Rating: 
Summary: RINGO "STARRS" IN THIS ONE
Review: The main reasons I enjoy this film are: 1) The Beatles are in it and 2) I love the songs. I admit, as an inveterate Beatles fan, I am rather biased on this one.Ringo becomes the target of a crazed cult who pursues him because he wears "the sacrificial ring." High Priestess Ahme (played by Eleanor Bron) leads a band of inept thugs on a wild chase, following the Beatles from England to the Bahamas. Each Beatle maintains his own distinct, individual and unique personality and input. John provides the quick quips, ("I'm into rhythm guitar and mouth organ," he tells one thug). Paul provides the straight answers and is a serious foil to John's tendency to fall back into light banter. George maintains a stoic pose and does not go along with popular opinion gladly. In one memorable scene, Victor Spinetti, whose role in this movie is to protect the Beatles, claims he can do voice imitations from "Cagney to Ringo," George grimaces and says, "Doesn't sound A BIT like Cagney!" He also tells a motoring thug who inadvertently picks him up, "thanks for the lift, sailor!" Ringo appears quite at ease with acting. He maintains his lovable, good old Ringo persona and yet he shows a delightful streak of independence. Ringo does not suffer a fool gladly and he provides many clever retorts throughout the movie. I admit, I really enjoyed this movie. I preferred the Beatles' first film, the 1964 classic "A Hard Day's Night," but I do enjoy this one. Since I love the Beatles and the song selections are excellent (from the sad, beautiful "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" to the rousing "Ticket to Ride" and a Harrison composition, "I Need You"), I gave this one 5 stars. The Beatles are here to stay, yeah, yeah, yeah!
Rating:
Summary: Goofy fun, great music-- SO WHERE IS THE DVD?
Review: My three daughters (ages 11, 7, and 5) are suddenly in the full thrall of Beatlemania, something I thought I'd gotten over 20 years ago. Lo and behold, they totally re-infected me at age 44! We can't seem to get "1", "Revolver", "Abbey Road" and "Rubber Soul" out of rotation on our CD player. My kids and I also watch the DVDs of "Yellow Submarine" and "Magical Mystery Tour" (which shows how truly hard core we are) every few days. Anyway, I went in search of DVDs of "Hard Day's Night" and "Help" and found out THEY ARE NO LONGER AVAILABLE. It seems they have been TAKEN OFF THE MARKET just as the Fabs were hitting Number 1 again across the land! Same goes for VHS tapes and DVDs of the "Beatles Anthology" and "Compleat Beatles" documentaries, all listed as "out of print and no longer available." HELLO-- Who's reponsible for this FIASCO? Someone ought to be fired immediately for this, since there's no telling how much money is being lost minute-by-minute. The Beatles are once again the HOTTEST BAND IN THE WORLD, and their best movie work is suddenly UNAVAILABLE? The stupidity of this marketing move is almost inconceivable. Anyway, I was lucky enough to find a tired, worn-out VHS tape of "Help" on the bottom shelf of the local video store and brought it home. The kids, of course, FLIPPED and I found myself once again amazed at what truly natural, charismatic performers the Fabs were. Although rock critics have always liked "Hard Day's Night" more, I must admit "Help" has always been my favorite Beatles movie. Viewing it again after 20-odd years, I'm amazed at its innocent charm and how well some of the sight gags hold up. It's a sheer pleasure to watch all the proto-music videos in it, particularly the fabulous "Ticket To Ride" sequence (my youngest still screams "The SKI SONG! YIPPEEE!" whenever the opening chords come over the stereo). The Mad Scientist character reminded my girls of "The Brain." Some of the casually tossed-off lines have amazing staying power. "A feindish thingee!" "You've got a plan, haven't you inspector?" "Not a bit like Cagney!" "Ah, you see? British! If I had a Luger..." "So these are the famous Beatles / So this is the famous Scotland Yard" "Lovely boys! Just the same as they was before they was" etc. The spirit of both "Help" and "Hard Day's Night" is definitely "cheeky," as opposed to the "snotty" and cynical attitude adopted by today's teen-oriented music stars (don't believe me? Compare the excruciating "Jose and the Pussycats" to any Beatles flick and tell me we haven't gone BACKWARDS in 30-odd years in terms of music, talent and attitude). That's the only bad part of watching or listening to the Beatles in this day and age: It reminds you that pop/rock music is long into its decadent phase, with the themes so daringly explored by the Beatles and others so long ago simply being hashed, rehashed, sampled, computerized, and spat out by today's soulless performers. Anyway, I would happily buy a "Help" and "Hard Day's Night" DVD IF THEY WERE AVAILABLE! How long is this agony to last?
Rating:
Summary: Before the time of MTV, CD's, and Desk-top Computers...
Review: One cannot deny that Help! is a significant cornerstone in the musical video industry. This is exceptional footage of the boys' primetime. Whether you believe other Beatles footage is better or movie content is better, the visual and musical content of this movie will stand out forever.
Rating:
Summary: This...
Review: ...Has ALWAYS been my favorite Beatles movie! It's completely insane, full of good, improvisational-style comedy of the Monty Python type, (in fact, I can almost guarantee you that this film and "Hard Day's Night" inspired the Pythons directly, as well as the godforesaken Monkees!) and excellent tunes by JPG&R! Just about everybody from this film went on to very respectable acting careers in film and theatre, especially Leo McKern and Eleanor Bron. Roy Kinnear became Richard Lester's signature supernumerary. And I'm still amazed at Victor Spinetti's strong resemblance to Donald Nixon. A completely zany flick, this film follows the boys as they establish themselves in a new set of linked cottages in a spiffy clean, quaint working class part of, (presumably,) London, with the sight gags starting immediately as an enormous organ pops up out the floor of Paul's section of the cottages; John selects and kisses a copy of his own "Spaniard In The Works"; George instructs a bumpkin to mow his rug with snapping gag dentures and Ringo selects fruit and soda from his own row of vending machines! Enter the villains. In the opening teaser, it is established that a cult that is into human sacrifice has noted that Ringo has possession of a gaudy ring that they have lost that is crucial to their ritual sacrifice. They immediately go to London to re-obtain this ring so they can conduct business as usual and it is up to Eleanor Bron, as the very pretty Ahme, to get the ring from the hapless drummer. Craziness ensues as they chase the fabs from locale to locale to get the ring, first to the recording studio, then an Eastern restaurant in London, then the alps, then to London again and Scotland Yard and then to the Bahamas. About half the movie takes place in the Bahamas where we see the bulk of the music performed in the movie as well, and what we hear is among the Beatles best pre-psychedelic work...in fact, this is the beginning of the Beatles experimenting musically beyond the simple post doo-wop stuff they had BEEN doing up till that point. The very folk-rocky "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" is performed after Ahme comes over to their side and it is perhaps the most moving pre-Rubber Soul/Revolver tune of theirs. The first time I viewed a copy of this movie on VHS, the spoken dialogue in the flick was kind of raspy, but the songs were crystal clear with excellent stereo separation and cleaning up. I have yet to hear an up-to-date copy, and it may be awhile before I do, since MPI has stopped issuing the danged thing! Come ON, people...EMI, Apple...SOMEBODY, get this puppy back on the market! Anyway....George and Paul are the ones who shine the most musically in the film and on the accompanying album, with John singing the incredible "Hide Your Love Away", the boring and overplayed "Ticket To Ride" amd "You're Gonna Lose That Girl". It seems that John, except for "Away" is still somewhat rooted in the earlier days yet with his tunes here, while Paul and George are exploring the fringes of country/folk rock with "I Need You", "Another Girl" and "The Night Before". The film/album is also the first appearance of the sitar in anything by the Beatles, showing up in incidental music in the film. The boys easily out-zany the Marx Brothers in this film, carrying themselves like a clever bunch of high school/college cutups with their own little in-jokes and routines for us to giggle at. Richard Lester became known for directing this sort of outré farcical stuff, with only occasional forays into regular dramatic moviemaking. Unfortunately, since 1975, he has become very much the ordinary director, after creating masterpieces like "The Three and Four Musketeers", "Robin & Marian", "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum" and others... This is the Beatles at their all-stops-pulled cleverest, musically, theatrically and otherwise. Their charisma is nuclear, and I guarantee you, you will become a fan by the time this movie is over. TOTALLY nuts!
Rating: 
Summary: 4.5 stars - even better than their previous film
Review: Help! (1965.) The second Beatles movie. INTRODUCTION:
In 1964 the Beatles proved that they were more than just talented singer-songwriters - they were talented actors, too! Their first film, A Hard Day's Night, demonstrated that the band could act quite well. For the band's second film, Eight Arms To Hold You, they went for a very different sort of movie - it was in color, and the plot was NOTHING like that of their previous film. At the last minute, the film's name was changed to Help!. Read on for my review. BASIC PLOT:
An evil cult has prepared a ritual to sacrifice a young woman, but quickly finds out that they can't do this without the ceremonial ring - which has somehow ended up on the finger of Ringo Starr. The cult chases the band across the world in an attempt to reclaim the ring. FILM OPINIONS:
This is a very strange movie - but it's also a very good one. In my opinion, this film is far superior to its predecessor, A Hard Day's Night. Also, as with all of the other Beatles films, the band plays their songs at various points through the course of the movie - these little sessions are some of the best parts of the movie. All in all, a good movie. DVD:
The DVD doesn't have a whole lot of extras the way the A Hard Day's Night disc did, but it does have a few extras nonetheless. If you're a Beatles fan, you're sure to get a kick out of these bonus features. OVERALL:
Overall, it's a good movie. Sure, it's weird, but that doesn't mean it's not a good film! If you're a Beatles fan, do yourself a favor and check this movie out - I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.
Rating:
Summary: Help!
Review: This movie is all about a ring from a cult that Ringo gets through the mail, and trouble brews! The feeling of the movie was nice, the music awesome!
Rating:
Summary: Fab film from the Fab Four!
Review: This was the first Beatles film I saw. From the first minutes of the film I was hooked! I became an instant Beatle fan. A religious cult is after Ringo because he is in possession of thier sacrificial ring. There are several failed attempts to obtain the ring: stealing it at night as he sleeps, grabbing it when he posts a letter, the elevator scene, getting the ring at a restaurant and even sawing around his drum set so he will fall through to the basement as the Beatles record "You're Gonna Lose That Girl". Despite these failures, Clang (Leo McKern), the cult leader, is more determined than ever to get the ring from Ringo! Ahme (wonderfully played by Eleanor Braun), a priestess of the cult is secretly working with the Beatles to keep them out of harms way. Added to the mix are two bumbling scientists Professor Foot and Algernon (Victor Spinetti and Roy Kinnear respectively), and a Scotland Yard superintendent played by Patrick Cargill. To Cargill everything is "famous" (the famous Ringo, famous Beatles, famous plan). John, Paul, George and Ringo are all charming as ever. The settings run from England, to the ski slopes of Austria to the Bahamas. There are so many funny things in this movie that you can't just watch it one time and catch them all. The soundtrack to this movie is awesome: "Help!", "The Night Before", "I Need You", "Another Girl", "You're Gonna Lose That Girl", "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away", "She's A Woman" and "Ticket To Ride". It's such a shame that MPI is no longer producing this movie. I truly hope another distributor will be able to gain the rights so it will once again be available. It is well worth the trouble of hunting a copy of this movie down because everything about it is timeless.
Rating:
Summary: Help!
Review: Beatles in colour + them smoking way too much dope + lots of weird crap + the coolest house ever = great movie. It's my favorite one of theirs. Personally I think the only bad thing about this movie was the acting of the male middle easterners but I'm no proffessional movie critic so eh. John Lennon's utter insanity shines through as always and something about watching the beatles beat up people seems very intriguing. This movie has got the best collection of beatles song clips (videos) in the world. The tank scene is really great and the clip of "you're gonna lose that girl" has got to be one of the coolest beatles performances on tape. The camera looks like it's having a gushing orgasm of radiant blue colour. Anyways, these Beatle movies shouldnt even be allowed to be rated. They could film themselves sitting drunk on lounge chairs for an hour and a half and people would call it a masterpiece. It's the Beatles for christsakes A+ I say.
Rating:
Summary: Go fans! We rock! (though not as much as the Beatles)!
Review: I'm so happy to see that I'm not the only one who thinks "Help!" is never given enough credit by the critics! So it may not be as polished and serious a movie as "Hard Day's Night," it's still a boatload of fun and the source of many a random quote spouted among friends (we're also big fans of the "fiendish thingie" line, too, earlier reviewer). So why can't we get the rest of the world to agree with us? Maybe they were expecting something straightforward rather than twisted? WEll, they're just boring. Anywhere you stumble upon a copy of this movie, GET IT.
Rating:
Summary: HELP! needs none
Review: I'm sorry, but all of you who think "Hard Day's Night" is better than "HELP!" are smoking crack. "Help!" blows away HDN -- not that the former is a bad film -- but, c'mon, it's just a "day in the life" of the Beatles, while HELP! is a fantasy. "Two lagers and lime and two lagers and lime" is the funniest bit ever in a Beatles film.
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