Written by Allison Burnett
Directed by Kevin Tancharoen
Where & When: Emagine Cinemas, Canton, MI, October 6, 2009 4:30PM
Debbie Allen has come full circle. She started off in a brief appearance as a dance instructor in the original 1980 film, "Fame", then advanced to a starring role in the television series two years later. Now Allen is back in a supporting role, this time as the school principal in this current remake of the film. She would have been better off leaving that circle incomplete. I remember going to see "Fame" as a teenager, living a somewhat sheltered existence in the suburbs and I was really impressed. These kids were around my age, doing and saying things I could never have imagined. They were living lives that were edgy, gritty and exciting and I loved it. It made me realize that I needed to leave suburbia behind and get to the big city for some real living.
This modernized, re-imagining of "Fame" is an unnecessary, watered down, sugar-coated, politically correct version of the original film. Who wants to see that? I know I didn't and apparently very few others did as well. Why did the filmmakers feel that it was it necessary to remove the edge and messy, complicated characters in order to make this feel more accessible for today's audiences? Adding hip-hop, slick choreography and modern camera moves has not improved this new version or made it more relevant.
Like the original, this film follows a select group of students from the New York High School of Performing Arts from auditions to graduation. This is the only similarity that these two films share. All of the kids are too polished, pretty and perfect to be believable as students. Hardly anyone is seen having to really struggle, let alone sweat, to get through each school year. None of the students are particularly interesting or realistic. One student, Denise ( Naturi Naughton), an African-American who is training to become a classical pianist like her parents had wanted but secretly she wants to be a hip-hop singer. Her father absolutely forbids this and threatens to pull her out of the school if she tries. I might have bought this (and it would have been far more intriguing) if this character had been Caucasian. But this conflict as portrayed in the film felt entirely disingenuous.
"Fame" is littered with cameos from well known television actors, Kelsey Grammer, Megan Mullally, Bebe Neuwirth and Charles S. Dutton as instructors. What a waste of their time. I still play the brilliant soundtrack from "Fame" from time to time and this current version wisely used two of the strongest songs from the original, the title tune and "Out Here On My Own". But the rest of the songs written for this film are awful and forgettable. If you are a fan of the first film, this version is a complete insult. After sitting through another disastrous remake, I just want to scream at Hollywood: "For God's sakes---- STOP ALREADY!!". There is absolutely no need to remake or re-imagine a perfectly good film.
Directed by Kevin Tancharoen
Where & When: Emagine Cinemas, Canton, MI, October 6, 2009 4:30PM
Debbie Allen has come full circle. She started off in a brief appearance as a dance instructor in the original 1980 film, "Fame", then advanced to a starring role in the television series two years later. Now Allen is back in a supporting role, this time as the school principal in this current remake of the film. She would have been better off leaving that circle incomplete. I remember going to see "Fame" as a teenager, living a somewhat sheltered existence in the suburbs and I was really impressed. These kids were around my age, doing and saying things I could never have imagined. They were living lives that were edgy, gritty and exciting and I loved it. It made me realize that I needed to leave suburbia behind and get to the big city for some real living.
This modernized, re-imagining of "Fame" is an unnecessary, watered down, sugar-coated, politically correct version of the original film. Who wants to see that? I know I didn't and apparently very few others did as well. Why did the filmmakers feel that it was it necessary to remove the edge and messy, complicated characters in order to make this feel more accessible for today's audiences? Adding hip-hop, slick choreography and modern camera moves has not improved this new version or made it more relevant.
Like the original, this film follows a select group of students from the New York High School of Performing Arts from auditions to graduation. This is the only similarity that these two films share. All of the kids are too polished, pretty and perfect to be believable as students. Hardly anyone is seen having to really struggle, let alone sweat, to get through each school year. None of the students are particularly interesting or realistic. One student, Denise ( Naturi Naughton), an African-American who is training to become a classical pianist like her parents had wanted but secretly she wants to be a hip-hop singer. Her father absolutely forbids this and threatens to pull her out of the school if she tries. I might have bought this (and it would have been far more intriguing) if this character had been Caucasian. But this conflict as portrayed in the film felt entirely disingenuous.
"Fame" is littered with cameos from well known television actors, Kelsey Grammer, Megan Mullally, Bebe Neuwirth and Charles S. Dutton as instructors. What a waste of their time. I still play the brilliant soundtrack from "Fame" from time to time and this current version wisely used two of the strongest songs from the original, the title tune and "Out Here On My Own". But the rest of the songs written for this film are awful and forgettable. If you are a fan of the first film, this version is a complete insult. After sitting through another disastrous remake, I just want to scream at Hollywood: "For God's sakes---- STOP ALREADY!!". There is absolutely no need to remake or re-imagine a perfectly good film.
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