SPICE WORLD (1998) Reviewed by Chuck Dowling Copyright 1998 - The Jacksonville Film Journal URL:http://users.southeast.net/~chuckd21/
Cast: The Spice Girls, Richard E. Grant, Roger Moore, George Wendt, Mark McKenney, Bob Hoskins, Meat Loaf, Elvis Costello Written by: Kim Fuller Directed by: Bob Spiers Running Time: 93 minutes My Rating: ** out of *****
"Spice World" is just one long promotional film for the British girl band The Spice Girls. Sure there's a hint of humor in there every once in a while. Actually, there's a couple of pretty good jabs AT The Spice Girls. But overall, who cares? Not me.
If you don't know by now, The Spice Girls sing songs of love and friendship and responsibility and girl power, yet dress like streetwalkers from a lower middle class neighborhood. In "Spice World" they ride around in their big tour bus, whining about having to do photo shoots and give interviews. Amazingly, all the talk they do about keeping commitments and upholding responsibilities only really applies to fun things, things they WANT to do, not things they are required to do to keep earning money. And they keep babbling about "girl power" when they should really be talking about "cleavage power". I mean, if all it takes is girl power, then why are they only one thread away from bursting out of their skimpy outfits? The film is PG, but really with only some very minor dialogue changes and scene extentions, you'd have yourself one raunchy adult film.
By the way, there's something in the opening credits which says "Based on an idea by The Spice Girls". Wow, they got idea credit! I certainly wish that was a new trend in Hollywood... giving credit for simply having the thought "Say girls, let's make a movie!"
The supporting cast fares well. Roger Moore (the real James Bond) mockingly plays the cliche-spewing "Chief" of The Spice Girls, and darn it all, he's fun to watch. Mark McKenney also is good as a screenwriter trying to pitch film ideas to the band's manager (Richard E. Grant). One question though: George Wendt?
You'd think that "Spice World" would envoke one of two reactions in people. If you like the Spice Girls, you'll like them even more afterwards. And if you can't stand them (like me), then "Spice World" will really make you sick. Oddly, the audience I saw the film with, roughly 50 twelve year-old girls, sat in silence for the entire film. Well, not the two who sat directly behind me. They kept muttering "This is stupid" over and over again. Maybe there is hope for humanity after all. [PG]
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