<Review by: Sailesh Ghelani>

Directed by Ol Parker. Starring Amanda Seyfried, Lily James, Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgard, Colin Firth, Christine Baranski, Julie Waters, Dominic Cooper, Josh Dylan, Hugh Skinner, Jeremy Irvine, Andy Garcia, Cher

Running time: 1 hour 54 minutes

The first one was 10 years ago and this sequel just seems out of date and meant for people who are really old and very tone deaf.

Why oh why do they subject us to this trashy filmmaking I can never understand. Such poor production values, horrible choreography and ghastly singing is best left to a third-rate theatre play. I don’t want to see Pierce Brosnan trying to sing his emotions! As lovely as he is, he can’t. Neither can most of the cast.

If ever there was a film without direction, this one takes the prize. Apart from showing us how Donna (Meryl Streep in the first film and Lily James in this one) falls for the three men and beds them on an idyllic Greek island, there is no real story. This is intertwined with the present day, where the late Donna’s daughter Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) is getting ready to inaugurate the hotel on the Greek island that her mother always dreamed of having. Of course the three dads (Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgard and Colin Firth) arrive eventually, followed by grandma Ruby Sheridan (Cher).

Apart from lots of silly jokes and some terribly out-of-tune singing, there’s very little by way of entertainment. The story has been constructed to fit in the Abba songs without much creativity.

What Andy Garcia is doing in this film apart from standing around like a caricature I do not know. It reminded me of his role in another equally bad film: Book Club.

Not even old and glam Cher can save the day. After sitting through almost two hours of this torture, you aren’t even treated to some grand finale. It’s really very unsatisfying and unsatisfactory. Though considering how some critics (the older ones, mainly) are going ga-ga over it, I won’t be surprised if the cast are reunited 10 years from now, in their wheelchairs, their teeth in a glass, belting out some more tunes.