S Club Seeing Double

S Club's Seeing Double will be best remembered as the film that marked the end of the band. Their demise wasn't caused by this film being particularly bad, but rather their big-screen outing was the contractual glue that kept the group together a little longer than they probably wished. Incorporating the standard pop-movie themes--a control-freak manager, overzealous fans, and the stresses of living on the road--the film also makes the customary tongue-in-cheek references to the fragility of manufactured pop groups. Centered around the S Clubbers' shock discovery that clones of the band are touring America, the film tracks the six as they attempt to capture the impostors and their evil creator, Victor Clonemaster. Peppered with some of their greatest hits--including a musical-style version of "Don't Stop Movin'" performed in a prison--their back catalog is surprisingly underused. As the group admits in the accompanying interviews, this film is no masterpiece. There are no glitzy special effects, and the clones of the six are created by clever camera angles rather than anything more fancy. Like in Spiceworld, all sense of reality and location gets lost during the film. Despite some establishing shots, it's difficult to work out where the action of the film is supposed to be taking place: is it Los Angeles, Barcelona, or a set at Elstree? But the need to suspend all sense of reality adds to the fun of the film, and Seeing Double turns out to be good, wholesome entertainment that mixes adventure, fun, and irony. --John Galilee