'90s NostalgiaWhat were you doing in the '90s? Whether you were rocking flannel, Docs, and brown lipstick or just happily gumming down strained peas, these lists are for you.
Do you remember Spice World? You have to. It was easily one of the weirdest '90s movies, if not one of the weirdest films ever made, period. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but nor is it a good thing - it just is. For better or worse, Spice World is one of the craziest movies you'll ever see, up there with the likes of best-forgotten mess Theodore Rex.
Depending on how you look at it, Spice World might even be one of the funniest movies of the '90s (though it didn't crack our list). It's so ludicrous that it's impossible not to laugh while viewing - whether you're laughing at it or with it varies from person to person.
What follows is everything you may have forgotten, or perhaps never knew, about Spice World. If you've decided you can't go on and would rather read about, say, obscure '90s horror flicks, you can do that here, but in the mean time hop on the infamous Union Jack tour bus because we've got some ground to cover.
Jokes About Princess Diana And Scenes With Gianni Versace Had To Be Cut Due To Their Deaths
Gianni Versace and Princess Diana suffered their untimely deaths in July and August of 1997, respectively. So it was that a few referential jokes about Princess Diana (nothing malicious, of course) had to be cut from the film before its release at the end of that year. Even more problematic were the multiple scenes in which Versace himself was featured that had to be hastily removed from the final product.
They Had To Cut A Scene Involving Gary Glitter After He Was Arrested For Unsavory Reasons
A month before the film was set to release in the UK, singer Gary Glitter was arrested for being in possession of illegal explicit material featuring underage children. He had a cameo appearance in the film as himself, with the scene originally taking place at the tail end of the band's performance of "I’m the Leader of the Gang (I Am!)." At the conclusion of the song, Glitter came out to bask in the applause. Fortunately, his lack of any real involvement in the scene made his appearance easy to snip out. Still, this didn't portend well for the film - nor did the assless chaps worn by the backup dancers, which remained in the scene.
Elvis Costello, Elton John, Bob Hoskins, Roger Moore, Alan Cumming, Jennifer Saunders, Hugh Laurie - how is this list still going?! And that's not all. As previously mentioned, Versace was in the movie, as was Gary Glitter, and Jason Isaacs (the lovingly reviled Lucius Malfoy) was cut from the movie after filming a scene in which he played a pretentious poet. Believe it or not, one famous person actually turned down an offer: John Cleese, who passed on the role of Mr. Step, which ultimately went to Michael Barrymore. Last but certainly not least was the inclusion of Meat Loaf.
In yet another unbelievable example of a famous person nearly in Spice World, the driver of the Spice Girls tour bus in the film was originally going to be played by boxer Frank Bruno. Unfortunately, Bruno dropped out because his son wasn't allowed on set to get autographs from the pop stars. The role, of course, then fell to Meat Loaf. Perhaps in gratitude to the comical rocker, the writers included a reference to his most famous song. In one scene, Dennis the bus driver (Meat Loaf) says, "I love these girls, and I would do anything for them, but I won't do that," referencing his single, "I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)."
There Are An Insane Number Of Plots In The Movie That Make Zero Sense
Just reading the first paragraph of the plot as summarized by Wikipedia is enough to give you a headache. In the setup of the movie alone there are around four villains introduced - mind you, this is a movie about a pop group. In the film, the Spice Girls are antagonized by a newspaper magnate, a photographic journalist, a paparazzo and his entire crew, Roger Moore as the villainous head of their record label, not to mention a couple Hollywood writers trying to pitch the girls some horrible plot ideas for a movie. Of course, their biggest adversary is fame and all the pitfalls therein. This is a movie with meaning, people.
All the while, the band is traveling the globe performing various musical numbers throughout the film, preventing them from spending quality time with their pregnant friend, which is an actual crux in the plot.
At various points in the movie the Spice Girls participate in fashion montages, jump a bus over London Bridge, race their pregnant friend to the hospital to deliver her baby, race their bus away from the hospital to make it to a show only to discover a bomb on the bus, and to top it all off, there's even an alien encounter. How many random plot twists can you fit into a movie? A lot.
There's a random scene in the middle of the movie where the girls find themselves wandering through a forest at night looking for a place to answer nature's call. Suddenly there's a sound imminently reminiscent of Close Encounters of the Third Kind before an alien craft (much like the one in said movie) is revealed.
First of all, upon hearing the sound, one of the girls yells, "Ugh, pack it in now!" To which another responds, "It wasn't me!" This, in case it's unclear, is a fart joke. Then when the group looks up to see a massive, glowing ship, and Ginger Spice quite reasonably yells, "Oh my God, run for it!" Despite this, no one, not even Ginger herself, makes any move whatsoever to flee.
Fortunately, the aliens mean no harm. In fact, their sole purpose is to procure tickets from the Spice Girls for their next show. Most notably, the aliens speak an alien language, for which the movie deserves kudos as too many sci-fi movies feature English speaking extra-terrestrials. The movie loses those points, however, when the Spice Girls have absolutely no problem communicating with the aliens, apparently able to perfectly comprehend their language.
