BEFORE: In the last few moments of "Mamma Mia!", during the closing credits, there was a final musical number, and there were two quick shots of people dressed as Greek gods and goddesses, looking down on the singing characters. Two of those gods were the male members of ABBA, and one of the goddesses was Rita Wilson, who also was an executive producer of the film. This cameo was NOT listed as a credit in the IMDB, but it was noted in the "Trivia" section, and I spotted it on the film's Wikipedia page. This keeps my chain alive, as I was able to factor this in when I was planning my February line-up - so Rita Wilson carries over to tonight's film, where she's also credited as an executive producer, and with an acting cameo.
Here's the schedule for tomorrow, March 2, on TCM's "31 Days of Oscar", the next-to-last day of Best Picture nominees and winners:
6:00 am "Five Star Final" (1931)
7:45 am "Lost Horizon" (1937)
10:00 am "The Nun's Story" (1959)
12:45 pm "The Great Dictator" (1940)
3:00 pm "Foreign Correspondent" (1940)
5:15 pm "The Guns of Nazarene" (1961)
8:00 pm "Annie Hall" (1977) - winner
10:00 pm "Kramer vs. Kramer" (1979) - winner
12:00 am "A Man For All Seasons" (1966) - winner
2:15 am "The Great Ziegfeld" (1936) - winner
I'm hitting big today, which means I'll finish strong, with over 40% of films seen. I've got a copy of "The Nun's Story" on DVD, so I'm going to try to get to that this year, and I've already seen "The Great Dictator", "Foreign Correspondent", "The Guns of Navarone", "Annie Hall", "Kramer vs. Kramer" and "A Man For All Seasons". Another 7 out of 11 brings my total up to 134 seen out of 333. Up to 40.2%
THE PLOT: A travel guide rediscovers her romantic side on a trip around Greece.
AFTER: Well, you can't say I wasn't warned about this film - my BFF saw it on a print-out of my watchlist and tried to convince me to avoid it, but it was too late. I'd already burned it to DVD to fill up a disc with tomorrow's film, which meant that it had become part of my collection, and therefore needed to be watched.
Like "Mamma Mia!", there's no emotional reaction to anything that couldn't be made larger, or completely blown out of proportion. This formula for overdoing everything extended here to every last bit of comedy, so naturally they couldn't just have a FEW things go wrong with the tour, instead nearly EVERYTHING needed to go wrong on the tour, from the air conditioning on the bus to the exploding light bulbs, broken showers and non-working elevators in the hotels. Plus there's a kleptomaniac senior citizen, obnoxious Americans, Australians that talk funny, and British people that can't stand being in the sun or enjoying themselves. And the result is the only screenplay cobbled completely together from negative Yelp! travel reviews and oversimplified cultural stereotypes.
Greek people probably get the worst of it, though - Greek people are lazy, Greek people are too hairy, they eat nothing but spanakopita and dolmades, and they all break plates while that simple, slowly speeding-up balalaika music plays in the background. Come on, give me a break. I'm honestly surprised that they weren't depicted here wearing togas with laurel leaves on their heads. The lead character, Georgia, is a tour guide who's had enough of the place and dealing with all the terrible tourists, so she resigns before heading out on what will become her final tour of the Greek ruins.
For extra special "fun", her rival at the tour company, who gets the "A-level" tourists and leaves her with the "B-level" scrubs, has set out to make her life miserable so that she'll quit. Of course, he doesn't know that she's already quit - ha ha! What hilarity! But somehow on this last tour, once she learns to relax a little bit and not be so structured about forcing history lessons down people's throats, she realizes that people on holiday just want to have some fun (umm, duh...) and maybe go to a beach once in a while instead of seeing yet another crumbling monument. And once she takes a little time to get to know the tourists (umm, what was preventing her from doing that before?) she realizes that the guy making wisecracks is really covering his personal grief, and the Americans who call her by the wrong name are doing so as a compliment. Again, come on, give me a break...
And once she figures out the real identity of who's been leaving flowers on her seat - (ha ha! More hilarity, she almost slept with the wrong dude!) she realizes that she's been the one that's closed herself off to the possibilities of romance, and has been standing in the way of her own happiness. So she doesn't need to get a new job back in the U.S., when it's easier to just be happy and content where she already is. (Now excuse me while I puke...)
NITPICK POINT: About the only thing that didn't happen to the tour group was to have anything stolen from them. So why did the dialogue punch up the fact that the tour bus would be locked, and the tourists could leave anything in it, at any time? This seems like a weird thing to mention if it's not going to be important to the plot, and it wasn't.
NITPICK POINT #2: The film's Wikipedia plot summary suggests that late in the film, when they steal the bus keys from the rival tour guide, that the B-level tourists steal the air conditioning from the good bus and install it in their bus. Wouldn't this require a certain level of expertise in air conditioning tech, and also bus repair? Since Georgia mentioned a "swap", doesn't it make more sense to think that they swapped buses entirely, maybe transferring a few personal items from one bus to the other, and then giving the A-level guide back the wrong set of keys? I mean, the buses were almost identical except for the A/C, and this would have been a lot easier and quicker than changing the A/C units. But then I suppose then they would run the risk of the drivers noticing the change in license plates - so I guess either way, this is a plothole, and just doesn't work.
Also starring Nia Vardalos (last seen in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"), Richard Dreyfuss (last seen in "Paranoia"), Alexis Georgoulis, Alistair McGowan, Harland Williams (last heard in "Sausage Party"), Rachel Dratch (last seen in "Sisters"), Caroline Goodall (last seen in "Disclosure"), Ian Ogilvy, Sophie Stuckey, Maria Botto (last seen in "Risen"), Maria Adanez, Brian Palermo (last seen in "Pee-Wee's Big Holiday"), Jareb Dauplaise, Simon Gleeson, Natalie O'Donnell, Sheila Bernette, Ralph Nossek, Bernice Stegers, Ian Gomez (last seen in "Edtv"), Nacho Perez.
RATING: 3 out of 10 ice cream stains
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