Je t'aime à l'italienne

Bad girl Maddie is just about to wed hunky Italian Raf, and goody-two-shoes sister Taylor flies in, just to discover Raf, incidentally, is her holiday fling from three years ago and, even more incidentally, the love of her life. This is the ridiculous premise of this feel-good musical film which is also a blatant Mamma Mia rip off. The wedding, the songs, the locations, it is impossible not to see the link between the two movies.

Flawed as Mamma Mia was, at least it could rely on heavyweight actors like Meryl Streep, Colin Firth and Pierce Brosnan. The cast of this movie is nowhere near as good , and what the movie lacks in the embarrassingly simple plot, it fails to make up with chemistry and charm.

This paper-thin feel-good movie no doubt hopes to cash in on its many similarities with worldwide hit movie Mamma Mia, and both movies basically works as advertisements for holidays in Italy, showcasing breathtakingly beautiful settings.

All in all, the movie is not without its little charms and the 80s soundtrack surely appeals to many, so for an evening of feel-good fun this might just work for you, just don't expect any form of depth, thoughtfulness, cultural weight or lasting memories. I'm pretty sure you will have forgotten all about this movie in a couple of months.

Well, that's because it's the only musical movie of the summer.

They wanted to make a movie for the female gender, so if you're a male and you're forced to see this you better relax your butt and let it happen. The girls want to watch this to see Giulio Berruti, because he is handsome as ****. I'm a guy, 100% heterosexual, but if you deny that this man belongs to the top of our class, you are lying.

The acting is average. Every character looks like he is living in a fairy tale, so everyone is happy and starts singing at random and sometimes inappropriate moments. You notice that every actor in this movie is enjoying their work. They act playful and enthusiastic, so you can't help yourself smiling sometimes. The dark side of this acting style is that you don't take the more emotional moments very seriously. It's a happy-family-summer-musical-movie after all, so everything is going to be be okay. Oh yeah, the jokes are horrible though.

The movie itself is not that bad. I would call it a budget version of Mama Mia!, because the A-list actors were the main reason people wanted to see that. There's one location, one annoying girl and at the end a wedding with a 'twist' that won't surprise anyone.

It's extremely cheesy, but if you fancy a brainless movie night, this is not the worst choice you can make. Don't see it in theaters though, unless you want so see Berruti's abs in widescreen-size, and don't forget the alcohol so you can suddenly sing along with everything.

Watchable... Nice settings, photography. Songs was best of overplayed Radio songs of the 80's. However... this film reminded me of a "The Asylum" film studio production of an attempt capitalize on the Video sales of "Momma Mia"! The problem is it is not an Asylum Film's production.

What is missing from this modern nostalgia musical was the 'Major Actors' which the audience could immediate identify with. I felt as if some kids got together and said.. "Ha, we can do that and we don't even have to hire FAMOUS actors"... the attempt failed.

As for why "Momma Mia" works and this musicals fails is, I guess it is easy to forgive "James Bond" or "Karen Silkwood" for not having the any musical ability or voice. It's not so easy to forgive basically "unknowns" actors for destroying the songs we have heard so often. I can not say "Songs we Love"... this may also be a bit of the problem. Though the songs were 'Radio Play' hits... the songs lack the cohesion of being by one "Group" like Abba in MM. A few songs I loved, but some I actually hated having to hear again and even cringed at hearing song so off key.

All is not lost, as stated, it is a watchable movie. Musicals seldom are box office draws. I must really applaud even this attempt which is better than many NEW Musicals.

I checked movie summary right away after the first song to see it said anything about being a musical, which it did not. One right after the other, they kept on coming. Seemed like they burst into song every 5 minutes. I probably would have enjoyed the movie had it not be for all the singing. I don't like musicals, so I fast forwarded through most of it. We looked it up, there are 14 songs they belt out through out the movie. Don't get me wrong they are songs I like, I just detest musicals. Storyline of the movie was good and what got me to watch it but I probably wouldn't have started the movie had I knew before hand.

I guess most people have not even heard of this musical movie. It is similar to Mama Mia without the big stars, and with pop 80's song instead of just ABBA. People from my age group will recognize all the songs. The interesting thing is this movie has a character similar to Pierce Brosnan in Mama Mia. Can you recall his singing talent? I found it fun to guess and recognize all the songs. However, the dance choreography is quite standard without much wow effect. The acting of some makes you feel like watching high school musical. Overall, I enjoyed watching it but not too many repeat in the future, which is rare for a musical movie.