MAMA MIA: Here We Go Again  3.0***

  

         In a world that has gone crazy, it was so nice just to sit back with my wife, Sara, for 114 minutes and forget about real life. Transport yourself back to a simpler time and of course to the wonderful music of ABBA. Throughout the movie you go through all the emotions yet once it’s over you just want to sit back and relish the good feelings. The whole cast looked like they had as much fun making it as we did watching it. Everyone did their bit although Lily James was outstanding as the young Donna. It's one of those rare films where you leave the theater and re-enter the real world with a big smile. 

The movie is a sequel as well as a prequel, showing us Donna's life before Sophie was born, and Sophie's life after her mother has passed on. The young versions of Sam, Bill, and Harry were recognizable and resemble the adult characters. Lily James as young Donna was perfect! We heard the story of the three dads in the first movie, but now we are able to see how it could have happened. And then there was Cher. She was excellent, and there was just enough of her.

I was curious about which, if any, of the musical numbers in the 1^st movie would appear in the sequel. Well a number of them were performed but with a more spirited presentation  ("Super Trouper", “Mama Mia”, and "Dancing Queen" especially) . Then regarding the other numbers, i.e. the added songs, were well picked and gracefully, as well energetically, performed.  

The back-and-forth narrative with the present flashbacking to the past has a nice balance that actually parallels until both timelines reach their climax in one beautiful number before the celebrative finale  

Credit goes to the large cast for making the words, both in the narrative and songs, more fun and lively. The dynamic of the returning cast from the first film is like a typical reunion while putting more sizzle into their performances. But the cast that stands out are those playing the younger version of their older counterparts with a fresh charm, particularly Lily James being a younger Meryl Streep.

I'm not going to  say that these Mamma Mia films great , but they are well done and the main thing is they are fun and I really enjoyed them. There's just something special about a group of actors, not normally seen in these cheesy films, having the time of their life singing incredibly catchy pop songs and dancing their butts off.