User reviews

This sequel takes place a year after the death of Donna. Her daughter Sophie plans to reopen her mother's hotel, on a Greek island, unfortunately it looks as if neither her three fathers nor her husband will be able to attend the opening party. Intertwined with scenes of her preparing for the reopening we see how her mother came to the island all those years ago... and how she encountered the three men who are Sophie's fathers. Of course at every possible opportunity the cast sing an appropriate ABBA song.

If you didn't enjoy 'Mamma Mia' you certainly won't enjoy this as it is more of the same; this of course means if you did enjoy the first you are likely to enjoy this too. The story is fairly simple but it is fun; especially the flashback scenes of Donna making her way to the island and meeting the younger versions of the 'three fathers' for the first time. The songs are fun even if things are stretched a bit to justify the inclusion of some well-known songs... particularly 'Fernando'. Of course the songs are a lot of fun, even the less well-known ones. The cast does a fine job and are clearly having fun; Lily James stands out as the young Donna. The setting, with its beautiful settings and mostly fine weather, only add to the pleasure provided by the film. Overall I'd say this won't be for everybody but it is good cheesy fun if you enjoy that sort of thing... and I did, more than I expected.

Greetings again from the darkness. It's been 10 years since director Phyllida Lloyd presented the crowd-pleasing MAMMA MIA! movie. It was a box office hit (over $600 million worldwide) and was, for a few years, the highest grossing musical of all-time. Most importantly, it was extremely entertaining and a joyous cinematic romp for viewers. This year's sequel is directed by Ol Parker (THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL and husband to actress Thandie Newton), and though the melancholy is slathered on a bit too thick, it also fulfills its number one priority - entertaining the fans.

The story begins with Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) putting the final touches on the house-turned-hotel in preparation for the upcoming Grand Opening. It's named Hotel Bella Donna in honor of Sophie's mother (Meryl Streep). What looks to be a straight-forward story surprises us with a flashback to Donna's 1979 graduation, which features not only the first song-and-dance number "When I Kissed the Teacher", but also the first of two ABBA cameos ... Bjorn Ulvaeus as a professor. The young Donna is played brilliantly by Lily James, and she effortlessly captures the free-spiritedness that led to the conundrum of the first movie - 3 possible dads for Sophie.

Those 3 dads return not only as Pierce Brosnan (Sam), Stellan Skarsgard (Bill), and Colin Firth (Harry), but also as Jeremy Irvine (young Sam), Josh Dylan (young Bill), and Hugh Skinner (young Harry). In fact, most of the run time is dedicated to the backstory of these characters and how they first met as youngsters. Each has a segment (and song) with young Harry featured in "Waterloo" accompanied by Benny Andersson (ABBA cameo #2) on piano. Young Bill is the charming sailor who saves the day for Donna, while young Sam assists her with saving a storm-shaken horse (kind of humorous since Mr. Irvine starred in WAR HORSE).

Also back are Dominic Cooper as Sky, Sophie's true love, who can't decide between romance and career, and Donna's life-long friends Tanya (Christine Baranski) and Rosie (Julie Walters), who are also part of the flashback as Jessica Keenan Wynn (excellent as young Tanya) and Alexa Davies (as young Rosie). New to the cast are Celia Imrie in the graduation number, Andy Garcia as the hotel manager, and drawing the biggest applause of all ... Cher as Sophie's grandmother (and as my viewing partner commented, an early peek at what Lady Gaga will look like as a grandma)! It's best if you experience Cher for yourself, and it should be noted that this is her first big screen appearance since BURLESQUE in 2010.

Of course, the songs are key and many of the ABBA numbers from the first movie are featured again this time. In particular, "Dancing Queen" is a nautical standout, and "Fernando" is a show-stopper. While it may not be quite as raucous as the first, it's a treat watching Lily James, and there is a wonderful blending of "old" and "new" in the finale. The only real question remaining is, did the casting director do the math before casting Cher (age 72) as Meryl Streep's (age 69) mother?

I thought this is just a rehash of the 2008 movie but after watching the movie I would call out one thing: they really put in efforts into it. As the newly-added elements in this sequel, the young versions of six leads particularly, the newly graduated Donna had a eye-dazzling performance. The plot unfolds in a way interlocking with each detail given away in the conversations of the original screenplay. Maybe I should have conjured every scene here up in 10 years ago but this sequel really serves as a good testament to jolly wishful and vibrant young Donna being an innocent lady fallen into three serendipitous and romantic loves rather than a putative slut in some evil minds by any chance if this sequel had never been shot. When I heard the classic quote " life is short, the world is wide. I want to make some memories", it really struck my heart and invoked the sweet moments of my adolescence. As much as I got a ticket for the original 10 years ago even after watching the Broadway stage show, today I just want a mindless, escapist and entertaining night to reminisce some old unforgettable recollection of myself. "You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life", with such strong and positive notes hovering and whirling in your ears, who'd dare say such a task would have not been fulfilled?

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, takes place five years after the original movie, as Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) prepares a party for the grand reopening of her mother's Hotel Bella Donna on Kalokairi. Through flashbacks, a second plot-line set in 1979 reveals how young Donna (Lily James) met and romanced the young Sam, Bill, and Harry who became Sophie's fathers.

The 1979 plot-line, which was written to fill in the long-awaited details of how Donna became involved with Sam, Bill, and Harry, was, for the most part, uninspired. The attraction between Young Donna and the charming Bill (Josh Dylan) was believable, and a bright spot in the movie. The development of Donna's feelings for Sam (Jeremy Irvine) and Harry (Hugh Skinner) were unconvincing, though, and it seems that the songs in these scenes were used to cover up for the lack of chemistry between the characters.

Cast-wise, the lovely and charming Lily James carried the show. She sang beautifully, turned in an outstanding acting performance, and most of her scenes made for striking cinematography. Cher (as Ruby Sheridan) rode the strength of "Fernando" to one of the musical's highlight numbers, but her performance in "Super Trouper" was lackluster.

Director Ol Parker did not measure up to Phyllida Lloyd's impressive directing in the original Mamma Mia! The supporting players, Christine Baranski, Julie Walters, Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth, and Stellan Skarsgard were not well portrayed in some scenes by Parker, and the actors looked awkward at times. Lloyd's use of facial close-ups and angles in the original were brilliant by comparison.

Five songs; Waterloo, "I Have a Dream," "The Name of the Game," "Mamma Mia," "Dancing Queen," and "Super Trouper" from the original Mamma Mia! are featured in this prequel.

The dance scenes mostly looked bland in comparison to the original. The "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" -- "Voulez-Vous" party sequence of the original movie was spectacular in comparison.

There are a few good songs that were not used in the original. Early in the movie, Lily James turns in a sexy performance with "When I Kissed the Teacher," wearing retro-style pinstriped pants that accentuate her curvy hips. Mostly, though, the writers reached pretty deep to present music in Here We Go Again that wasn't sung in the original. Unfortunately, this resulted in many of the musical segments feeling forced into the story line. Also, Director Ol Parker falls well short of achieving the enjoyable visual and audio quality of the original film's musical numbers.

While the on-scene sets were mostly in Greece in the original, most of the on-scene sets in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again were in Croatia. Although they tried to achieve similar scenic effects in Here We Go Again, the scenery is better in the original.

The original Mamma Mia!, with an excellent cast, superb directing, intense face close-ups, choice song selection, beautiful scenery, and superbly-produced musical numbers resulted in a huge smile factor for me throughout the movie. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again fell well short of the original in all these aspects, with few smiles.

In a world that has gone crazy, it was so nice just to sit back for 114 minutes and forget about real life. Transport yourself back to a simpler time and of course to the wonderful music of ABBA. Throughout the movie you go through all the emotions yet once it had finished you just want to sit there and wish you could do it all again The whole cast looked like they had as much fun making it as we did watching it. Everyone did their bit although Lily James was outstanding as the young Donna. It's one of those rare films as you leave your seat and enter the real world you do so with the biggest smiles of your face.

I'm at a loss why there are so many poor reviews of this film. But everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I loved it from the start. Lily James was outstanding as young Donna. Yes it was a shame Meryl Streep didn't play a bigger part but such is life. Take it for what it is. There were a couple of songs i didn't know so it may have been better keeping to the well known songs, however they did fit in with the script. It was a rollercoaster or emotions. Laughing and crying in equal measure. Julie Walters was as fabulous as always too. I loved it and will be watching it again as soon as i can.

I spent 90% of this movie with a huge smile on my face and 10% trying not to ugly cry. Wonderfully cheesy and lovely!

Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) is reopening the Greek island villa resort in honor of her late mother Donna (Meryl Streep). She invites her three fathers (Colin Firth, Stellan Skarsgård, Pierce Brosnan), her mother's best friends Tanya (Christine Baranski) and Rosie (Julie Walters), along with many others for the reopening. She decides not to invite her grandma (Cher). The movie also follows young Donna (Lily James) as she travels through Europe meeting her three boys and falling in love with a rundown villa on a Greek island.

If you love the first movie, there is nothing not to love in this sequel. In fact, this one eliminates the bad solo guy singing and replaces them with Lily James who is an energetic eager performer with a better voice. I don't mind the Cher sections although it wants to be more epic than I can take. I don't like the artificial daylight background at the villa which accentuates a bad fake look compared to the real Greek island. There is one moment when villa falls apart during storms in both timelines. At that moment, I can see a more compelling plot device where both stories are mirror images of each other told at the same pacing with both cast doing the same songs. It doesn't mitigate the greatness of the climatic meeting in the church. I think it would actually heighten the emotional impact if Lily James meets Amanda Seyfried and then turns into Meryl Streep. The boyfriend isn't much and would be more dramatic if he goes away. As a musical, there are still a few famous ABBA songs to mine although there are others that I don't recognize. It's bright. It's chipper. It is a fitting sequel to the first movie.

Lilly James didn't need this kind of blunder.

Even if we forget totally stupid "story" (on the grounds that it's a summer flick so a story is not on the checklist) everything else is even worse.

Amateur hour direction, "choreographer" form the 1st grade elementary? No, kindergarten. At lest that's the aspect that can be designed and rehearsed.

Singing - can't say who is worst. Like someone made a bet how many eardrums he can rupture. If that is the actual singing voice of Lilly James then the should never ever try again. But I think that it's not. Listen carefully - it's a single tone like from an arcade game. No harmonics/timbre. It physically hurts your ears => auto-tune, triple run by someone on double crack overdose, or meth, or both :-)

Two old ladies "singing" and "dancing" == dread queen "experience".

Imagine if they hired Agnetha & Anni-Frid to do it instead, even just an homage ? They'd kill them all even in their late 60-s at there would be at least twice the audience since it would be genuine historic event. But then they'd be in danger that they's sing everything :-)

This is internet age - we have all their songs on 2 clicks on YT and we still remember how Agnetha & Anni-Frid sound and whit what kind of finesse they deliver.

This colossal failure is actually the strongest argument ever for dubbing singing voices. Something that "old Hollywood" knew how to execute to perfection.

Imagine when Cher ends up being the best singer and looking the best in comparison (despite all that Botox) and Amanda Seyfried starts sounding OK.

Camera/light design - was anyone even doing this of they gave a VHS to a janitor? How on earth did they manage to make Lilly James look fat in her face ??? The magical Lilly James from "Downton Abbey" and the best "Cinderella" ever? On what kinds of drugs one has to be to screw it THAT MUCH ????

You'd have to keep her in a torture chamber and sleepless for 3 days to get the "result" (swollen face) we saw. Oh wait, you don't, you just need totally incompetent light, photography and "direction". If they asked any passer by he'd do it better - because he'd put in a effort !!

Don't know what else to say - just want to forget this as fast as I can. IMDb needs to introduce negative votes.

I don't know if IMDb "survives" YT links, but if it does you just have to see this - young girl who intuitively understands the importance of harmonics/timbre. She's not autotune "perefct" but you just can't stop "thinking about these angel eyes" :-) To play it safe, just add watch?v=jOl3dgPuX-Q to base YT URL and you'll be there :-) Or search for "ANGELEYES I ABBA I Annelie".

So how comes that "venerable production" couldn't do something so simple? Because they couldn't care less - that's the alpha and omega of this failure.

The movie had all the resources to be as good or even better than the original. While I applaud the film makers for their efforts, the pacing was way too rushed up to the scene where Cher makes her appearance. The audience was simply not given enough time to let the emotion of the previous scene sink in; the scenes followed each other at a pace that completely undid whatever emotions the previous scene with it's singing and sometimes dancing created. Whoever it was that decided to rush the pace between the scenes ... crippled it. Other than that obvious problem, it was all a very good effort.

Feel-good film of the year. I cannot get over how good this movie was. It was the most entertaining sequel I've seen. Point. There was a portion in the middle of the film where I laughed after every line said.

This is a humorous, light-hearted film that gets you addicted to the feeling of being young; having no plans and being okay with the uncertainty of it all.

A aesthetically beautiful film that captures the heart of the disco eva of the 70's. Costumes are beautiful - especially that scene in the orchard when the girl wears that orange skirt. Gorgeous.

A film to watch with your mum, ganny and best friend. Go into the film with a smile and leave laughing. Don't expect to learn life lessons - just enjoy the silliness of the Mamma Mia universe.

Lily James at her best performance can sing, captivate, dazzle and dance. Cher is a nice icing on the cake.

After 10 years we all should know the Mama Mia! plot and characters. It was refreshing to watch the "fore-story" with new actors, interspersed with the original cast. The constant transitions/fades between 20 years before and present required attention, but was fascinating, eye-riveting and ABBA's music and cameo never fail. Everyone I have talked to, who has seen, it want to go back one more time. (Hint: Don't leave until ALL of the final credits have rolled).

Precisely 10 years after its massively popular antecedent, this ABBA-jukebox musical sequel/prequel returns with a somber premise, our beloved protagonist Donna Sheridan (Streep) has kicked the bucket (does the film even reveal the cause of death?), and passes the baton to her daughter Sophie (Seyfried, thankfully bestowed with an ethereal voice), who is still processing her grief and the sequel-story kick-starts in the same Greek island of Kalokairi, where Sophie has a forthcoming reopening of Hotel Bella Donna to commemorate her mother with the help of the hotel manager Fernando (García).

Meantime, the film's prequel-narrative is rewound to 1979, recounting a young Donna (James, spirited and ebulliently fleshes out the Streep-less narrative arc with her stentorian singing bent), freshly out of college, how she winds up on the island and gets knocked up but cannot tell whose fortuitous sperm strikes gold, and decides to raise her child all on her own. So apart from the old gang, even Streep has a glorified cameo near the end as a ghost reunited with Sophie during her baby granddaughter's christening ceremony, the cast is redoubled not just by the initiation of the younger-self cohort, Jessica Keenan Wynn and Alexa Davies evoke uncanny resemblances and share extraordinary exuberance with Christine Baranski and Julie Walters as Donna's bestie Tanya and Rosie, then and now, respectively, but also by the much-hyped advent of Cher, Streep's SILKWOOD (1983) co-star, who perversely plays Donna's mother Ruby in another glorified cameo, and struts her pristine skin condition and minimal movement when belts out FERNANDO, opposite to a seemingly unnerved Garciá.

Never trying to overreach it from its self-knowledge of a escapist potboiler, basks in photogenic landscape or seascape and its catchy tunage, MAMMA MIA! HERE WE GO AGAIN promises pure joy and Euro-pop feel-goodism to its core audience and writer-director Ol Parker attests to be an able hand in coordinating and segueing between two story-lines, together with a faculty for choreographic deployment.

As much as the cast enjoys a helluva shindig and disseminates an infectious jag of joviality to ascertain audience are having a good time either, a takeaway afterthought pops up unexpectedly by positing a morbid if entirely irrelevant presumption, how can we adjust ourselves when one day we will truly lose our national treasure like Meryl Streep and her ilks? Such a dreadful thought, perhaps, seeing things through blue-colored glasses is this reviewer's kryptonite.

I would not say that this is a good film, but I really enjoyed it anyway, it's a film that makes you laugh, smile and let you have a good time!

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again fails to bring anything new to the table. It is made purely based on the success of the first film. Hollywood tend to do that a lot. When a film becomes successful, they make a 2nd film out of it, which lacks pretty much everything. First of all, if you want to go to see this film because Meryl Streep is in, don't bother, because she has a scene of 5 minutes in the end. She just sings two songs and that's pretty much it. She is in the front row of the film poster, she is the main image of the final trailer, because production company uses her image to attract audience. These kinds of tricks can be seen a lot, while advertising substandard quality films. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again has one purpose, and that is to make more money by using the fame of the first film. I failed to understand why they even bothered making a sequel when everything was wrapped beautifully in the first film. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again is written and directed by Ol Parker. I said written, but I really don't know what he has exactly written, because in the means of story there is nothing.

The people in this film are like from a different planet. They live in a parallel universe or something. There is no one ugly in the film. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again is all about beautiful people, their artificially created problems, fake tears, sadness and meaningless joy. They are all very successful, their secret bonds don't have a resource. We don't know why those characters love each other so much, but they do. The film takes place five years after the previous events. Donna is dead. Sophie (Amada Seyfried) takes over the hotel and builds it from zero. While they prepare for the grand opening, we go back to 1979, where everything starts for Donna. She is claimed to be a free soul and an independent woman, but someone must tell the writer of this character that having one night stands with handsome men on your way to Greek Island is not independence. Young Donna (Lily James) is presented to be a very different girl, but when you watch her behaviors, she is pretty much superficial. She falls in love with a man, gets depressed after he leaves, and in the very same day, she has sex with a different guy because she is very sad. Sophie and her problems regarding the hotel in the present day are told in parallel with Donna's youth and her story, how she met Sam (Pierce Brosnan), Harry (Colin Firth) and Bill, (Stellan Skargard) how she moved to the island of Kalokairi and how she built the hotel.

Young Donna's friends Tanya and Rosie, as well as her lovers, Harry, Bill and Sam, are played by actors and actresses who have nothing to do with the actual characters. They all look very different. The story takes place in a Greek island but the film was shot in Croatia and Shepperton Studios in Surrey England. Set up of the sequel is pretty much similar with the first film. There is a song for every situation. The story was created based on the situations in those songs, and there is a song for every character, problem and situation. That's the reason why I said there is no story. It is time for a sad song, a sad situation is created. It is time for a joyful song, and something happy happens. There are very few scenes that can be compared with real life situations. Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again is a complete waste of money and time. I had a good taste in my mouth after the first film, but now that is all gone thanks to this useless film that was made just because of financial matters.

The strongest point of the film is its songs. It is satisfying in the means of music. You get to hear songs mostly from ABBA, as usual, and Arrival. After all, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again is also a musical, but even so, some songs are really bad for my taste. When I Kissed the Teacher from Arrival is one, for an example. Just to be able to sing this song, they created a graduation scene. This is what I meant when I said, circumstances are created based on the songs in the film. I have never seen such a thing in my life. I haven't seen an acting performance worth mentioning. This film was released on July 16, 2018 in Hammersmith Apollo and on July 20, 2018 in the United Kingdom and United States. It has 114 minutes of runtime and made with a budget of $75 Million. With a forced story and meaningless characters, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again is a film that I will never watch again. Having actors and actresses in the film just because they look beautiful shouldn't be a criteria while choosing your characters. This sequel is so hopeless that even the presence of Andy Garcia and Cher couldn't save it.