When Will I Be Famous?
(I Can’t Answer That…)
Fame
Score: 5,5
When I heard that Fame was being redone, I just didn’t have a clue about what to expect from it. But I knew that it would be almost impossible for it to be as good as the first version. And I got it right. I love musicals, so I just couldn't miss it, even without having high expectations. But it has its highpoints of course. I just didn’t find them... Just kidding! I can list some good things about it, but there are plenty more bad things, which are extremely more explicit, and there’s no way to watch it without comparing it to the original one. So let’s get it started.
The Alan Parker’s version shows the life of a group of students from the New York School of Performing Arts. This one follows the same plot but changed the stories, what can actually have several consequences. To redo all scenes could be risky and changing them sounds smart, but they can better or not than the older ones. Comparison is unavoidable. It’s a lost cause. If I had the Power to make decisions in studios, remakes would be strictly forbidden, with rare exceptions. Because until we get one film such as “The Departed”, we would have to take thousands of Psychos or Fames first.
In the first film we witness young artists struggling. Just ordinary kids full of hopes and dreams, with their personal issues and their own charms. Here it’s more like a TV series for teenagers. Everybody is gorgeous. That surreal world that only exists in model agencies catalogues. And they’re inexpressive. Apparently they’re less talented than the kids from the older version. Back then there was no such technological resources. You got it or you don’t. Nowadays on the screen anyone can be a great singer. Special effects can make you dance. Everything is so industrial, artificial.
Even though there’s a difference of almost 30 years between them, the remake is so conservative. They don’t have sex, there’s no gay people, no taboos, no drugs. I’m not advertising drugs, but we all know that all theses things are extremely common in the artistic community. It definitely doesn’t show reality. The characters are shallow and badly drawn. They all have the same issues. Their parents don’t want them to be artists. Just like Sister Act 2. And they all they face is failure all the time, in extremely cliché scenes. We just can’t stop thinking they all suck. So why are we watching it? We end up not even putting faith on the talented ones.
Recreated some classic scenes like the Hot Lunch sequence, the graduation and Irene Cara’s performance of "Out Here On My Own" (the videoclip with several scenes from the original movie here and just the scene here). I just couldn’t stop reminiscing the original scenes, where even the songs are better. The girl that reprises Irene’s scene is the Best thing from the picture. She’s pretty, sings Ok, but there’s no emotion at all in the scene. At least they didn’t try to retake the title song scene, with the students dancing in the streets. They used the new version of the song for the end credits.
Awarded actors like Kelsey Grammer (Frasier) and Megan Mullally (Will & Grace) are lost in a script that don’t allow them to grow. At least Kelsey’s got the best line in the film when a student complains about having to play classic music on the piano. Megan was given a singing sequence but I found it annoying. Her singing works when she’s doing comedy like when she played Karen, which gave her 2 Emmys and 3 SAG awards. I loved when she sang Unforgettable on Will & Grace Finale. Out of this perspective, I don’t find it interesting. The good side about it is that these kids have the chance to get to the spotlight and try better things from now on. But next time don’t do remakes. Don’t even think about Footloose! Something bad is coming from that… Unless they change the focus just like they did with Hairspray. Just a little advice…
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