Spice World

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Spice World/D,A

Columbia Tristar/1998/93m/ANA,WS 1.85.FS1.33

     There are times when sitting through a movie with my ten-year-old daughter admittedly can make a difference. Just sneaking a glance at her glowing smile can bring additional delight to a decent kid movie. She loves The Spice Girls, like many pre-teens, and yes, she smiled quite a bit during the banal, unimaginative, pointedly forced nature of Spice World. But it didn't help keep my interest. The only time when the film came alive in minimal terms was during the abbreviated concert or rehearsal sequences when stupidity did not rule.
     Clearly owing its inspiration to the energetic Richard Lester screen presentation of The Beatles A Hard Day's Night, Spice World is presented with none of the charm nor skill that made that 60's film a quintessential rock doc. I can't claim to be knowledgeable about the stage personas of the girls and how they relate to the unfocused delirium of the film. I can only say that it was quite the snoozer.
     Directed by Bob Spiers and photographed by Clive Tucker, Spice World looks like an extended music video with some very silly poorly written plotting thrown added to make it look more like a movie. In support of the much too "cute" girls is Richard E. Grant as the manic Spice Girls manager. Grant is frenetic, garrulous, obnoxious, and will be pulling his hair for years as a result of this performance, that is, unless the paycheck was handsome enough to off-set some of the embarrassment. And I can't say I regret the certainty that this film marks the last film appearance of Ginger Spice.

Rehearsal music. ŠColumbia Tristar

The splashy colors of Spice World come to brilliant life on this Columbia Tristar DVD. Every precious Spice Girl expression is captured for posterity with optimum resolution. A number of the music tracks produce amazing sound from the Dolby Digital 5:1 encoding. Prodigious bass, tightly controlled, and full blown ambiance. Great DVD, abysmal movie making.