Home :: DVD :: Art House & International  

Asian Cinema
British Cinema
European Cinema
General
Latin American Cinema
The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour

The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour

List Price: $19.98
Your Price:
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 2 3 4 5 .. 12 >>

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: The soundtrack is the film's only redeeming value.
Review: I saw the color VHS-tape of "Magical Mystery Tour" a few years ago, and it's a boring, waste of time. The Beatles take a bus ride through England and not much happens. It's really just a "what I did on my vacation home movie" that is just as dull as your next-door neighbors' home movies. The Beatles are/were musicans, not filmmakers. They're not Richard Lester,(who directed "A Hard Day's Night" and "Help"), by any means. This was first a black and white tv special, that was later shown in color. It's the first major project the Beatles did without Brian Epstein, (their manager who died in 1967), and it shows how important he really was. There are supposed to be a lot of "in-jokes" for people in the 'inner circle', but, the 'inner cicle' does not include the average person who will neither find the film funny, or interesting. "MMJ" is the only real disaster the Beatles had, which isn't bad considering their large output from 1962 to 1970. Get "MMJ" only in a group set, with something else, where it's almost a freebie, otherwise just buy the CD soundtrack. "MMJ" isn't even bad enough to enjoy as a guilty pleasure.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Self-indulgent, Amateurish, and Really Boring
Review: It's pathetic to see so many reviewers parroting a bit of McCartney hype. In "Anthology" McCartney says he "defends" Magical Mystery Tour by pointing out that it includes the only performance of John Lennon's "I Am the Walrus" on film. In other words, he "defends" Magical Mystery Tour by blaming John Lennon for it. This is typical of McCartney's behavior since Lennon was murdered He deflects criticism of himself by issuing Lennon a backhanded compliment. In any case, the most obvious problem with his remark is that there is NO performance of "I Am the Walrus" here. The scene in question can't even be called lip-synching considering that the mouths of the Beatles are obscured by animal masks.

According to Rolling Stone (December 14, 1967), "The original idea to make a TV film about a bus tour was Paul's. He thought it up in April while on a week's vacation in America and started to work out the song, 'Magical Mystery Tour' on the plane back to London." The film was shown on BBC television on December 26, 1967. The British papers called it "Chaotic, appalling, naive, puffle, flop, tasteless, contemptuous, nonsense." A front page review in the Daily Express allowed, "I cannot ever remember seeing such blatant rubbish." According to Rolling Stone (February 1968), "The visual ideas of the wonderful 'I Am a Walrus' are literal -- there are lots of egg men and a walrus, but the film tries to move the way the song moves, so that one finds a silly one-to-one relationship between the juxtaposing of sections in the song and the editing of the filmed scene."

At the time McCartney defended the film by remarking, "It was a mistake because we thought people would understand that it was 'magical' and a 'mystery tour.' Maybe we should have had someone saying: 'We are going magical now, folks.'" By the time of "Anthology" he seemed to have abandoned that line (it was pretty feeble anyway), but we nevertheless have reviewers here parroting IT as well.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: really, really, really, really b-a-d
Review: >THAT was the very point. Paul was INTENTIONALLY paying homage to the French new-wave avante-gaurde film directors he apparently admired so much privately. The clueless and UNsavvy English film critics [sic] establishment at the time couldnt [sic] figure out WHAT the point was.

Oh, I think the British critics who reviewed this unfavorably when it was originally aired on BBC televison were at least as cinematically versed as Paul McCartney. (By the way, there is such a thing as an apostrophe. It is used to show possession and to mark contractions.)

>The "point" was it was supposed to be a...a "non-event" that was filmed. On THAT level it certainly DID succeed.

Kind of difficult NOT to succeed "on THAT level".

>The film is now widely credited for offering the first self-contained "music videos"--- an innovation the MTV GENERATION owes to Sir Paul directly.

However widely credited it may be, it is ERRONEOUSLY credited. Richard Lester's "A Hard Day's Night", released in 1964, used "self-contained 'music videos'". Think of the "Can't Buy Me Love" scene. I don't know if Richard Lester was the first, but since "A Hard Day's Night" was a Beatles movie, it is hard to imagine Paul McCartney not getting the idea from Richard Lester, if you call that an idea.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: dreck magical???
Review: was ist das denn für einen blöden Film? die könnten doch nicht wie Sie einen Filmdrehen sollen?
For die hard beatle fan only!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A bias but honest review
Review: I'm a huge Beatle fan, but I think anyone with a love for psychedelia or the era of the sixties would have to appreciate this creative, unusual masterpiece. It does help to be a Beatles fan, of course, but anyone who easily draws outside of the lines will enjoy this 50 minute treasure.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Nice ditty
Review: After reading several Beatles' biographies I was expecting the worst when the Magical Mystery Tour was aired on Dutch television a few years ago. I was surprised I enjoyed it quite a bit. Of course I can see that it has flaws but I think Magical Mystery Tour got bad reviews because the press at that point of The Beatles' career thought this was the time to give the golden boys a "damn good trashing" as The Kinks once put it.

The Beatles depended a bit too much on the people in the bus and so they filmed extra scenes to tie everything into a coherent film. The clips are great. Where else can you see the Beatles perform "I Am The Walrus"?

It's a shame this set does not contain some extra material. The Beatles made several film clips in 1967. Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields Forever, Hello Goodbye. There's more than enough space for those clips. I would have given the set 5 stars if these clips had been added to the set!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: a Very Magical Mysterious Tour type deal
Review: The music "video" promos are just great. Consisting at first of typical Beatles promo, then adding in occasional outtakes throughout the clips. Throughout the entire movie in fact. Most of the movie IS "outtakes". Random fits of laughing and goofyness. Or maybe that's all they wanted. Who knows, either way.. this movie is a sure win for any true Beatles fan.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: What The Hell Is This???
Review: I must say I loved The Beatles in "Help!" & "A Hard Day's Night", & I just got this movie from the library today. It's terrible...there's no plot. The music was alright; it seems like every movie they made Ringo seems to be the center of attention, (nothing wrong with that). George only has a couple of lines in the movie (I should say words), which is weird. There were a few slightly funny scenes in the movie. Like when John was with the little kid on the bus, & when the man was singing on stage with the stripper. The spaghetti scene was nasty. I wouldn't want to buy this movie; only if it's very cheap, just to have it for my up coming Beatles collection. If anyone really wants to see this moive; I'd get it at the library first. I'm sticking with "A Hard Day's Night" & "Help!"

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR
Review: There has been so much negative stuff written about this obviously bad movie. The one thing people seem to miss is that this film broke so much new ground i.e. first video's for songs...the point is that it's not the quality of the movie..it's the content....and don't forget you get to see THE BEATLES!!!! You can't see them anymore, GET IT? Anyway, it's fun to spot mistakes in the film...like, the shadows of the film crew accidently being filmed...the shadows of boom mikes etc. This film is FUN...so have FUN watching it..otherwise you miss the point....LOVE>>>GEAR>>>FAB...dave

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: With Regret....I Must Say.....This Is Horrible!!!
Review: The Beatles are my favorite band of all time, but there is simply no excuse for this travesty. The spaghetti scene is awful and painful to watch, the bus ride singalong is horrid and quite simply the Fab Four look [bad] in every sense of the word. This movie is so bad, it almost ruins the music. Almost. This is one blot on an otherwise flawless legend. Avoid this at all costs.


<< 1 2 3 4 5 .. 12 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates