Mamma Mia: Officially the worst film I’ve ever seen.
Another chance for me to save you from painful suffering, and this time I don’t think I’ll get much argument.
God knows why this was such a success. Well, actually, I do know, it was all about nostalgia. But if you want to reminisce about the 70s stick ABBA Gold on, don’t make a terrible movie!
There are moments of this film which almost redeem it, the plot, for example, is quite good and the script is funny at times. Unfortunately, I couldn’t notice much of this because I was watching the film through my fingers with an expression of abject horror! Why such an extreme reaction? Pierce Brosnan. Singing. Or at least he thought he was. And Colin Firth doing….well I don’t know what he was doing but it wasn’t pretty.
Now I’m not an ABBA fan, and I really dislike this wave of greatest hits albums being turned into musicals, but I decided to give this film a fair try (mostly because it was Christmas). In fact, turning ABBA hits into a musical worked more successfully than any other attempt I’ve heard, although I will never forgive whoever thought “Chiquitita” being sung in a toilet made sense. This wasn’t my main concern though, what had me diving behind the sofa was the woeful performances given by almost every member of the cast.
I’ve already mentioned Brosnan and Firth’s pathetic vocal renditions, which could almost be excused if it hadn’t caused them to forget how to act. Brosnan especially seems so caught up in becoming the next Bruce Springsteen (try Billy Mack) that he loses any (limited) credibility he ever had. It would have been easy enough to dub the actors, although I suppose this would have caused criticism, but after 10 minutes I was begging for mercy. Meryl Streep is better than I would have expected, and she does put in a good performance, but there were some seriously flat notes in “The Winner Takes It All” which could have easily been tweaked could the sound editor have been bothered enough.
Bad singing aside, there isn’t much going for this movie, (besides the ever-wonderful Julie Walters). I get that it’s supposed to be fun and light hearted, but you get the feeling that no one invilved in making this movie was really committed to the job, they were just mucking about with some cameras and a few million dollars. This film is definitely aimed nowhere near my generation. Even the young couple who the film is supposedly about get barely any screen time compared to our parenting team. This is a film for the mums, which is fine, but you’d think that Hollywood could come up with something a bit less tragic.
Everyone knows that Dads dancing at a wedding is a pathetic site. So why make a movie about it?
The Stories That Really Mattered 
Oh, thanks for the warning! I was thisclose to grab it off of the Blockbuster shelf but settled with The Soloist instead (which wasn’t very good, but probably superb compared to this one?). So even the great Meryl Streep can fall flat every once in a while, huh, glad she’s human =)
I posted something about NINE with Daniel Day-Lewis the other day, now THAT’s a musical I gotta see.
rtm
August 28, 2009
It’s all about sparing those few hours. 😛
It’s truly horrible so I’m happy to help. Haven’t seen the soloist so can’t compare, but since I’d rather stick pins in my eyes than see Mamma Mia again I reckon you made the right choice.
Flat is exactly the word for it. My poor ears.
Yeah I’ve been hearing about that. Not to be confused with animated 9. I’ll check the post out….
Katie
August 28, 2009
When it comes to Pierce Brosnan or Colin Firth’s singing, I’d agree wholeheartedly about the pins in the eyes. But I hung in there for Amanda Seyfried because she is just so ridiculously talented — she can sing, she can dance, she can act. I just love that girl.
mcarteratthemovies
September 22, 2009
You don’t really get to see much of her in the film though, and since its the only film I’ve seen with her in I didn’t really get round to forming an opinion.
Katie
September 22, 2009
Pierce brosnan is horrible in this movie. i’m always laughing when he start to sing.. it’s ridiculous. But Sky is Hot 🙂 And I love Colin Firth even if i know that he could be better.
mymi
October 9, 2009
Pierce Brosnan makes my skin crawl. I don’t even know why he just always has.
I’m not sure I’ve forgiven Colin yet…
Katie
October 10, 2009
I read that he was to eager do a Neighbours appearence :O. Sounds a bit dodgy to me. There’s a part of me that kind of wishes this is true lol.
Frederick Kulish
January 7, 2010
O dear god no
Katie
January 8, 2010
i love pierce brosnan!!!!
mills
February 17, 2010
[…] who has read my review of Mamma Mia may have noticed I’m not a fan. In fact, he is responsible for me actively avoiding all […]
Top 5 Actors I just don’t get « The Stories That Really Mattered
July 16, 2011
I could not agree more with every point made in this article. I thought this was a terrible film – well shot perhaps with some nice touches but overall, really excruciating viewing. After all, its clear that Brosnan and Firth can’t sing and their scenes are not even charming. Just painful to watch and hear. Meryl can clearly make a ‘silk purse out of a sows ear’, being the great talent that she is. And she does – just. I agree – Julie Walters shines brightly as ever. Ultimately this is a sows ear that could never become a purse. Just how they could have let certain musical expressions remain in the final cut is a big mystery. I am shocked at how popular this movie is – its frankly a terrible picture. But clearly many people loved it and will think its amazing. The only question is – WHY?!
Kokino
January 14, 2012
Totally agree. Excruciating is the perfect word to describe it. Normally when I don’t like a popular film I can at least se the appeal but it completely escapes me why anyone would sit through this catalogue of horrors more than once!
Thanks for stopping by
Katie
January 14, 2012
I was a huge Abba fan when the were putting out their original singles and albums since 1974. This was the worst excuse for a film. If you want to see a good film with Abba music then watch Muriel’s Wedding. If you want to here a good musical written by Benny and Bjorn than listen to Chess. Remember Mamma Mia was Benny and Bjorn’s creation
Lauren
June 2, 2015
Personally, Mamma Mia is my favourite movie and has been since it first came out years ago. I love this film with all my heart. The singing might not be perfect but I’d like to see you do the same. It’s not all about the singing, its about the story line and the music from ABBA. I don’t particularly like ABBA, but I love this film. My mum’s a professional opera singer and even she said that the singing in Mamma Mia doesn’t bother her and yet she is the first to point out a bad note in a song. I love all the of the acting because its meant to be like a real life story, and at the end of the day, no one goes about life according to a script and not standing funny or slipping up. Maybe you should try acting in a movie like that with all the pressure that the actors have because of the enormous popularity the music had. In these situations I always like to ask: Could you do better yourself? If no, stop spreading hate on the internet about amazing films. It’s a light-hearted film, don’t take it so seriously and either stop watching it or dance along. Don’t go on the internet and spread how much you hate it on here.
Lucy
January 15, 2016
I totally agree. Abba is awesome but I wanted to kill myself multiple times watching this. Ruined much of my life thinking about, watching, remembering, and complaining about this disaster of a movie. Suffering through junior high school bagpipe bands is only 1/10 as bad as suffering through this. If you choose to watch, move all sharp objects FAR away.
L. David Marquet
April 14, 2017
I do like Abba, but I couldn’t agree with you more. No wonder it took me 9 yrs to finally watch it through the whole way. Streep, Brosnan and Collin Firth ….. singing? …. an Abba musical? Horrid!!
Don’t watch it. Just imagining what you think it would sound like? Imagine Pierce Brosnan singing S.O.S. (Yeah, will absolutely destroy all the fond memories you have of Agnetha when she young.)
d2west
July 11, 2017
This movie owns the title ‘worst musical of all time’. It’s utter shit.
Marla
July 12, 2018
Never seen it but hubby and I started to watch it the other day. We got about 20 minutes in and couldn’t stand to watch any more…
Jennifer Whitaker
July 27, 2018
Movie was so bad 3 of us got our money back. Shame on Streep and Cher!
Kimberly maggio
July 31, 2018
Absolutely the worst movie I have ever seen
Gene
November 5, 2018