The Spice Girls are a manufactured group ala The Monkees. They play no instruments and can barely sing. However, this hasn’t stopped them from becoming hugely successful in the United States and the UK. So successful have they become that it was deemed necessary for them to make a movie. Usually, the making of a movie signals the beginning of the end of a group. And, true-to-form, soon after the release of this movie, one of the members of the Spice Girls left the group to pursue a solo career.
Strangely enough, though, this movie isn’t that bad. Actually, it’s rather funny. The Spice Girls seem to know their days of superstardom are numbered and constantly remind themselves of this throughout the film. The film takes its cue from The Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night, one of the better rock band movies ever made. Even though the Spice Girls’ film can’t touch the Beatles’ movie in terms of sheer originality, they do pay homage to it quite successfully and with tongue planted firmly in cheek.
The plot, as thin as it is, involves following a week in the life of The Spice Girls as they prepare for a concert in Albert Hall. We follow the girls in their Union Jack-painted bus, which is oddly large inside compared to what it looks like outside, as they make interview stops, press appearances, rehearsals, and all the other stuff a music group supposedly does. Their manager (Richard E. Grant) is constantly pressuring them to do more and more work, until the group finally has to escape for a while. Which, of course, leads to scenes involving the Spice Girls’ ideas of fun and thrills.
This probably sounds like a very sad excuse for a film, and it is. But, thankfully, this is a film made by people who know exactly what it is. Since the target audience is probably 10-year-old girls, the director and screenwriter have included humorous tinges to appease the parents of the main audience. Some of the humor will go over your child’s head and make you smile. Cameos from Elton John, Elvis Costello, Meat Loaf and Bob Hoskins give the Spice Girls some “celebrity credibility” while the script provides Roger Moore, as the Spice Girls record label president, opportunities to spoof his James Bond character.
If you don’t like The Spice Girls (and I don’t), you still might enjoy this film anyway. Just turn the volume down during the film’s musical numbers. (Surprisingly, there aren’t many.) There’s no doubt this movie is cheesy, but it’s so delightfully cheesy that it’s almost irresistible.
3.0 out of 5.0 stars
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