My initial impression of the 2009 remake of "Fame" was favorable, having seen only the scene where the failed ballet dancer contemplated taking his life in a subway station. I was impressed by the directorial style, where everything around him faded into a distant noise as he became overwhelmed by his feelings of hopelessness and futility. This is, unfortunately, the most striking scene of the whole movie, and not really enough to justify sitting through it for a whole two hours (I saw the "Extended Dance Edition"). If the rest of the movie would have been made with the same care, it would have been much more resonant and enjoyable. Unfortunately it was not, and this is why I was so disappointed with it.Upon viewing the complete movie from the beginning, I was taken with director Kevin Tancharoen's use of the cinema verité style in order to give the movie more of a documentary feeling. Unfortunately, his attempts at realism were severely undermined by the flat, one- dimensional characters, clichéd situations, and (for me) underwhelming dance and musical production numbers. Add to this the fact that the rather sloppily written screenplay attempts to cover too much ground for the movie's running time, trying to focus on so many characters that I was not able to really connect in a substantial way with any of them. The movie ultimately has a rather sterile, detached feel to it, and I found it difficult to really care about the characters because they came across as stock types (the shy, naïve starlet who comes this close to be taken advantage of, the angry inner city black youth, the selfish dancer who only cares about stardom). The production numbers did not impress me either, although Naturi Naughton did display an impressive vocal range and stage presence. This is especially worrisome to me, as I watched the "Extended Dance Edition". None of the dance numbers really stayed with me...I've seen better on shows like "Britain's Got Talent".The more experienced actors (Kelsey Grammar, Bebe Neuwirth, Charles Dutton, Megan Mullaly, and Debbie Allen) had little to do except for portray the teachers, which also come off as your typical authoritative/mean/condescending/inspirational stock types. The younger actors are fine in their roles, although not outstandingly charismatic or memorable. I can't really complain about the acting, though, since the script is so poorly conceived the actors simply don't have much to work with. Not even Meryl Streep and Laurence Olivier could have saved this one.One thing I did notice was a direct rip-off of a scene from "Mr. Holland's Opus", which is, in my mind, a far superior film whose characters truly resonate with the audience - a student does a rendition of the old Gershwin standard "Someone to Watch Over Me," and is instructed by the teacher that she needs to have a better grasp of what the words mean. The scene is slightly different here, but couldn't they have at least have chosen a different song? This, to me, is symbolic of what is wrong with this movie - lazy, formulaic plotting, stock characterizations, and a poorly conceived script. There are so many characters on display that at the end of the movie, I didn't know what happened to all of them. What happened to the aspiring director at the end? Or the dancer's best friend (and it was news to me that they were friends until the end of the movie?) The filmmakers didn't even so much as put an epilogue on the end that you could read in order to figure out what became of the characters. Overall, I felt like the movie was a waste of my time. Disappointing.

Verdict : Flashy Movie, 3 Stars today after so many days, today I watched a movie (Fame (2009)) and I must say though this movie does not meet the original version of 1980 nor does bring any new contents or slapstick performances but kind of makes you glued to your seat until the students reach their junior year. Fame kind of reminds one of their undergraduate years and the fact that even a movie can be made about some interesting school years. Though this film never goes into any details and rather places a collage of the various things that we have already seen at various places and the only people this movie will perfectly fit to are the ones who have almost no knowledge of dance, acting or movies.NOTE: All my reviews are available at http://rastogisaurab29.wordpress.com/category/tv-and-movies/movie- reviews/ OR http://www.imdb.com/user/ur39556023/comments?order=date

If any of you are wondering, this is not like High School Musical. Shockingly, this is a very good remake (well, I wouldn't say it's a remake but an updated version but many people call it a remake). The students are very likable and the acting is so-so, the actress who stuck out with her fantastic singing voice was Naturi Naughton and her version of the songs "Out Here On My Own" and "Fame" were brilliant. The dance sequences were phenomenal and actually made you want to get off your seat and join them. The storyline was good and it sent the usual message this type of movie sends and delivers the whole 'you can make it if you believe in you' message which worked as it would in this movie.I'm genuinely surprised as this was better than I expected it to be but it's not better than the original. My criticisms are that one or two of the actors had their moments of great acting and then it went to poor however this wouldn't put you off the movie as the singing and dancing triumphs. Another criticism is that there wasn't enough Naturi Naughton for me, I wanted to hear her sing more, her voice is phenomenal! For me, I thought it was fantastic and I'm shocked at how much I liked it. If you're a fan of the 80's Fame, then you'll love this! This is two hours of feel-good fun.Read more reviews at: www.dudedazzmoviereviews.wordpress.com

At the time of its release, the original FAME (1980) was out of my demographic - I was too young to appreciate the tribulations of 70's high schoolers balancing schoolwork and performing arts and aiming for their fifteen minutes. In this tepid remake - now I'm too old to care. Kevin Tancharoen helms this rushed production that flits through so many story lines and characters at the New York School of Performing Arts, it implodes with two-dimensionality.Main character is young, nominally talented Jenny (Kay Panabaker, who looks like she's still waiting for her period), so inept at the performing arts, we wonder how she ever got in. We discover later she didn't even sleep her way in, so which authority did her rich daddy pay off? Other characters orbit, trying to cover every angle on parent-kid tropes: the talented kid stultified by parents; the parents trying to channel their kid's talent in another direction; the kid hiding their scholarship from parents...We see the cons, the competitiveness, the crises, as film scrambles through Audition Day, Freshman Year, Sophomore Year, ultimately failing to convey the tedium of practice, the long hours of dedication, the added burden of schoolwork, the sacrifices de rigueur in becoming any kind of artist. Well, I guess all these annoying extroverted snots are just looking for "fame" - not art. As evidenced by the impromptu cafeteria jam which will leave you feeling dirty. Veteran cast (Charles S. Dutton, Kelsey Grammar, Bebe Neuwirth) don't have much to do except pretend to be teachers, which Grammar of course, pulls off most eloquently - everything he says sounds didactic. After claiming the school is highly coveted, we wonder at the mediocrities who were turned away when tin-eared Jenny plods insensibly through a vocal rendition of Someone To Watch Over Me like a little girl who's never been touched by either a boy or her pedophile uncle. (People clamor to get into a school that accepts people like HER?) Then pretty-like-a-girl Marco (Asher Book) gets up and sings it like he's remembering being touched by a boy or his pedophile uncle. Compare their renditions to that of Jean Louisa Kelly (and whoever performed her singing voice) in MR. HOLLAND'S OPUS - an amazing performance sung with the truest emotion of desperately needing a willy in her mouth. The annoying conceptual mistake all movies of this ilk make: "talent = fame." No. Talent simply equals talent. The vagaries of the industry denote either landing in the pathway to greatness or nibbling at the periphery. Talent helps, fershure, but is not the magic key to any door. And "holding onto your dreams" is no guarantee of success. Likewise, "letting go of your dreams" is no guarantee of failure. The Kids playfully harass one of their vocal teachers who proves her mettle at Karaoke (which, to my knowledge, proves nothing more than you're a douchebag), asking her why she didn't stick to being a vocalist. Whatever that means - remaining a starving musician, I guess. They infer that inherent talent guarantees success. Or at least fame. As long as you "hold onto your dreams." This demonstrable bull is so egregious that I let my dreams out of their titanium prison and told them if they wanted to get held so much they should seek therapy. The way the untalented character (Paul McGill) is castigated, movie is telling us that lack of talent equals futility in achieving fame. Also demonstrably untrue: Paris Hilton, The White House party-crashing Salahis, balloon boy's father, George W. Bush, Milli Vanilli, William Hung, Ed Wood, Rob Schneider, and most of the kids in this movie. Yet "hold onto your dreams" is shoved down our throats like a pedophile uncle's penis, not taking into account that Paul McGill's character was just told to let go of his dreams, being so untalented he is advised to become a teacher! Those who can't do, teach, right? But what if HE held onto his dream of being a dancer? Well, he already IS a dancer - just not a "famous" one. And fame is all that counts.Regrettably true. More people know the brainless Rush Limbaugh than the acute Stephen Jay Gould. There is more fame for the talentless winner of American Idol than for the talented writer of the song he sang. Most of us teachers and musicians and composers get tagged "wannabes" and "failed musicians" at some point in our lives if we're not famous enough for the insulter to know us outside of their jejune existence. What we are is "Failed FAMOUS Musicians" - through no one's fault (especially not ours, since - as FAME tells us - Talent=Fame, and we've always had the talent) we've failed to become well known enough for Jejune to appreciate who we are. The original 1980 theme song, Fame (performed by Irene Cara, written by Michael Gore and Dean Pitchford) conveyed what it was all about - narcissism. "Give me time, I'll make you forget the rest / Don't you know who I am? / Remember my name! / I wanna live forever..."There's nothing in this film that captures that egotism. And the urgent disco stylings of Cara's version are completely ignored, in favor of two of this film's overactors (Naturi Naughton and Collins Pennie) performing a limp hip-hop rehash as an outro fadeout. Keep searching for your fifteen minutes, kids. Appearing in this film will just make you Failed Famous Actors...