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The Rutles - All You Need Is Cash

The Rutles - All You Need Is Cash

List Price: $19.99
Your Price: $15.99
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Rutles are more real to me than the Beatles!
Review: I know it is a parody, but with the albums and videos - i have to say i am a bigger fan of the Rutles than of the Beatles. Sure the Beatles made the Rutles possible, but i still ca'n't help but think the "Fab Four" stole everything they had from the "PRE-Fab Four"!

Make converts.

Tie them up "Clockwork Orange"-style and make them watch/listen!

But i recommend a bedpan, or several adult sized diapers!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Where's the DVD?
Review: This movie is the best parody I have ever seen. The music, sets, actors, editing is all brilliant. Every big Beatle fan should own this show. I'm not sure how funny it is to those with little Beatles knowledge. Still though there are plently of non- Beatle gags to amuse. One of the best parts is the journey to New Orleans to interview Blind Lemon the blues master, who "taught the Rutles all they know". A brilliant bizarro history of the Beatles. Now that the VHS is out of print, is there a DVD in our future? Come on...

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Beatles fans will love this!!!
Review: This movie is so totally hilarious because of its very affectionate and funny treatment of the Beatles and their history-changing careers. Some of my friends loved this movie (Beatles fans), some kinda liked it (Python fans), and some didn't even know what to think of it and just left the room (fans of neither). Anyone even remotely familiar with the music, history, and films of the Beatles will laugh out loud at least a few times with this movie. For example, there's a scene with "Yellow Submarine"-ish animation with a song called "Cheese and Onions" playing in the background, and Bob Dylan supposedly got the band hooked on "tea" during the Summer of Love. Weird stuff, but funny. Also, for those fans still convinced that Yoko Ono had a hand in breaking up the Beatles, the character based on her is a Nazi(!!!) who produces an "art" film on feet with the Lennon-ish character Ron Nasty. Tell me that isn't saying something of Eric Idle's opinion of Ono? Also, the music is superb. It's similar in style and overall feel to that of the Beatles, but it never rips them off, and the lyrics are sometimes hilarious if you pay enough attention to hear them all.

Oh yeah, this was an SNL, not a Monty Python, production. Eric Idle just happened to be the writer and got a lot of his British pals in on it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Unmatched For Dead-On Hilarity
Review: Too many people who mock rock and roll stars fail to hit the mark squarely. Not the Rutles. The actors who portray them have obviously spent much time studying the mannerisms, the facial tics, the accents, the walks... quite simply, the Rutles don't mock the Beatles, they ARE the Beatles from a parallel universe. Even the beleagured narrator is realistic in his bizarre desperation to film a good documentary when all events seem to conspire against him. An interesting thing to do is read one of the biographic books of the Beatles and compare the actual history with the parody to see which you buy more.

For the reviewer who said this movie was made by the Monty Python people and not by Saturday Night Live, look at it this way: only two Pythons appear (and one auxilliary, Neil Innes) while it's produced by Lorne Michaels, features the entire original SNL cast, and is distributed by Broadway Video. The facts speak for themselves.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Hilarious, smart, and affectionate
Review: No fan of either The Beatles or Monty Python can afford to miss this wonderful parody. It manages to be consistently hilarious while remaining clear in its affection for The Beatles themselves. How can you not love a show with lines like, "It was here they found themselves--far from home, and far from talented"? Brilliant and sadly overlooked by many comedy fans who would love it as much as I do.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Hail Eric Idle
Review: Eric Idle has certainly made some questionable career decisions in his post-Python days, but this film represents the true genius that he is capable of. Neil Innes does John Lennon better than John Lennon. The songs are outstanding and funny as hell. Two things are very impressive about this film: first, the attention to the most minute details--gestures, facial expressions, people in the background--it seems that every inch of film was thoroughly thought out. Second, the abundant cameos, especially from the old Saturday Night Live cast. All of them are in it: Ackroyd, Belushi, Radner, Murray, Curtain. Even George Harrison is in it! All Beatles fans must own this movie.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Like Spinal Tap--only funny
Review: A film that had to be made, and only the English could make it. The more you know about the Beatles, the funnier this is. And to think it all started with tight trousers....

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Outstanding Fore-runner to Spinal Tap
Review: Most comic film buffs can recite every major line from "Blazing Saddles", yet ask them the plot from "The Producers", and the blank expressions come out. Mel Brooks, of course, trotted out his send-up of Broadway musical productions three years prior to "Saddles", but most critics agree his first (and least known work) was the best of the two. The same is true for "All You Need is Cash", which did not necessarily invent the mockumentary (see Woody Allen's "Take the Money and Run"), but certainly proved that no legend is unfit for satire.

Truly a delight for serious Beatles' fans, some of the "inside" gags are likely lost on the average viewer. That aside, however, the music is superb, with Neil Innes displaying extraordinary talent where so many other "serious" artists have failed in re-creating The Beatles. A bevy of cameos make viewing all the more interesting in between the hilarious send-ups of Beatle history. Characters are, for the most part, humorously engaging, although Leggy Mountbatten most certainly was created for John Cleese (why wasn't he involved?) and is ultimately an ineffectual piece to the puzzle without his presence. Here's to Rutlemania!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A dead-on parody of the Beatles.
Review: The Rutles do not imitate the Beatles; they parody them. No one would ever mistake Neil Innes for John Lennon or Eric Idle for Paul McCartney, but their costumes and mannerisms hit the mark. Innes, in particular, seems to have every nuance of Lennon's facial expressions, posture, accent, etc. well-honed. Innes' songs capture the melodies, rythyms, lyrics, and performance style of the Beatles so well, it is easy to forget that not one bar was directly copied from Lennon and McCartney. The story includes all the important milestones in Beatle history -- Hamburg, the Ed Sullivan show, performing for the Queen, the Beatle feature films, the "Sgt. Rutter" period, their marriages, poorly planned business enterprises, and the legal and relationship problems that brought the band to an end. All throughout, the sets and costumes are remarkable for their familiarity. There are a few inexplicable differences between Beatle history and Rutle history, such as the death rumor of the Harrison-based character (rather than McCartney), and their producer does not appear to be based on George Martin at all, but these problems do not detract from the strength of the film, which is its artistic and musical portrayal of the Beatles.

When Innes and Idle are in character as Ron and Dirk, the movie is good, but otherwise, it generally is not. Idle's narrative links, which were usually not funny in "Monty Python's Flying Circus", are not funny here either. The secondary characters (i.e. Rutle managers, wives, etc.) are played in a broad, camp style, in sharp contrast to the tight and witty portrayal of the Rutles themselves. Beatles fans will really enjoy this movie; Monty Python and SNL fans will probably find it amusing; most other people will not enjoy it at all. Nevertheless, since "All You Need is Cash" was made by Beatles fans for Beatles fans, it deserves a four-star rating.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This is the best movie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: The Rutles all you need is Cash is a wonderful comedy which is like the Beatles story exactly backwards! Barry Wom (Ringo Srarr) Ron Nasty (John Lennon) Dirk McQuickley (Paul McCartney) and Stig O'Hara (George Harrison) are having a good time with SNL and Eric Idle from Monty Python.


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