How Can I Resist You? Well, I Did.

I've skipped ahead to July while I try to say five articulate sentences about my last June feature, Wanted. (One might argue that this would make for more articulate sentences than the entire movie had.) Anyway, after completing my first 4-mile race - on day three of a six-day heat wave, no less - I needed the cinematic equivalent of lemon merengue as a reward. I thought Mamma Mia! would fit the bill. Key word: "thought."

1) Mamma Mia! (July 19; actually, it's the 2008 second movie I saw in July)

Mamma Mia!, based on the Broadway celebration of ABBA songs, made me feel trapped at the world’s longest, loudest slumber party. I was embarrassed as Meryl Streep dithered around like a teenager about her daughter’s (Amanda Seyfried) three possible fathers while James Bond and Mr. Darcy … er, Pierce Brosnan and Colin Firth … attempted to sing and modeled leather vests. I puzzled over the math in Catherine Johnson’s screenplay (Streep and her lovers are at least 15 years too old for their roles) and wondered why director Phyllida Lloyd - who staged the theatrical version of Mamma Mia! - made the celluloid choreography look so gawky. Mamma Mia! isn’t total hell: Streep turns “The Winner Takes All” into this triumphant, Helen Reddy-esque siren call I actually applauded, and those darn ABBA songs continue to take up residence in my head. Mostly, though, I’m disappointed that Mamma Mia! couldn’t follow in the mid-July musical magic footsteps of last year’s Hairspray.