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While the premise for a film loosely based on a play based on the songs of a singing group from the 70's sounds admirable, the fans of each group will have something to complain about with this humorous little entry into the musical franchise. While I enjoyed the movie, I left the theater feeling a bit empty. The film is about Donna; (played by the marvelous Meryl Streep)
a working woman, who runs a two bit island hotel in the middle of Greece. Oh and did I mention she is a single mother? Yup, this little piece of drama will play itself out later in the play, I mean FILM in a few moments but when shown in the film version, it is hesitant and boring. As it turns out Donna's daughter (played by foxy little Amanda Seyfried) is getting married, after 20 long years without a father figure to look up to (or to enhance the plot, however you want to look at it.) Sophie rummages through her mother's diary for clues on how she came to be. While I find this plot device a little far fetched (who keeps a diary after 21 years? Honestly it just takes up space, and you can't make very many new entries can you? It should be full by then, toss it and fill a new one!) how does Sophie know which Diary to pick? I may be nitpicking here, but it is all a slight observation.
Moving on, Sophie soon finds out that her mother, being the tramp she was all those years ago, finds out that she has 3 potential fathers, Harry,(played by Colin Firth) Sam (played by the always charming Pierce Brosnan, of OO7 fame) and Bill (Stellan Skarsgard) after a moment of intense and erratic thought Sophie decides to invite the three men to her wedding in hopes of finding her real father. Donna, is shocked to find the three men after twenty long years in her goat house. (What, a small letter couldn't suffice? a phone call? The characters seem to lack certain social graces.) After a few peeks at the weathered travelers, Meryl breaks into song (Mamma Mia, here I go again) to say Meryl is a gifted performer would be an understatement and a crime on my part. She is Ravishing! Her dancing and subtle graces are a delight to see and this film has no problem embracing that talent. After a few moments of singing and dancing we move on to Donna having a panic attack, wishing the men would go away so she can continue preparing for her daughter's wedding. While she does this, Sam notices sees a bit of himself in Sophie, recognizes her obvious talents and contemplates the possibility of her being his daughter. While I won't spoil the rest of the film for you, I will highlight some of the film's better moments. Seeing Pierce Brosnan singing for the first time on film was a slight shock. I was quite impressed to be honest, he has a slight Irish twang to his voice and it weaves beautifully into song. Here's hoping he is able to land another singing gig sometime in the near future. Colin Firth who I have seen in previous films is a delight as well, he has a subtle charm that cannot be improvised and his singing is a delightful sort that keeps you warm on a breezy day. Stellan Skarsgard, an actor I am not too familiar with, (that and I am too lazy to research at the moment) is also amusing to see. Streep's old pals from across the pond are Rosie (Julie Waters) and Tanya
(Christine Baranski) The film itself has quite a bit of fluff, which is nice but tends to get in the way some of the time. The Cinematography is gorgeous at times, with Greek shores and an enchanting church set upon an escalated precipice above the water. There are a few scenes that look a little fake but again this could be my nitpicking again. Some of the characters are given a slight bit of unneeded depth whereas in the play they are not as deep as they are in the film. While this offers a few moments of amusement, I think it distracts from the overall narrative. That being said some of the characters are a bit annoying at times and I wish they haven't been given camera time. The song and dance segments are juvenile at best, while the vocals offer some good feelings, I didn't care about some of the choreography, too rushed and a flurry of clothing on incredibly fit bodies. All in all I liked the film, it is good for a few laughs, has a likable cast (for the most part) and a score that will keep you dancing all night.

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leave it in a comment, it can be anything from Metal to Classical, and i'm going to tally up the results and make it into a poll dealy, just out of pure boredom

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Santa Cruz, California for as long as I can remember has been a bright spot for Northern California tourism. And why not? It has several interesting things to do there, copious in beaches, restaurants, and of course, home the famed Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk (a somewhat overrated place, but you can still have fun there). It's a very surfer/skater-friendly place, loaded with surf and skate shops as well as many skate parks here and there throughout the town, so kids interested in that stuff will have alternate things to do besides riding The Giant Dipper 14-kajillion times. (I've been to one of them, and it was actually quite a good park).

When I was younger, my family and relatives from around the area would vacation in Santa Cruz for the 4th of July nearly every year. We would go to a certain beach, barbeque food, other miscellanous beach stuff, then later at night, watch fireworks or light off some of our own. Though it's been some time since we did that, my family decided to take a short trip down there for this 4th of July. And when we got there...well, things had changed in the last few years.

We got to Santa Cruz and drove to the beach that we had always visited in the past, only to find that the entire perimeter of it had been fenced off and was heavily patroled by police. What the hell was this? Seriously, there wasn't any way we could get into the beach albiet two or three entrances short of floating on our food coolers around a nearby rock wall and hoping the current takes us to the shore. There were still plenty of beach-goers, but seriously, they looked like a bunch of caged animals. It looked as though the nearest prison decided to rent out the beach to let the inmates have a 4th of July Field Day. 

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