PodBill Just what I expected

MoPoshy Absolutely brilliant

Casey Duggan It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

cdainard I have to say that this movie had a big impact on me in that it was a movie of opportunities, either missed or accomplished. Having your future in front of you knowing what you want to do in life and focusing on that one thing and just putting all of your heart and soul into it.This was a typical prototypical rags to riches story made for the era and told from the aspect of the student and teachers so you get a "true to life" depiction of what you sometimes have to do to get ahead in this world. I would definitely have young people watch this movie especially if they are involved in the performing arts. I know it is dated but the message is not.

Larry Collins This movie breaks down a lot of the expectations that most audiences have in regards to musicals. However, this movie is still very clearly a musical through and through.One of the biggest expectations audiences have going into a musical is that the characters will frequently just start singing and dancing for no reason. Parker decided to take a different route on how he presented the song and dance numbers. The movie revolves around a group of high school students as they progress through their four years of school at a performing arts high school. Since nearly every character in the story is a singer or dancer, it makes sense for them to sing and/or dance every once in a while. And since I'm sure every one of you knows at least one person that's involved in the arts somehow, I'm also sure you know that it's not completely out of character for these people to randomly start singing and dancing. The characters in "Fame" hold true to this personality trait. Whenever the characters start randomly singing and/or dancing throughout the movie, it may be "weird" according to societal norms, but for actual performers, it's something that could and often does actually happen in real life."Fame" also challenges the purpose of songs in the musicals. Normally, songs in musicals either are vital in progressing the plot or are simply for entertainment. The music in "Fame" does neither of these things. While the songs are vital to the plot, it is not in the conventional sense. Most of the songs in the movie are sung by musicians as they are auditioning, practicing, or performing, rather than simply being a tool to move the plot along. If someone were to take all the songs out of the movie the plot would not make as much sense, because without them the characters singing them would have to be removed from the script. Another thing that is expected out of most musicals is the big production number at the end of the musical that either ties all of the loose ends of the story up or celebrates everyone's good fortune. "Fame" still has a production number, but it fulfills neither of the expected uses. This production number takes place at the students' graduation. It serves as the final chance for both the audience within the movie and those of us watching the movie itself to see all of the characters perform before they go off into the "real world." None of the characters' story lines end with a sense of finality. No one is shown getting a professional job, or an agent, or even a relationship. The characters graduate and that's the end of it. For most audiences, they are expecting the final number to tie up loose ends. Sadly, these people will be left hanging.Even though "Fame" is definitely very unconventional in it's delivery, it is still very strongly a musical. The songs are still very vital to the storyline even though they aren't quite delivered how you would expect. In my opinion, it does a great job at trying to reach to both musical loving audiences and non-musical loving audiences.

mamboitaliano25 In the movie, I have to say that I found way too many problems (girl getting pregnant, coco becoming a porn star, Doris smoking, Leroy not graduating, and many more) that it took away from the light spirit of the movie and made me quite uncomfortable watching it and laughing at some jokes that were revolved around these problems. Even though people make jokes about these things, this film made me realize how bad these things can be. The musical was much better because it focused on one main problem- Carmen going into drugs. Even though there were smaller problems, they did not take away from the main problem. The musical had funnier jokes and the characters all seemed well built. It also had a great and very useful message saying that if you want to get somewhere in life, you need to work hard for it and not get distracted and fall into drugs for example. Again, the movie had just as much wonderful potential as the musical had but it was taken away because the writer over did it with the problems thinking it would enhance the movie.

Jetset971 I really liked this movie! It could have been a really cheesy movie about kids wanting to make it big in show business so they learn all about it at a special school. That would have been disastrous. What makes FAME work is that you do have aspiring actors, singers, and dancers wanting success and dreaming big but they are given a hard wake up call about the rigerous demands that fame costs. Plus, what sets this film up is the fact that real life delimas hit these kids SUPER HARD. You don't get milk toast problems like bad acne or boyfriend trouble, you got exploitation, abortion, illiteracy and a genuine fear of being inadequate. There is not a single bad performance in this movie and that is saying something considering the unknown, at the time cast. As Debbie Allen said in the this movie and in the TV show, "You got big dreams, you want fame, well fame costs! And right here is where you start paying, in sweat!."