Fortunately I caught on to the moronic plot early on and was able to fast forward through those connecting scenes. Actually I fast forwarded through most of the songs except for a half dozen of their best tunes. The photography was mediocre. It was no Woodstock. The best part was how the group came across as sincere, dedicated likeable performers.

As a huge ABBA fan, I was expecting to see this reporter reach the band early on and actually spend time with them as he does the interview. Instead, the whole film has him trying to get close to them as they tour around Australia. We get some really good performances by ABBA, but the only song we hear completely is "Dancing Queen."The man is told at the beginning that the station wants him to delve deep into the band members' mind and life, but I feel like we ourselves never got to know them. We only have a few clips of them being themselves where they get to talk and rehearse, and, aside from their live performances, they just feel like side characters. Most of the rest of the movie is devoted to having the reporter interview random people and children about their thoughts on the band.It definitely has some funny moments, like the running gag about Agnetha's behind, but other than that, it's no A Hard Day's Night (1964).I give it 5 stars mostly for ABBA's amazing performances.

This has some muddy nostalgia value as I recall seeing the film as a kid at the cinema with my sister and my Dad. Dad moaned to the management about how loud the music was, then was promptly ill in bed for the next two days.Now, even at the time, having seen A Hard Day's Night and Help! where the Fab Four are at the forefront of events and let us into their world, it seemed that this film fobbed us off with the story of a hapless disc jockey trailing the band across their tour of Australia, under pressure to deliver an in-depth interview.He misses press conferences, loses his press card, gets stuck in traffic jams. It quickly becomes tedious, repetitive and bad-tempered. All the more so because it depicts Abba as lovely untouchables at far remove.And also because - wait for it- Abba are soon revealed as officially The Worst Band Ever. Yep. Given a chance to shine at a press conference, they exhibit the intellectual savvy of the Cheeky Girls and the energy and wit of former England manager Sven Goran Eriksson. It's like they're actually trying to be uninteresting. The biggest laughs come from a question asked by a journalist. Suddenly you can see why music hacks hated them at the time. And the blokes have all the charisma of John Major, they seemed nervy, like they're unwillingly backing into the limelight. The sexy blonde one has a low profile and the dark one seems a bit forward, a bit OTT. How I longed for the Beatles' four personalities: the knockabout Ringo, the rapier wit of Lennon, the wry sardonic wit of George and Paul's laid back, insouciant cool.As I downed my third glass of Savignon Blanc I gloomily reflected that the band resembled the hosts of a Swedish suburban swinging club, where the evening would start off promisingly only to find yourself in the kitchen with Benny discussing the merits of the Yamaha synthesizer while the blonde one keeps out of sight...But the songs! Well, yes, this was Abba at their height, but they don't make much impact, every other song being a forgotten album track sung by the blokes. All are taken from the concerts, which is visually repetitive and sees the girls bathed in red light; unlike The Beatles however much of their visual appeal came from their cute, quirky videos.I gradually came to see the band in its imperial phase as a bunch of fascists taking over the world, only without the drive and ideology... Like the Beatles Love musical, this one will do what you never thought possible, and put you right off the band. Only latterly did I realise, with horror, that the hapless DJ spends the film being punished for not being an ABBA fan, and it's only after he's paid to see them in concert and is 'converted', bathed in an ethereal glow, that's he's allowed his time with them. Horrid. This was, of course, before ABBA became popular in an ironic, slightly indulgent way.BTW the Swedish director went on to better things; Chocalet and The Shipping News.

I grew up in Australia and was 16 at the time of ABBA's 1977 concert tour Downunder. I lived in Melbourne and went to all three performances (1 on the Saturday night and 2 on Sunday) and I remember seeing the film cameramen on stage during the show and wishing they would get the heck out of the way, especially when they blocked my view of Agnetha (which was unfortunately already bad enough due to the fact that I was so far back in the crowd that I had to use binoculars!). Watching this movie again after so many years sent my mind spinning back to my 16th year and flooded me with wonderful memories and an extremely intense feeling of nostalgia and longing to be back there again at that time; and it's great to know that when they perform Fernando in the movie, I'm somewhere out in that crowd at Melbourne's "Sidney Myer Music Bowl" (which is named after a guy called Sidney Myer, not the city of Sidney). Being a big ABBA fan and an even bigger Agnetha fan, it's great to see the appreciation of ABBA: The Movie and of my girl Anna, who at 57 years of age now is still the most beautiful woman who ever lived. On the Monday after the concerts, I learned that ABBA would spend one more day in Melbourne so I (naturally) skipped school and went to the city to try and get Agnetha's autograph. ABBA had the whole 5th floor of The Old Melbourne Hotel, and during my efforts to infiltrate that fortress, I met an old lady who was staying on the 4th floor who asked me what was going on. When I explained my love for Agnetha to her, she took sympathy on me and told me to go down to the lobby and wait for my chance. She said if any hotel staff bothered me I could tell them I was her grandson and staying with her (God Bless her!!). When I stepped off the elevator into the lobby, the staff must've automatically assumed I was a guest because no one bothered me. After about 30 minutes, the crowds outside began screaming wildly as ABBA returned from a day trip they'd taken and entered the lobby. And there she was, the blonde angel named Agnetha - right in front of me! It took all my strength and nerve just to stand up and approach her, but when I did, she smiled and took the proffered pen and paper and signed her name with a flourish! I've still got it in my files at home in Melbourne, but unlike my love for her, it's kind of faded these days. ABBA: The Movie was originally intended to be a documentary (despite Benny's apprehensions about it due to an earlier, similar type of documentary he'd been involved in during his Hep Star days (a film that apparently was disastrous, at least in his eyes)), but as momentum built during pre-production for both the film and the Australian concert tour, Lasse Halstrom decided it would be better to add the subplot of the D.J. trying to get an interview with them. It's a thin plot to say the least, but it does add humor to the movie and is a great window into Australia of 1977. They don't even have money like that anymore down there - nowadays it's made of some sort of futuristic, flexible plastic material that just WILL NOT stay in your pockets (as I learned on my last visit from Los Angeles). Anyway, ABBA: The Movie is a wonderful film for anyone who is a fan of the group or of that style of 70s music in general.