Search - Fame on DVD

Jeanne S. (ijeanne) from FORT THOMAS, AZ
Reviewed on 3/30/2010...

Yet another great movie with tons of singing and dancing. I haven't seen the older version or watched the TV show, but this was still an enjoyable film. The only thing I could fault it on was that I wanted to see more character development, but since it tried to focus on so many different students, there wasn't time to develop all of them fully.

1 of 1 member(s) found this review helpful.

Good But Not As Good As The Original

Movie Lover | USA | 12/15/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The remake was good but I didn't enjoy it as much as the original movie. I cared about Coco, Leroy, Doris, Bruno and the other characters in the first movie. I also bought the soundtrack. But I didn't get so caught up in the new characters lives while trying to become famous. I didn't even buy the new soundtrack.

However, it was worth seeing just to see/hear Megan Mullally sing. She is very talented, not only as an actor but a singer. It was good to see Debbie Allen again. She was in the original movie and TV series.

There were some great actors to watch, Charles S. Dutton, Kelsey Grammer and Bebe Neuwirth, who outshone the young cast. I found myself wanting to know more about them than the students.

The dancing was fun to watch and the music was good but I just didn't enjoy it as much as I did the original. Sometimes, a remake just isn't as good."

A pleasant and entertaining film but nothing memorable

Linda Linguvic | New York City | 09/28/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"When I think of the movie "Fame", I think of the song that still lingers in my mind from the original 1980 film. All I remember about it though was that it was about teenagers coming of age at the High School of Performing arts in New York City.

Yesterday I saw the 2009 version in a theater. The story was familiar but it seemed rather sanitized. And the only modern touches it had were some slight references to YouTube and texting. The stories of the individual students seemed stereotyped and have been done a million times before. There were a few poignant moments and some of the actors, although excellent, seemed a little old for their roles.

I spent the entire film waiting to hear the song "Fame" which still lingers in my mind after all these years. I had to wait until the very end, during the credits, to hear it though. And even though there were good production numbers throughout, there was nothing else memorable that I would feel like humming. I thought the dancing was wonderful and so was some of the acting, especially that of the actors playing the roles of the teachers.

Basically this was a pleasant and entertaining film. As far as my personal taste goes though, I can only give it a lukewarm recommendation
"

Really only a tease..

T. Distaso | North of Boston | 09/28/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"I was excited to go see this movie, and really did not know what to expect.
This would have made a much better new TV series than a movie. I would love to see it fleshed out as a TV series and get some real developement in characters and plot.
Unfortuntely it fell into that unsasifactory category where you saw most of the best dancing\singing parts on the theatrical teasers so you are left with virtually no WOW factors sitting and watching it in the theatre.

I was expecting more dancing and singing in the movie as a whole, but found that aspect to be disappointingly skimpy, with few actual "full" musical numbers.

I do not think they fleshed out any defining plot and came across aimless. I do not think they developed any one set of characters enough to hook you into any of the many moments they crammed into one film. They also Cliched too much in this movie. The Characters, the "hardships" the hook-ups most of which felt forced to fit a formula for the movie, the struggles. No one character carried any full personality, they all seemed cliched and safe. Part of that I feel, is because they made it an ensemble cast but made that core ensemble too large to get any real screen time to feel attached to anyone.
I feel like there was soooooo much potential here that was just left undeveloped and instead I was shown an "outline" of what could be a great TV series.
At time I felt confused as to if they were trying to make it feel like the same time as the origional Fame instead of completely updating it to be a modern twist, but caught todays conviences and clothing style..
I LOVED who they picked to be teachers and wanted more from them.. I liked most of the young actors but don't feel like I got to really know any of their characters or felt that many of them actually grew from freshamn year to senior year.
"