"Mamma Mia!" What A Great Movie

A Great Musical
Mamma Mia! is a West End Theatre musical based on the songs from ABBA. Universal Pictures, Littlestar, and Playtone helped produce the film along with Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Gary Goetzman, Tom Hanks, and Rita Wilson, and Phyllida Lloyd directed the film. Mamma Mia! just surpassed Hairspray in the box office with $27.6 million. So far, Mamma Mia! has grossed an international sum of $111.7 million. It had the largest opening weekend of any musical in U.S. history. Mamma Mia! was GREAT!!! I absolutely loved it! I even went and saw it twice. The funny thing is, I was the youngest one in the whole theater. Throughout the whole movie I was tapping my foot in rhythm to the music and dancing in my seat. The songs are extremely addicting as well as the dances! My mom and I even went out and bought the soundtrack, and it is just as good! This is by far the best musical I've seen in a long time!

The Story
Donna (Meryl Streep) runs a hotel named Villa Donna on a small Greek island with her daughter Sophie (Amanda Seyfried). Sophie is getting married and wants her father to give her away at her wedding, but the problem is...she doesn't know who he is. After finding her mother's diary she finds out that she has three possible fathers: Harry Bright (Colin Firth), Bill Anderson (Stellan Skarsgard), and Sam Carmichael (Pierce Brosnan). Sophie secretly invites all three men to her wedding without telling Donna or Sky (Dominic Cooper), her future husband. The three men arrive still oblivious to the reason why they were invited. Sophie hides them in Donna's old goat house, and realizes that she has no idea which one is her real father. When Donna finds them in the old goat house she sends them away, but Sophie encourages them to stay on Bill's boat and attend her wedding. Donna's longtime friends, Rosie (Julie Walters) and Tanya (Christine Baranski), arrive and remind Donna of their fun and free past of "Donna and the Dynamos". While at Sophie's bacherlorette party, she talks to Bill, and he realizes that he might be her father. So she asks him to give her away at her wedding. Then, Harry and Sam come up to her at the party and tell her that they might be her father. So of course they think they're giving her away. Sophie ends up asking her mother to give her away. During the wedding, Donna brings up the topic of Sophie's father, and all three men agree to take a third of Sophie. Sophie and Sky postpone the wedding so they could travel, just as Sky wanted all along. Sam, who has loved Donna ever since they first met, proposes. They get married so the wedding is not wasted. During the all the commotion of the wedding, Harry reveals a huge secret. He's gay. At the wedding reception, Rosie confesses that she is attracted to Bill, who later gives in to her love. Sophie and Sky sail off into the night, while Donna and Sam live happily ever after.

The Songs
"I have a Dream"
"Honey, Honey"
"Money, Money, Money"
"Mamma Mia"
"Chiquitita"
"Dancing Queen"
"Our Last Summer"
"Lay All Your Love on Me"
"Super Trouper"
"Gimme, Gimme, Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)"
"Voulez-Vous"
"SOS"
"Does Your Mother Know"
"Slipping Through My Fingers"
"The Winner Takes It All"
"When All is Said and Done"
"Take a Chance on Me"

Some of the songs were taken out of the film: "The Name of the Game", "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do", "Waterloo" and "Thank You for the Music".

The Characters
The cast of Mamma Mia! was amazing! Even though, they weren't actual singers, they still did a remarkable job. Meryl Streep was fantastic as usual, and she wasn't a bad singer either. Amanda Seyfried was the cutest actress, and she had an amazing voice. Julie Walters and Christine Baranski were hysterical! Every time they opened their mouths I laughed. Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, and Stellan Skarsgard were the sweetest people in the whole film. They weren't the best singers over all, but they were still good. Dominic Cooper also did a great job singing along with hundreds of others. Some people thought the cast couldn't sing at all, especially the three men. Come on, they are actors not professional singers, and they weren't half bad. How many great actors do you know that can act and sing at the same time, especially actors who have never song before?!



tag: Mamma Mia!, West End Theatre, ABBA, Universal Pictures, Playtone, Benny ANdersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Gary Goetzman, Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson, Phyllida Lloyd, Hairspray, Meryl Streep, Amanda Seyfried, Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgard, Pierce Brosnan, Dominic Cooper, Julie Walters, Christine Baranski, "I Have a Dream", "Honey, Honey", "Money, Money, Money", "Mamma Mia", "Chiquitita", "Dancing Queen", "Our Last Summer", "Lay All Your Love on Me", "Super Trouper", "Gimme, Gimme, Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)", Voulez-Vous", "SOS", "Does Your Mother Know", "Slipping Through My Fingers", "The Winner Takes It All", "When All is Said and Done", "Take a Chance on Me", "The Name of the Game", "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do", "Waterloo", "Thank You for the Music, Gross, Trailer

A Pig Fairytale

Penelope
Penelope is a romantic-comedy-fantasy film directed by Mark Palansky and produced by Reese Witherspoon, who also stars in the film. Penelope's distributors were Summit Entertainment, Stone Village Pictures, and IFC Films. According to The Numbers, Penelope grossed a worldwide $17,199,163. When I first saw the previews for Penelope I thought it looked stupid and weird, but there was something about it that made me interested to watch it. So when it came out on DVD I got it. I was totally wrong about the film. It was really good! It was sweet, funny, and cute. It was also a perfect movie for children. There was very little to no cursing, no risqué scenes, and no vulgar images. It had one sweet kiss in the end, and that was all it needed. It was the perfect romantic-comedy!

A Fairytale
The Wilhern family has been cursed for ages. A long time ago, a witch placed a curse that would make the next girl born into the family to have the face of a pig. The only way to lift the curse is if one of her own loves her, which Penelope's family thinks means blueblood or a rich family. The whole family has been terrified ever since. When Penelope (Christina Ricci) was born with the curse, the media goes wild. Everyone is trying to get pictures of the pig baby. Penelope's parents fake her death and keeps her in their mansion where she entertains herself. Now, Penelope is twenty-five, and her parents are trying to get her to marry so the curse will be broken. But every man who sees her runs for their lives and never comes back. When Edward Vanderman (Simon Woods) is introduced to her, he too runs away only to report to the police and media that there is a horrible pig faced monster living in the Wilhern mansion. Vanderman and Lemon (Peter Dinklage), a news reporter, team up to try and get into the mansion to get a picture of Penelope. The accidentally mistake Johnny (James McAvoy) for the gambler and blueblood, Max Campion. Johnny, who is in need of some money, agrees to get a photo of her. When "Max" meets Penelope, he is shocked by her charm and decides not to help Lemon and Vanderman, but Penelope takes his actions to mean that he too is scared of her. She flees from her home and meets some people who aren't afraid of her. When Penelope comes out of hiding, the world embraces her. Everyone loves her. Vanderman's father incourages him to prospose so the won't be hated by his son's cruel words. Penelope agrees but later back out. As her mother tries to reason with her, Penelope says that she likes herself the way she is. Amazingly, her pig face disappears, and she becomes normal. She later becomes a teacher and horticulturiest. While at a costume party she meets Johnny, who is still unaware of her transformation. He begins to tell her that he was still in love with "this" girl but was unable to give her what she wanted, to be free. Penelope removes her mask, and she and Johnny live happily ever after.
The Cast
Penelope's cast was great! Christina Ricci did an amazing job as well as working with her pig nose. James McAvoy, Peter Dinklage, and Simon Woods also did a great job. Catherine O'Hara and Richard E. Grant played Penelope's parents, while Reese Witherspoon, who produced the film, also made an appearance as on of Penelope's friends.