If you were not around during the 90’s, it’s very difficult to explain just how big the Spice Girls were at that time. They were a huge British import, five girls with very different personas put together to create this super music group. And they were massive. The members are Emma Burton aka Baby Spice, Geri Halliwell aka Ginger Spice, Melanie Chisholm aka Sporty Spice, Victoria Beckham aka Posh Spice and Melanie Brown aka Scary Spice. They rocketed to the tops of the charts with their single ‘Wannabe” and were on top of the world for several years after that. With tons of album sales and merchandise offers, a movie deal was bound to happen. So in 1997 the film Spice World was released to the world and quickly got wrecked by the critics with a Rotten Tomato score of 35%. However it did manage to rake in $151 million dollars on a budget of $25 million, so is this another case of the audience knowing better? Well, time has been good to the girls and so, if you’ve yet to put your eyes on this gem, here’s 5 reason why it’s time you finally watched.
5 The Music
When the Spice Girls hit it big, I was listening to bands like Daft Punk, Nirvana, and Portishead. The girls were seen by many of my peers and I to be nothing more than just lame bubblegum music. Even though I did unashamedly dig a few of their songs. I had no interest at the time to watch their movie and looking back I wish I did. This movie has a lot of great tracks that range from 60’s style R & B, 70’s disco, and even a bit of 80’s hair metal. Each singer gets to have her own moment on every part and I dug that not one person was leading the group unlike a lot of other girl groups that followed.
4 It’s Not A Documentary
The Spice Girls took it to a whole new plateau by releasing a fictional story related to what to they do. What I love best about Spice World is that what you are seeing on screen is not the actual girls themselves, just fictional personas played by them. Each girl is aware of how the public perceives them and in one great moment they all make comments on it. Burton is not really Baby Spice nor is Brown really Scary Spice. They are just portraying their own hyper reality of that personality and I just love how each member plays up to her character in the movie, which really helps make them solid as a group, fictional or otherwise.
3 The Supporting Cast
Spice World is filled with a lot of great supporting roles and tons of great cameos too. You have Academy Award-nominated actor Richard E. Grant as the Spice Girls‘ manager. Grammy Award-winning artist Meatloaf as their bus driver. Richard O’ Brien from Rocky Horror Picture Show as a spy trying to post scandalous photos of the girls. Plus other great cameos including Hugh Laurie, Elvis Costello, Bob Hoskins, Elton John (above), and much much more.
2 It has its Inspiration
It’s clear that movies like A Hard Day’s Night and This is Spinal Tap were big influences on this project, but so too The Monkees with their feature Head along with their self titled TV show. I would have loved to see a weekly half hour sitcom with these ladies just to watch what sort of wacky adventures they come up with where the end of each episode has them performing live.
1 It’s not as bad as what critics say
Comedy is subjective. It’s different for everyone. What one person finds hysterical, another is going to find stupid. After watching it and then reading some of the bad reviews, I can’t help but ask, “What are you expecting?” This is a movie about a girl group that could easily have been just some silly cartoon. The plot goes all over the place because in cartoons that’s what they do. It’s not odd to have the girls be in an army training video one moment and a horror style picture the next. The actual tour bus itself is small on the outside but super huge on the inside. If no one questions the Tardis in Doctor Who, I don’t understand why anyone would take issues with this. Spice World belongs with other great ‘bad’ movies, including Xanadu and Miami Connection. Add it to your Cult Movie Collection today.