Spice Girls - Il film

I've liked the Spice Girls for years, but I'm not sure why. Ordinarily, I don't care for their brand of dance-pop fluff, but somehow they make it sound good. Regardless of what anyone says, they are talented singers and dancers, and they show that numerous times. They're also pretty and most of them wear outfits that show a lot. And while they're not accomplished actresses, they are simply adorable.

I don't think anyone intended this movie to be taken seriously. It's just good clean (well, slightly naughty) fun. Roger Moore comes the closest to giving a good performance, in a role that appears to be spoofing Bond villains. Just in case we don't get the joke, he pets a long-haired cat.

One of the funniest scenes has the girls complaining about people thinking they fit the stereotypical image people have of them. Of course, Emma says this while on a swing in a three-year-old's fantasy world.

The girls actually show they have intelligence. Or do they? I thought Melanie B was the one with brains. She's no better off than the others!

Another humorous incident: Victoria can't make up her mind whether to wear the short black Gucci dress or the short black Gucci dress. Emma suggests she wear the short black Gucci dress. Problem solved!

Of course, the girls are being harassed by the tabloids, whose top personnel are shown being evil.

And then there are the guys pitching their idea for a Spice Girls movie. Some of what we see is supposedly their imagination. Including a Dukes of Hazzard style incident with a bus, which was done so cheaply it's obviously not real.

In the closing credits, the girls are actually more talented delivering dialogue because they are being themselves, not merely playing exaggerated versions of themselves. I've never seen communication with the movie audience quite like this!

It's not for people looking for Shakespeare. But if you want to laugh and hear music that is bubbly and upbeat, this is pretty good.

I'm not even kidding, just think of any adjective and it probably accurately describes some aspect of this movie. That's about the only input I can possibly give, because describing it in any other way would portray it as "good", or "bad", or "somewhere in the middle", when really it isn't on that spectrum at all; it just is what it is, and that's that.

When I was seven and this movie came out, it was the biggest thing around. Everyone wanted to be the Spice Girls. After they split up and weren't cool anymore, everyone forgot about the movie. But ho, ho, what's this? Years later, here I am cleaning out my old Disney and Barney videos and stumble across my old friend that I used to watch everyday. Even at my old age of fifteen, never failed to crack me up.

Obviously, this isn't meant to be a contender for Oscars. Anyone can see that. But I can't find much to hate about a movie that's practically the visual to go along with the song "Girls just wanna have fun." That's all it is, fun. And a lot of good fun at that. It's just a guilty pleasure, and it's so much fun to watch it with old friends singing into hair brushes and wearing feather boas. You just need to keep in mind that it was publicity for their new record and it's not meant to be one of those heavy movies you over-analyze. Recommendation: This movie is much funner when you watch it jumping up and down on a couch like a seven year old.

While I found Ginger and Posh Spice hot growing up I wasn't really particularly a Spice Girls fan. But as years went on I found myself liking them and their music and thinking back on them fondly.

This film came out around the peak of their popularity in 1997. It's a pretty silly movie with a silly plot but as I said it's a guilty pleasure for me

... but that statement alone immediately makes it superior to any number of "Wannabe" (Arggghhhh!) Oscar-winners that are actually pretentious cr*p. I know it's a cliche, but this film has a clear idea of its place in the scheme of things, and it knows it's not got a shot of toppling "Citizen Kane" from the public's affections, so it just sets out to have fun. Whether the audience will be doing the same is a different matter entirely. If you can stomach random sequences strung together with barely an excuse for a plot, and countless jokes that can most kindly be described as of the 'hit & miss' variety, you should be alright. Hey, if you watch this movie of your own volition and STILL feel you are justified in complaining that it's awful, you deserve everything you get. Myself, I think it's churlish to overly criticise such a harmless piece of fluff that is obviously desperate to be liked. So I won't. It's about as good as could have been reasonably expected. (There I go, damning it with faint praise!)

Incidentally, of the girls, only Victoria shows the ability to at least deliver a line adequately. Having said that, don't expect her to be appearing in a Scorsese movie anytime soon (There I go again... !)

We'll just ignore the fact that numerous actors belittle their art in various cameo appearances. (Grant, Hoskins & Cumming, I'm looking at you!) Notice I didn't include Roger Moore in that group. I didn't think it appropriate. After all, this is just his level.