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Review: Fame

A PG-rated, post- High School Musical remake: why, exactly?
By BRETT MICHEL  |  September 30, 2009
1.5 1.5 Stars

 

Oh, MGM: I realize you're staving off bankruptcy, but is remaking past hits the answer? Are a PG-rated, post-High School Musical version of Fame (Alan Parker's 1980 original was rated R) and the upcoming Red Dawn update what it will take for your studio to stay in business and follow through on the promise that "James Bond will return?"

Let's hope that Kevin Tancharoen's dull, morally sound TV-ready film (hey, isn't that Frasier and Lilith playing music and dance instructors?) doesn't end up offering stockholders a license to kill our favorite spy. As in Parker's superior film, we follow students through a compressed four years at New York's High School for the Performing Arts, where the average age appears to be 25.

One "gifted" pianist (Naturi Naughton, who plays Lil' Kim in Notorious) conceals her love of hip-hop from her disapproving parents. Imagine their horror if they saw their baby getting it on with Biggie Smalls. Not in this movie, though.

Related: October lite, Review: Notorious, Autumn garden, More more >
  Topics: Reviews , Entertainment, Hip-Hop and Rap, Music,  More more >
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ARTICLES BY BRETT MICHEL
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  •   INTERVIEW: JESSE EISENBERG AND WOODY HARRELSON  |  October 07, 2009
    Vampires may have taken a bite out of the popular zeitgeist in the past couple of years, but the nearly $25 million in ticket sales that greeted the opening of Zombieland, as it shuffled into theaters this past weekend, just goes to prove that while flesh-eating ghouls might be (un)dead, you should never count them out.
  •   REVIEW: FAME  |  September 30, 2009
    Oh, MGM: I realize you're staving off bankruptcy, but is remaking past hits the answer?
  •   REVIEW: FIVE MINUTES OF HEAVEN  |  September 23, 2009
    It's easy to see what attracted Liam Neeson and James Nesbitt ( Bloody Sunday ) to Prime Suspect veteran Guy Hibbert's screenplay: it's an actor's showcase.
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    Half an hour into the screening of this tearjerker from Brandon Camp, three women exited. They made the right choice.
  •   REVIEW: STILL WALKING  |  September 16, 2009
    By now, it's a bit of a cliché to compare the work of Hirokazu Koreeda to the masterful films of Yasujiro Ozu — something of which I've certainly been guilty.

 See all articles by: BRETT MICHEL

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