I didn’t see the first one when it came out so I came to this cold, unburdened by whatever happened in the previous film.
I thought the film was a great cheesy fun romp with moments of real poignancy, switching time periods gracefully and seamlessly. Great performances from all the cast, though Colin Firth was stereotyped. Cher did a great job of lampooning herself. Omid was great. The numbers were performed with panache and pizzazz.
Any you must stay for the credits: they perform Super Trooper through the first half with all the cast taking part. And then you should wait some more.
I’ll use this opportunity to not-so-humbly brag that I was the pianist for the auditions, and I taught Christine Baranski (Tanya) some of her songs for the movie.
The auditions I played for were for the three ladies who were the younger counterparts to the main women from the first one. Then a few days later Ms. Baranski and I spent some time working on the songs she didn’t already know, because they were lesser-known ABBA songs. I was this close to working with Meryl Streep on her songs, too, but at the last minute her agent called and asked the room to be cleared, other than the director and music supervisor. Understandable, but disappointing!
All in all it was a lot of fun, and neat to see how film auditions and rehearsals worked, since I mostly do musical theatre. Looking forward to seeing the finished product; it’s getting mostly positive reviews so far!
You’re right; I should have clarified I was using “reviews” casually, meaning the general feedback of my friends (who are also in the business) and not official reviews. Not sure if it’s substantial enough to get solid reviews from the Times and such.
Having played for the stage version as well, I was blown away by the reception of the original. It was like a rock concert every night, with people on their feet dancing and shouting. I’ll admit I don’t quite get it, but I appreciate the show for what it is; cotton candy fun!
The film is still playing at the local cinema, and it had been on a while when I went to see it. So it’s been on at least 6 weeks; most films are gone in a month at most.
Huh? Well my Mother was in town so I took her to see it, and I most definitely had not seen the first one, knew nothing whatsoever about it, and had absolutely no idea what the hell was going on. I don’t think knowing anything would have changed my enjoyment very much, however, as I could not be further from the target audience. My Mother enjoyed it very much.
