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Fame

Play trailer Poster for Fame PG Released Sep 25, 2009 1h 47m Drama Musical Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
23% Tomatometer 119 Reviews 36% Popcornmeter 100,000+ Ratings
At New York's High School of Performing Arts, students (Asher Book, Kristy Flores, Paul Iacono) from all walks of life get the chance to hone their skills as singers, actors, dancers and more. Over four years, these young men and women will see if they truly have the dedication and talent to achieve success, while still juggling regular schoolwork, feelings of self-doubt and budding romances.
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Critics Consensus

Fame is ultimately undone by its choppy editing, its incomplete characterizations, and its apparent desire to appeal to the High School Musical generation.

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Critics Reviews

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Perri Nemiroff CinemaBlend I'm gonna live forever? Fat chance. Rated: 2/5 Aug 12, 2010 Full Review Andrea Gronvall Chicago Reader The high school is so sanitized that there are no drugs, cutthroat competition, or-inconceivably for a theatrical milieu-no gay students. Oct 2, 2009 Full Review Keith Uhlich Time Out There are enough hoary soap-operatic plottings for a thousand Gossip Girls (emotionally distant parents, almost-rapes, suicide attempts), yet Tancharoen individualizes each crisis so that no one character comes off as a mock-universal surrogate. Rated: 3/5 Sep 30, 2009 Full Review Megan Basham WORLD So many of these characters flit across the screen, we're only given minutes to get to know each and, consequently, care about none. Mar 22, 2021 Full Review Richard Propes TheIndependentCritic.com Everything that this version of Fame does, Parker's 1980 version of Fame did much, much better. Rated: 2.0/4.0 Sep 7, 2020 Full Review Micheal Compton Bowling Green Daily News Four years of school are covered in a brisk 107 minutes, the characters aren't completely developed, and none of the actors [are] given much to work with Rated: C- May 15, 2019 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Ionela C The soundtrack is marvellous while this remake is suck a shame. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 04/20/24 Full Review David S Completely overwrought and predictable. The writing is subpar. The acting was okay, but they missed out on some potentially great storylines. I watched out of nostalgia for my mom who loved the show. It did not live up to the '80s show in any way. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 12/08/23 Full Review Steve D If you have no interest in making Fame why make a film called Fame? Rated 1 out of 5 stars 10/09/23 Full Review robert p They made this movie to capitalize on the original Fame movie, but it just didn't have the talent of the original, thus my *1 & 1/2* star rating! Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review isla s The choreography is quite good, stylish - it was fun watching rooms full of people dancing away to sings and I admit I may have participated with the singing as well at times!. There is a plot, rather than it just costantly going from song to song, those are the main plus points. There are undoubtedly a number of cliches present, men 'admiring' female dancers for their suggestive moves and vice versa, etc. it doesn't exactly greatly break new ground but its alright as a film following a group of singers/performers trying to improve their craft and be taken seriously, professionally. The vocals and dancing are the main appeals and their not bad, so I'd say its alright but its hardly a particularly good film as far as it having a clear plot direction as such. There are a lot of characters and it doesn't really center on any one person for the duration, so it feels like as a viewer we only see, or know, snippets about peoples personal lives, their background etc., which is a shame. It felt at times that there was a sort of forced melodrama present which didn't sit with me too well, almost as if its trying a bit too hard to be hard hitting but it doesn't quite succeed. Some of the cast (the young, teenage students) clearly aren't exactly top grade actors, sadly - not all but some scenes I felt could (perhaps should) have been cut. I also felt, more specifically, that Kelsey Grammar was trying a bit too hard to be seen as the strict, perfectionist teacher unhappy with anything but the best from his students. It felt, to me, insincere, although im not arguing that he can't act as obviously he's a famous actor from other films and the TV series Frasier etc. I suppose its mainly a musical/music based film and as that its alright (with the caveat of some scenes being slightly better than others), so it could be worse but as a film I'd say its not particularly good either. As the film continues, I felt it, if anything, seemed obviously desperate to try to stand out and I lost some of the enthusiasm I'd initially felt for it. If it concentrated purely on the musical numbers and all but cut the rest of the plot out, or certainly lowered the number of characters at play, it would've come across better/slicker. It just didn't really work for me, although I can't deny that the initial dance scenes and some of the singing/musical numbers are fairly decent. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member It’s heart is in the right place, But all the dancing and music cannot save this film from feeling like polished Disney kids afternoon special. Missing is the grit and real life teen struggles that made the original film stand out back in 1980 Rated 3 out of 5 stars 05/27/21 Full Review Read all reviews
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Cast & Crew

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Movie Info

Synopsis At New York's High School of Performing Arts, students (Asher Book, Kristy Flores, Paul Iacono) from all walks of life get the chance to hone their skills as singers, actors, dancers and more. Over four years, these young men and women will see if they truly have the dedication and talent to achieve success, while still juggling regular schoolwork, feelings of self-doubt and budding romances.
Director
Kevin Tancharoen
Producer
Mark Canton, Celine Catalaa, Gary Lucchesi, Tom Rosenberg, Richard S. Wright
Screenwriter
Allison Burnett
Distributor
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Production Co
Lakeshore Entertainment
Rating
PG (Sexual Situations|Language|Teen Drinking|Thematic Material)
Genre
Drama, Musical
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Sep 25, 2009, Wide
Release Date (Streaming)
Feb 25, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA)
$22.5M
Runtime
1h 47m
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