This "Fame" Won't Last Forever

It's been almost 30 years since we first saw the lives and loves of an incoming class of freshmen at new York's performing arts high school. But watching this reboot is a bit like going to a Broadway show and finding out once you're in your seat that the entire cast has been replaced by understudies.

The film doesn't have any real characters only cliches. There's the classical pianist under the thumb of a domineering father who is dying to sing hip hop. The angry young man with a mom who disapproves of his artistic direction. The shy young girl finding her way and so on. What film in this day and age refers to Broadway as "honkeytonk"? The teaching scenes are familiar, but still effective. The cast of television veterans including Kelsey Grammer, Charles Dutton, and Debbie Allen, make more of an impression in their brief screen time than the students do.

The plot- what there is of it- is really just there as a clothesline to string the performances together. And that wouldn't really matter so much if the performances were any good. They're competent, but unimaginative. There's no pizazz anywhere to be found. And the film offers absolutely no surprises whatsoever.

Fame: C