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I don’t think THIS movie is very good—whatever you think of ABBA—but the sequel got an 80% critical approval on RT whereas this one got about 50%, which seems about right based on what I witnessed. I didn’t HATE this movie, but I watched this with my parents (who live two blocks away) as a way to handcuff myself to it to make myself finish it. I think it’s OK, but basing a musical around ABBA is a terrible idea, absolutely. i also know what it looks like now to see Meryl Streep in CBS sitcom-level material so there’s that. I gotta say, in terms of the characters, I did HATE Amanda Seyfried’s character because her idea is so fucking reckless and dumb, with no thought to anyone else’s life except her own. I know this is fluff, but I still found her extremely hateable. I think Amanda Seyfried has been good in roles I’ve seen, but when it comes to a character this clueless, maybe she performed it so well that it felt like nails on a chalkboard.

Why I can't speak to the motivation behind the A list actors being in this I saw it sort of like a typical Adam Sandler comedy which is an excuse to spend a month in Hawaii with his friends.

Pierce Brosnan is quoted as saying he saw Meryl had already signed on and went ahead and did it without actually knowing wtf he was signing up for lol.

And honestly, I watched this movie on Monday night and totally forgot about it until now.

Honestly thank god. I couldn't handle being lied to like that right now.

I checked. This was filmed in Greece.

I used to haaaaate this movie. I grew up as, and still am, a giant ABBA fan, and I thought this movie was a spit in the face of ABBA's discography. We went to see this on the West End on a choir trip to London literally ONE MONTH before this movie came out, and I was furious with the entire endeavor. Now I will say after having seen this on stage the movie does a lot of good for the concept. Actually filming in Greece (I assume or at least just in a visibly similar area) really makes this thing come alive in a great way. But I still think creating some story around the ABBA songs is a terrible idea. A lot of these songs make no fucking sense when you really think about them any deeper. BUT THEY STILL SLAP! I softened over the years and when I saw Here We Go Again I kinda fell in love with it finally??? Maybe it's just truly my love of the actors chosen for the past scenes. Maybe it's my love for Cher. Speaking of - y'all gotta listen to Cher's ABBA album cause it's just as amazing. Idk what it was but I literally cried at the end and became obsessed with Lily James in even more ways.

They also never really explain the backstory behind each guy. They “transform” into Donna’s memory of them but that Image is only mentioned when King George VI picks up the guitar. Each backstory enacted in the sequel has nothing to do with the flash image from the first movie. WHY does Stellar Skateboard have an eye tattooed on each knee? Is he part of the Illuminati?

I mean the very first sentiment Paul offered when they started was to call it 'basic', and I think during the wrap up, he reiterated that as well. But that's what I mean... the characters do represent that stuff, which is the depth I was referring to, but I don't think the film handles those ideas, really at all. If it did, I never felt engaged by the ideas presented.

Hey, I did warn you that I would have a lot to say about Megaforce, which was done at the Just For Laughs festival last summer in Montreal and is just this week finally being run on the podcast. "Why on earth should I care about this Barry Bostwick movie?" you may ask yourself. It's not up to me to convince you that you should or should not watch Megaforce, any more than I should try to convince you to eat a really good cheeseburger. It's not good for you, but you might really enjoy it, and you have to admit you're probably going to have that cheeseburger again sometime. I've enjoyed the sloppy mess that is Megaforce at least a dozen times over the years. I watched it in the theatre for the first time when I was a kid. Every comic book had an ad for the movie for what seemed like forever up until it was finally released in 1982. And yet, I don't think there was a comic adaptation of the film, nor am I aware of a novelization, or any of the usual marketing tie-ins that we had come to expect for all of these would-be super-action franchises: Flash Gordon, Buckaroo Banzai, Remo Williams and so many lesser efforts. There were apparently Hot Wheels-type toys of some of the film vehicles, but other than that a surprising dearth of toys. But, there is this stuff which I have held on to over the years: a VHS (formerly rental store) copy that I picked up used in the late lamented Honest Ed's emporium in Toronto; my DVD copy, which is probably still the edition available for sale; and an optimistic article about the film from a 1982 issue of Starlog. Enjoy.

I know Lawrence is considered the more important film, but I'll take Bridge On the River Kwai over it any day. All those "epic" shots of vast landscapes of sand just bored me in Lawrence. It's a movie about just surprising the enemy by being willing to walk a long distance. There's hardly even a battle once they arrive. Kwai has a clash of personalities with different beliefs in the unusual circumstances of a Japanese POW camp in southeast asia. Lawrence just has Lawrence, who's supposed to be something of an enigma (and I never found all that interesting). But if I could remove it in exchange for kicking off M*A*S*H, I'd be tempted due to how thoroughly I dislike that. Have you seen the video of David O. Russell throwing a tantrum at Lily Tomlin on I Heart Huckabees? George Clooney punched him on Three Kings, and Christian Bale had to get in his face to stop him being awful to Amy Adams on American Hustle.

I voted a soft no. For me, the segments with Alec Guinness are really brilliant and the segments with William Holden are . . . fine, but mostly I'm just waiting for the movie to get back to the prison camp. The list also seems pretty replete with WW2-related movies and also already has the best Lean/Guinness collaboration in Lawrence of Arabia, so I'm not sure we really NEED to keep this one, even though it is very good. I think Spielberg would qualify as an "epic war movie" filmmaker who isn't a difficult tyrant on set.

High five! How I envy anyone who sees this movie for the first time now. And that reminds me, for people who were wondering, apparently you can rent Megaforce from Amazon Prime for $3 in the US, so that's not too bad. Not sure about any other streaming options. Since I have a surprise day off on Friday I think there is a good chance that I will get super baked and watch Megaforce on Thursday night just to refresh my memory before the episode drops. If anyone wants to join me I'll probably start around 10 PM ET.

Your excitement makes me excited. This will be a first-time viewing for me!

Can't believe I forgot to link to the title song from the film by a band called 707 (who I confused for years with 38 Special).

This was the only thing about the movie I cared to find out I hope it's in part 2

In the sequel I missed whatever explained it was 10 years later. I heard that it was one year since (spoiler) and thought the entire movie happened one year after the first. Then Stellar Skateboard shows up VERY fat, the border guard slammed each dad for being old and ugly and I was muy confused.

I think frothy is a good way to describe it. Like when you really think about it you establish a lot of these characters with distinct personalities and yet none of that ever comes into play really. Is there any reason that Stellar Skateboard is a globetrotting author? Is that just to explain his boat? What about the one friend being a cookbook author? They give them these things to make them seem less cookie cutter but in the end none of that matters or is expanded upon. They just keep things light and frothy.

Predicting the last two episodes will be Jaws (4th of July weekend) and Casablanca (what better movie to end on?)

I've never said "yessss" out loud so much as I did when I listened to this Miniepisode. "Reality-showification of documentaries" summarizes and articulates what's going on perfectly.