FAME (2009, remake) (a review)

FAME (2009, remake) (a review)

Um...why?

I mean I get that remakes are the thing, but, um...why?

Because the thing is that now we have all these reality shows -- American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance and X-Factor, etc, etc -- where we meet real people and see them struggle and get to know them as some succeed and some fail, and touching life stories, etc, etc. So why would you think that the telling of a bunch of FICTIONAL people would be more compelling than the stories of a bunch of real people that we see on tv week after week? I mean, you would think the only reason to do that would be if there was some story that was incredibly compelling that all those talent shows just hadn't found, something personal and emotional and that would just land a huge emotional punch, because otherwise there just wouldn't be a reason to bother with, right? So does FAME have that?

No.

So aside from the idea that they thought the remake would be an easy way to cash in I have no idea at all why the hell they made this movie.

(another attempt to cash in on American Idol)

Now that isn't to say that the movie is horrible. It just feels very blah. There's nothing compelling about it. Sure, there are some musical numbers that are okay, but it doesn't have any of the energy, any of the passion, any of the pain of the original.

The story: we follow a group of students as they enter a prestigious New York School for the Arts as they struggle through their high school years to graduation.

So right away, we know it's an ensemble piece, all connected by people's passion for the arts. The school deals with all the major arts -- music, dance, theater, and the fourth one (you know, the one that's named after a mineral, rhymes with desconstructionist...okay, maybe there isn't a fourth one). I wish I could talk about the different stories of the characters, but most of them made so little impression that I can't even remember them. There was a girl who was supposed to be learning classical piano, but decides she also wants to sing and becomes involved in a hip-hop group and has to confront her strict father about it. There's a kid who wrote an independent film and meets a producer who wants him to raise the money for it, then skips out with his cash. There's a girl who meets a famous actor and goes to his trailer, where it turns out (gasp!) he's trying to screw her. There's a guy a teacher doesn't think is good enough to dance professionally. There's a girl who gets a job on Sesame Street and drops out of school. Maybe a couple others. Some romance stuff. and then they graduate.

Yikes. For me there are two major, major, MAJOR problems with all this. (1) None of those stories are compelling. The girl who wants to sing is fine, but we've seen it a hundred times before and this doesn't have anything new to add to it. And (2) most of these stories have NOTHING TO DO WITH SCHOOL!!!! The whole concept is that we are following not just a bunch of kids who want to make it in entertainment, but that we are specifically following these kids through school. Did you notice how almost all of these stories are about things that have NOTHING to do with school? WTF!

Now let's compare that to the much better original 1980 film directed by Alan Parker.

Again we have a group of students entering the acclaimed school for the arts and seeing their struggle through four years until graduation. And what are their stories? Well, there's the kids who is a brilliant dancer, but can't read and is in constant danger of being expelled by his English teacher. There's a music student who clashes with his teacher because instead of learning a piano, he wants to use his synthesizer to play an entire orchestra. There's the girl forced out of the dance department so she switches to acting. There's teen pregnancy/abortion. There's the girl who dates a black guy to shock her parents. There's a gay guy who comes out. The original uses the concept -- it sets stories in the school, it tells stories of teens, it attacks the highs and lows, the euphoria of success and the despair of failure. It is an intense and personal and powerful film.

The remake...not so much.

Now that isn't to say the remake is horrible. It's just blah. Maybe if you've never seen the original and are looking for a movie to see with kids it would make sense. Certainly they sanitized it from any shock elements in the first movie. But even then, the movie should have some highs and lows. It should be more intense than an episode of AMERICAN IDOL. Personally, while a couple of the musical numbers were good, the rest bored me.

FAME, the remake -- PASS.

FAME, the original -- MUST SEE.

If you want another movie as good as the original, try THE COMMITMENTS. If you want even more, watch GLEE (the first couple episodes are a little rough, but by the 6th episode the show is awesome.)

If you want a musical to watch with younger kids, try HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL. I'd even give FROM JUSTIC TO KELLY the nod over this one. (But then I'm a big Kelly Clarkson fan.) In fact, I'd probably give GREASE 2 the nod over it. (But then I'm a big Michelle Pfeiffer fan too.) And of course there's always AMERICAN IDOL.