As the film says "the future is in music", and let us hope that SClubs future lies ONLY in music!
Rating: 3/10
Running Time: 91 minutes
UK Certificate: PG
British pop band S Club are tired and in need of a break as they travel on their world tour aboard the S Club bus performing and greeting fans. One day their manager disappears, and they are left stranded in Europe, where they can get that well earned rest. Trouble appears when they discover an S Club copy impersonating them in LA. They find these people are clones created by an evil scientist, and set out to capture them; reinstating themselves as the real S Club.
Hannah, Jo, Tina, Rachel, Bradley, and Jon all appear in this film; which at the beginning has scary parallels to the Spice Girl's “Spiceworld The Movie”. The film is long for children, exceedingly drawn out and complicated, which makes it very difficult for the viewer to distinguish between who are the clones and who are real. “Seeing Double” tackles too many complex ideas and stories for a child to understand and one spends too much time trying to decipher the plot to be properly entertained. Too many minor characters pop in and out, and there are too many unnecessary and drawn out scenes.
No member of the band, with the exception of Hannah (who has a flair for character acting), can be described as having given a good performance except when singing and dancing. There are only three main song sections, which says to me that they are trying to be something they are not!
Gareth Gates appears briefly as a clone of himself, in a scene involving the passing of plates round a table which I could not comprehend at all!
The writing is poor and the jokes aren't funny- the cinema was full of children and you never heard a peep out of them until S Club started singing. This proves that they should stick to what they do best- being pop stars. As the film says “the future is in music”, and let us hope that S Club's future lies ONLY in music!
This is in the end a children's film and if all they want to do is to stare at their heroes for an hour and a half then this is the film. If they are after an exciting adventure tale it might be easier for them to understand the most complicated of the James Bond films.
It's Got: Lots of smiley happy pop stars and pop star clones!
It Needs: A tighter narrative structure, and more S Club music!
Summary
A confusing and complicated children's tale.