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Xanadu

Started by jc@ZapEmail.com, October 26, 1999, 03:40:08 PM

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Swamprat

Yes, it's me again. I hate to point this out to all you ONJ lovers...she isn't Australian...she's English...she was just raised in Australia, just like the (uhg) BeeGees. Mel Gibson wasn't born there either, he was born in the states, his Aussie father took his sons back to KangarooLand before they turned draft age during Vietnam. I'm not picking on these people of course. (Not Mel anyway, I think he's a pretty cool guy...real goofy sense of humor.) But Scrawny ol' Livy picks her nose at stoplights just like the rest of us...and she still looks like an anorexic chicken to me...maybe she's a nice lady...I wouldn't be surprised. Both the Limeys and the Diggers are famous for being good ol' blokes, though the Brits can go off a little stuffy at times, and the Aussies are well known for getting bad-serious crazy when provoked even just a little bit...but hell! I'm an American. Every generation we write a new chapter in the book for being conceded AND bad-serious-dangerously crazy. I hope Olivia is well and happy. I wish she'd put some pounds on. I wish she had made Grease then hung up her Hollywood shoes. (Ever seen the film, "Two of a Kind"?) I wouldn't be surprised if her teeth were capped...the English are also famous for bad teeth. The Aussies are just as famous for having most of thiers knocked out. Xanadu is still bad-serious pain! It SUCKS!

Swamprat

Sucks...Sucks...SUCKS. The only way this thing could've gotten worse is if Olivia Newton-John had did a striptease on roller skates. My soon to be wife at the time dragged me to see this thing...we still got married and still are married...a miracle considering the evil taint this film sloshes about. Livy couldn't act her way through a church Christmas play. GREASE managed to overcome her lack of presence but this cockroach fodder couldn't. She always was a so-so pop singer, a so-so country singer, I wonder why she couldn't at least have become a so-so actress. She's just plain awful. Add to the mix an awful Hip and Happening so-so generic pop soundtrack, Dis-uhg-co music, the then rollerskating fad, and a twerpy leading man. What were these people thinking? Gene Kelly? Why was this man inserted here? A link to a glorious past of musical fantisies...or did his aging mother need an operation? C'mon. Kelly was from another era...I didn't like those movies but they were an art form unto themselves...even a geniune artist like Kelly couldn't save this tripe. It was neat to see the old codger zipping around on skates and dancing, keeping up with the "kids", but other than the fun of seeing that old vet still doing a little strut, this film was and still is a total bore. I never found Olivia to be that beautiful. Even as a horny teenager I thought she looked like an anorexic chicken. One good sneeze and she'd snap every bone in her scrawny body. Then there she is zipping around on skates in a dark and abandoned building. The "C'mon guys! Lets put on a show!" theme drives me nuts. It sucked when Micky Rooney and Judy Garland did em that way back in the 30s and it still sucks. If a dance-musical-fantasy movie is done well I can sit through it at least once...All That Jazz is a favorite that comes to mind at the moment, I've seen it several times, good flick. Xanadu is just absolute pain. I'd rather sit through a root canal than watch this thing again. I'd love to chase after those dancing muses with a ball bat...now that would make a watchable movie! 400 pound middle aged man with bat chasing dancing glo-chicks on wheels. Michael Beck's character could paint the loddy posters for that one. This thing isn't just a bad movie...there is no catagory this dud could be dumped into without having the rest of the dreck rise up in revolt. It belongs in the bottom of an empty barrel all to itself. When I pass snippits of this thing while channel surfing through cable stations it makes me feel bad. So bad in fact I always get an urge to send Olivia Newton-John a bag of Oreos.

Mark

 I would just like to say I got a kick out of this review. Its a shame this movie was so badly written. Still fun to watch tho.

Mel

It's campy, it's cheesy... and it's a lot of fun for those very reasons.  Is it good?  Well... no.  It's pretty awful.  But that's the fun of it.  It's purely a guilty pleasure movie.  The music is fantastic, even if the plot and the script were awful.

I own it, and every once in a while, I pull the tape out and just kinda go back to my childhood when it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen (I was five...there were roller skates and funky glowing people in a painting wearing sundresses... come on!)

It's also a very good movie to threaten using on your boyfriend if he doesn't behave... guys whimper if you threaten to force them to watch it.

Hee hee hee...

-Mel.

mike

I dont know what some of these people are thinking. The movie is strange but it does have O N J so its not all bad. They do say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder therefor if the person who said this line had seen this movie he or she would have gone blind.

Sly R

Your review has ignored one key feature in this film: the soundtrack.  One of the greatest.  ELO's Jeff Lynne has produced some crafty stuff, but his work in the 80's got quite stale... except here.  Arguably, the Xanadu soundtrack is ELO's swan song.  And a damned pretty one.  Almost thrilling enough to make the movie good.

Joe

Saw this film when it came out in the summer of '80 - it's really more of a late-70's film than an '80's flick.
A lot of fuss and promotion was made over this movie - all those cheesey songs by OLJ and ELO were all over the darn radio - the songs themselves probably made more money than the film itself.
The whole family and a couple of friends went that early Saturday evening to see it - everyone was anticipating another Grease (not that I had seen Grease - I was 13 and my parents were hit & miss when it came to taking us to the movies - we counted ourselves lucky to see this one).
I have to admit I had a little crush on Olivia back then - mostly due to this movie - so I kind of liked the film.
In fact, the next day I rode my 10-speed all the way to the theater and tried to sneak in the back door to see it again - got busted, though, and was told to go home (I obviously didn't have anything better to do that day).
My friend who lived next-door had the LP to the movie - kid named Tater - his mother bought him EVERYTHING!).
I remember waking up a little too early in the early Fall of '80 to my Mom's stupid clock-radio (my room was right next to my parents') playing "Suspended in Time".
I also remember just before the film was theatrically released the OLJ song "Magic" was played a couple of times  every hour on the radio - my and my little brother had the house to ourselves and a little too much free time as well - I remember we'd watch the Flintstones and during one episode where Barney was floating in the air, I turned the TV volume down and played the OLJ song "Magic" on the stereo (over the radio)and was so bored that I thought the song went really well with the Flintstones (never underestimate the desperation of a bored 13-year-old).
Well, many years later I purchased the DVD mainly because I like a few of the (admittedly cheesey) songs in the film, and, of course, for the nostalgia value (why else would they bother to put this movie on DVD?).
Visually that film really ain't half bad - and it can be amusing to see what passed for "cool" back then (what the heck is the deal with those freaks in that "Glitz" store? And why the heck is Gene Kelley all of a sudden inside a giant pinball machine, punching columns that then spring out with flags and sparks?).
Anyway, if you're ever thinking about getting the DVD, the sound is DD 4.0 (yes, you heard right - only four discrete channels) and the visual transfer and colors are excellent.
Of course, everyone knows that the acting....well, nobody can relaly act in this film.
However, there are an awful lot of amusing, stupid things in this movie, which really would have been a hoot on MST3K...

Martin

Oh yeah, the movie is not so great, but all the film
is about those incredible sounds made by ELO and  by
Olivia.
Electric light orchestra /ELO/ did much more than a great
job!
I love "don't walk away, it's alright, xanadu, all over
the world, I'am alive, you must understand those songs.
....Yeah, but those times are gone...

Groovy!
c.u. all
/I am european, just by the way, so forgive my imperfect
english please/.

Dee

Wow . . . Xanadu this is the first movie i remember as a child.  I was a couple months old when we got the movie on vhs somehow i would manage to crawl out my crib and operate the vcr and watch this movie on my own. My family would trip out and wonder who was putting it on for me, until one day they realize it was me.  Anywayz i still have my original video which is soooooo worn out that i had to get the dvd.  But i think this movie is great yes it is a lil bit cheesy but hey there are worse films out there.  The music is awesome.  What else could you ask for in an 80's film.

Irena

You clearly don't enjoy the deaththrows of the movie musical. The soundtrack was ELO it was really funky.
Olivia at least has funky peasant clothes and legwarmers over her skates. You can't beat that. My mind is forever tainted by the electric orange jump suits of the band and the band member who was the model for 'animal'. and what about the zebra skin jumpsuited dancer who bore a suspicious resemblance to Jerry Hall!. Not to mention the poor rollerskater dressed in gold that hangs herself in a tizzy at the opening ceremony. I query your "bad bits" There is much worse out there.

Jeffrey

I wasn't even born when this movie originally came out, but I saw it at a very young age and have loved it ever since. It's a story about second chances, following your dreams, and above all else, love. Not to mention the Greek myth connections were cool. This is one of my favorite movies of all time. It's a little goofy, but please, name me a teen movie from the 80s that wasn't?

Mr. Paradox, M.D.

Whoa.  My mother, she of little taste, loves this film... eeggh.  Gene Kelly actually left semi-retirement to make this garbage.  Three questions:

1. Who thought Michael Beck could act?
2. Who thought that roller-disco could hold up a film?
3. Who in their right mind came up with this thing?

Actually, the last question I can partially answer.  It's a remake of an old Rita Hayworth film (can't remember the name) in which she played a muse.  This is irrefutable proof of the cannibalistic nature of Hollywood.  Ugh.

jrr

god help me, i have very fond memories of this one and i still plan on marrying ONJ...and you can't escape the fact that this film helped Jeff Lynne learn how to produce,  on demand, whatever the industry suits requested.  without the Xanadu soundtrack, Tom Petty would still be braying hayseed rebel anthems in front of a big, stupid confederate flag instead of crooning west coast existentialism over shuffling eighth-notes.

Mark

I just saw Xanadu for the first time in about 17 years - it was great!  I was 10 years old when it was released, and boy, the memories came rushing back.  I truly didn't want Kira to leave Sonny - I remember when I was a kid thinking, "If I just watch it one more time, she won't leave!"

I will agree that the dialogue is often mind-numbing, but luckily, there's lots of wonderful music - that's really what was special about this movie.  And I have to say that I was touched by the simplicity of a guy falling in love with a girl who just seemed to fall into his life, who then disappears just as quickly.  

If you can suspend reality for awhile and you can't get enough of Olivia, you shouldn't miss this movie.

Canadaphile

Great soundtrack, crappy movie.  I loved it when I was thirteen though--in those pre-MTV days, it looked pretty cool.  My sister and I actually dressed up like Xanadu muses that Halloween and won best costume at the local church Halloween party.  My father delights in tormenting us with those pictures ...