Home :: DVD :: Art House & International :: British Cinema  

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 6 .. 12 >>

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: What is this ??
Review: Let me say that I'm a Beatles' fan, owning all their offical released material and 2 bootlegs of Decca Sessions and Christmas Records.

But this is simply impossible...

"Hard Day's Night" was a fun and interesting peep into the Beatles's daily life, great script and acting.
"Help" was a mediocre adventure movie, still with a nice plot and reasonable script.
"Yellow Submarine" was just a cartoon.
"Let It Be" was one of the greatest recording session film ever made.

And this must be the greatest boo-boo the Beatles' ever made. Can't comprehend until today, why...they even had the nerve to release it ?? There is no plot, script is horrible and boring, the cut into the magicians' place was simply meaningless...The only thing worth watching is the "I Am The Walrus" song clip...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: i am the reviewer, hell hell hello
Review: This dvd of the Magical Mystery Tour is pretty cool, but the best thing is its got I AM THE WALRUS how cool is that!!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: a worthy look at the fab four in the age of psychadelia
Review: The magical mystery tour is waiting to take you away!! This movie is definitely not the Beatles at their fab best. If you're expecting the magic of the sixties and the hot-off-the-heels-of-Sgt. Peppers fab four to whisk you off to a psychedelic dream world, you may be incredibly disappointed, or slightly fascinated, depending upon your overall mood at the time of viewing. The swirling and colourful imagery of the musical numbers is quite fascinating. John Lennon pouring absurdly gross amounts of spaghetti onto a woman's plate in a restaurant is quite irritating. So, yes, the songs are magnificant, let's give them credit for that, but Beatles fans, please tell me, why on earth did they leave Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever on the cutting room floor? For the life of me!! They really should have included THOSE videos in this movie. I guess they must have took so much drugs that they said, "hey, let's leave the two best songs on the album out of the movie." Had they included Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever, this movie would have more unity. I love watching Paul and the other boys riding their horses in the chilly London air. In the Anthology movie I recall Paul saying that this movie is played in film schools and that students watch it and study it. Yikes. I guess those students are the ones that go on to direct Olsen twins movies or something. And then the students that actually study REAL cinemotography (Hitchcock's Vertigo) go on to direct GOOD movies. But whatever, the world is probably a better place for Olsen twins movies, and it's DEFINITELY a better place for the Beatles, regardless of this little slip in the creative peak they had produced in the two or three years prior to this movie. This movie just lacks a "spark." It's almost boring, they should have developed a better script. Or better yet, they should have put off filming this movie for a year and gotten Auntie Jess and the gang to fly over to India with the 16mm cameras and spur-of-the-moment film crew for a little Eastern "mystery tour," and the Maharishi could have been the "tour guide!!" At least that would have been "interesting." And we could get a scene of John Lennon trying to coax out the painfully shy Mia Farrow from her bungalow while serenading a few bars of "Dear Prudence." Now THAT would have been worth the price of admission folks. "Wontcha come out to play-aaaa-hey." Sure, I'd come out and play. And can you even begin to imagine the sequence for "Why Don't We Do It...?" And they could have a scene with Ringo complaining about how crabby the food in Rishikesh is while standing in the airport buying a plane ticket back home humming "Don't Pass Me By." Well, too little too late.

It's a mediocre film, definitely worth owning, though, and an essential part of anybody's Beatle tape library. The remastered sound is a slight improvement, the film is still dark and murky, but great as a time capsule of the 1960's.

Roll up for the mystery tour!!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: they were not alone in the music world!
Review: for die hard's beatle fan, the admiration could be accepted well, but the time when Beatles did this silly film,...they were sick in heart & soul...the magic was not there. Ringo & Paul just filmed it with everyone in the bus. And then they made a tour with that magical bus.
Wake up your minds all! there are many other much better rock bands than beatles, check out the songs remains the same (LED ZEPPELIN DVD) or LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (DEEP PURPLE DVD). The magic performances were there.....!!!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Roll Up for the Mystery Tour..........!!
Review: This is a McCartney project from the get-go. On the heels of Brian Epstein's untimely demise, Paul felt a need to show the world the Beatles still had a sense of creative autonomy. In actual truth, the germ of inspiration for MMT came to PM while they were still making Sgt. Pepper. The resulting acid-tinged filmed bus excursion through the scenic (yet unsuspecting) English countryside was a "splendid time guaranteed for all...." ("all" EXCEPT maybe the ENTIRE brittish TV audience that tuned in to watch it on Boxing-Day, 1967 and were collectively aghast, it seems) Widely known as the Fab's first and ONLY "failure", the Magical Mystery Tour film is nevertheless HISTORIC on several levels. But there are misconceptions to clear up : Firstly, it has been interminably criticized for being "plotless" and "scriptless"------but what people dont understand was that THIS was Paul's precise INTENTION. It was made during the height of PSYCHEDELIA (a phenomenom the Beatles THEMSELVES helped to usher in earlier that same year with the advent of their magnum opus "Sgt. Pepper's") Working class people in the North of England--of the same ilk the Beatles themselves arose, would frequently take leisurely coach trips or day journeys on weekends into the country. They were called "Mystery Tours" --- because more often than not, the passengers were kept uninformed as to the journey's final destination...it was kept a "surprise" or, "mystery". Paul's idea, according to his well-written autobiography "Many Years From Now", was to make a hippie-era, psychedelic variation on this theme...and call it a "MAGICAL Mystery Tour" (the LSD implication was obvious-- and I'm SURE he was cognizant of Ken Kesey's trans-continental bus "trip" across the US that took place three years earlier with the "Merry Pranksters") As with the conventional "Mystery Tour" passengers, the motley assortment of circus freaks and hangers-on that accompanied the Lads from Liverpool on THEIR version were ALSO not told of the final "destination".... but did anyone care ??? Hell NO!! 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 establishment at the time couldnt figure out WHAT the point was. The "point" was it was supposed to be a 60's "happening"...a "non-event" that was filmed. On THAT level it certainly DID succeed. The film is now widely credited for offering the first self-contained "music videos"--- an innovation the MTV GENERATION owes to Sir Paul directly. Disjointed, aimless and self-indulgent a relic as it may appear to many, Magical Mystery Tour is also deemed a bold, inventive and whimsical piece of Flower-Power Age ART (in the Peter Max tradition) that is appreciated more and more as it ages (albeit UNgracefully), and gathers a larger and larger cult following. One day it's "coming to take us ALL away..." The ticket master is over there.....hey, he looks suspiciously like John Lennon, doesnt he ???

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Were's The Bus?
Review: And lets just face it - The Queen's speech wasn't exactly a gas, either. This film has its wierd moments, yes, but there are some shots that are funny and interesting, such as the part in which Nicole, the little girl, is playing on John's lap, and of course, I Am The Walrus. That is, as many reviewers have said, the highlight of the film. I don't recommend this film to anybody who absolutely HATES the Beatles. I DO recommend the film to diehard fans (Such as myself), who just cannot get enough of the Fab Four and will watch anything.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Magical or Tragical
Review: Well as far as a film goes this is pretty stupid. However, I own a copy & would never trade it in.

I'm a Beatles fan - & if I look at this not as a film but as a collection of music videos then it's well worth it - especially for "I am the Walrus".

There's no screenwritting credits for this because there was no real script. Paul McCartney & Ringo Starr decided to fill a bus with interesting people - & film it - & wait for the magic to happen.

The magic never happened in so far that a 'movie' didn't emerge - just a lot of disjointed imagery.

But this is a must for a Beatles nut like myself.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: The Trip of a Lifetime
Review: "Magical Mystery Tour" all starts when "a man buys a ticket". That man happens to be Richard Starkey who is taking his Aunt Jessie on a trip. And what a trip it is! I have to say most of this film is great. I particularly love the spaghetti scene, (this is an actual dream John Lennon had). He is a waiter serving quite nasty looking spaghetti with a shovel to Aunt Jessie. The parts with the magicians are great as well. The music is wonderful, including spectacular performances of "I am the Walrus" "Your Mother Should Know" and "Blue Jay Way". This might not be everyone's cup of tea, but it does feature some great scenes that you definately don't want to miss. (P.S. And don't forget to watch for John as the ticket salesman when Ringo buys a ticket and notice how George only has about three lines total in the whole show!)

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: How can this be The Beatles?!?!?
Review: I used to think that everything The Beatles did was flawless...until I saw Magical Mystery Tour. The Beatles had sick minds while making this one. I guess all the popularity with their previous music & movies made them think their fans were blinded by admiration (which many of them were), and that they wouldn't care what it was, if it was The Beatles. But, I guess they were proved wrong.
The most disgusting scene is with the spaghetti dream, John Lennon shoveling piles of spaghetti and mud onto Aunt Jessie's plate. UUGGHHHHHH. Disgusting! And the little wrestling midgets at the marathon really freak me out. The first time I saw this movie, I too, was blinded with admiration for the fab four, not caring that it was literally pointless. Now, about a year later, I have realised that although they are (in my opinion) still THE BEST IN THE WORLD, The Beatles have produced something that is insane, freaky, pointless, and at times, quite nasty and disgusting. This is only for a die-hard fan who wants the complete collection of Beatles products.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Pobre
Review: Este material es muy pobre tanto como película como en la selección de canciones, entiendo que es el trabajo original realizado en el 68 por Lennon y Harrison y está cargado de esa inspiración que le otorgó la inmortalidad a los Beatles, pero realmente yo esperaba que en esta versión DVD pudiera ver mucho mas de los tantos buenos trabajos que estos realizaron, parece mentira que sea tan dificil conseguir algo mejor o mas completo, por ejemplo algo como un Best Of The Beatles Live! in DVD.


<< 1 2 3 4 5 6 .. 12 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates