WHY VARIETY SHOULD PULL ITS HEAD IN ...MAYBE
December 8th 2008 07:35
I just read a review of Mamma Mia by a real heavyweight from Variety which made my little piece look like over-enthusiastic …. and ignorant … fluff. Well that’s just fine and dandy and it’s easy to see why I’ll never be invited to write for them.
And technically it’s a damn fine piece of reviewing. Technically. However, while in terms of providing proper feedback for a body of work it’s exemplary, I feel it got kind of too tied up in the detail and not enough in the whole package … and that’s the point.
Yeah, once they were pointed out I could see the endemic weaknesses of the movie, but I still maintain that my response to it was one of pure enjoyment, and with two billion dollars worth of box office sales for the musical, I’m clearly not alone.
I loved it. And with good reason.
I’m an ordinary punter looking to be entertained and for that I need a good story and somebody to tell it well. OK, so perhaps it was over edited and over shot and over choreographed and over dubbed, and over everything. It must have been because Variety said it was, but here’s the rub; I don’t care.
For me it was just fun.
It’s not going to change my life. I’m not about to rush off to a Grecian island and take on the running of a hotel. But for a short time when I was trying to find a comfortable way to spend an enforced fourteen hours making like a sardine, I had a brief respite where I was assured that life could be beautiful.
And I have to say that I’m damned grateful.
So I will enjoy the fortunes of Donna and her Dynamos, those fabulous older broads and recommend that if you want a bit of toe-tapping, romantic, life affirming, love promoting escapism, then this is the movie for you.
And let the nabobs of Variety say what they will. They probably wouldn’t enjoy it anyway.
And technically it’s a damn fine piece of reviewing. Technically. However, while in terms of providing proper feedback for a body of work it’s exemplary, I feel it got kind of too tied up in the detail and not enough in the whole package … and that’s the point.
Yeah, once they were pointed out I could see the endemic weaknesses of the movie, but I still maintain that my response to it was one of pure enjoyment, and with two billion dollars worth of box office sales for the musical, I’m clearly not alone.
I loved it. And with good reason.
I’m an ordinary punter looking to be entertained and for that I need a good story and somebody to tell it well. OK, so perhaps it was over edited and over shot and over choreographed and over dubbed, and over everything. It must have been because Variety said it was, but here’s the rub; I don’t care.
For me it was just fun.
It’s not going to change my life. I’m not about to rush off to a Grecian island and take on the running of a hotel. But for a short time when I was trying to find a comfortable way to spend an enforced fourteen hours making like a sardine, I had a brief respite where I was assured that life could be beautiful.
And I have to say that I’m damned grateful.
So I will enjoy the fortunes of Donna and her Dynamos, those fabulous older broads and recommend that if you want a bit of toe-tapping, romantic, life affirming, love promoting escapism, then this is the movie for you.
And let the nabobs of Variety say what they will. They probably wouldn’t enjoy it anyway.
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