Movie Monday: Fame

So, I'm a big fan of the Arts and a big fan of musicals, so the remake of the classic Fame should have been a shoo-in for me to love. Which is why I dragged husband to see it, over protests of how The Informant was such a better movie. Yes, ladies, you read correctly. I loved the first Fame so much that I willingly gave up a Matt Damon movie (sigh) to see it. And boy, was that a mistake.

The first Fame was filled with plot twists and character studies-- moments of real angst and real exhiliration. Moments that were painful for the audience-- and exciting. The new movie, which had a lot of potential, was nothing but a cop-out. There were no particularly interesting story lines, and even the ones they tried to mimic form the first movie (Coco sobbing as she let a man photograph her nude for her chance at a big break or Bruno and Mr. Zeferelli's argument over classic musiv vs. modern music) were handled so badly that they were superfluous to the plot instead of important to it.

Now, in case you hadn't noticed, I much prefer to spend Movie Mondays and Book Tuesdays talking about books and movies that I did like, biut this movie was so disappointing thta I couldn't resist saying something here. Not because it was an awful movie (I can still respect awful movies because they take risks. Riskys thatdon't pan out, mind you, but risks nonetheless). This movie, which played off the glory of its predecessor, didn't even do that. The word that comes to mind most, when I think about the movie, is Blah. Two hours of boring, blah, manufactured conflicts.

I can't believe I gave Matt Damon up for this.

So how about you? Did any of you see Fame this time around? Did you like it? If you haven't seen it, what movies have you seen in the theater lately? What do you recommend?