Fame

The reviews for this were just awful, which can help me like a picture if it turns out to be not quite as awful as everyone is saying. That’s the case here. It starts off with a lot going against it, as it will be compared with the original, and it’s not in the same league with that, not by a long shot. But it’s not a terrible movie. There are some moments of great energy and foot-tapping music and dancing. Where it falls short is in the characterizations of the individual students. They just don’t come alive for me the way Doris (Delores), Ralph, and Montgomery did in the original. And there’s no current equivalent of the Rocky Horror Picture Show scenes, like in the first one, and no teacher who comes alive as much as tough Mrs. Sherwood (Anne Meara) … well, I could go on and make it sound a lot worse than it was, but it wasn’t a waste of my time.