Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again
Universal Pictures | Release Date: July 20, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
60
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 46 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
20
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
85
Vanity FairRichard LawsonJul 17, 2018
The pleasures of Ol Parker’s film are simple and sensual, its riot of color and sweet, nostalgic songs proving wholly agreeable even without much of a plot to hold it all together. Read full review
80
Film Journal InternationalHarry HaunJul 19, 2018
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again is a minor miracle of a musical, something you never thought you would ever see. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicRandy CordovaJul 19, 2018
This “Mamma Mia” takes a lot of the original’s qualities and then amplifies them to the nth degree. It’s bigger and crazier, and the emotions actually seem to run a bit deeper at times. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangJul 18, 2018
Everything old is shockingly, stirringly new again in Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, the rare sequel so unexpectedly enchanting that it plays less like a rehash than a reclamation. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinJul 17, 2018
The first film’s very specific pleasures are comprehensively encored. Read full review
75
The Associated PressLindsey BahrJul 19, 2018
Perhaps the most surprising thing about this whole sequined bell-bottomed experience is you might even find yourself getting a little emotional. But not too much, this is vacation after all. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrJul 18, 2018
I wish I could tell you that Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again is ridiculous and I hated it, but the fact is that it’s ridiculous and I loved every minute. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldJul 18, 2018
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again doesn’t pretend to be anything more than what it is: sweet, silly, sun-splashed absurdity, with a thumping disco beat. The world is a mess these days; some of us might just need this movie. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneKatie WalshJul 17, 2018
Much like its predecessor, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again is escapist fluff of the highest order — joyful, filled with beloved pop songs and incredibly bizarre. Go ahead and treat yourself to this raucous seaside summer confection, you deserve it. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattJul 17, 2018
A shiny-bright jukebox musical with a heart of gold and a plot of pure polyester, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again works hard to be the feel-giddy movie experience of the summer. And it mostly succeeds in its own glittery, aggressively winsome way. Read full review
75
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiJul 17, 2018
In a nice change from Seyfried’s 2008 turn as the ingénue, we want to befriend James’ Donna, not mute her. She’s as gorgeous as she is committed, as funny as she is emotionally true. A big talent. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternJul 19, 2018
The glee is industrial-strength, and the ABBA-fueled production numbers are so far over the top that the film is at once topless and chaste. Yet there’s a wellspring of genuine feeling in this time-hopping sequel, framed as an origin story. Read full review
70
TimeStephanie ZacharekJul 19, 2018
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again is terrible. And irresistible. How a movie that’s almost not even a movie can be both of those things at once is one of the mysteries of filmgoing, and one of its puckish pleasures. Read full review
70
IGNSimon ThompsonJul 17, 2018
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again knows exactly what it is, what its target audience wants, why and how. Changing things up, ticking boxes and tapping toes, it’s charming, entertaining and way better than many may be expecting it to be. Read full review
70
Screen DailyDemetrios MatheouJul 17, 2018
The template may remain essentially cheesy and the men still appear never to have experienced a dance floor. Yet it would be churlish to argue against a film of such smile-out-loud optimism. Read full review
70
VarietyOwen GleibermanJul 17, 2018
“Here We Go Again” is another kitsch patchwork; it’s as if you were watching the CliffsNotes to an old studio weeper that happened to be carried along by some of the most luscious pop songs ever recorded. Yet the feeling comes through, especially at the end — a love poem to the primal bond of mothers and daughters. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleKimberley JonesJul 20, 2018
Parker has cast credible young versions of all the original players, although in most cases vintage outperforms new grape. Read full review
67
ConsequenceAllison ShoemakerJul 19, 2018
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again is one of the most batshit crazy pieces of outright nonsense this writer has ever had the pleasure of encountering, and while calling it an excellent film would be going way too far, I enjoyed every single goddamn second of it. Read full review
67
IndieWireKate ErblandJul 17, 2018
Ultimately, throwing the same people in the same place with little to do and even less time to do it is emblematic of the sins of far worse, much less worthy sequels. Without Streep there to tie it altogether, well, it just doesn’t sing. Read full review
63
USA TodayBrian TruittJul 20, 2018
The superior yet still extraordinarily cheesy "Here We Go Again" suffers from many of the same fundamental problems, though the film exudes an infectious energy and hearty spirit that’ll put you in a powerful Swedish super-pop headlock until you submit. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorJul 19, 2018
The key to the franchise is that Mamma Mia! never takes itself seriously: This time out, the joy is giddy but the sentiments are cloying; the musical scenes are mainly delightful, but quieter moments often fall flat. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJul 18, 2018
More of the same. One senses viewers wouldn’t want anything different. Read full review
63
Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonJul 18, 2018
Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral) has been brought in to class up the dialogue, and add some one-liners.... In addition, director Parker does some clever things visually. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineJake ColeJul 18, 2018
It boasts such confident performances and choreography that it feels as much like a final draft of the 2008 film as a continuation of it. Read full review
60
CineVueAlasdair BaymanAug 2, 2018
Delivering clear big screen moments, of which will leave audiences itching to return and experience it all over again, you simply cannot deny that this eccentric mix of ABBA and cinema still holds magic. Read full review
60
SlateDana StevensJul 26, 2018
Mamma Mia! is in essence celebrity karaoke night. Read full review
60
The New YorkerAnthony LaneJul 23, 2018
For all its faults, has a musty charm. Read full review
60
VoxAlissa WilkinsonJul 19, 2018
The result is sublimely ridiculous, or perhaps ridiculously sublime: the very definition of frothy summer entertainment, moderately (if unevenly) well-directed by Ol Parker, that works best if you just suspend your need for it all to make sense. Read full review
60
ScreenCrushE. Oliver WhitneyJul 19, 2018
The new sequel/prequel, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again – which has perhaps the best sequel subtitle of all time – is only half as fun as the first movie, replacing familiar faces with lesser known ones in a story we already know. But thanks to the returning cast and a showstopping Cher performance, there’s enough zany delights to forgive the snoozier bits. Read full review
60
The AtlanticDavid SimsJul 17, 2018
Here We Go Again is a viewing experience best described as a long nap on the beach while staying at a chain resort. It’s extremely pleasant, if a little lacking in imagination, and every so often, a waiter comes by to refill your drink. Read full review
60
The Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinJul 17, 2018
Parker, a more competent and imaginative director than Mamma Mia!’s stage-show holdover Phyllida Lloyd, likes to assemble the musical numbers in such a way as to recall the very earliest days of pop videos, with snappy editing or Busby Berkeley-style overhead shots of choreography veering on abstraction. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Emily YoshidaJul 17, 2018
Here We Go Again ties up these two wackadoo films’ hijinks in a very sincere bow. After all, Mamma Mia is a mom movie, in every way imaginable. Read full review
60
Empire Ben TravisJul 17, 2018
The first Mamma Mia! often felt like being trapped on a non-stop rowdy middle-aged all-singing all-dancing holiday (in a good way). Ten years on this second trip feels older and wiser, for better or worse, and despite the odd misstep you’ll still be dancing in the aisles come the end credits. Read full review
60
The GuardianPeter BradshawJul 17, 2018
Something in the sheer relentless silliness and uncompromising ridiculousness of this, combined with a new flavour of self-aware comedy, made me smile in spite of myself Read full review
58
TheWrapNicholas BarberJul 18, 2018
As for the writer-director, Ol Parker, he doesn’t come up with any urgent artistic reasons for the existence of its follow-up, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, but he does make it surprisingly watchable, and he manages to overcome some mountainous obstacles. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJul 20, 2018
Even now, I can’t decide if it was horrible or if I liked it and must conclude that both things must be true. It really was horrible, and I liked it, anyway. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter TraversJul 19, 2018
The last part of the movie, which brings the whole cast together on “Super Trouper,” is almost worth the price of admission. Millions will happily get drunk on the film’s infectious high spirits. For the rest of us, who can’t get with the program, Here We Go Again will go down as more of a threat than a promise. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireJul 19, 2018
The sequel (which is also a prequel) features a bigger cast, a longer running time, extra subplots and additional romantic entanglements. But it’s emptier than its predecessor and has even lower stakes. It’s less entertaining, and for all its frantic energy, it manages to go absolutely nowhere. Read full review
50
The PlaylistKimber MyersJul 18, 2018
This is not a good movie – but that doesn’t mean that it’s not a good time. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreJul 17, 2018
The many songs are mostly forgettable deep tracks from the Abba repertoire, as the first film burned through most of the hits. Read full review
42
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerJul 20, 2018
The film cuts back and forth between the present and 1979, when Donna, blandly played as a young woman by Lily James, met her three beaus and went gaga for Greece. Scenery-wise, I can see why she did. I trust that everyone connected with this film had time to work on their tans. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyJul 18, 2018
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, the title of which should be taken as a warning, knows all too well that its target audience wants more of the same. Heck, some of the songs (“Dancing Queen,” “Waterloo,” “Mamma Mia,” “The Name Of The Game,” etc.) are recycled from the first film. Read full review
40
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottJul 19, 2018
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again is not a Meryl Streep movie. She's featured prominently on the movie's posters. She's all over the trailer. But no matter what the studio wants you to believe, the above-the-title star of 2008's original "Mamma Mia!," and the most celebrated actress of her generation, gets all of about five minutes of screen time in the sequel. Read full review
40
The New York TimesWesley MorrisJul 18, 2018
Ms. Streep’s near total absence leaves a hole Cher is expected to fill. It’s too little, way too late, of course, and because it’s Cher, it’s also too much. Read full review
25
Washington PostKristen Pagae-KirbyJul 18, 2018
Its exuberant, enthusiastic energy seems to belong in an entirely different movie. Read full review
0
ObserverRex ReedJul 19, 2018
Call this embarrassing dog’s dinner Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again or just call 911. Either way, it is nearly two hours of relentless, plotless, artless junk. Read full review
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