SPICE WORLD 1997
A film review by Timothy Voon
Copyright 1998 Timothy Voon
1 :-) :-) for pure moronic fun
Cast Melanie Brown, Emma Bunton, Melanie Chisholm, Geri Haliwell, Victoria Addams, Richard E. Grant, Alan Cumming, Roger Moore. Written by Jamie Curtis, Kim Fuller. Directed by Bob Spiers
Let's begin by saying that I am not a fan of the SPICE GIRLS. I don't know their names, and after watching this movie I still don't know their names. However, for the sake of posterity, there's the blonde one who likes fluffy toys, the red haired one with big boobs, the dark skinned one fixated with hair, the dark haired one fixated with clothes and the other dark haired one who does somersaults ...... and they can all sing even if they can't act. Strangely this tact works because the girls are being themselves and they want us to laugh at them, if not with them.
So I laughed at them and for all the wrong reasons. This screwy, corn ball, wacky, silly movie is very pretentious and very them. The most annoying part of the SPICE experience was waiting in line with two hundred screaming adolescents, shoving and pushing their way into the cinema. Embarrassingly, I laughed at all the silly jokes and they didn't, but surprisingly I actually enjoyed myself. Maybe I'm just a sucker for tacky British humour, but if I could rename the movie it would be CARRY ON SPICE.
So who are the SPICE GIRLS? If you've seen the series SEVEN UP, they are reminiscent of the three working class girls who end up pregnant, divorced and obese 21 years later. I'm not in any way implying that this will befall SPICE, but my theory is - in their twenties they look like Marilyn, when they're forty they'll look like Roseanne. Imagine a cow trying to chew grass and recite lines at the same time, well that's how SPICE GIRLS speak.
The cameo appearances made by who's who of British song and screen is one of this movie's highlights. To think they showed support and rallied to the aid of the girls continues to baffle me. But if money can buy loyalty, then the girls have plenty of that. The other main roles worth mentioning are Roger Moore who gets to play with animals, and a hysterical Richard E. Grant who manages the girls. Add to this some London sight seeing, a SPICE BUS, an evil media baron, scenes copied from SPEED, MISSION IMPOSSIBLE, GREASE, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS; throw in themes about motherhood, pregnancy, friendship and loyalty and you have the volatile cocktail that is SPICE WORLD – you'll either hate it or love it.
Timothy Voon e-mail: stirling@netlink.com.au
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews