What might have made this piece of movie fluff watchable is if it had been made three of four years later when the group was breaking up. What's the Swedish for "Let It Be"?
As it is, what we're left with is a skimpily plotted feature centred on an Australian Country and Western deejay (why?) who is pressed by his cranky boss to follow the Swedish superstars around their tour of the big cities there in the hope of bagging an exclusive interview with them for his radio station. And that's it, I've heard about writing a plot on the back of an envelope, but this one would still leave space on the actual stamp.
His various runnings-about are interspersed with musical clips of the group in concert, plus at the end, two promo-type studio clips for new songs "Eagle" and "Thank You For The Music" and several vox-pop interviews with members of their mostly adoring public, usually commenting on how clean-cut the group is. The film, not surprisingly, has little or no depth at all and it seems clear the director didn't trust the acting skills of any of the group members to bless them with more than a couple of lines at a time.
The music is mostly strong, although with ABBA there's always that swing from the good of "Name Of The Game", "Eagle", "Mamma Mia" and "S. O. S." through the bad - "When I Kissed The Teacher", "Why Did It Have To Be Me", to the downright ugly "He Is Your Brother" and "Thank You For The Music". The group sounds fine live and Agnetha and Frida shine out in front, although it's quite obvious that the director only used a limited number of camera set-ups for the concert footage.
The whole film, viewed today, is like opening a time capsule into the year 1977, as you look at the fashions, buildings and motor vehicles from almost fifty years ago, preserved in aspic.
Not that the group ever seemed to bother much with their public image or the brickbats of contemporary critics, but the latter sure are given plenty of ammunition in this cheese-fest.
There's little argument that ABBA's music, much maligned back in the day, has survived the test of time, but anyone expecting another artistic cinematic success for a big-name pop-group a-la "A Hard Day's Night" can say "So Long" to that idea.
As it is, what we're left with is a skimpily plotted feature centred on an Australian Country and Western deejay (why?) who is pressed by his cranky boss to follow the Swedish superstars around their tour of the big cities there in the hope of bagging an exclusive interview with them for his radio station. And that's it, I've heard about writing a plot on the back of an envelope, but this one would still leave space on the actual stamp.
His various runnings-about are interspersed with musical clips of the group in concert, plus at the end, two promo-type studio clips for new songs "Eagle" and "Thank You For The Music" and several vox-pop interviews with members of their mostly adoring public, usually commenting on how clean-cut the group is. The film, not surprisingly, has little or no depth at all and it seems clear the director didn't trust the acting skills of any of the group members to bless them with more than a couple of lines at a time.
The music is mostly strong, although with ABBA there's always that swing from the good of "Name Of The Game", "Eagle", "Mamma Mia" and "S. O. S." through the bad - "When I Kissed The Teacher", "Why Did It Have To Be Me", to the downright ugly "He Is Your Brother" and "Thank You For The Music". The group sounds fine live and Agnetha and Frida shine out in front, although it's quite obvious that the director only used a limited number of camera set-ups for the concert footage.
The whole film, viewed today, is like opening a time capsule into the year 1977, as you look at the fashions, buildings and motor vehicles from almost fifty years ago, preserved in aspic.
Not that the group ever seemed to bother much with their public image or the brickbats of contemporary critics, but the latter sure are given plenty of ammunition in this cheese-fest.
There's little argument that ABBA's music, much maligned back in the day, has survived the test of time, but anyone expecting another artistic cinematic success for a big-name pop-group a-la "A Hard Day's Night" can say "So Long" to that idea.