Rating: Summary: Mediocre at best Review: It is absolutely absurd that anyone could truthfully rate this above 3 stars. "Concert for George", "The Godfather", "A Hard Days Night" those are 5 star films. Then think of all the other great classic films that may be 4 stars. You can't tell me with a straight face Broadstreet is even in the same country with those, let alone on the same street. I am so sick of all the Macca "over-raters" giving 5 stars for everything he does, whether it's garbage or not. At the same time it is just as ridiculous to give this 1 star. The dreck that is "Lennon-the Messenger" or "Beatles Big Beat Box" are 1 star DVDs. Broadstreet is much better than those. The saving grace of this film is having Paul and Ringo together playing music, and in the beautiful fantasy dream segment. Those moments alone make this worth owning. The rest of the film is pretty tedious and embarrassing. The video transfer looks pretty nice, the audio though not 5.1 still sounds pretty good also. Too bad there were not better songs used for a lot of it. Bare bones packaging, no extras, but it doesn't cost much. Would it have killed them to add the "No More Lonely Nights" video? I don't think so... Have it for your collection, and just use the track selection feature to watch it after the first time.
Rating: Summary: Macca's Career Mistake Review: obviously this shoould have been released to some MTV or HBO station when it was initially released and the'aura' surrounding the project (and the very serious damage it did to Maccas career) could have been avoided. this film would have killed the career of a lesser artist..as it was it took McCartney 5 years and a kick ass world tour to recover..sigh..anyways, as to the film..i recently watched it and was surprised at how enjoyable it was~ as long as you got over the dumb story and the wooden non acting..the script is dreadful yes(this is why people do re-writes) but truth be told I cannot stomach the HELP Fim at all..that is REAL GARBAGE...at least this film has mostly music whereas HELP has 5 songs and most of the footage is taken up with stupid extras running around chasing Ringos ring...YUCH...horrible!!!...oh and I must take offense with the writer who claimed Ringo "admirably" refused to take part of re-recording the Beatles tracks when he had just a few years before re-recorded YELLOW SUBMARINE and WITH A LITTLE HELP for his horrible OGNIR RATS tv special (also note that both those songs Paul wrote for him) anyways this movie was slammed at the time and yes it is a minor effort but the critical back lash had more to do with Macca's bad timing (after Lennon's murder he could do no right save for the TUG OF WAR lp)...two points here I would like to make..1. the golden voice is still sounding great and the tracks here were all recorded live(a real challenge on a film production) and 2. since we have a limited amoount of film footage from this peroid the song sequences are as good as can any rock video and this is how the film should be looked at..people expected more and while I admit I was angry when I first saw the film in a theater..(I would have been happier had ROCKSHOW had this kind of publicity buildup)..but now 20 years later I would watch this 5 times in a row before you could tie me down to sit through garbage like HELP.
Rating: Summary: I Need Lysol Review: I need lysol to remove the smell left behind from this turkey, everything about this movie stinks, I saw this movie in 84 and was embarrassed then, why bring back such horrible memories and burn them into a dvd? I am a fan from Liverpool and I think it just blows.....Poo!
Rating: Summary: Memo to the 'one star' wolf-pack: Let It Be! Review: In retrospect, it seems infamous big-budget flops like "Ishtar" and "Heaven's Gate" perhaps 'deserved' all the merciless attacks. However,it remains puzzling why the lynch-mob fervor to rip apart Paul McCartney's comparatively small, independent feature "Give My Regards To Broad Street" seems to continue unabated 20 years after its release. If this tuneful, good-natured post card from McCartney to his fans offends you, then you walked into the wrong multiplex, because this film was not made for you. Sure, it's a vanity project, but that has become a rather hackneyed criticism. Doesn't anyone remember another "vanity project" from another rock star that was also released around the same time- "Purple Rain"? Can you say that movie (entertaining as it was) had any more of a "plot" than "Broad Street"? For that matter, how about ANY Elvis movie ever made-any 'plot' points were just lead-ins to the musical numbers, which is all the fans really were paying to see. At any rate, McCartney fans will love the music, which is plentiful. McCartney has some real top flight players backing him up, with appearances from Dave Edmunds, Chris Spedding, John-Paul Jones, Eric Stewart (of 10cc) and an off-camera David Gilmour, who contributed that memorably soaring guitar solo on "No More Lonely Nights". Oh yeah, and some funny looking bloke named Ringo plays drums. DVD notes: No extras, but excellent picture transfer and crisp audio.
Rating: Summary: this is fine Review: - This film has had a dismal reputation from the moment of its 1984 release, if not before. I won't say such a reputation mystifies me exactly, but I do think it's unjustified. True, Broad Street will not please the aggressive critic wishing to uphold the standards of the medium; nor will it satisfy the thin-skinned fan terrified McCartney will show himself to be unhip. The first group are urged to pass over the film entirely; the second group should watch it in private and should fastforward through the Silly Love Songs sequence altogether. Nevertheless, I think an objective assessment would concede that the acting, directing, and the storyline are more or less what anyone ought to expect for a B grade music film, and are no worse than that of, say, the Beatles' film Help! Moreover, the music and the cinematography are very fine. So, it looks good, and it works something like a string of music videos and performances interspersed with something like a plot, each (music and story) in about equal measure. As for Silly Love Songs, I guess for me the time has come to look more forgivingly on mid-80s tastes in pop culture. To make a long story short, I was surprised how much I enjoyed the film. The DVD looks good and sounds fine. The extras, however, are almost nil, which is a shame, since there was so much promotional material at the time of original release. Perhaps the McCartney camp (or Fox) has learned how to better play the expectations-game since 1984: if you overhype a mediocre project, everyone will be disappointed (some bitterly so!); but if expectations are low, maybe, just maybe, everyone will enjoy themselves a little better. -
Rating: Summary: Makes Spinal Tap look like Gone With The Wind Review: I am a huge fan of McCartney, but this is just too awful for words. As concerned a she is about re-configuring his place in the Beatles history, not exactly without merit, the more you learn about Lennon, you can't help but wonder why he wouldn't destroy the masters of this. Please, Mac, bury this and give us the complete Rooftop Concert now that the tapes have been found, which by the way, is the premise of this stinker.
Rating: Summary: The film is very interesting!!! Review: Paul is a genius and the man that composed the essential and style of Beatles's music. The Sargent Pepper album was an idea of Paul and it's more important songs belongs Paul. Macca was the best of the Beatles. This film is not a masterpiece BUT is an interesting film that show us the concept, the idea to make movie in a basic format with sweets songs. The songs are very beautiful and the performer of YESTERDAY is the best version solo than I heard it. "Bad boy" is a deliciuos song and "No more lonely nights" is a imponent song. I think that when the most important composer and singer of the Rock/Pop's History like Paul McCartney gives his ilusion and work like this film WE must to be happy and glad. THANKS SIR PAUL!!!!
Rating: Summary: It's all perspective.... Review: What you want out of the film might affect what you expect. This is a fun film. It's like a long music video. No More Lonely Nights,Not Such A Bad Boy, and No Values are 3 good new songs put on here. Some people feel it is a sacrilige for Paul to have re-worked Beatles tunes, but it at least offers an interesting twist. And oh, yeah, Paul was tyring to have some fun with the film. It seems some reviewers (see review below) are being way too serious and biased against Paul. To some "music fans" he can do no right. Not every project is genius, but Beatles fans can find fault with all solo Beatles material. None of them is a "saint", and all have their flaws. This film would do nice with a DVD release with some extras. After all Shanghai Surprise (George's 1986 film) and Caveman (Ringo's 1981 film) are both on DVD and did not fare well commercially, either. Enjoy this film as a music video with a thin plot. To me, it is a nice small film that deserves to be re-released. And if Paul would only do a video collection spanning 1970-Present onto DVD....
Rating: Summary: Who has the biggest ego in the UK? Review: This film is a 40 -something Macca going through a bad mid-life crisis. His bandmate John had been murdered in 1980 and quickly attaining saint-like status while he was still around creating sappy music and lacking any real purpose while getting old. In this film Paul wants to remind the world that HE was the one who wrote Yesterday and Here, There and Everywhere...though nothing he had written since could match the beauty those songs. The best he could do now was the mediocre and forgetable "No More Lonely Nights" and "So Bad." He wants to remind the world that HE was the cute one and can still be cute if you look closely...so he dresses up with wife, Ringo and Barbara Back in Victorian outfits for no other inexplicable reason other than Paul wants to play dress up in a "dream sequence." There is a scene in the film where an interviewer asks him if he "writes his own songs" (as if we didn't know). But it's all part of the reminder. Here we have a witless, vapid, lamebrained, shallow, mindless plot about tapes gone missing. "Poor" Paul - his gazillion dollar music empire will fall to its feet if "Harry" doesn't get those tapes on time. Are we supposed to feel sorry for Paul? Are we supposed to be worried, like he is in the film, that he'll end up homeless and penniless in the London underground playing "Yesterday" to passerbys? Ego, anyone? Given the critical homeless situation that existed in the 80's how can he even suggest that? How can anyone in their right mind say this was not a McCartney "vanity project?" The wit and comedy in this film is best exemplified by having "Good Day Starshine" played over the rainy English skies (how utterly funny and original - NOT!) You must remember that it was Paul who masterminded that Beatles debacle -"Magical Mystery Tour." At least he could blame the drugs for that one.It is rather pathetic to see these 40 somethings try to find some purpose in the middle of the 1980's. It's telling that even though John and George matured with age and got a little wiser (George, especially with his dark sense of humor) Paul is still clueless, hoping to capitalize on whatever boyish grins he has left without much depth or insight. Paul was never good at irony, but if he had displayed just a bit if it here this might have worked. I think of the Rutles and what a brilliant satire that was. But Paul's sense of self importance, i.e. his ego is so big that it makes him pathetic though not unlikeable. Paul still has enough charm to make us like him sometimes. Had he poked a little fun at himself (a la Rutles) the audience might have had some fun with him. This film shows an egomaniac aginf rock star obsessed with money and his place in the world. This film more than anything brings Macca back to the days when Linda and bandmate George Harrison were still alive, when complacency led to mediocrity and he was still plain ol' Paul rather than "Sir Paul." Amazing that a man whose band personfied 60's countercultural values has now become part of British aristocratic establishment. Another yawn. Now in his 60's, his insistence on living his life to its fullest is refreshing.
Rating: Summary: It all depends on what you expect Review: Broad Street is a relatively obscure project by now, at least by ex-Beatle standards. But in a way that is just as well, since the people who will enjoy this movie are specifically fans of the music of Mccartney and the Beatles, rather than a general movie audience. Taken as a film Broad Street is pretty dull, but so was the Beatles film Magical Mystery Tour. What Magical Mystery Tour did have going for it was great songs with fun psychedelic videos to go with them. Broad Street does not have songs as great as the ones in Magical Mystery Tour (what does?), but the songs that are here are mostly good fun. Even a few Beatles tunes are covered by Mccartney with a studio band. If you go into this movie expecting more of a fun collection of music videos with connected by a marginal plot, then you will not be disappointed. Anyone looking for a good film experience should look elsewhere.
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