Xanadu (1980)

[Living_Dead_Girl]

This movies had mixed reviews. As good and bad. It is either way a very weird movie. I am interested on peoples thoughts and opinions on this.

Also... Olivia Newton-John = Rawwrrr

[claws]

Xanadu was an inspiration for the creation of the Golden Raspberry Awards to memorialize the worst films of the year 

[Zapranoth]

Thing is, I enjoy Jeff Lynne's music, and most everything ELO did.  Yeah, it's cheesy sometimes, but I can't pass up tunefully sung music backed by cellists in gorilla suits.  :)       

It's a perplexing film, and Lynne is said to pretty much have never watched it because he couldn't bear it, but it *does* have the world suddenly turn into a Don Bluth animation which counts for a lot in my book.  And inexplicable roller-skating.

[FatFreddysCat]

I haven't seen it in years but when it first hit HBO when I was a kid, I remember seeing "Xanadu" a bunch of times. Even as a ten year old it seemed weirdly awful, but in a cool way.

My Dad had a major crush on Olivia Newton John back then so every time Xanadu was on TV, he'd watch it. Haha.

[retrorussell]

I've always had a big-time crush on ONJ.  She had the perfect voice to match her insanely good looks.  I forgive her for this and Two Of A Kind.  Both, I think, were equally awful.  But the music was much better in this.

[Alex]

Was out shopping in Aberdeen yesterday and Kristi saw a copy of this. She just had to pick it up and since I'd never watched it before I didn't argue. Wow, what a lack of anything actually happening, but Olivia does look nice. If you took the songs out of it, you could easily remake it as a 20 minute short.

[Archivist]

Like many, I had a crush on Olivia Newton John because of Xanadu.  I don't recall if I saw it in the cinema or on TV, but mainly I remember her singing, the inexplicable rollerskating scenes, and the guy jumping through the wall mural to find himself in Olympus.  It's not something I have sought out in recent times, so if my childhood memories have given it an undeserving gloss, I don't know.

[FatFreddysCat]

I had totally forgotten about this but I mentioned "Xanadu" to my brother after seeing this thread the other day, and he reminded me that at one time we actually owned the Marvel Comics "Super Special" adaptation of the film!





...looking at that artwork, I'm not surprised that I blocked the memory of this book from my mind. Bleah!  

[The Burgomaster]

This is an AWFUL movie . . . many scenes are downright embarrassing.  But it's one of my guilty pleasures (I actually saw it 2 or 3 times in the theater and own the DVD).  The ELO soundtrack makes the movie bearable (although, it isn't ELO's best work).  Plus, I always liked Gene Kelly.  It was tough to watch him stoop so low for this movie, though.

[clockworkcanary]

I based my whole life on Xanadu! lol