Greatest Days

I didn't especially like the truly sterile stage musical and sadly I can't really exude about this either. It all centres around four ladies who win a competition to go and see a Take That reunion concert. The girls have become estranged over the years, but this prize offers them a chance to reunite. Initially it all goes fine - each has gone on to varying degrees of success and happiness in adult life - but after a few largely predictable escapades the fault lines soon start to appear and the inevitable tragedy from their past rears it's ugly head to contextualise their drifting apart and their present, somewhat strained, relationship. The songs themselves were never my favourite either - I always found Gary Barlow's voice to be a bit nasal and toneless - and here they are performed to some extremely precise (and not very natural) choreography by five lads who resemble the original band not a jot. Die hard fans will probably love this, and it does remind you of just how many hits this band had in their relatively short career - but for me, this film was all just a bit too formulaic with an ending that reminded me of the far superior ensemble effort that was Leslie Bricusse's "Scrooge" (1970).

It had its moments and the highlight was probably I WANT YOU BACK it was the moment when the song and story came together .

There have been some amazing musicals

There have been some amazing jukebox movies

The highlight and the benchmark is undoubtedly MAMMA MIA anything else that doesn't come close in its story and adaptation is a let down

If you want a bio pic with music you cannot beat BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY and Rocket man failed in its attempt to merge the two together I wonder if there will be a film if 'we will rock you' ?

Geoff was a highlight he brought comedy to the script

Sadly this failed to take off on any level it's not a film you think I want to see that again and tell everyone to see if - it just failed to do what musicals do - it failed yo uplift - the ingredients were there they just weren't applied in the right quantities

Towards the final 10 minutes it upped a notch or or two but overall it just wasn't good enough

Disappointing

Pad. A 5/10.

I know most musicals are contrived and cheesy and provide broad stroke entertainment, and I enjoy a good jukebox musical where you are already familiar with the songs, but with the good ones you don't notice how cheesy they are because you're having such a good time. With Greatest Days I was always aware of it's contrivance as the thinly plotted and poorly scripted story is fabricated just enough to shoe horn in some favourite Take That songs from their back catalogue set to a backdrop of friendship, adolescence, tragedy and sexual awakening.

Based on the original stage musical The Band written by Tim Firth we follow a group of friends, going backwards and forwards in time from their teenage years in the early 90's to where they are now in their lives, who get together in Athens 25 years after their first concert to attend a reunion show. Aisling Bea is always watchable and does her best with the material and Marc Wootton provides some much needed comic relief but the casting of the 5 female friends never quite come together.

Feeling like a low budget Mamma Mia! (2008) it lacks exuberance, satisfactorily choreographed dance numbers and an overall feel good factor. The problem lay with the treatment of some of the songs. Many have been re-imagined and reworked, too much for my liking, as we get a hint of a song here, and a hint of a song there and it often falls short of giving us spectacularly executed dance routines to some of their most anthemic tunes. It does however finally pick up in the last 10 minutes or so, which is probably how the whole film should have been, but it's too little too late.

I don't mind a thinly plotted story if you can believe in it but I didn't really care enough about the characters or the plot line and the pseudo Take That members who keep springing up known as The Band (or The Boys as is often said in the movie) who exist in Aisling Bea's head are frankly a rather annoying plot device to get the songs crowbarred into the proceedings. You yearn for the real Take That to appear (and they do in a nice cameo as buskers on board a train) or to enjoy a song in it's entirety but sadly it takes about 90 minutes to really get going. The sentiment doesn't always land and neither does some of the wit or camaraderie between the friends that often feels a little forced rather than being naturally charming.

I thought at least half way in I'd be singing along, tapping my feet and having a great time but it just doesn't take off. Sadly it's a missed opportunity and it won't be the greatest day of your life watching this. Personally I enjoyed the earlier jukebox Take That musical Never Forget that was simpler in execution but much more engaging.

Greatest Days is a new music, drama, comedy directed by Coky Giedroyc. She has further directed more various TV series episodes and miniseries and TV movies.

Five friends used to have the best night of their lives when they went to the concert of their favorite boy band together. Over the years, however, the five have lost contact with each other, so that their mutual bond has become less.

When one of them wins tickets to the reunion concert of their former favorite Boyband, she tries to get the five back together to relive the best moment of their past with this concert.

The people behind this film tried to get production from a large film studio for this film, so that they could then also cast well-known actors. Unfortunately, none of the major film studios showed interest in the project. For example, the people behind this film project had to manage the financial affairs more themselves, which meant that they had to simplify some things and drop other ideas. The Boyband Take That, for example, where it is about in the film, and the band members are not mentioned by name, to save costs and legal problems.

Still, the film may seem familiar to fans of Take That or other bands or singers. The film responds so well to how Boyband or other artist groups used to and still manage to attract fans with their music and styles. Fans of past or modern artist groups can relate to how the movie characters behave because of their fandom they have with the particular Boyband in the movie.

Thanks to the lower budget, the cast members of this film are also more TV actors, but fortunately they still come across as friends and fans of the same Boyband. The film only starts more in the past, where the characters were still young. If they suddenly make a time jump later in the film after the now, where the same characters are suddenly older, it can take some getting used to because of how the characters have changed.

I don't know why as I'm not even particularly a Take That fan, but I actually had high hopes for this film. I wasn't expecting it to reach the heights of Mama Mia!, but I thought it might be at least in the same league. Unfortunately it's just painfully derivative and formulaic, with songs being butchered left right and centre.

The characters are all pretty uninteresting and the acting leaves a lot to be desired. The action is split across two time periods and I will say the younger actors killed it, which is why I'm giving the film at least some stars. It should have put far more focus here.

The story is far too formulaic. Everything that happens is predictable and isn't overly interesting either. The film also just lacked any sort of middle to it. There was far too much set up and barely any plot in the middle or end of the whole thing.

When the film does go for it and embraces its campness and ludicrousness there are glimpses of what it could have been, but it just tries to be too earnest and emotional. None of this stuff lands, which just bogs the whole thing down.

I'm sure there's an audience out there and this film will appeal to many, but it didn't hit the spot for me.