dkrishnakumar hey, i am going to be 60 still jiving listening to ABBA, which i do very often...those were the days...i happened to live during the GODS days...i was one of those luckiest guys to get a gift of ABBA LP signed (autographed) by them....from a captain of a Hungarian ship....he is my angel....enjoy ABBA for ever as there won't be another....i watched ABBA the movie 53 times cutting college classes...of course failed in many subjects....but it happens in life...part of life...no regrets....i am still going steady in life...building enterprises...creative and innovative and constructive and productive...all because of music that i love and ABBA that i love...ABBA - The GODS !!!

Dominik528 As a huge ABBA fan, I was expecting to see this reporter reach the band early on and actually spend time with them as he does the interview. Instead, the whole film has him trying to get close to them as they tour around Australia. We get some really good performances by ABBA, but the only song we hear completely is "Dancing Queen."The man is told at the beginning that the station wants him to delve deep into the band members' mind and life, but I feel like we ourselves never got to know them. We only have a few clips of them being themselves where they get to talk and rehearse, and, aside from their live performances, they just feel like side characters. Most of the rest of the movie is devoted to having the reporter interview random people and children about their thoughts on the band.It definitely has some funny moments, like the running gag about Agnetha's behind, but other than that, it's no A Hard Day's Night (1964).I give it 5 stars mostly for ABBA's amazing performances.

James Hitchcock I am probably the only heterosexual British male of my generation who likes ABBA, or at least who likes them in a straightforward way and not in an ironic, postmodernist spirit of "I know they're naff, but then naff is the new cool!", although I have to confess that in my teenage years, which coincided with their heyday in the seventies, my interest was aroused as much by the good looks of the group's two female members as by their music. So when a film called "ABBA: The Movie" came on British TV recently (as part of Channel 5's "ABBA Night") I just had to watch it.Films made to cash in on the success of pop groups rarely if ever make for great cinema."Spice World" was probably a horrible embarrassment even to the most ardent fan of the Spice Girls (and even more so to the group themselves). The various Beatles films have been praised for their visual style and occasional wit, although I suspect that they will prove a closed book to anyone who is not interested in the Beatles' music. The same applies to "ABBA: The Movie". It deals with ABBA's tour of Australia (a country in which they always enjoyed great popularity) in 1977. It is not, however, a straight documentary, although it probably should have been. Scenes of the band playing concerts in various Australian cities are combined with a feeble plot line about a radio DJ trying to get an interview with them, about which the less said the better. What any ABBA fan will want to watch it for is the music. Anyone who is not an ABBA fan will probably not want to watch it at all.Even ABBA fans may be surprised by some of the music on offer here. Of course, when the film came out the group still had several years of stardom ahead of them and some of what we now think of as their greatest hits, such as "Chiquitita" and "The Winner Takes It All", were still to be written. Even so, the selection of songs may strike some as being slightly eccentric. We get to hear some more obscure offerings such as "When I Kissed the Teacher", "Tiger", the banal "Rock Me" and the shrill and strident "I'm a Marionette", these last two both qualifying for a place on any compilation album of ABBA's greatest misses, but there is no "Knowing Me, Knowing You", "Take A Chance On Me" or "I Do, I Do, I Do, I Do I Do", all of which had been written by 1977.Nevertheless, we do get to hear most of ABBA's other great songs from the first half of their career- "Waterloo", "Fernando", "Mamma Mia", "Thank you for the Music", and a number of others. And, more importantly, we get to hear them performed in the original versions, not (as they were in the film version of "Mamma Mia") murdered by the likes of Meryl Streep and Pierce Brosnan, whose ability to kill a song stone dead proves that he is just as deadly an assassin as his best-known character. And for those whose interest in the group is not purely musical I can report that both Agnetha and Frida were at the height of their beauty in 1977 and both spend much of the film wearing their trademark scanty costumes. 6/10

jamiecostelo58 We follow the Australian leg of Abba's first major world tour in March 1977, and what an experience it is! Stunning visuals matched with terrifically polished performances from the SuperSwedes showcased Abba's immense popularity at that time! The story in which a local DJ tries every trick in the book to secure an interview with the group is lacklustre, but at least ABBA: The Movie is not a straight 95min collage of concert footage, which may have made the whole film seem longer than it is. Even Lasse Hallstrom (now a successful Hollywood director) knew this plot was quite inept! Lovely to hear some of the group's classic songs such as Dancing Queen, Fernando and S.O.S. (as well as the bouncy Get On The Carousel, which has only ever been available in ABBA: The Movie), while the sheer excitement and hysteria of the Australian fans showcased the group's outstanding popularity, which was probably at its highest in 1976/77.Abba were divine as a live band, despite some critics' negative views, and were actually more successful Down Under than the Beatles, reflected by the fact that they are the best-selling artist of all time in Australia! You can see why when viewing this film! The concert footage included in ABBA: The Movie is exceedingly electric and superbly conducted, making you want to get up and dance, and simply makes this film a sure-fire hit for Abba fans worldwide. In fact, it's only this movie and ABBA In Concert, recorded two years later, that we can see Abba in live performance. And it sure doesn't disappoint!