Spice World: The Movie Movie Review

As a preview screening of Spice World made abundantly clear, it doesn't really matter what's on the silver or small screen OR on the tweaked soundtrack as long as the five Spice Girls themselves can be seen and heard by millions of their rampaging fans. The fact that only Sporty and Scary (the two Melanies, Chisholm, then 24, and Brown, then 22) can really sing, dance, and act is beside the point. The fact that the filmmakers are clearly trying to conceal that Victoria (“Posh”) Adams, then 23, has no talent whatsoever (her speaking voice even sounds as if it's been dubbed by another actress in several sequences that require real emotion) is equally irrelevant. And the painful reality that Kim Fuller's screenplay would be dead on arrival in any other film has obviously been dismissed by Spicemaniacs, who bring their own movie to the theatre anyway. In that movie, they too can sing, dance, and hang out with the Spice Girls forever and ever. Patterned after A Hard Day's Night, Spice World follows the Spice Girls in their pursuit of Girl Power despite the Forces of Evil that would attempt to crush them and distort their message. These include tacky tabloid publisher Kevin McMaxford (Barry Humphries), his evil minion Damien (Richard O'Brien), Piers, a daft documentarian played by Alan Cumming, and Clifford, their maladjusted manager (Richard E. Grant, who was more believable wrangling with his very own talking boil in 1989's How to Get Ahead in Advertising than he is here). The Forces of Good are represented by Naoki Mori as Nicola, their best friend and a mother-to-be. (They don't romp in a field here, that's Boy Power; instead they hold hands and lend moral support in a delivery room.) $25 million was spent on this extravaganza, which includes massive Foley artistry and about five bucks for a toy bus in an action sequence on London Bridge. Brit stars galore turn up in cameos that scarcely do them justice, although Stephen Fry as a judge and Hugh Laurie as Hercule Poirot fare the best, and Jennifer Saunders and Roger Moore seem rather embarrassed evoking their past triumphs in Absolutely Fabulous and the Bond flicks. Ab/Fab director Bob Spiers, also responsible for Disney's abysmally unfunny 1996 remake of That Darn Cat, is content to tread carefully in the footsteps of Richard Lester without, of course, sharing Lester's impeccable sense of taste, timing, and sheer comedy. Emma (“Baby”) Bunton, then 22, and Geri (“Ginger”) Halliwell, who photographs ten years older than her 25-plus years, plus Sporty, Scary, and Posh, share the spotlight for all 92 minutes of Spice World, which opened in the United States colonies on January 23, four short months before Halliwell left the group on May 31 to become a health care activist and United Nations Ambassador! Her sudden departure before the group's first American tour in the summer of 1998 and the subsequent pregnancies of Scary and Posh made Spice World an instant period piece, which it virtually was even prior to its British release on December 16, 1997. (References to Versace, Princess Diana, and Mother Teresa were changed to Gucci, Queen Elizabeth II, and Pope John Paul II.) Spice World seems to improve on repeated video viewings: As one male teenager reported, “I don't know why I like them so much, but they always make me so happy.” (See A Hard Days Night.)

1997 (PG) 92m/C GB Emma (Baby Spice) Bunton, Geri (Ginger Spice) Halliwell, Victoria (Posh Spice) Adams, Melanie (Sporty Spice) Chisholm, Melanie (Scary Spice) Brown, Richard E. Grant, Alan Cumming, George Wendt, Claire Rushbrook, Mark McKinney, Richard O'Brien, Roger Moore, Barry Humphries, Jason Flemyng, Meat Loaf, Bill Paterson, Stephen Fry, Richard Briers, Michael Barrymore, Naoki Mori, Hugh Laurie, Jennifer Saunders; Cameos: Elvis Costello, Bob Geldof, Bob Hoskins, Elton John; D: Bob Spiers; W: Kim Fuller, Jamie Curtis; C: Clive Tickner; M: Paul Newcastle. VHS, LV, Closed Caption, DVD