okay.... so first things first.... I was invited to the N.Z. premiere tonight in Auckland of the new "Fame" reboot or remake or whatever you want to call it. I thought free food, a few celebrities to stalk and some free beers and then the movie to end it all, sounds like a good night. I grew up with the 80's fame on t.v. I saw Leroy rocking it weekly on screen... so yeah I was interested to see how they re-branded this film for the new millennium. To be frank, I was not expecting "Fame" to be an academy award masterpiece but I was still very intrigued after watching the trailer, the music sounded cool, the atmosphere seemed a little charged the trailer was cut nicely... but sadly... thats where all the excitement ended in the trailer.....
This movie is b- to- the -oring.!! BORING! So I will be mentioning some spoilers so stop reading here if that's an issue for you.... got an issue grab a tissue.
Basically they take a bunch of very talented up and coming singers, dancers, actors etc and they cram 4 freaking years of this elusive, over the top, hardest school in the world to get accepted to into a roughly 90 minute film. Every 25 minutes was one year.. starting with a "freshman year" title on the screen... then about 25 minutes later fade to black and "sophomore year" then about 25 minutes later "junior" etc etc... this spread the movie extremely thin... although the leads hair grew longer or haircuts changed so you knew they were older and more mature.
They have the cliché young black guy who is full of torment and angst that his father left him, who sits all melancholy in the stairwell while everyone else is in the cafeteria dancing on tables and plugging in guitars and hitting bongos. There is the young black woman who is being forced to play classical piano by her parents when all she really wants to do is be free and sing her heart out... because no one cares about her needs. There is the typical geeky video guy who always seems to have a camera in his hands when you see him, the gay male ballet dancer who no matter how hard he tries cannot cut it and impress his teacher.... blah blah blah and the young girl actress wannabe singer who starts singing in a little tiny voice all shy and quiet, so you would expect that bam she will find herself and come out of her shell like her teachers have been telling her the ENTIRE 4 YEARS!!!!! BUT NO.... nothing changes... she doesn't get a big voice, stays wooden and timid and shy... I mean seriously I thought this school was supposed to be only accepting the best of the best! They just spent the first 20 minutes showing us auditions and having the school principal tell everyone that thousands audition but only a few hundred are accepted!! There are so many cheesy moments, from the black guy saying "aiightt" to the "I just want my parents to be proud of me" to the boyfriend "I'm just going to sing to you and give you a big hug and then cartoon rabbits will come out and doves will lower a silk scarf around your neck and there will be world peace and God bless you tiny tim"... what?!?! Okay so maybe I'm going a little over board but there was more cheese in this then a stuffed crust pizza from domino's.
I think the biggest problem with this film is you walk away with a "who cares" mindset. The fact that they have approx. 10 main roles and follow them for their four years of tuition which is crammed into 90 minutes of movie is so thin... you just don't care about the characters at all because you don't get to know them. Each person maybe gets about 15-20 minutes screen time max. Then you are left wondering so what about him or what about her or did she make the album or did he get kicked out or did they stay together or how did the father handle the news????!? The story is not interesting, it extremely average, there is ZERO edge to this reboot.... no pizazz no hype no excitement. It's plain dull.
I'm sure that young girls aged between 5-13 will like this, is this who 'fame' is catered towards??? I mean if tweens is the fame target demographic then it may do okay for a week or two. Sadly the biggest audience reaction from tonight's "Fame" premiere was when the "New Moon" trailer screened before the start.
Some good things..... The singing is amazing... the dancing is as you would expect incredible but over all that's it. The acting a big thumbs down, I came away from this feeling like it was a very expensive made for TV movie. The story is all over the place, spread top thin and unlike the trailer again I say there is no edge, It's like a pilot for a new TV series... actually.... is that what it is suppose to be?!?
FAME is LAME!
This movie is b- to- the -oring.!! BORING! So I will be mentioning some spoilers so stop reading here if that's an issue for you.... got an issue grab a tissue.
Basically they take a bunch of very talented up and coming singers, dancers, actors etc and they cram 4 freaking years of this elusive, over the top, hardest school in the world to get accepted to into a roughly 90 minute film. Every 25 minutes was one year.. starting with a "freshman year" title on the screen... then about 25 minutes later fade to black and "sophomore year" then about 25 minutes later "junior" etc etc... this spread the movie extremely thin... although the leads hair grew longer or haircuts changed so you knew they were older and more mature.
They have the cliché young black guy who is full of torment and angst that his father left him, who sits all melancholy in the stairwell while everyone else is in the cafeteria dancing on tables and plugging in guitars and hitting bongos. There is the young black woman who is being forced to play classical piano by her parents when all she really wants to do is be free and sing her heart out... because no one cares about her needs. There is the typical geeky video guy who always seems to have a camera in his hands when you see him, the gay male ballet dancer who no matter how hard he tries cannot cut it and impress his teacher.... blah blah blah and the young girl actress wannabe singer who starts singing in a little tiny voice all shy and quiet, so you would expect that bam she will find herself and come out of her shell like her teachers have been telling her the ENTIRE 4 YEARS!!!!! BUT NO.... nothing changes... she doesn't get a big voice, stays wooden and timid and shy... I mean seriously I thought this school was supposed to be only accepting the best of the best! They just spent the first 20 minutes showing us auditions and having the school principal tell everyone that thousands audition but only a few hundred are accepted!! There are so many cheesy moments, from the black guy saying "aiightt" to the "I just want my parents to be proud of me" to the boyfriend "I'm just going to sing to you and give you a big hug and then cartoon rabbits will come out and doves will lower a silk scarf around your neck and there will be world peace and God bless you tiny tim"... what?!?! Okay so maybe I'm going a little over board but there was more cheese in this then a stuffed crust pizza from domino's.
I think the biggest problem with this film is you walk away with a "who cares" mindset. The fact that they have approx. 10 main roles and follow them for their four years of tuition which is crammed into 90 minutes of movie is so thin... you just don't care about the characters at all because you don't get to know them. Each person maybe gets about 15-20 minutes screen time max. Then you are left wondering so what about him or what about her or did she make the album or did he get kicked out or did they stay together or how did the father handle the news????!? The story is not interesting, it extremely average, there is ZERO edge to this reboot.... no pizazz no hype no excitement. It's plain dull.
I'm sure that young girls aged between 5-13 will like this, is this who 'fame' is catered towards??? I mean if tweens is the fame target demographic then it may do okay for a week or two. Sadly the biggest audience reaction from tonight's "Fame" premiere was when the "New Moon" trailer screened before the start.
Some good things..... The singing is amazing... the dancing is as you would expect incredible but over all that's it. The acting a big thumbs down, I came away from this feeling like it was a very expensive made for TV movie. The story is all over the place, spread top thin and unlike the trailer again I say there is no edge, It's like a pilot for a new TV series... actually.... is that what it is suppose to be?!?
FAME is LAME!