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Mamma Mia an ABBA themed musical, set the day before Sophie's wedding. She reads her mother's diary to hopefully find out who her father is. Instead she discovers that she has 3 possible fathers, so without her mother's knowledge or permission, she invites all 3 mysterious men, whom her mother hasn't seen in 20 years.

I love musicals. Fantastic examples are Chicago, Moulin Rouge, Grease, Newsies, etc. (not listed in any particular order) If it's done right it's just a really big music video. The dancing and songs especially are what I love about this genre. You are already emotionally involved in the story and music always helps to amplify that emotion the character is conveying.

Mamma Mia was... corny, at best. The transitions of acting to singing just didn't come off well. The scenes were choppy and the songs and dancing weren't really well done. No doubt that Meryl Streep has a good voice, but she's going in her 50's(?) skipping and jumping around in an overall. I like her better as Miranda Priestley in Devil Wears Prada.

The whole movie came off amateur. The songs went on a bit too long, or maybe that's because it just wasn't really that enjoyable. Muriel's Wedding was a better ABBA themed musical then this. I actually fast forwarded through the movie only to discover a very predictable ending.

Again I don't know if this movie is just bad, or if it was a bad translation to film like Rent was. (God, that one was just as awful, if not more, because I loved the Broadway version so much.)