Monster
Crap Inductee: Spice World
Damn
You, Great Britain
1997
In the mid-90s, before the boy band craze and attractive teenage girl craze hit us like a brick in the late 90s, there was this big British act that hit the scene screaming “Girl Power” known as the Spice Girls, comprised of Baby Spice, Ginger Spice, Posh Spice, Scary Spice, and Sporty Spice. And of course, they were a huge smash for their time with several hit songs so of course with many musical acts that hit it so big that you can’t escape them even if you wanted to, you get a movie made about you.
Bob
Hoskins from "Super Mario Bros".
Barry
Humphries From Howling III: The Marsupials (Who For Some Dumb Reason, I Called
Him Mark Humphries In That Induction)
And
others like David Fahm (who was in Wing Commander) and Dominic West (who was in
Star War – Episode 1: The Phantom Menace).
Let’s
get to the review.
We
begin this film with a music video.
That
Gives Us Our Title.
And
then the opening of a music video which leads to them singing the same song in
front of a crowd of cheering fans for some TV show.
After
that, the girls are heading to their bus while talking to Clifford, their
agent.
Ah,
Richard Grant.
He’s
a bigger deal in the UK than the US, but he has done a good share of roles in
memorable films like Bram Stoker’s Dracula, The Age of Innocence, Gosford Park,
The Iron Lady, Logan, and just recently, Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker. But
I will always remember him for being the one of the two main villains in a
guilty pleasure of mine, and my brother in Hudson Hawk.
Both
Villains Sucked In That Film.
But
please don’t mention that film to him as he has complete disdain for Hudson
Hawk and will completely insult you for liking that film, even if it is a
guilty pleasure, as he considers it the worst film he has ever done. Now I
understand it might be more that it was a disaster to work on than it was a disaster
watching, which paints a lot more of an ugly picture for many actors (see Bob
Hoskins with Super Mario Bros.) However, to be honest, when you have films like
The Rise of Skywalker and this on your credits as well, I don’t think Hudson
Hawk was the worst film he worked on, but that is just a personal opinion. I
have rambled on enough on this subject, but let’s get back to the film.
Oh
and we also meet Alan Cumming as Piers, a reporter who will be hounding the
Spice Girls throughout the whole film.
He’ll
Probably Be Mentioned In Future Inductions.
And
Elton John shows up for his cameo.
Great
Musician. “Still Standing” Is Definitely In My Top 10 Of Favorite Songs To
Listen To.
Anyway,
Piers was hoping to get an interview with them, but they walk by without even
noticing him. They go outside where there is a crap ton of fans waiting for
them.
They sign autographs and eventually head to their bus, which is driven by Dennis.
Ah,
I See Meat Loaf’s Character Has The Same Name As My Little Brother.
The
bus is being driven to their next location and we see the Spice Girls in each
of their section of the main room, which is made to be completely made for
their gimmick and they act like what they are supposed to be with Baby Spice
acting like a kid, Posh Spice trying to be all fashionable, Ginger talking
about horoscopes, Scary Spice making a complete mess looking for something, and
Sporty Spice lifting a dumbbell because she likes sports.
Then they start roughhousing while Posh is still more concerned about what to wear.
Clifford goes on the PA on the bus to announce a press conference is coming up, which means they all need to smile and accept that they are going to be asked a lot of dumb questions. This press conference of course to announce a show that will be playing at Royal Albert Hall.
Oh,
Hi….Jonathan Ross
Meanwhile,
we meet a producer and a writer.
NORM!!!!!
And Mark McKinney from Kids In The Hall.
The
film producer named Martin Banfield wants their next movie to be starring the
Spice Girls. The writer named Graydon thinks he has an idea of what the movie
should be and says obvious stuff without saying what the plot is when Martin
interrupts and says he loves it. Back on the bus, Clifford gets a phone call on
his bus from his boss named Chief.
Chief
Throughout This Movie Will Just Say Nonsensical Things That Sound Good When
Said On Their Own, But Don’t Make Sense In Context Of What Is Going On In The
Scene.
Oh
And The Chief Makes A Vodka Martini That Is Shaken And Stirred. (Instead Of
Shaken, Not Stirred That James Bond Likes)
Oh
And I Forgot To Mention Deborah Is Here To And She Is Clifford’s Assistant.
The
Spice Girls practice for their show while Piers tells his crew about the camera
being the window to the soul and that he must be the main focus of all shots.
The Spice Girls then meet their old friend Nicola, who is pregnant.
Nicola talks about feeling terrible while pregnant and of course, if you know any movie, that pregnancy will probably end in a birth before this film is through. Oh and of course, her boyfriend (and the baby’s dad) left her. By the way, Piers asks the manager Clifford about his idea of wanting to show the real Spice Girls and he is okay with that, as long as they remain on schedule. The Spice Girls then imagine themselves being pregnant.
Ah
To Review This Film More Than 20 Years Later And Know They All Would End Up
Having Kids.
The
Spice Girls then have to go back to practicing for their gig at Royal Albert
Hall. Then we go to the headquarters of the newspaper The Daily Event.
Obviously A Jab At The UK Newspaper The Daily Sun, Considering What Will Be Going On.
We
then meet the paper’s top editor Kevin McMaxford.
He is of course tired of covering the Spice Girls and instead of you know, just not covering them anymore…he wants to break them up.
Oh
And Kevin’s Assistant Brad Is Played By Jason Flemying, Who Starred In “Lock,
Stock, And Two Smoking Barrels”
And
as they are devising their devious scheme, it starts randomly raining on Brad.
Back on the bus, Ginger is beating Scary at chess and Scary just says screw the whole game. Meanwhile, at a restaurant, Martin and Graydon try to pitch a movie idea starring the Spice Girls to Clifford about them being five sisters trying to support an elderly grandmother and the way to break out of poverty is for Sporty Spice to become an Olympic Ski Jump Champion, but Sporty would need to overcome her fear of heights and snow. Clifford has the same reaction as I would.
Yeah,
He Thinks It Stinks.
Graydon
then pitches another idea involving crocodiles, but we need to move back to the
Spice Girls so we don’t hear the whole pitch. They talk about how Baby Spice
has a cute little smile which would allow her to get away with anything and
just like that, we go to where Baby Spice has obviously killed someone and she
gets away with it as Hercule Poirot fingers someone else for the murder.
Soon they talk about fish and Ginger Spice says the largest fish in the world is a manta ray.
Um….I
Think The Whale Shark Would Like To Have A Word With You. Hell, I Knew That Years Before This Film Came Out.
They
are tired of being stereotyped so they decide to switch looks at a photoshoot
where they also pretend to be famous icons.
Hi
Dominic West
Anyway,
Ginger tries to be Sporty, Sporty tries to be Posh, Scary tries to be Ginger,
Baby tries to be Scary, and Posh tries to be Baby.
Back at the Daily Event, Brad gets off the phone and tells Kevin that he hired the best spy reporter in the game in Damien. Kevin wonders where he is and Damien just shows up revealing that he also found some pictures of Kevin doing some naughty things.
None
Of Them Were Of Anyone Doing The Time Warp Again Or Richard O’Brien Would Have
To Sue.
Next
up is them going to a publicity party where they get to meet several cameos for
this film.
Like
Jennifer Saunders Of Absolutely Fabulous Hanging With Posh Spice.
Scary
Spice Hanging Out With Bob Geldof.
Oh,
and she messed up Bob’s hair.
Dammit
Scary, That Man Did Live Aid. Leave His Hair Alone.
I’m
sure there is more that I missed, but honestly I have a decent excuse of living
in the US so I don’t know as much about English Pop Culture than some other
people. However, I am trying my best to point as many cameos out as possible.
Piers
has been having trouble getting in, but is able to get in thanks to Nicola, who
just lets him be with her. Nicola then asks all of the Spice Girls to be
godmothers to the baby, which is also ironic more than twenty years later
because I think several of the Spice Girls are godmothers to some of the Spice
Girls’ kids.
Oh
Hi, Neil Mullarkey Of The Comedy Store Players
Oh
and Damien is doing some pretty good hiding.
During an interview, Ginger is asked if she likes boys and Ginger just sarcastically asks if the Pope is Catholic. Now normally, that would be the end of it as the answer would obviously be “yes”. But this is a comedy so Damien is able to use that quote and make the Spice Girls out to legit demand to know if the Pope is Catholic. And we have a Bishop who is interviewed and very upset by the idea that someone would ask if the Pope was Catholic.
Hi
Richard Briers. He’s An English TV Legend
Clifford
calls Chief about the backlash over the comments and Chief says something else
non-sensical. Then, the Spice Girls head to Milan, Italy for a TV special. At
rehearsal, they encounter a new problem as the director of this special wants
his dancers present and in trunks.
Clifford is completely against this, but the director says these Dream Boys must be backup dancers to them.
Eventually a compromise is reached and the Dream Boys are backup dancers, but with assless pants to show their asses in speedos.
They sign autographs and eventually head to their bus, which is driven by Dennis.
Then they start roughhousing while Posh is still more concerned about what to wear.
Clifford goes on the PA on the bus to announce a press conference is coming up, which means they all need to smile and accept that they are going to be asked a lot of dumb questions. This press conference of course to announce a show that will be playing at Royal Albert Hall.
Nicola talks about feeling terrible while pregnant and of course, if you know any movie, that pregnancy will probably end in a birth before this film is through. Oh and of course, her boyfriend (and the baby’s dad) left her. By the way, Piers asks the manager Clifford about his idea of wanting to show the real Spice Girls and he is okay with that, as long as they remain on schedule. The Spice Girls then imagine themselves being pregnant.
Obviously A Jab At The UK Newspaper The Daily Sun, Considering What Will Be Going On.
He is of course tired of covering the Spice Girls and instead of you know, just not covering them anymore…he wants to break them up.
Back on the bus, Ginger is beating Scary at chess and Scary just says screw the whole game. Meanwhile, at a restaurant, Martin and Graydon try to pitch a movie idea starring the Spice Girls to Clifford about them being five sisters trying to support an elderly grandmother and the way to break out of poverty is for Sporty Spice to become an Olympic Ski Jump Champion, but Sporty would need to overcome her fear of heights and snow. Clifford has the same reaction as I would.
Soon they talk about fish and Ginger Spice says the largest fish in the world is a manta ray.
Back at the Daily Event, Brad gets off the phone and tells Kevin that he hired the best spy reporter in the game in Damien. Kevin wonders where he is and Damien just shows up revealing that he also found some pictures of Kevin doing some naughty things.
During an interview, Ginger is asked if she likes boys and Ginger just sarcastically asks if the Pope is Catholic. Now normally, that would be the end of it as the answer would obviously be “yes”. But this is a comedy so Damien is able to use that quote and make the Spice Girls out to legit demand to know if the Pope is Catholic. And we have a Bishop who is interviewed and very upset by the idea that someone would ask if the Pope was Catholic.
Clifford is completely against this, but the director says these Dream Boys must be backup dancers to them.
Eventually a compromise is reached and the Dream Boys are backup dancers, but with assless pants to show their asses in speedos.
Then they head back to London. They go back on their bus and have to stop in the middle of the woods because they need to go to the bathroom as the bathrooms on the bus are broken. Dennis explains that it is hard enough to get a plumber if you stay in one place, but it gets even harder to get a plumber when you are moving around all the time. Clifford asks Dennis to fix them and he says while he loves the Spice Girls and will do anything for them, he won’t do that.
Now, I’m sure you are all asking me why am I inducting this film about the Spice Girls touring around and random shenanigans going on. Well, I was thinking the same thing which is why it was not nominated for a long time until Cecil Trachtenberg of Good Bad Flicks did a video about this film and I got to learn this was here. You see, the reason Spice World is being inducted is that there are aliens who are Spice Girls fans.
And of course it becomes news on the next Daily Event.
Clifford is throwing knives at that paper and screams about how he hates that paper. He then confronts the girls and they tell him to chill out over it. They make fun of him for getting all worked up and he leaves in anger with Deborah behind him, hoping to calm him down. The Spice Girls meanwhile think that Clifford and Deborah should be an item and maybe that will calm Clifford down.
Baby is the martial arts expert.
Sporty is Counter Espionage Agent
Scary is the explosives expert
Ginger being the master of disguise.
The two kids hang with the Spice Girls and ultimately, the Spice Girls decide to ditch the bus and Clifford so they can take the girls on a speed boating trip.
Shenanigans ensue as they are being followed by Piers and his crew who are trying to document the whole thing in a crappy tugboat.
Of course, the boat nearly collides with a log and in the turn, the kids fall in the water.
The Spice Girls have to save the kids and sadly, this is all documented by Damien who was in the water as well.
Clifford freaks out over the whole thing and at Royal Albert Hall during practice, scolds them for their care-free attitude. This all leads to an argument where the Spice Girls leave and consider not showing up for the gig tomorrow. Clifford yells as he thinks he may have started the break-up of the Spice Girls.
At a bar, Clifford is trying to assure Chief that everything is fine. But Chief knows things aren’t fine and tells Clifford his job is on the line while saying non-sensical catchphrases. Of course, Damien is once again there and more news (especially one causing show issues) makes Kevin happy.
That night while in separate rooms, Ginger is watching a black and white movie that makes her cry thinking about the past and then we go to a long time ago.
Hey,
Stephen Fry.
The
sentence is having their next record enter the charts at 179 before dropping
straight out the following week and furthermore, they are sentenced to having
to appear on cheesy chat shows in Taiwan, talking about how they used to be
famous. The judge then wants to call “Howtie And The Blowfish”. I am so sure
that Stephen Fry came up with that entire bit on improv as he and Hugh Laurie
were a great comedic duo at the time, before doing their own things and still
being freaking famous. I recommend listen to some old “A Bit Of Fry and Laurie”
episodes. I put 5 sketches as just a preview.
Deborah talks about how they will end up drunk and probably have a night of passion that destroys their professional relationship. Clifford’s response to that is to have a grin and say, “Well, I’m up for it if you are”
Meanwhile, the Spice Girls have taken Nicola to a night club. The Spice Girls dance while Nicola watches. But of course, the baby might finally be deciding to come out. The Spice Girls stop dancing and try to take Nicola to a hospital. While waiting at the hospital, two parents ask the Spice Girls if they can help wake their son up, who is in a bit of a coma. After a few words, he wakes up.
The next day at Royal Albert Hall, we obviously see something happened between Clifford and Deborah and Clifford still feels bad. They still have no idea where the girls are. We go back to the hospital as the Spice Girls talk about how much pain it is to give birth…..in front of the woman who may give birth any time now. Scary gets a call from Deborah and tell her they are at the hospital with Deborah and they aren’t leaving. Then, we go back to Royal Albert Hall and Clifford cannot believe they may miss this show. Deborah tries to say it is loyalty and Clifford calls it insanity. He also thinks the girls are doing this to spite him and make him crack.
So now the Spice Girls are rushing in their bus to get to Royal Albert Hall. They get to the bus and Dennis isn’t there. Because of this and not having much time, Posh decides she is going to drive the bus instead, leaving Dennis behind.
They have a high speed bus dash to get there. Graydon says that as they are going down Trafalgar and passes by Buckingham Palace, Prince William tells his grandmother Queen Elizabeth that he saw the Spice Girls passing by. By the way, we only get told this happens because as you know, the Royal Family don’t act much in actual movies. Then suddenly the Spice Girls are on top of the bus (for no other reason then “The Rules” as Martin says).
The Spice Girls are then coming up on the Tower Bridge and the drawbridge is rising. But since the Spice Girls need to make this show, they jump from one half of the bridge to the other. Oh and we don’t see this part because it is way too expensive and we are only told it happens. Well, okay…..we do see it.
Graydon then says they get to the building and burst through that door right there. Because they didn’t burst through that door, Clifford now wants to strangle Graydon.
Suddenly, the legendary music that played while Rocky was running up the steps in “Rocky” plays as the Spice Girls get there and run up the steps. They get stopped by the cops for their reckless driving.
The Spice Girls send Baby to try and convince the officer that they are sorry and he buys it. In the dressing room as the crowd is chanting for Spice Girls, Clifford decides that he is going to go on stage and kill himself.
Oh and we see other cast members dancing too.
The credits play and we see them pretending like they are making the movie with actors now playing themselves. But before we end this scene, the Spice Girls decide to talk to us.
Oh and they helpfully inform us about the plot hole of the bomb. Not as to how it got there, but as to what happened to it. It of course explodes and we see it flash on the side with explosion sounds.
And that’s the end of this film.
Speaking of Kevin McNally, his wife Phyllis Logan was part of the cast of Freddie as F.R.O.7, a film more derided than Spiceworld. She voiced the Loch Ness Monster - there is a musical number, but Barbara Dickson does the singing rather than Phyllis.
ReplyDeleteBlimey,that film is naff. Ben Kingsley is in it as the main character, and I thought his film Harem was awful (connection - that co-starred Zohra Segal, who starred in Firm Friends with Billie Whitelaw, who voices Freddie's evil aunt Messina in F.R.O.7.).
To add to Spiceworld - Claire Rushbrook, who played Clifford's assistant, is still acting, having appeared in Doctor Who and also Home Fires with Clare Higgins of Hellraiser fame.
ReplyDeleteSorry, reference the Clare Higgins bit, mixed it up with Homefront, a show she was in.
ReplyDeleteClaire Rushbrook was in Home Fires but with Francesca Annis.