Fame (2009) Review

On American Idol they always tell the contestants to not attempt a song made hugely famous by someone else, as either you have to blow the original out of the water, or you have to make it different enough so that it can't be compared. It seems the same reasoning could be applied to the remake of Fame.

The original Fame is one of my most favorite movies ever, so I've been anticipating the remake for quite some time. But like with the American Idol song remakes, this needed to make us forget all about the original, either by being that much better or by being that much different. It wasn't really either. Don't get me wrong; it was a good movie, and had I never seen the original Fame, I probably would have graded this one higher. But they just gave me reason to compare, with just enough things that were different, and just enough that were the same to make me see that it just didn't have the magic of the original.

I'm all about this movie. I've watched it since it came out. I watched it in high school with my best friend. Then we watched the TV series based on the movie. I bought the album. I bought the albums from the TV series. My niece even went to an academy for performing arts. One of the reasons I like to watch things like American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance is because I like to watch these young people with a desire to do something so large that they'll do almost anything to realize their dream.

While I still saw those kids with a dream, it just wasn't quite as gritty as the original Fame. The stars of the movie were a little too perfect. Bruno, Coco, Leroy, and Doris were far from perfect, and that's why it was so gritty. But this leaned slightly to a High School Musical edge with pretty people and songs about following a dream instead of songs about wanting to break out of your self-imposed cage like a dog in the yard. In fact the only song that stayed other than the Fame theme was Out Here On My Own. None of the others stayed, including Body Electric and Hot Lunch Jam.

There were kids that were dealing with heavy issues at home, but none that had the problems of a Montgomery, admitting to having a sexual relationship with his therapist, or Coco who was too embarrassed to have the other kids see where she lives. This group of kids did have Malik whose father ran out on the family and whose little sister had died, but it seemed staged so that we would relate to him, and the other kids just had problems like defying their parents.

Debbie Allen is the only teacher that's still there, and now instead of being a dance teacher, she's more an administrator at the school. She was replaced as dance teacher by Bebe Neuwirth, and the other teachers were Charles S. Dutton, Kelsey Grammer, and Megan Mullally. I did like that they started the movie off with Allen's famous quote, "You want fame? ... Well, fame costs. And right here is where you start paying. With sweat."

Throughout the rest of the movie, though, it seemed all I did was compare. I'd see a big moment and realize exactly what they were trying to compare to from the original, such as having Malik's story about his sister dying being like Montgomery's story about his therapist. I didn't want to see  the story. I wanted to feel it. Sure, I teared up in a few parts, but it wasn't like with the original.

If you're looking to repeat your experience of the original, don't bother. But if you're open to seeing something all new and have an ability to forget about the original, it might be worth a try.