Review of Xanadu (1980) by Harry W — 05 Nov 2013

I don't know if I just watched a movie or a hour and a half music video. Gong into this film, I knew it was bad and somewhat campy. However, I had no idea it was such a waste of time and it was a huge pain to sit through. Let's look at one of the first Worst Pictures nominees, Xanadu!.

A young artist named Sonny Malone (Michael Beck) meets a mysterious woman named Kira (Olivia Newton-John) who helps inspire to create a club that offers nothing more than cheesy disco musical numbers that last 10 minutes at most. And I'm not kidding! There must be at least 8 or 12 songs. If not, then it certainly feels that way. Actually, the film felt more like a Broadway Musical, which ironically a musical based on this film was made recently. As I was watching this movie, I noticed that whoever made this movie whether it be the director or producers, really put a lot of effort into the musical numbers. In fact, there is very little narrative in this movie at all. It seemed the story, characters and casting were all secondary while the music was the main priority. Even then, the music isn't really good either. But I will give the film some credit, the music was a little better than in "Can't Stop The Music".

The acting wasn't completely awful, but still it was lacking thanks to the fact the cast was given terrible material to work with. Gene Kelly actually does his best in a clichéd and stereotypical role. Olivia Newton-John was okay, still I was hoping she would be as good as she was in Grease. Instead, we get a phoned in character with a phoned in performance. However, Michael Beck seemed like he wasn't trying at all. He could not deliver his lines at all and to be honest his character is a blank slate anyway. We know nothing about his character Sonny other than he is a boring guy with an even boring job and pretty much does nothing then roll on those stupid disco roller blades that were never cool.

There is something good about this movie. There is this animation scene done by Don Bleuth. I mean it's nothing special, but it's still pretty good to look at. With that being said though, it comes out of nowhere and makes no sense. In fact, it seems like a brain fart. There is one or two songs that were catchy, but again they last too long. So even the good stuff in this movie is even flawed in some way.

To sum it all up, Xanadu commits the biggest crimes a musical can have. It's outright boring and the songs get old really quickly. I have no idea why this film has grown such a strong cult following. The acting is lame, the writing is a joke and probably one of the most boring musicals ever made. Still, I will say "Can't Stop The Music " was worse by comparison and really deserves Worst Picture.