(2 out of 5)

I love musicals. I have seen Moulin Rouge like 40 times, Evita 15 times, High School Musicals 1, 2 & 3 countless times - only because I have young daughters...of course. I saw the Lion King off Broadway and performed as a high school student in "The Music Man," and "Damn Yankees," but...I and my wife also walked out of the musical "Chicago" in the movie theaters because we do have boundaries.

So, here is what is good about Mamma Mia. Beautiful people. Beautiful scenery. Some pretty good singing and Abba's music that can be entertaining. And there is definitely a cursory throwback (if but for a moment) to the ancient ideas that "dads" even matter in the lives of their daughter. But that is about it.... Dad's don't get a lot of love in this movie - which is probably fitting when you think about the number of dad's who have left their children fatherless in our American context.

Since this is a pagan comedy that keeps alluding to Aphrodite - the Greek goddess of love, beauty and sexual rapture (blame wiki for that definition) - it is expected that the main text of this plot will be irresponsible sexual play that leads the main character (a daughter) to not know which of the three father's is her real dad just as she is about to get married. It turns out one dad is gay, another dad is too afraid to commit to anything but his free-wheeling life - and the other dad is one who always "loved" the mom (supposedly), but we are to guess he was not man enough to fight for her. They are all putzes really. (Do not look this word up on Dictionary.com, and if you do only use the first definition...it is the one I mean.)

The movie will be offensive to "good" Christians with "morals" - and the "idealistic" Christians will have difficulty ciphering out something of worth as well. One thing for sure though is this: the daughter should not marry the guy she is engaged to in this movie. He is a moron, everything a Christian man should not be, including a good dancer. The word of God talks plenty about not returning to those who are fools. She should not marry him. Fortunately, in the end she decides to not marry him. Unfortunately, however, she resolves to follow her mom's licentious tendencies and continue sleeping with him and living with him outside of marriage - because "who needs commitment anyways?"

Horrible movie. I can't remember if there were cuss words - but there certainly wasn't any nudity (being a man, I would have remembered that). Also, there certainly must have been innuendos though I can't remember any of them, so they probably weren't that funny. Don't waste your $1.09 at the Red-box at Walgreens.

~Pastor Ben