Rating: ***
Review Date: 7/3/05
Cast: Geri Halliwell, Emma Bunton, Victoria Adams, Melanie Brown,
Melanie Chisholm, Alan Cumming, Roger Moore, Meatloaf, George Wendt, Richard O'Brien
A gleefully effervescent vanity project for the Spice Girls, best described by one of the characters in the film as "absolutely perfect, without actually being any good." The film is an incomprehensible mish-mash of gags, skits, musical numbers, and celebrity cameos as the Spice Girls are hounded by their tyrannical manager, an annoying documentary filmmaker (Alan Cumming), and a devious newspaper baron who wants to see the band break up. But everything turns out well through the magic of friendship and girl power. The film works best when the girls are lampooning themselves and each other, and the brief sparks of brilliance in the movie serve as disappointing landmarks of missed opportunity. Conceptually, the film had potential to be great, but the writers never stayed with any single idea long enough to see it through. For instance, I could easily watch an entire movie of the "Spice Force Five." The girls are, of course, lovely to watch and Sporty (Melanie Chisholm) is easily the cutest and most charming of the bunch. Enjoyable if you have a high threshold for pop music and cheese, but intolerable otherwise.