rhona-543-574299

(2012-04-29 18:42:50)

Creative bankruptcy

My biggest concern about Fame 2009 is the utter creative bankruptcy andlack of creativity from Hollywood directors and producers alike.Re-makes or re-issues are only showing to me that they lost the lastcreative bone in their body with their last surgical procedure (whichwas more than likely a lobotomy).I can just imagine the conversation surrounding the so-called"creative" process: Uhm ... we need to make a movie that's going tomake some money. OK, what's popular at the moment? Well, Highschoolmusical and step-up are definites with the young market. OK, so whatare we going to do? You mean, you want me to think of a new idea? Areyou crazy? No ... hey, how about a re-make? When I was a teenager therewere a lot of song and dance musicky stuff. How about fishing one ofthem out and re-doing it? If one of my students did that in their artproject, they would get a VERY low mark! Fame was relevant to aspecific time and context, commenting on the zeitgeist of an era inwhich relevant comments about art, creativity and growing up were made.It concerns me when forty-somethings try to re-live their teenagefantasies by trying to be hip and with-it to a younger generation andre-heating past films to a 21st century audience, but also the notionthat I keep picking up from young people that anything older than 5years is ancient.Good movies from the past do not have to be re-made or re-issued: theyare fine as they are. Find your own voice, your own ideas and your ownvision of the world: THAT is creativity! A more relevant approach couldhave been to determine the role of performing arts schools in the 21stcentury: are they relevant? Do they offer us "fame" (hey, everyone willget their 15 minutes thereof) or do they still cultivate performingarts the way they are meant to? Or has that become irrelevant? Anyway,if I wanted to watch a rehearsal highlights package of a high schoolmusical (because this is essentially what Fame 2009 is), I wouldn'thave bothered to pay entrance fee to a cinema: I would have waited tillmy own school's rehearsal week and made a cam cording thereof -- somuch cheaper and so much more meaningful!

raysond

(2012-04-29 11:22:33)

A Remake of a Classic 80's film,that falls flat quick.

There is a general consensus that remakes are in trouble. The remake of"Fame" even though it masquerades as a reinvention,is no exception. Thelast time "Fame" was in theatres was in back in 1980. With thedirection of Alan Parker,and at the time an unknown cast,this wasindeed a preppy tale trailing a bunch if gifted kids at the prestigiousNew York performing arts high school had some electrifying energy aswell as some incredible musical numbers and some pizzaz. The movie alsointroduce some newcomers at the time including the theatrical debut ofa teenage looking Irene Cara. That was back in 1980. What was oncefresh and innovative and newly created then is now tired and dull,notto mention a lack of interest. And it shows in this new version,whichwas hyped up during its theatrical trailer is hopeless and completelypathetic. Basically the film follows the same exact formula.You have thousands of teenagers that are united by the same dream:attending the New York High School of the Performing Arts. OverTen-Thousand auditions,200 places-which was a very selected schoolwhere only one in a chance are accepted where survival is the fittestto succeed. In this version,every student thinks that he or she has aspecial talent and from there the culture reeks with everyone's sweatydesire to accomplished the impossible goal......the desire for fame.The style of this film opens like an American Idol-esquire opening withthe scene proves otherwise. Other flaws are abound in this movie and itshows in this remake in which my opinion should haven't been tamperedwith or remade in the first place. First,there are flaws that arecringe-worthy attempts to take some of the material out of its originalcontext. Unsure whether it wants to be a "mock" documentary,or justdrop trou and be a musical,this film falters on both counts. The onlytime the screen jolts awake are moments when the director KevinTancharoen finally and actually lets someone perform. The film doeshave some real talent. Naturi Naughton excels as an aspiring singer andKherington Payne shows some innovative and unbelievable moves to musicof some of today's hottest pop and R&B talents. But the rest of it really falls flat. And some of the cast members thatincludes Broadway and Tony-award winner Bebe Neuwirth, along with MeganMullally, Kelsey Grammar, Charles S. Dutton, and Debbie Allen cannotsave this picture. Not even the cameo appearance by Irene Cara(who wasin the original film along with Debbie Allen)wasn't even the risk. Allthe singing and dancing can't skew the fact that none of the unknownscannot act a lick, a fact that which ruins the point of doing a classic1980's flick like this in the first place. The fact that this filmneeded actors and a narrative that could have save this picture becausethe dancers and singers are just brilliant,and it could have save thispicture from falling forward. By the way,where are the gay people here?The ones that aren't ready to commit suicide? Who remembers Leroy?

Rob Daniel

(2012-04-29 23:20:21)

Fans of the original won't care if this lives forever, but when the kids' High School Musical DVDs finally become too scratched to play, this should be waiting in the wings.

NelsonH

(2012-04-29 10:51:28)

THE TRAILER WAS BETTER THAN THE MOVIE!!!

I must say that I was soooo looking forward to this movie. I can remember, as a child I used to watch Fame, the series on TV...(I'm only 30, guys!!!) and I always liked Irene Cara and Debbie Allen. I was excited about a renewal of thos trying times that every hopeful performer goes thru in order to be the best that they can be. We understand that is what they want to achieve..>SUCCESS! But we also need to know them, as well..We need to know what happens to them at the end..>Was it worth it, going to that school? We saw who didn't make it..Did we see who made it? It was all to fast, and I think we were robbed of the intimacy with the lead characters, and we actually got more out of the supporting players(the iowa ballety dancer, Megan Mullaly's character as a teacher, etc.)The musical numbers were really good actually, and that isone thing that could have saved this movie from being a TOTAL failure, even though it wouldn't have been SO UNBEARABLE if the musical numbers were mediocre. But in the end, the movie was entertaining.

forchristsake9

(2012-04-19 23:33:51)

Fame seems pretty awful

Don't be fooled by the trailers, Fame is not as dazzling and inspiringas it may seem. Strip away the fancy lighting, music and camera workand you're left with nothing less than a cast of one dimensional,mundane, and unlikeable characters. The movie doesn't give enough timefor any of the characters to develop and therefore, I ended up feelinglike I barely knew the characters at all, even at the end of the film.I don't even think I could name all of them. The actual script anddialogue is not any better and the plot feels forced and irrelevant towhat the movie claims to be about. From the looks of it, no one in themovie is cut out for actual "fame" with the exception of Payne'scharacter who is portrayed as an arrogant and selfish dancer. The casthad a lot of potential to become very likable characters but because ofthe poor script, their performances fall flat and feel fake. I enteredthe movie with hopes of being entertained even if it was on a strictly"crowd pleaser" level. I left feeling like I had just wasted an hourand a half of my life learning that "success is love." There are noreal resolutions to any of the character's trials and tribulations.Life must suck at this performing arts school because no one learnsanything particularly profound or life changing. Don't waste your timewith this movie, and if you still want to, at least wait for it to comeout on DVD. The large screen, dark theater, and popcorn won't make thismovie any better than the dud that it is.

weronews

(2012-04-19 15:43:21)

What Do You Know? It Does Live Forever.

In 1980, "Fame" was the little movie that could. It developed animmediate cult following, made Irene Cara a star, the title tune won anAcademy Award, and a short-lived television series emerged. So was itan inspired idea to redo a movie that hasn't lost its popularity overthe years? Let's just say this contemporary version is redundant as amakeover, but as a stand-alone film it's unadulterated fun. It featuresboth Cara hits ("Out Here on My Own," "Fame"), here sung by NaturiNaughton, a highly gifted performer, who is surrounded by a talentedyoung ensemble of dancers, musicians and - duh! - actors. Besides, it'salways a joy to see Bebe Neuwirth, Kelsey Grammar, and William S.Dutton strutting their stuff. But it's Will & Grace's Megan Mullallywho leaves you holding your breath. Her rendition of "You TookAdvantage of Me" stops the show.

Andrea Gronvall

(2012-04-15 02:22:52)

The high school is so sanitized that there are no drugs, cutthroat competition, or-inconceivably for a theatrical milieu-no gay students.

Christy Lemire

(2012-04-14 19:32:58)

Familiar? Yes, but not nearly as vapid as most of the musical material out there that encourages teens to believe fame is all that matters.

Fionnuala Halligan

(2012-04-08 07:07:03)

Tancharoen's background shows and steps in to save the film: highlights include an infectious rap in the canteen, a Hallowe'en "Carnevil," and a show-stopper in a club, courtesy of Naughton.

peter0105

(2012-04-07 16:25:07)

Started really strong but could not keep the pace

I was really enthralled by the beginning of this film. I found itgreat. Great dancing, great music, very good acting, especially theprofs. I thought I was on the way to a classic, like SlumdogMillionaire.However, along the way, the film lost its pace. It became too focusedon little stories, moving away from the art. Granted, you can't reallyhave a non stop dancing and music but indeed the story line justdrifted too far off the artistic performance which should have remainedthe main focus.I liked the way the black singer kept faithful to her team mate inspite of tempting offers - which gave way to one of the best artisticperformance of the film at the end - and there were many of those,which is why I give it an 8 in spite of the weaker story line.A truly enjoyable film about which mostly the rhythm and music willlinger in memory.

Peter Paras

(2012-03-31 11:41:52)

The '80s sensation is reborn for the High School Musical generation. But sadly, this one's all fame, no journey.

Betty Jo Tucker

(2012-03-31 00:14:03)

To me, this updating of the original 'Fame' beautifully highlights the joys and heartbreaks that come with dedication to the performing arts.

(2012-03-22 08:08:01)

They should officially change the name to LAME.

okay.... so first things first.... I was invited to the N.Z. premieretonight in Auckland of the new "Fame" reboot or remake or whatever youwant to call it. I thought free food, a few celebrities to stalk andsome free beers and then the movie to end it all, sounds like a goodnight. I grew up with the 80's fame on t.v. I saw Leroy rocking itweekly on screen... so yeah I was interested to see how they re-brandedthis film for the new millennium. To be frank, I was not expecting"Fame" to be an academy award masterpiece but I was still veryintrigued after watching the trailer, the music sounded cool, theatmosphere seemed a little charged the trailer was cut nicely... butsadly... thats where all the excitement ended in the trailer.....This movie is b- to- the -oring.!! BORING! So I will be mentioning somespoilers so stop reading here if that's an issue for you.... got anissue grab a tissue.Basically they take a bunch of very talented up and coming singers,dancers, actors etc and they cram 4 freaking years of this elusive,over the top, hardest school in the world to get accepted to into aroughly 90 minute film. Every 25 minutes was one year.. starting with a"freshman year" title on the screen... then about 25 minutes later fadeto black and "sophomore year" then about 25 minutes later "junior" etcetc... this spread the movie extremely thin... although the leads hairgrew longer or haircuts changed so you knew they were older and moremature.They have the clichГѓВ© young black guy who is full of torment and angstthat his father left him, who sits all melancholy in the stairwellwhile everyone else is in the cafeteria dancing on tables and pluggingin guitars and hitting bongos. There is the young black woman who isbeing forced to play classical piano by her parents when all she reallywants to do is be free and sing her heart out... because no one caresabout her needs. There is the typical geeky video guy who always seemsto have a camera in his hands when you see him, the gay male balletdancer who no matter how hard he tries cannot cut it and impress histeacher.... blah blah blah and the young girl actress wannabe singerwho starts singing in a little tiny voice all shy and quiet, so youwould expect that bam she will find herself and come out of her shelllike her teachers have been telling her the ENTIRE 4 YEARS!!!!! BUTNO.... nothing changes... she doesn't get a big voice, stays wooden andtimid and shy... I mean seriously I thought this school was supposed tobe only accepting the best of the best! They just spent the first 20minutes showing us auditions and having the school principal telleveryone that thousands audition but only a few hundred are accepted!!There are so many cheesy moments, from the black guy saying "aiightt"to the "I just want my parents to be proud of me" to the boyfriend "I'mjust going to sing to you and give you a big hug and then cartoonrabbits will come out and doves will lower a silk scarf around yourneck and there will be world peace and God bless you tiny tim"...what?!?! Okay so maybe I'm going a little over board but there was morecheese in this then a stuffed crust pizza from domino's.I think the biggest problem with this film is you walk away with a "whocares" mindset. The fact that they have approx. 10 main roles andfollow them for their four years of tuition which is crammed into 90minutes of movie is so thin... you just don't care about the charactersat all because you don't get to know them. Each person maybe gets about15-20 minutes screen time max. Then you are left wondering so whatabout him or what about her or did she make the album or did he getkicked out or did they stay together or how did the father handle thenews????!? The story is not interesting, it extremely average, there isZERO edge to this reboot.... no pizazz no hype no excitement. It'splain dull.I'm sure that young girls aged between 5-13 will like this, is this who'fame' is catered towards??? I mean if tweens is the fame targetdemographic then it may do okay for a week or two. Sadly the biggestaudience reaction from tonight's "Fame" premiere was when the "NewMoon" trailer screened before the start.Some good things..... The singing is amazing... the dancing is as youwould expect incredible but over all that's it. The acting a big thumbsdown, I came away from this feeling like it was a very expensive madefor TV movie. The story is all over the place, spread top thin andunlike the trailer again I say there is no edge, It's like a pilot fora new TV series... actually.... is that what it is suppose to be?!?FAME is LAME!

Film-Slave

(2012-03-21 10:46:12)

As to be expected

Tons of homogeneous talent -- the tooth bleach is blinding. No story,no rhythm (oddly enough), over-processed young actors with expensivehaircuts and wardrobe.This film isn't about a school with young hopefuls, it's about afictitious institution packed full of painfully beautiful pimple-freeyoung people.In the original film, a handful of personalities burst onto screen andtheir characters were revealed as layers peeled away.In this version, tons of hotties are thrown in and popped like corn.Nothing memorable occurs, no great songs or outstanding characters.This should have been called "Fame: Another High School Musical" Lookedup the director on IMDb.com and he produced Briney Spears' tours --talk about unoriginal, packed with fluff, and emotionally depthless. Hebrings all those qualities to this film.

Jackie K. Cooper

(2012-03-18 06:20:22)

Remakes generally get compared to the originals and sometimes, as in this case, they don't measure up

Dazz Camponi

(2012-03-17 18:48:08)

This may not live forever but it's good enough as a one-off

If any of you are wondering, this is not like High School Musical.Shockingly, this is a very good remake (well, I wouldn't say it's aremake but an updated version but many people call it a remake). Thestudents are very likable and the acting is so-so, the actress whostuck out with her fantastic singing voice was Naturi Naughton and herversion of the songs "Out Here On My Own" and "Fame" were brilliant.The dance sequences were phenomenal and actually made you want to getoff your seat and join them. The storyline was good and it sent theusual message this type of movie sends and delivers the whole 'you canmake it if you believe in you' message which worked as it would in thismovie.I'm genuinely surprised as this was better than I expected it to be butit's not better than the original. My criticisms are that one or two ofthe actors had their moments of great acting and then it went to poorhowever this wouldn't put you off the movie as the singing and dancingtriumphs. Another criticism is that there wasn't enough Naturi Naughtonfor me, I wanted to hear her sing more, her voice is phenomenal! Forme, I thought it was fantastic and I'm shocked at how much I liked it.If you're a fan of the 80's Fame, then you'll love this! This is twohours of feel-good fun.Read more reviews at: www.dudedazzmoviereviews.wordpress.com

missige

(2012-03-15 21:30:19)

FAME - maybe not

Okay, having seen the original Fame a number of times and having sungthe theme song aloud in public on a few embarrassing occasions, Iguessed that I would probably not be a big fan of the Fame re-make.But, nothing could have prepared me for the sheer awfulness that wasthis film. Two friends from work and I went to go see it and all three of us satthere, mouths open in disbelief that this piece of twaddle actuallymade it onto the big screen (or any screen).There is absolutely nothing endearing to say about this poor, scum of afilm that managed to plummet the legend that is FAME into a murkypuddle of repulsive acting, uninspired singing and dancing and sheerlack of substance. The characters are uninteresting, and unbelievable(apart from the classically trained pianist turned singer, none of theother PA kids have an ounce of real talent). I can't even recall thenames of any of the characters, because I was that uninterested intheir over-the-top, cheesy, teenage angst performances. I found myselfupset that the kid with the imitation flock of seagulls haircut wassaved from jumping in front of a subway train.I feel for former Frasier star Kelsey Grammar, whose cameo performanceaptly reflects his regret at agreeing to this shoddy piece of cinema,and the under-used, and abused Megan Mullaly who got my only snicker ofa laugh throughout the entire film for a sarcastic remark. As for the story lines - they were weak, poorly-developed (at one pointthe blonde ballerina, who we think may have been dating one of the PAstudents, just disappears from the film and no one seems to notice orcare). The characters of Marko and his pretentious, overly-actedgirlfriend had all the cheese, and none of the chemistry (read actingtalent) to pull off an honest romance. As for the choreography, simple, pedestrian and definitely not what youwould expect from the top performing arts students in the country.Personally, the burlesque, slutty dance performance towards the end ofthe film was in poor taste and, in my opinion, a meager attempt by thedirector to gain some audience interest - sadly to no avail.Dance films are supposed to inspire and have a general reputation offeel-good cinema, and all Fame made me feel was anger - at one point myfriend actually drop-kicked the screen (I am not exaggerating). To the scriptwriters who wrote this film, the producers whocommissioned it, the director who took it on, the future D-List actorswho were cast in it, and everyone who contributed in some way to themaking of this film - you should be ashamed ...

Masterofschemes24

(2012-03-15 17:55:58)

OK, but not spectacular.

I really enjoyed seeing how talented they were, and it gets you feelingrhythmic. At first, I thought it was going to be a good movie, seeinghow the auditions went. But, after that part and they went ontofreshman year, I got a little disappointed. They showed the students'problems, and what they're going through to make it to be famous, butit almost seems like the director got bored of the movie itself, andjust skipped through a lot in the movie. You don't see how thestudents' problems were faced and how they were solved, you first seethem upset, and then at the end, they're happy and ready to graduate?That's not a very good plot, actually, there isn't a plot at all. I amupset with the movie, but the dancing was great. Overall, it really wasenjoyable.

Gary Thompson

(2012-03-12 17:55:44)

The new Fame has the feel of diluted imitation -- slick, superficial, short on heart.

David Cornelius

(2012-03-12 07:59:25)

It's as if the franchise was remade as a Pepsi commercial.