Tockinit not horrible nor great

Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Wizard-8 Apart from the fact that this movie looks slicker and more technically accomplished than the original 1980 "Fame" movie, this remake is inferior to the original in every way you can think of. Of all the problems in the movie, I think the worst is the fact that NONE of the characters - students or teachers - is fleshed out sufficiently. The movie crams in so many characters that it doesn't have time to follow any for a decent length. The lack of a human angle probably explains why the movie doesn't have any bite - I remember the original movie had more grit and drama. This even extends to the musical/dance numbers - the music is instantly forgettable and the dancing is at its best mediocre. What the movie ends up being is very boring, even if you choose to watch the theatrical cut over the extended cut. Stick with the original movie.

TheLittleSongbird While the 1980 film was not a masterpiece, with an abrupt ending, some rambling dialogue and an imbalance of development of characters, it was entertaining with great songs, spirited choreography, good performances and a story with themes that were relevant then and also are now. The 2009 Fame can be seen as a make-over and sadly it is not a good one. Kelsey Grammar and Charles S. Dutton give decent performances, the singing is quite good and tuneful and better than the material deserves and the finale is fun, but that's pretty much it. The film feels too much like a High School Musical film or something lifted from the Disney channel, which means dull lighting, sets with a overly-studio-bound look and at times awkward editing that looks like a bad music promo. Much preferred the soft-grained, grittier look of the 1980 film. The songs are not very memorable and nowhere near the standard of those from the 1980 film, which had three truly great songs while this film had no good original one and felt like various music commercials/promos cobbled together. Someone to Watch Over Me and the pre-existing classical music are fine but this criticism is more aimed for the songs written for the film. The script is all fluff and no depth, all gloss and no heart and is very shallow and scattershot structurally. The plot was little more than a throw-away in a painfully predictable way and little effort is made to show the grit and the atmosphere of being at a performing arts school that the 1980 film did brilliantly. The pacing was odd because the film did often feel too short and rushed but at the same time because of the vapidity and the stale feel of it all it was dull as well. The characters are mismatched and the film doesn't give anywhere near enough time to develop them or allow us to root for them, they're just cookie-cutter cut-outs ranging from bland to irritating. In fact the personalities are so flat they border on inter-changeable and without any distinction, maybe if there weren't as many and that the film was longer and this problem would have been halfway solved. The choreography is sometimes spirited but often lacks heart and originality, like with that Hot Lunch Jam re-creation which fell completely flat. Apart from Grammar and Dutton, the acting doesn't cut it, Megan Mullally looked medicated, Bebe Neuwirth has done a lot of stuff I've liked but she's over-bearing here and the younger cast's inexperience comes through loud and clear. To conclude, a rather lame make-over unfortunately but not without its moments. 3/10 Bethany Cox

shadow_walker343 It really doesn't matter how in depth you went to pretend that you were some intense movie critic, as you proved one thing with all the negativity: you don't know anything about what makes a movie a success. 1)Numbers: "Box office The film opened at No. 3 behind Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and the newly released Surrogates with approximately $10,011,682.[7] The film has grossed $22,455,510 domestically and $50,930,003 in the foreign market with an international gross of $73,385,513, making it a moderate box office success." 2)The fact that this movie hit the screen at the right time when all the annoying reality music shows are on, along with Glee on TV and the High School Musicals being in the theaters and theatres shows that knowledge of your audience is the key to success, NOT listening to, lack of success, critics telling you not to make a movie other than the way they prefer it to be. 3)Do you ever find yourself laughing at others when they are angry that a movie didn't stick to the original comic book script(Rhetorical)? Yes, I am laughing at all of these negative reviews in the same way. The truth is that it's an average movie, it isn't the original Fame movie or series and...good. That is the past and it was good, there isn't ANY point in doing the exact same movie or show, as that IS the constant annoyance that Hollywood is doing in the current. Take the time, watch the movie again without the expectations of the original movie and you might just find it tolerable. I give it a C+ to B-, which is better than average and worthy of a movie rental price.

Jackson Booth-Millard The 1980 Irene Cara/Alan Parker version of the film is a cult favourite, famous for that title song that went to number one, naturally a remake would be much more modern and stylised, it did sound like a bit of a silly idea. Basically, set in New York City High School for the Performing Arts, the story sees a group of young boys and girls wanting to achieve fame in whatever talent they have, whether it be drama, music, dancing, rapping or singing, but they have their hold backs. The story goes through freshman year, sophomore year, junior year, senior and graduation, and the main characters, amongst others, are wannabe actress Jenny Garrison (Kay Panabaker, Danielle's sister), wannabe pianist Denise Dupree (Naturi Naughton) and wannabe dancer Alice Ellerton (Kherington Payne). The teachers keeping an eye on the students and helping them achieve their ambitions include music teacher Mr. Martin Cranston (Kelsey Grammar), dance class teacher Ms. Kraft (Jumanji's Bebe Neuwirth), voice teacher Ms. Fran Rowan (Megan Mullally) and Ms. Angela Simms (Debbie Allen). Also starring Walter Perez as Victor Tavares, Asher Book as Marco, Collins Pennie as Malik Washburn, Kristy Flores as Rosie Martinez, Paul McGill as Kevin Barrett and Paul Iacono as Neil Baczynsky. I can see what the critics mean by trying to make it like a High School Musical kind of thing, I found it similar to something like Save the Last Dance as well, it is filled with the most obvious and tedious clichés, the characters are pretty one dimensional, the songs are okay, the title song being the only really memorable one, overall it is a pretty pointless remake musical drama. Adequate!