Spiceworld: The Movie - DVDfever.co.uk

and Victoria
Plus Richard E. Grant and cameos from Michael Barrymore, RichardBriers, Bob Hoskins, Elvis Costello, Roger Moore, Stephen Fry, Barry Humphries, EltonJohn, Hugh Laurie, Meat Loaf, Jonathan Ross, Richard O’Brien, George Wendt andJennifer Saunders plus too many to mention, all of which are given aname-check in the end credits.

Spiceworld: The Moviecentres around Mel B, Mel C, Emma, Geri and Victoria gettingready for their first ever gig. They describe their appearance as themselves, but with their characters exaggerated, “if you can exaggerate our characterseven more”, said Mel B.

Directed by Bob Spiers, who has worked on the TV series AbsolutelyFabulous and written by Kim Fuller – more recently known for the BBCseries “Miami 7” about a seven-piece boy-girl pop band based in that Americancity – and Ab Fab’s star, Jennifer Saunders, the film also has a number ofcameo appearances by famous people. As well as Richard E. Grantplaying their manager, there are a whole host of cameos as listed above.

This is the first feature film for one of the best-selling all-female bands in theUK. There can’t be many people who haven’t heard of them and their excessivemarketing campaign. Inbetween the two albums they’ve released to date, “Spice”and“Spiceworld”there was no let up from the girls. Whereas most bands would go away andquietly work on their next album and then release it with a list of tour dates,the Spice Girls advertised Walkers crisps, Impulse Spice – a new fragrance, butwhereas those crisps taste nice, the Impulse spray smells horrible. They evenwent so far in their promotion of Pepsi as to record a song, Step To Me,only for them to give it away on a CD single if you sent off a stack of tokens.This was followed by a Polaroid camera, the SpiceCam.

In the course of nearly three years the girls have notched up 8 chart-toppingsingles – Wannabe, Say You’ll Be There, 2 Become 1, Mama / Who Do YouThink You Are, Spice Up Your Life, Too Much, Viva Forever andGoodbye – out of 9 released, the one that didn’t make the gradebeing Stop which stalled at No.2. All of the No.1 singles alsowent straight into the top slot on its first week out, save for Wannabewhich entered at No.3 in July 1996 and then topped the charts the week after.It’s also worth noting that with 2 Become 1, Too Much andGoodbye, they have had the Christmas No.1 single for three yearson the trot.

Since the film was made all five girls have taken a solo path of one form oranother :

Geri, most notably, split from the band in May 1998 to pursue a solocareer. After a £2million advertising campaign and a feature-lengthdocumentary about her last twelve months on Channel 4, her debut single,the excellent, energetic Look At Me failed to do the businessonly making No.2, losing out to Boyzone singing yet another cover version.Her first solo album, Schizophonic, the title changed from”Schizophrenic”, is due out soon.
Mel B, now Mel G since her marriage to dancer Jimmy Gulzar, had a solosingle with female rapper Missy Elliot, I Want You Back, whichmade No.1 in September last year, with a solo album on the cards, while hernext achievement was to give birth to daughter Phoenix Chi earlier this year.However, eight months after they wed, their marriage looks to be on the rockswith a custody battle ensuing for the little one.
Victoria also followed the baby trail by giving birth to a boy, Brooklyn,her fiancee being footballer David Beckham whose team, Manchester United, wonthe Premier league yet again. They will be getting married later this year.
Mel C, probably the best singer in the band even if she is the ugliest,released a duet with Bryan Adams, When You’re Gone, making No.3in December last year and I’d be surprised if a solo album *isn’t* inthe offing.
Emma doesn’t have any solo singles or babies planned, but as atrained actress and having once played an extra in BBC’s Eastendersshe’s now destined for the part in a TV movie version of Sleeping Beautywhich was originally due to be played by the programme’s long-time star MartineMcCutcheon.

The picture quality is excellent with no noticeable artifacts and just thething to bring out all the cacophony of colour that dominates the film,especially the decor inside the TARDIS-inspired bus. At first I thought itwas a fault of the disc that the image is a little on the soft side, butthis appears intentional given the way the film has been made.

Both formats of the film are included on the disc. The widescreen side ispresented in anamorphic format – thus allowing extra resolution forwidescreen televisions – and is presented in 1.85:1, which is a tad widerthan the 16:9 (1.77:1) quoted on the back cover, thus replicating theoriginal cinema ratio. The flip-side is an open-matte 4:3 version whichlooks fine composition-wise when blown up to fill a widescreen TV but youdon’t benefit from the extra resolution that the anamorphic transfer provides.

The widescreen version has an average bitrate is a very good 6.59Mb/s,peaking at 9Mb/s quite regularly, while the fullscreen version has anaverage 5.55Mb/s.

As for the sound ? Well would you expect any of this quintet to beparticularly quiet ? No, I don’t think so. A different track punctuateseach scene in their traditional loud style and if you have theequipment for it, it’s available in Dolby Digital 5.1. Even if youhave a basic surround system, the bass will eminate through the wallsjust enough to annoy the neighbours.

Extras : Chapters :There are 17 chapters spread throughout the 89-minute film. These cover mostscenes but another 10 would do the trick. Alas there’s no theatrical trailerwhich would have been a nice inclusion. Booklet and biographies :For the girls the comments on the DVD are less biographical and more their ownthoughts on their experiences, while brief biographies are included for theprincipal crew members and those in cameo roles. The booklet basically repeatsthis information in both English and Spanish. I’m curious as to why the secondlanguage is Spanish whereas the second of two languages on the disc is German. Spice Girls interviews :According to the original press release, the widescreen side was to containinterviews with the girls and Richard E. Grant but I couldn’t find any suchcontent. All is now revealed! It’s actually on the fullscreen side althoughthere’s no reason why it shouldn’t be on both sides. Languages & Subtitles :

The disc contains English and German dialogue in Dolby Digital 5.1 plussubtitles for the same. It only covers the dialogue itself though, so no songlyrics are included, which given the film’s reliance on tunes – smacks of amissed opportunity – and only by having the subtitles switched on will you seethe onscreen details for the girls’ return flight from London to Milan andtheir conversation with aliens.

Menu :

The static menu works fine, which as I stated earlier includes material fromthe booklet, but it’s a shame it wasn’t given the loud, flashy treatment we’dnormally expect from a Spice Girls product. The copyright info can be bypassedby accessing a previously bookmarked scene.

Overall, the film doesn’t behave like a normal film with a coherent plot, butmore like a series of sketches, going round in a bus driven by Meat Loaf, withthe only hint of progression being made by the fact by the end of the filmthey’ve transgressed from the Top of the Pops studio to the Royal AlbertHall and each of the girls playing heavily on their trademark characters.

That said, anyone buying this DVD will not be looking for the next “Lawrenceof Arabia” and while it may be scant on extras – even the Region 1 releasemanages some never-before-seen concert footage – at least the picture and soundquality are spot-on.FILM : **PICTURE QUALITY : *****SOUND QUALITY: *****EXTRAS: **——————————-OVERALL: ***½

Check out my review of their second album, SpiceworldHERE !

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Dom Robinson

Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.

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