Holy crap does Geoff love this movie.
It’s a place where you can find love, have a good ol’ time, and rollerskate your goddamn balls off, it’s Xanadu, the oft-criticized musical starring the divinely beautiful Olivia Newton-John, the heavenly Gene Kelly, and Michael Beck playing a turd. Listen below and enjoy the magic of XANADU!
Next week, we celebrate America’s 242nd birthday with 1990’s Captain America directed by Albert Pyun!
And for more of Geoff’s take on Xanadu, albeit a more comedic one, check out his post from 2016 on B-Movie Enema!
Film Seizure 
I was trying to think of a full group of pictures I’d enjoy hearing you guys to cover, and you’ve already done two of the four. They would be hyper-stylized, musical (at least somewhat), popular ‘failures’ which are not dull. It came from running across a poster of Bugsy Malone, which I’ve watched both in color and with the color down (not perfect, because it’s lit for color, but a lot of it really is noir gorgeous that way), which I thought would connect well with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (The Bee Gees movie) from two years later. They both have a high level of weirdness as projects.
The other two to complete such a group would be Xanadu and Flash Gordon (the most ‘kinda’ musical of the four, as in ‘not’, to be honest), but you’ve done those. I don’t really have a good other two. All This And World War II is actually pretty dull. The Apple may also be. Can’t Stop the Music is only occasionally funny-bad.
Actually, maybe Grease and Grease 2 could fit, I don’t know. An overall why does/doesn’t this musical work conversation could come from that four, for sure.
I’ve seen Flash Gordon many times. Parts I love, the opening mostly (it’s opening credits are a contender for best ever), but it drags for me. I love parts of Xanadu. I really enjoy Bugsy Malone. Sgt. Pepper’s is what introduced me to Beatles’ album tracks, and I really, really liked it! … when I was 9. Later it was mostly embarrassing. Aside from George Burns’ narration, it has no dialogue, which hadn’t even occurred to me until a step-brother asked me about it mid-movie on my second time seeing it. Grease I didn’t see until ABC TV, and boy did that work for me as well as its reputation. Grease 2 was so clearly a misfire in so many ways, but it was always on one summer, anytime I was inside having lunch, and cable was new, still feeling like sneaking into a theater, so I was pretty liberal with what I’d leave on. With repeats, I started to like the characters. I started to not dislike the songs. A month passed, and dammit… I liked Grease 2. It really never is boring, but it’s still a misfire in ways big and little.
Anyway, so yeah.
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Your timing is pretty good because we just recorded an episode for Gillian Armstrong’s Starstruck last night! That one fits your criteria pretty darn well. I know Geoff has been begging to do Sgt. Pepper, so that’s likely happening sometime this year as well. I’ve been a big fan of Bugsy Malone since I was a kid and would love to cover it. I recently watched it again after a long time and still found it as fun and charming as ever. Geoff has covered The Apple appropriately over at B-Movie Enema. That’s probably all it really deserves 😂
– Jason
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And spoiler alert – we’re covering Altman’s Popeye in April.
– Jason
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