Rating: 
Summary: Almost perfect!
Review: To me, Xanadu is perfection, but this DVD is not. There are not enough bonus features, and the sound quality sometimes changes. However, the sound quality is still pretty good and consistent for the most part. It would be great to see some deleted scenes, though! That would be priceless. Xanadu is great for people like me who love Olivia Newton-John, ELO, the 80s, and goofy special effects/camera tricks. Xanadu is called cheesy and awful by many, but you just have to take it for what is is and not try to compare it to other movies. It is basically a music video that needs more music. The music it does have is wonderful, though, and no one can sing as pitch-perfect as Olivia Newton-John. The CD and the DVD need to be remastered so that the sound quality is better. The movie features songs that the CD should, such as Olivia Newton-John's cover of "You Made Me Love You", "Drum Dreams"(by the same guy who wrote the theme for the show "S.W.A.T."), "Fool Country", which is actually a mix of two songs that Olivia sings at the end. The "Fool" part is probably the best moment in the movie because Olivia Newton-John is decked out in a punk, leopard-print outfit with her hair as high as can be, and she looks extremely sexy and modern. I think this movie gets more and more acceptance and appreciation as time goes by. One day it will be viewed as a classic, I promise! You can also watch the movie, dubbed in French, you can read about the cast, you can read some production notes, and see the original theatrical trailer. The trailer is really fun to watch and try to imagine what it would have been like to see it in 1980.
Rating: 
Summary: The movie bites big time - but the music is awesome!
Review: Xanadu is a hard film to review, because, as a movie, it is a terrible piece of dreck. As a music video it works just fine and even succeeds immensely at times. Originally conceived as a disco movie, the producers decided to cash in on the popularity - at the time - of roller skating, so they made the movie - at the last minute - a roller disco film. Throw in Olivia Newton John and Gene Kelly and you've got: DISASTER! The plot of the film is so transparently thin that it falls apart several times throughout. The dialogue is so agonizingly bad that even Gene Kelly (a man not known for his acting but his dancing) must have been embarrassed by it. As the male romantic lead, a little known actor by the name of uh, just a minute I'll think of it.....was cast on the heels of his turn in the highly successful fantasy gang film: The Warriors. Michael Beck (the actor's name) can't act, can't sing, and can't dance...... so he was cast in the lead of a musical? Huh? Newton John plays a Muse (of the old Greek mythology variety) who comes to life off of a wall painting - why we just don't know. She decides to glom onto Michael Beck's character (an architect who wants to create the most fabulous nightclub ever - Xanadu). And that, folks, is the plot of the movie. Oh, that, and apparently John's Muse was once the inspiration for Gene Kelly's character back in WWII. Huh? Anyway, if it weren't for the producers wisely employing Electric Light Orchestra, The Tubes, and Newton-John, then this would have been insufferably bad. As it is, the movie has some really fantastic moments of musical fun. There's an interesting mixture of styles when The Tubes performs with a pseudo-swing band from the 1940's. Then there are Newton-John's songs throughout, which were orchestrated by ELO. The title song is possibly the most fun because it is where Newton-John met her former husband Matt Lattanzi (he was a dancer in the sequence). However the sequence employs the whole roller disco thing (not terribly effectively) and feels forced and just looks terrible! However, as I said earlier - Xanadu works as an extended music video - something that was not in true existence at the time - it would happen about a year later on MTV. Xanadu was made in the very late 1970's and released in 1980 and just happened to hit theatrers when disco was becoming reviled and New Wave was the latest sensation. Also by 1980 roller disco was VERY passe. Xanadu laid a big old egg (although I've read that it did fairly well at the box office on Newton-John's Grease fame and general popularity alone). Get the DVD and select the song chapters and you'll have a great time watching this. Don't bother actually watching the film.
Rating: 
Summary: The Neon Lights Won't Shine For This Bomb
Review: I love Olivia Newton-John, and I think she is beautiful, but this movie is really awful. This is one of the worst movies that I have ever seen. This movie doesn't even make any sense. I don't understand how this piece of garbage even got made. Nothing blends together in this movie. I don't understand why an animated piece by Don Blueth appears out of nowhere, and it just shows that this movie makes absolutely no sense. The ending is horrible, and don't even waste your time watching this movie. I wish I hadn't.
Rating: 
Summary: Loved it then, Love it now
Review: This was actually the first DVD I was willing to spend money on. This film has a special place in my heart. As someone else said, it captures a certain innocence and watched with an open heart, this is a lovely movie!
Rating:
Summary: Entertainment is the watchword
Review: I would be the first to admit that this movie is not "Oscar" material. However if you are looking to watch a movie for pure entertainment, and aren't an armchair movie critic, you might enjoy this one. The plot is decent, and some of the special effects are excellent, considering the movie came out over 20 years ago. Personally I think Olivia Newton-John makes a good muse.
Rating: 
Summary: I liked it..
Review: Xanadu was a descent movie..Grease was still stuck in my mind with Olivia wearing those black tights at the end and John Travolta eyes popping out...ok..ok i got off track but anyway, this movie was cool and the soundtrack was lovely..
Rating:
Summary: One of the worst movie ever made, BUT
Review: one of the best soundtrack ever made. The songs here by ONJ, ELO, Tubes, Gen Kelly are simply unbelievable. Don't bother to buy DVD, but DO buy CD. However, you might end up buying this DVD after all to listen to the music in the movie.
Rating:
Summary: Some Memories are Better Left Unvisited
Review: I remember in 9th grade, we saw "Xanadu" at a school assembly, and found it a very enjoyable film. Olivia Newton-John was still the top female singer of the day, and I'd enjoyed Gene Kelly's older films, too. The notion of the music of the '40s and that of the '80s in peaceful co-existence was an important part to my developing tastes in music. However, now that I've seen the DVD of this film more than 20 years after its initial release, it's clear how bad a film this is. Olivia Newton-John lacks any magic in her role as Kira, Gene Kelly looks like he picked up the script right before each scene was shot, and there's no chemistry between any of the characters. If you enjoyed the music in the '80s, that's at least one part of the film you can still enjoy today. Olivia is still a great singer (and gives her only believable acting in the scenes where she does sing) and ELO is a oft-forgotten red hot act of the 70s and 80s. And when Gene Kelly's dancing, he has all the class that he ever did. The problem is, the components just don't add up. The characters never get a chance to develop to make the friendship between Kelly and Beck believable, and the critical Boy Loses Girl, Boy Gets Girl Back scenes fall flat because you just don't feel the chemistry between them. If you have fond memories of this film from its initial release, savor them. If you watch the film again, it may just ruin them. And on a final note, Universal could do a lot more in terms of extra features on the DVD. We get the trailer, but it's a pan-and-scan version, not the letter box version, even though the rest of the film is in widescreen.
Rating:
Summary: A good movie with a great soundtrack!
Review: While the movie isn't the best one ever made, Olivia Newton-John does a fine job. The movie is severely dated in the 80's with the roller-skating theme, but the special effects are well done. ELO does a superb job with the soundtrack and Gene Kelly does a fine performance on his limited exposure. On the soundtrac, Gene & ELO blend harmoniously with his Big Bad-era orchestral music mixing perfectly with ELO's 80's rock band guitar-heavy riffs. If you grew up in the 70's and 80's, you'll love the movie.
Rating:
Summary: The worst film ever made...
Review: I have to disagree with the other reviews available here.
This is without a doubt the worst film that I have ever seen in my entire life. If there was an option to give a film no star at all, this would be it. Xanadu is a film which manages to combine Greek mythology with roller disco, Olivia Newton John with Gene Kelly. It is a film of considerable production values with absolutely zero artistic merit. In short: everything a film should not be.
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