Starring: Kay Panabaker, Asher Book, Naturi Naughton, Kelsey Grammer, Megan Mullally, Bebe Neuwirth
Director: Kevin Tancharoen (first feature film)
Running Time: 1 hr 47 min
Release Date: Sept. 25, 2009
Budget: $18 million
Average Critics’ Score: 36%
“…a raw, uplifting love letter to creativity…” Tasha Robinson, The Onion (A.V. Club)
“The cowardly producers have banished the grit and darkness…” Lou Lumenick, New York Post
Though based on the 1980 film and 1982 TV series about a group of dancers, singers, actors and musicians struggling to attain Fame at a New York City performing arts school, this dull remake isn’t going to live forever. The relatively unknown young cast is talented, especially Naughton, but they aren’t given much to do. Whereas the musical numbers on TV’s Glee brim with pizzazz, here they are lifeless. Each character is thrown a token problem, but the film’s documentary style keeps them at a distance. Charting the students’ progress from audition day to graduation day is well-organized, but it reduces the characters to specimens rather than real people.
