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