So I'm just done watching Fame the 2009 version.
The first I can think of to say is: You can't beat the original. That said it wasn't all bad. The music was great, the singing was great and the dancing was great but that doesn't make a good movie. Luckily enough most of the film was singing and dancing.
Good parts:
The CarnEvil - Catchy music and fantastic dance routines, the slow-mo shots as the dancers were lifted and flung around by their partners was stunning
The Club (where Denise sings in public and in front of her parents) - Nice song, great performance
Dance practice to Black and Gold - I couldn't keep my eyes of Alice and the routine was great overall
The Cafeteria - An homage to the original and well done, it came about naturally, everybody joined in naturally and the music and dancing was toe tapping fun
Graduation - I'm a sucker for big finales with gospel choirs so I liked the ending, plus the whole dance number before in and around it made it more moving.
I guess you can sense a pattern. The good parts were the singing and dancing parts.
As for the not so great parts:
All the bits between - even the karaoke part seemed forced.
I didn't feel for any of the characters, none of their stories touched me. It was like they were squeezed in out of necessity and the way it was done (in a bad attempt at a homage to the original) didn't work for me.
As for the coupling of some of the characters - it seemed forced and done because it needed to be not because it worked and came naturally. There was a split second of flirting then cut to the next year and said flirting teenagers are a couple who, might I say, don't seem much like a couple.
I did like the moment on the street between Marco and Jenny where he asks her out again and she says yes. It seemed natural.
When the remake first came out people complained that the Theme Song, the Anthem of the Fame era wasn't used a much as it should be and I'd have to say I agree. Over the credits, start and finish isn't enough, not when they have talented singers such as leading lady Naturi Naughton available to belt out a modernised version, so I was glad to see there is a full version of the song available and a video to boot which is hot!! Think back to the original - dancing on taxi's in the middle of the street causing a traffic jam, throw in a broken water hydrant and some big roof top dance numbers!
In fact watch it for yourself - Here
Overall...
I like my musical dancing and singing films. I've seen a lot, some better some worse. This affinity for the genre has blessed me with the ability to know if what I'm seeing is original or not and there were parts in Fame 2009 that weren't. Take for example the assembly on the first day, it started out just like Centre Stage which is a great film by the way - watch it!
If I were giving this film a so many stars out of 5 rating I'd give it a 2 1/2 purely and simply because its the kind of movie you could stick on to watch with a few girlfriends and chat over without missing much then dance about to the big numbers and have fun.
On a side note - Cody Longo was wasted as Andy the jerk. The boy can move. Check him out in ABC's Make it or Break it and Bring it on Fight to the finish
