Best Exotic Hotel Marigold 1 & 2, Cranford, Nanny McPhee, Wah-Wah, Daniel Deronda, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Calendar Girls, Absolutely Fabulous, Hilary and Jackie, In the Bleak Midwinter, Frankenstein, Upstairs Downstairs
• Why?  The series
• Seen:  19 July 2019

 They haven’t changed, Eddy and Patsy. They’re still outrageous, drunk, appallingly vulgar, convinced they’re the height of cool and still chasing celebrities who are desperate to avoid them.

Saffy is still rebelliously conventional, living at Eddy’s again with her daughter Lola whose father has returned to Africa.

Bubbles still runs things and is as simply and sombrely clad as always (that’s a joke).

There is a story there somewhere. Probably. Maybe. There are celebrities galore, I’m sure but I only recognise a couple of them. John Hamm. Lulu. I’ve heard of Kate Moss but didn’t know what she looked like. There are dozens more that I don’t recognise but who are no doubt famous.

Oh, I see. The story is that Eddy has killed Kate Moss and everyone hates her. Stella McCartney has thrown a brick through her window.

The highlight is Saffy singing in a drag night club but otherwise the film is just silly. Half-hour episodes – absolutely. Ninety-minute film? Well, no.

But because the characters are who they are, and the actors do what they’re so good at and because there are some laughs

3 * of 5

The Good Girl

The Good Girl 2002

• Director: Miguel Arteta
• Based on novel: no
• Cast: Jennifer Aniston, Jake Gyllenhaal, John C. Reilly, Mike White, Tim Blake Nelson, Deborah Rush, Zooey Deschanel, John Carrol Lynch
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Jennifer Aniston – Cake, He’s Just Not that into You, Management, Rumour Has It, Derailed, Friends, Bruce Almighty
• Jake Gyllenhaal – Zodiac, Brokeback Mountain, Day After Tomorrow, Moonlight Mile, Donnie Darko, October Sky, Homicide Life on the Street
• John C. Reilly – A Prairie Home Companion, The Aviator, The Hours, Chicago, Gangs of New York, The Perfect Storm, The Thin Red Line, Georgia, Dolores Claiborne, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape?
• Mike White – School of Rock
• Tim Blake Nelson – Detachment, Warm Springs, American Violet, The Darwin Awards, Holes, The Good Girl, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Hamlet, The Thin Red Line, Donnie Brasco
• Deborah Rush – Half Nelson, You’ve Got Mail
• Zooey Deschanel – 500 Days of Summer, The Happening, Almost Famous
• John Carrol Lynch – Shutter Island, Things We Lost in the Fire, Zodiac, Gothica, Anywhere but Here, A Thousand Acres, Face/Off, Feeling Minnesota, Fargo, Beautiful Girls, Grumpy Old Men
• Why?  Liked it the first time
• Seen:  Once before, now 16 July 2019

 Justine (Aniston) has a dead-end job in a retail bargain store, and a dead-end marriage to Phil (Reilly), a house painter who gets stoned with his workmate Bubba (Nelson) every evening.

She’s attracted to her younger colleague Holden (Gyllenhaal), who fancies himself the Holden Caufield of The Catcher in the Rye. His real name is Tom and he lives with his parents. They both hate their jobs, and the world.

Life gets complicated. Clandestine trysts, the unexpected death of a colleague, Bible studies, threats, neuroses, guilt, friction.

Sometimes life just really messes with us, you know?

This is probably Aniston’s strongest performance. Deschanel is good too. They all are.

4 ½ * of 5

Searching for Sugarman

Searching for Sugar Man 2012

• Director: Malik Bendjelloul
• Based on novel: no, it’s a documentary
• Cast: It’s a documentary about Sixto Rodriguez
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in: no cast
• Why?  Music
• Seen:  15 July 2019

 Another Swedish film that has won many international awards, including an Oscar and BAFTA for best documentary.

Rodriguez was a musician in Detroit in the 60’s. It was said that his songs were as good as Dylan’s. It was said that he was the next big thing. He was an elusive, mystical drifter, a gritty inner-city poet. He had the support of the big wigs in the music industry.

So what happened?

Oddly his albums became underground superhits in apartheid South Africa though they had no idea who he was. His music inspired the anti-apartheid movement, though it was strictly banned by the government. His records sold more than the Rolling Stones or Presley. But no one knew anything about him. Was he even still alive? Had he committed suicide on stage?

The search begins.

What a fascinating story. What a life. What a film.

Tragically, the director committed suicide two years after the film was made.

5 * of 5

En man som heter Ove

En man som heter Ove (A Man Called Ove) 2015

• Director: Hannes Holm
• Based on novel by Fredrik Backman
• Cast: Rolf Lassgård, Bahar Pars, Ida Engvoll, Anna-Lena Brundin
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in: This and that. I’m a very bad Swede, I watch very few Swedish series or films, but I know who most of these actors are.
• Why?  Curious
• Seen:  14 July 2019

(Review in English – see below)

När en svensk film blir nominerad till en Oscar måste man väl se den? Och nu har vi läst boken också.

Ove är en extremt grinig gubbe, änkling efter sin kära Sonja. Han är osams med alla. Han lägger sig i och klagar på allt, håller stenkoll på alla och klagar bittert över alla brutna regler. Han hatar alla idioter, och det är alla.

Han ska ta livet av sig.

Det går inte så bra. Livet, och grannarna, inte minst den iranska kvinnan Parvaneh, kommer i vägen.

Filmen är nog ganska fin men var finns romanens bitska humor?

3 * av 5 (Hal gav den 4, han tyckte bättre om den än boken eftersom Ove här var mindre elak. Jag kan gå med på det men han var inte heller lika rolig här).

            When a Swedish film is nominated for an Oscar one has to see it, right? And now we’ve read the book too.

            Ove is an extremely nasty old man, the widower of his beloved Sonja. Everyone is his enemy. He spies on the neighbours and complains bitterly about all the broken rules. He hates all idiots and that means everybody.

            He’s going to kill himself.

            That doesn’t go so well. Life, and his neighbours, especially the Iranian woman Parvaneh, get in the way.

            The film is enjoyable enough, but where is the biting humour of the book?

3* of 5 (Hal gives it 4. He liked it better than the book because here Ove isn’t so harsh. I can go along with that, but he wasn’t as funny either.)

Warm Springs

Warm Springs 2005

• Director: Joseph Sargent
• Based on novel: no
• Cast: Kenneth Branagh, Cynthia Nixon, David Paymer, Tim Blake Nelson, Nelsan Ellis, Jane Alexander, Kathy Bates
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Kenneth Branagh – Dunkirk, Wallander, My Week with Marilyn, The Boat that Rocked, Valkyria, Sleuth 2007, Shackleton, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Rabbit-Proof Fence, How to Kill Your Neighbour’s Dog, Love’s Labour’s Lost, Wild Wild West, Hamlet, Othello, Frankenstein, Much Ado About Nothing, Swing Kids, Peter’s Friends, Dead Again, Henry V, Fortunes of War
• Cynthia Nixon – Igby Goes Down, Marvin’s Room, Pelican Brief, Amadeus
• David Paymer – Amistad, Get Shorty, Quiz Show, Hill Street Blues
• Tim Blake Nelson – Detachment, American Violet, The Darwin Awards, Holes, The Good Girl, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Hamlet, The Thin Red Line, Donnie Brasco
• Nelsan Ellis – The Butler, The Help, The Soloist, Veronica Mars
• Jane Alexander – Terminator Salvation, The Cider House Rules, Playing for Time, Kramer vs Kramer
• Kathy Bates –The Day the Earth Stood Still, Six Feet Under, About Schmidt, The Third Rock from the Sun, Titanic, Dolores Claiborne, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café, Misery, White Palace, Dick Tracy
• Why?  Kenneth Branagh
• Seen:  13 July 2019

 Eleanor (Nixon) and Franklin (Branagh) do not have a happy marriage. He’s in love with another woman, she’s reserved and uncomfortable in public, but if he wants to have a political career there can be no divorce.

Then he is stricken with polio and is paralysed from the waist down.

Eleanor and Franklin’s political advisor Louis Howe (Paymer) want him to pursue his political career. Franklin is bitter and depressed and insists on going to Warm Springs, supposedly a spa for miracle cures.

It proves to be a rustic, isolated, decrepit place, a wreck. He stays. She leaves. He struggles to learn to walk again. She struggles to have the courage to speak publicly, to keep Franklin’s political hopes alive.

Details of living with a severe physical handicap are interwoven with details on how one of the most politically power couples in American history is created.

The relationship between Eleanor and Franklin is too romanticised and the racial conflicts of the time are only hinted at but otherwise it’s a very strong film. I can’t imagine better actors in the lead roles than Branagh and Nixon.

4 ½ * of 5

Heartless

Heartless 2009

• Director: Philip Ridley
• Based on novel: no
• Cast: Jim Sturgess, Clemence Poésy, Luke Treadaway, Justin Salinger, Noel Clarke, Ruth Sheen, Timothy Spall, Joseph Mawle, Eddie Marsan
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Jim Sturgess – Cloud Atlas, The Other Boleyn Girl, Across the Universe
• Clemence Poésy – The Hollow Crown, Harry Potter, 127 Hours, In Bruges
• Luke Treadaway – Fortitude, The Hollow Crown, Vicious, Cheerful Weather for the Wedding, Attack the Block
• Noel Clarke – Doctor Who
• Justin Salinger – Doctor Who, Humans, Velvet Goldmine
• Ruth Sheen – Unforgotten, Mister Turner, Another Year, Twenty Thousand Streets under the Sky, Vera Drake
• Timothy Spall – Mister Turner, Harry Potter, The King’s Speech, Alice in Wonderland, Sweeney Todd, Auf Wiedersehn Pet, My House in Umbria, Nicholas Nickleby, Love’s Labour Lost, Topsy-Turvy, Our Mutual Friend, Hamlet, Secrets and Lies, Life is Sweet, Gothic, Quadrophenia
• Joseph Mawle – Made in Dagenham, Merlin
• Eddie Marsan - River, Filth, The World’s End, Sherlock Holmes A Game of Shadows, Merlin, Sherlock Holmes, Happy-Go-Lucky, The Illusionist, V for Vendetta, Vera Drake, 21 Grams, Gangs of New York
• Why?  Good cast. London.
• Seen:  7 July 2019 

The year’s scariest film? Oh dear, and we’re a couple of real cowards.

Jamie (Sturgess) is a photographer in the East End slums of London. He has a heart-shaped birthmark on his face that makes him try to hide away from bullies. Tia (Poésy) wants to be a model but she really delivers flowers.

Jamie lives with his mum (Sheen). His dad (Spall) has died and Jamie still misses him. He is suicidal over his birthmark. He just wants to be normal, have a normal life, a family. His new neighbour and friend AJ (Clarke) tries to cheer him up but he has problems of his own.

Horrible murders are taking place in the East End by a gang of masked monsters. Or are they masked? When Jamie witnesses them murdering his mother, he gets himself a gun. Then AJ is attacked by the monsters and Jamie is summoned by Papa B (Mawle).

Jamie sells his soul to the devil.

It’s a variation on the classic theme, very powerfully done with earnest acting and strong London images.

4 * of 5

Rain Fall

Rain Fall 2009

• Director: Max Mannix
• Based on the novel by Barry Eisler
• Cast: Gary Oldman, Kippei Shîna, Kyoko Hasegawa
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Gary Oldman – The Space between Us, The Dark Knight Arises, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Harry Potter, The Book of Eli, The Dark Knight, Batman Begins, Friends, The Fifth Element, Immortal Beloved, Léon, Romeo Is Bleeding, True Romance, Dracula, JFK, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Prick Up Your Ears, Sid and Nancy, Meanwhile
• Why? Because I liked it the first time, if it’s the one I’m thinking of
• Seen:  Once before (see above). Now 5 July 2019 

       John Rain is some kind of spy or assassin or something. Gary Oldman is CIA chasing John Rain and a USB stick. The Japanese mafia and Tokyo police force are involved.

       This doesn’t seem to be sci fi nor the film I thought it was. Oh well, Gary Oldman is in it.

       I don’t like spy films or mafia films or police films. I wanted a sci fi dystopian film. I wonder what film I’m thinking of? It too was in Japanese and I thought that it too had Gary Oldman, playing some girl’s father.

       Whatever. This isn’t it.

       With that said, this is OK. It’s visually strong, it has some dramatic moments and interesting enough characters, though they’re a bit too stereotyped. Sadly, it disintegrates into a pretentious mishmash at the end.

       What was this even about?

2 * of 5 (Hal gave it 3-4* because of its ambitious attempt at an intelligent international film. I can appreciate that.)

A Knight's Tale

A Knight’s Tale 2001

• Director: Brian Helgeland
• Based on the novel: no
• Cast: Heath Ledger, Rufus Sewell, Shannon Sossamon, Paul Bettany, Laura Fraser, Mark Addy, Alan Tudyk, Bérénice Bejo, Christopher Casanove
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Heath Ledger – The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, The Dark Knight, I’m Not There, Casanova, Brokeback Mountain, The Brother’s Grimm, Ned Kelly, The Monster’s Ball, 10 Things I Hate about You
• Rufus Sewell – The Tourist, Pillars of the Earth, The Holiday, Amazing Grace, Paris je t’aime, The Taming of the Shrew Re-told, Hamlet, Cold Comfort Farm, Middlemarch
• Shannon Sossamon – The Holiday
• Paul Bettany – Legend, Mortdecai, Transcendence, The Tourist, Creation, The Young Victoria, Dogville, A Beautiful Mind,
• Laura Fraser – Breaking Bad, Titus, Whatever Happened to Harold Smith, Neverwhere
• Mark Addy – Doctor Who, Robin Hood, The Full Monty
• Alan Tudyk – Rogue One, Maze Runner the Scorch Trials, Serenity, Firefly, 28 Days
• Bérénice Bejo – The Artist
• Why? Enjoyed it the first time
• Seen:  Once before. Now 30 June 2019 

       Peasant William (Ledger) is brought by fate onto the back of a horse in a dead man’s armour to take part in a joust, (strictly forbidden to anyone not of noble birth) to the tune of ‘We Will Rock You.’

       You get the picture.

       What a romp. Glory, riches and fair damsel don’t come easy, but they do come (that’s not much of a spoiler, is it?)

       Bettany as Geoffrey Chaucer, Sewell as a suave villain lord, a few class and gender digs, a lot of nonsense and some good rock music with Bowie, Thin Lizzie et al, what more could one ask for?

       If you’re a scholar of medieval times and regard The Seventh Seal as a masterpiece, you might consider this frivolous. Well, I am a scholar of medieval times and I regard The Seventh Seal as a masterpiece (the only film by Ingmar Bergman that’s remotely watchable) and of course it’s frivolous!

       And?

       It’s a sweet tale. Good old Chaucer. Any similarities are purely coincidental. 

3 * of 5

Mamma Mia Here We Go Again

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again 2018

• Director: Ol Parker
• Based on the songs of ABBA
• Cast: Lily James, Celia Imre, Cher, Andy Garcia, Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan, Julie Walters, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård, Christine Baranski, Amanda Seyfried, Dominic Cooper
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Lily James – Downton Abbey, Cinderella
• Celia Imre - The Best Exotic Hotel Marigold 1 & 2, Cranford, Nanny McPhee, Wah-Wah, Daniel Deronda, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Calendar Girls, Absolutely Fabulous, Hilary and Jackie, In the Bleak Midwinter, Frankenstein, Upstairs Downstairs
• Cher – Mermaids, Moonstruck, Suspect, The Witches of Eastwick, Mask, Silkwood
• Andy Garcia – Passengers, Modigliani, Swing Vote, Hero, Dead Again, Black Rain
• Meryl Streep – August Osage County, Into the Woods, Mamma Mia, A Prairie Home Companion, Angels in America, The Hours, Music of the Heart, Marvin’s Room, The Bridges of Madison County, The House of the Spirits, Defending Your Life, Postcards from the Edge, Ironweed, Out of Africa, Sophie’s Choice, Silkwood, The French Lieutenant’s Woman, Kramer vs Kramer, Deer Hunter, Holocaust, Julia
• Pierce Brosnan – The World’s End, The Ghost Writer, Seraphim Falls, Die Another Day, The World Is Not Enough, Tomorrow Never Dies, Dante’s Peak, Mars Attacks, Golden Eye
• Julie Walters – The Hollow Crown Henry IV Parts One and Two, Henry V, Harry Potter 1-8, Becoming Jane, Driving Lessons, Wah-Wah, Calendar Girls, Billy Elliot, Titanic Tow, Intimate Relations, Prick Up Your Ears, Educating Rita
• Colin Firth – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, the King’s Speech, Genova, The She Found Me, Nanny McPhee, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Love Actually, Girl with Pearl Earring, My Life So Far, Shakespeare in Love, A Thousand Acres, Fever Pitch, The English Patient
• Stellan Skarsgård – Melancholia, Thor, Pirates of the Caribbean, King Arthur, Dogville, The Glass House, Dancer in the Dark, Amistad, Good Will Hunting, Breaking the Waves, Den enfaldige mördaren
• Christine Baranski – The Big Bang Theory, Into the Woods, The Guru, Bulworth, Reversal of Fortune, Playing for Time
• Amanda Seyfried – Les Misérables, Veronica Mars
• Dominic Cooper – Summer in February, Starter for 10, My Week with Marilyn, An Education
• Why? Love the first one and ABBA is Swedish after all and Cher is in it
• Seen:  28 June 2019 

       The question of ABBA’s coolness/non-coolness was dealt with in my review of the first Mamma Mia. So let’s get to it.

       This one goes ahead in time. Donna (Streep) has died. Then we go back to the 70’s when Donna’s trio are graduating from university. The first song is amusingly ‘When I Kissed the Teacher’.

       No more story details, just a list of the plusses and the minuses of this film:

       Plus: Walters, Streep, Brosnan, Firth, Skarsgård, Baranski are back. The cameo appearances of Björn and Benny are fun. Cher’s name is Ruby. Cher sings ‘Fernando’ (but in a completely wrong context).

       Minus: The dialog is really awful. Most of the good songs are already taken (and the repeats here are pale). The story is pathetic. Cooper and Seyfried are still there. The young versions of Streep, Brosnan et al are completely without charisma. Why in the world did they not keep the characters set up in the original – headbangers and long-haired hippies?  And Donna’s mother as a rigid Catholic moralistic fanatic? So much more interesting than vampy Cher! Garcia is so sleazy. Baby sentimentality, ugh.

       It lacks the exuberant joy of the original. It’s quite bad but more likeable than it deserves to be.

2 ½ * of 5. Actually, it’s probably less than 2, but never mind.

PS We watched the original again the next evening  just to get back into the real thing. https://rubyjandsfilmblog.blogspot.com/2019/05/mamma-mia.html