Rating: 
Summary: Soothes my broken heart every time.
Review: This movie just makes me feel good. I wouldn't even call it a guilty pleasure. It's like ice cream on a hot summer day. Like hot chocolate after playing in the snow. Olivia Newton-John became a total goddess to me after this movie came out. The music alone makes this film worthwhile, but I love watching Olivia dance with Gene Kelly....I don't care what critcs say. This movie is one of my all time favorites. Olivia met her future husband while doing this movie(he is featured in the background and during the You Made Me Love You/Whenever You're Away from Me sequence) and in the dvd/widescreen version you can have fun trying to spot him.......
Rating: 
Summary: For Romantics & Dreamers Only
Review: I saw this movie when it first came out, with someone I loved. Therefore, it has more meaning for me. Nevertheless, it is a marvelous movie, if somewhat dated by today's standards.
This is a movie for those who love Fred Astaire musicals, beautiful costuming, Greek myths and fantasy.
Stay away if you prefer gritty, down-to-earth realism - this movie is NOT for you. There are no gratuitous sex scenes, no blood/murder, no bedraggled druggies. It is a movie you can watch with young children and grandmothers who fondly remember Van Johnson 'war' movies.
Rating:
Summary: Limberger in Pure Form
Review: If you enjoy extremely bad flicks that are great for a laugh, get this. This is the grandaddy of them all when it comes to cult classics that are just dreadful but hilarious all at the same time. A nostalgia trip for sure with the music...like something from ABBA or the Village People, it's embarrassing at best. Michael Becks acting in this is some of the worst I've ever seen, and lends itself well to the cheese motif and lack of plot. I just about died laughing when I first saw the Tubes pitted against a 40's bigband in a 'duel of musicality'. But that's not nearly all...there's also the 'Suddenly' roller skate dance with lame props in all it's glory, as well as the thundering crecendo of bad taste in the final roller skate sequence. By the time it's over, I guarantee you'll wonder what Gene Kelly was thinking when he accepted this role. A guaranteed riotous laugh for cheese fans!!!
Rating:
Summary: the ultimate guilty pleasure musical
Review: XANADU is a harmless, fluffy little musical from the 80's, and is a guilty pleasure movie that sits right up there with DIRTY DANCING and FOOTLOOSE in terms of being dorky but charming.Let's take a trip back in time...to a time when legwarmers, headbands and stonewash jeans were in vogue....oh no! It's the 80's! XANADU tells the story of aspiring artist Sonny Malone (Michael Beck - THE WARRIORS) who has the dream but lacks the spirit to make the dream a reality. Enter roller-skating muse, Kira (Olivia Newton-John - GREASE) who enflames Sonny's desires as well as invigorating his creative juices. Along the way, Sonny meets aged clarinet player Danny McGuire (Gene Kelly - AN AMERICAN IN PARIS, INVITATION TO THE DANCE) and together they decide to turn an abandoned old nickelodeon into a roller-skate disco called...you guessed it...Xanadu. Of course, the main highlight of the film is the great soundtrack from ELO and Olivia Newton-John, while her skimpy outfits are a big attraction, too! A forgotten classic.
Rating:
Summary: silly, wonderful!!
Review: OK, yes, it's strange. I mean the Tubes singing a duet with a 40's swing band? The lead couple turning into cartoon birds? Everyone on rollerskates? But I feel I must write to say that there is still a place for silliness and joy in our world. Please leave your hip cynicism aside and embrace the hopeless romantic in you while you groove to the rich harmonies of ELO and the truly lovely voice of Olivia N.J. Remember that it doesn't all have to be so cool , you had a crush once. Curl up with your new crush and this sweet, goofy flick that ushered in the 80"s.
Rating:
Summary: So bad, it's good...
Review: "Xanadu" has been and will always be panned by critics, and justifiably so on some levels; awfully written dialogue, corny special effects, and a storyline weak at best...but then there's the level in which it's resurfacing. "Xanadu" has obtained a cult following! I can think of few movies that can take me back to warm summers, feathered- hair beauties, and great music of the then- dying decade of the seventies (if I recall, it was released in 1980). This movie somehow embraces new age kitch in a way that can only be described in a situation on NBC's "Friends"...Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow) when seeing Olivia onscreen in Joey's apartment: "Oooh, Xanadu!" Forget the guilty pleasure label and the critics, laugh with the movie, enjoy Olivia as the work of art she is, and just remember when cheese was pretty hot.
Rating:
Summary: Memories of a happier time
Review: First, let's dispense with the obvious; this is one of the goofiest little movies ever made......and it's also one of my favorites. (Okay, "guilty pleasures", say we say...) Much has been said about how silly this film is, and a lot of that is justified. However, this movie was released in theaters when I was 14 years old and madly in love with Olivia Newton-John, not to mention musicals in general. Everytime I see it, it takes me back to those times, and the people that I drove crazy with the Xanadu soundtrack album. :) The slight plot, which could have been better if the producers hadn't decided to edit out so many things, has an intriguing premise, but eventually becomes an excuse to get from one song to the next. (A visit to some of the Xanadu fan-sites can turn up some interesting cuts from the script that REALLY would helped have the plot along.) In the long run, that's not really a bad thing, though. Many old musicals that this film is mimicking used the same idea, and besides, the songs themselves are great. The love-it-or-hate-it free-for-all, "Dancin'", which melds the music of the 40's and the 80's together, is very creative, and few people seem to realize what a challenge it is to get something like that to actually work, musically. (Okay, fair enough, a lot of you say it DOESN'T work......aaah, to each his own.....) Olivia does exactly what her fans like to see her doing in this film; she sings a lot and looks beautiful, and what acting she has to do is pleasant enough. Michael Beck.....well......yeah,he's in the movie. Nuff' said. I've heard it rumored that Barry Manilow was originally approached for this role. Now wouldn't THAT have been a hoot? And of course, the legendary Gene Kelly turns up and injects some life into every scene that he's in, especially his tap-dance duet with Olivia, "Whenever You're Away From Me". The choreography by Kenny Ortega and Jerry Trent is maddening at times; what works on a stage doesn't necessarily work for a movie. Kinda makes you wish they had taken a 2nd look at some of the shots that were used. The opening scene where the 9 muses materialize is a good idea, but the dancing is just not precise enough and some of it looks just plain sloppy. Even with all it's flaws, this is still a movie I love, just for the nostalgia of it all. I've seen it countless times, much to the disbelief, and slight embarrassment, of people who know me. :)
Rating:
Summary: C'mon people... give this movie a break
Review: I first saw this film when I was 11 or 12, and I'll admit that I'm not as in awe of it as I was then-being a fananical Olivia fan. I still think she's great. But as an adult it's fun to revert to when I was just a kid and life was simpler, and enjoy the fantasy of the idea of a magical "muse" coming into an ordinary guy's life, and bringing "all his dreams alive" to quote one my favorite songs "Magic". That one word sums up this whole movie. This is fantasy folks, not rocket science type, but romantic, silly, and ok, I'll admit it, a little corny. But I like corny musicals. Think Rogers&Hammerstien, or better yet Gilbert and Sullivan. This is the type of musical they would make if they were still around today. I love the 80's electric-sounding music. Whatever happened to ELO anyways? It you like to indulge in fun, fantasy movies , and you like the music of both the 40's and 80's AND you're able to find that kid inside, or if you have a kid or kids, plunk them down on the couch, and just escape reality. "Suddenly" you'll realize you're actually enjoying it. This movie cheers me up when I'm feeling down. It's hard not to look at Olivia wearing those fairy-like dresses, and legwarmers, whizzing by on her magical skates and not smile. At least, in my opinion. Olivia, you go, girl!!
Rating:
Summary: A Little Girl's Dream Come True
Review: I first saw this movie at the age of ten with my bext friend in my hometown's small theater. For some quirky reason it will always be one of my top ten favorite movies of all time. (Not to mention that I was an Olivia Newton-John groupie for most of my childhood until it wasn't cool anymore.) The soundtrack is the greatest and really makes this movie. The cameo by Gene Kelly also gives the movie a little credibility.
Rating:
Summary: A kitsch classic
Review: In the world of kitsch films, there are good-bad and bad-bad music-focused movies. ... Good-bad is "Xanadu," a film which -- though reviled at the time of its debut, and vilified for daring to put Gene Kelly on roller skates and second-bill him to a two-bit twentysomething Australian singer-actress -- has transmogrified into my second-best guilty pleasure of all time ("Showgirls" is still first). Be forewarned: your Kitsch Appreciation Sensors will have to be at maximum to appreciate this film and overlook its gargantuan flaws, particularly a complete lack of acting ability on the part of Michael Beck. It also helps to be a fan of ELO and Olivia Newton-John music. This movie isn't for everyone -- you might want to rent it first before buying it here to make sure you like it -- but I consider it to be a true kitsch classic.
|
