That's Entertainment

Rating:
Summary: AMAZING!
Review: This film really does have the best scenes from the best musicals without you having to sit through a hundred different movies.
The film is split into several sections with each section being devoted to either a star or a type of musical although Judy Garland does recieve 2 sections devoted to her, one by a very aged Mickey Rooney covering her early career and one by her daughter covering her classics.

Not only is this film good to watch because of the amazing musical numbers [the Busby Berkley and Zeigfeld ones are AMAZING] but it is also extremely amusing to watch straight actors atempting to sing [Elizabeth Taylor really takes the cake].

Its nice to see all of the hollywood greats coming together to make a movie although Clark Gable and Judy Garland to leave glaring holes where they should have hosted sections and it would have been better if the film were made 10 years earlier as quite a few notably Peter Lawford have passed their sell by date.

All in all it is very nostalgic and brings togethrer the best of the best is a star studded tribute!

Rating:
Summary: FINALLY! IT'S ON ITS WAY TO DVD! Spread the joyous news!
Review: When I re-viewed this film recently, I suddenly remembered how I was actually kind of suspicious of it when it first came out. What's there to be suspicious of? Well, you gotta remember, it was the early 70's, and people were just getting over their 60s hangover. The "silent majority" was gaining sway over the "counterculture," and the winding down of the Viet Nam war inevitably led to a kind of "cooling of America."

And the Beatles had broken up. Janis, Jimi and Jimbo were all dead. And suddenly, what appeared to be "establishment entertainment" was reasserting itself with a vengeance. The Carpenters, Anne Murray, all this soft stuff. And to top it all off, MGM releases this ode to itself and tells us, by implication anyway, that REAL entertainment was not all that acid rock. The real stuff is MGM movie musicals from the 40s and 50s. To a young (would-be)hippie, it all seemed like cultural retrenchment and I wasn't having any of it.

Well, actually, I was. I had to check it out. Hey, those Busby Berkeley styled numbers were pretty trippy after all! And those Esther Williams clips? Psy-kay-delic! And hey, it may not have been A HARD DAY'S NIGHT, but it was all good dreamy stuff from the Hollywood dream factory.

Well, it's all a mystery now why I was even a little wary of the movie back then. Yeah, as someone noted below, it is indeed a bit self-congratulatory, but then what retrospective isn't? But the film's highlights show that such an attitude is warranted, actually. Astaire, Kelly, Garland, all those amazing talents, the like of which we'll likely not see again--not on AMERICAN IDOL anyway.

Looking back, I don't know why I felt so threatened by this "establishment" product back in my salad days. I should have just taken it for what it was and is. Entertainment.

Rating:
Summary: Remember it!
Review: When I saw this in the theater years ago, my date that night sang along with every song. That was well over twenty five years ago and now I am doing the singing along! This is the very best of the "That's Entertainment" series with wonderful performances by Hollywoods greatest singers and dancers. If you love the musicals this tape is for you - enjoy it!

Rating:
Summary: They don't make 'em like this any more!
Review: When MGM decided to celebrate its past with a star studded documentary no one could conceive that the film would ultimately become the biggest box office draw of that year. With "more stars than there are in heaven", That's Entertainment! is the first and the best of the self-congratulatory tributes to the great MGM musical. Featuring clips from nearly 100 movies this is definitely a must have for anyone who considers themselves a film buff. Featuring cameo co-hosting turns from everyone from Elizabeth Taylor to Bing Crosby and with charming, if scripted, tales of "the good ol' days" in the words of George and Ira Gershwin, "Who could ask for anything more!" Enjoy this blindingly all star treck into a land over the rainbow that sadly, is very much a part of the past. One only hopes that Warner DVD will consider giving us this wonderful cornicopia in a newly remastered digital transfer very soon.