abchulett

Watching this mess, I became aware in the 3rd episode that I could not stand these characters. Either they were worthy of despising for being vapid or clueless. Even Matt Bomer, normally quite the charmer, can't escape the massive suckage surrounding him.

The so called talent behind the lens is to blame for this despised idiocy. What a load of mistakes in the guise of creativity. The script seems to have been cut into pieces and rearranged as a montage, much like the main character does with visual artwork in the first episode.

Save yourself, viewer. There be despair. Don't submit to the vortex of vapidity and cluelessness. Get thee to a punnery.

Really, I wanted to stop watching this tremendously stupid show. Every single episode has several plot holes, blunders, logical laughers, and jarring moments of disbelief. And that doesn't even touch the pseudoscientific nonsense.

But I just couldn't. SURELY the people behind this show were in on the joke. Unfortunately, the cast, crew, directors, and music score seem to be totally straight-faced...in a way that doesn't lead to "Airplane!" type laughs, even though much of it takes place on an airplane.

To quite Roger Ebert regarding his screenplay for "Beyond the Valley of the Dolls"--"It may not be very good, but at least it's not boring."

It's hard to win if you're a sequel. Usually such movies fall into 2 categories: Too much like the first one so we've already seen it, and so different from the first one that it has the wrong feel. This particular sequel starts out like the latter, but works its way around to the first one...but in a good way. Frankly, the similarities pretty much save this from being a real stinker. There are a few nitpicks; first movie featured one guy who had been a heavy metal rocker, a story line that is totally changed in this one, and there are several tunes in the first that are done again here. Also, the flashbacks to Donna's youth are so quickly intercut with Sophie's current day story that it gets confusing in places, especially for those of us old enough to vividly remember when Abba was THE pop band of the day. Eventually, however, it found its groove and we warmed to it. There are even some really nice moments sprinkled here and there to help you hang on while it does so, which helps make up for approximately the same number of awkward and forced moments (such as Grandma's entrance). All in all, a nice date movie for the middle-aged, with some laughs and feels. It's overall above average, and because it picks up steam as it goes this will leave you thinking it's better than it is.