SYNOPSICS
Xanadu (1980) is a English movie. Robert Greenwald has directed this movie. Olivia Newton-John,Gene Kelly,Michael Beck,James Sloyan are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1980. Xanadu (1980) is considered one of the best Fantasy,Musical,Romance movie in India and around the world.
In Los Angeles, artist Sonny Malone reluctantly returns to his job at Airflow Records--doing poster-sized exact-as-possible renderings of album covers for on-site promotions--as he could not make a living as a freelance artist, where he could truly use his artistic vision. On his first day back at Airflow, he gets sidetracked by thoughts of a young woman who literally rollerskates into him. He's unaware that their initial encounter and subsequent encounters are not accident: she is Kira, a muse who was awakened by his lamentations about his art and sent to help him achieve his artistic vision. Later that day he meets aging Danny McGuire, a former big-band musician turned construction-company owner who wants to return to his roots by owning a live music venue. This meeting too is no accident; Sonny soon discovers that Kira was part of Danny's past. Sonny and Danny achieving their dreams is threatened by Kira knowingly breaking the rules.
Same Actors
Same Director
Xanadu (1980) Reviews
Give XANADU a Chance!
XANADU is one of the most critically and commercially panned films in Hollywood history, a 'Nouveau Art' musical with Art Deco themes, a weirdly conceived animated interlude, and performances of such widely varying caliber that a viewer might wonder if the actors were all reading from the same script! But all that being said, I would like to offer a minority opinion, and say that I didn't find the film THAT terrible, and there are some aspects of it I actually enjoyed... First and foremost, it offers the legendary Gene Kelly, in his last musical, as charming and wonderful as ever. As retired musician/businessman Danny McGuire, Kelly has the film's best moments, including a 'classic' song-and-dance scene with Olivia Newton-John and some silly but endearing 'post-disco' routines with the talented young dancers of the cast (including future CONAN star Sandahl Bergman). Seeing him on roller-skates again, leading everyone around the club he builds, to the music of the Electric Light Orchestra, makes one realize just how irreplaceable he is. Kelly could do it all, and with style! The premise of the film, of a Muse coming from Olympus to inspire an artist, is far-fetched, but had been done on film several times in the past (ONE TOUCH OF VENUS, with Ava Gardner and Robert Walker, and DOWN TO EARTH, with Rita Hayworth, are the examples most often cited), and while Olivia Newton-John is oddly cast in the role, she tackles it gamely, with a smile and a wink, and isn't THAT bad. On the other hand, Michael Beck, best-known as the gang leader in cliched but powerful THE WARRIORS, is totally miscast as the artist she falls in love with. An actor with limited range and no singing or dancing talent, Beck lacks the charisma to pull off the role (one wonders why British pop star Cliff Richard, who voices Beck's animated duet with Newton-John, 'Suddenly', wasn't utilized to play the part). While the film often veers off in bizarre directions, the 'Battle of the Bands' scene between popular 80s rockers, the Tubes, and a 'Tommy Dorsey/WWII'-style orchestra (as Beck and Kelly envision what the 'look' and 'sound' of their club, XANADU, should be), actually works, and is fun to watch. The entire score, by Barry De Vorzon and John Farrar, and Jeff Lynne (with ELO) is terrific (and made the soundtrack album a hit). Sure, the ending is hokey, but it was also the same ending of ONE TOUCH OF VENUS and DOWN TO EARTH, so XANADU can't be totally faulted! All in all, XANADU isn't the WORST film ever made, and if you give it a chance, you might find it a guilty pleasure!
I have a confession to make. I think this movie rules.
I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. But, you know what, that's my opinion and I don't think I should have to feel ashamed of it so there! On to the review. No true connoisseur of cheesy movies can die happy withought feasting their eyes on the Miracle That is "Xanadu". There are so many things wrong with this movie I don't know where to begin, but somehow they all fit together in a final form that is remarkably endearing. It's best to watch it withought the vaguest idea of what it's about, but I will say this: This is exactly what "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" would have looked like if Willy quit the candy business and decided to turn the factory into a disco.
Kissed by a Muse
Out of all the movies that I loved from my childhood, none of them entranced me more as Xanadu starring Olivia Newton-John. I was four when it was released in theaters and being that age, music and visuals are a really big thing to a kid. That is something that Xanadu definitely had! Even if the music and special effects are out of date now, the style of the film is truly inspiring. I wont waste my time with the Xanadu haters.... But the people that love the film know what I'm talking about. Yes, it's not Oscar worthy material but who cares? There is an entire generation of fans that love it for its simplistic magical wonder. The soundtrack is one that I've always rocked out too... I've owned it on record, tape, CD, and even 8-track!! You cant go wrong with the talent of ONJ or the creative ethereal sounds of the Electric Light Orchestra. The film has entertained me now for 25 years and it will for the rest of my life. It's movies like this that bring back great memories and take you back to a time when innocence wasn't such a bad thing. XANADU FOREVER!
In Xanadu did ONJ a campy guilty pleasure film decree!
C'mon ... all you people who insist on slamming this movie. Tell me, were you duped into thinking you were going to see something of Oscar caliber or did you know going in that it was a musical roller-skating fantasy? Yeah, bad acting abounded and the plot line may have had its issues if you're going to critique it but I'll bet you caught yourself tapping your feet along to the music more than once. I saw this movie when I was about 8. I fell in love with it. I remember leaving the theater and wanting to be ONJ. I had the ribbons in my hair and I spent countless hours skating in the kitchen to the soundtrack. For years I thought I was odd but as time passes, I encounter more and more people who adore this film. It's good to know I'm not alone. Now I have it on DVD and the soundtrack on CD. I still get that same feeling whenever I watch it or hear the music and THAT'S what it's all about. Try watching it one more time. Throw out your criticisms and opinions and watch it for what it is, pure entertainment - something that rarely exists these days in such an innocent and pure form. Here's to all those who get it!!!
I hope you like your musicals extra-cheesy
Xanadu, which has received some scathing one-sentence reviews, flopped in a big way at the box office, and even helped inspire the creation of the Razzies, is underrated. Not as underrated as that statement would normally imply, but enough. The reason why it is underrated is similar to the reason why it stinks. Xanadu consists of two parts, each of which can be divided into two parts depending on how successful each scene making up those two parts are. The first part is all dialogue, in which Michael Beck, Gene Kelly, Olivia Newton-John, or combinations thereof, spend a lot of screen time talking about the importance of following one's dreams. The success of this part of the film depends largely on how tightly integrated it is with the musical part. When the male leads discuss music in particular, it starts to fall flat as the artistic sentiment of a bygone era tries unsuccessfully to gel with the lowest-common-denominator mentality of what was then the present. The music sequences that fit in with this rule tend to suffer a lot, too. The attempt to blend a 1940s jazz band with Electric Light Orchestra, who were never really that representative of any culture, even those of the 1980s, is especially embarrassing. It dates the whole film beyond return. On the other hand, when the musical and dialogue sequences are not connected to one another, they work so well. Michael Beck's dialogues with the supporting cast about how his dreams of artistic freedom failed are brilliantly executed. The dialogue between Beck and Kelly in which the latter basically tells the former that quitting now will leave him with a lifetime of regret is pure gold. The conversation in which Beck's and Newton-John's characters argue with the voices of the gods, performed by Wilfrid Hyde-White and Coral Browne, works wonderfully in spite of the ludicrous costume on Beck. But the real gem in this flick is the climactic rollerdisco scene. I don't know how long it took them to coordinate and stage this myriad of sequences, but the result was worth every bit of effort. Unfortunately, the film is not without its problems. Many sequences are either boring or outright ludicrous. The animated part in particular fails to fit in with the rest of the film. Major rewrites began close to production as the producers tried to distinguish the production from other rollerskating-themed films of the time. According to Olivia Newton-John, the film was literally being written as it was shot, and nowhere does this show more than in the final musical sequences of the aforementioned rollerdisco scene. It was as if the makers decided to put in as many shots of Olivia singing and dancing in as many costumes as they could. Perhaps the problem was in the editing, as the aforementioned on-the-spot writing would have caused a problem with knowing exactly when to call it over. Truth be told, it does stretch a little past its welcome, if only by a few minutes. But then, show me a film that is not guilty of the same offense, and I will show you a masterpiece. Truth be told, this film is nowhere near as bad as the IMDb rating would have you believe. It is not all that good, either, but it gets a little bit more right than wrong. Compared to excruciatingly bad musicals that take themselves far too seriously, such as the recent Chicago adaptation, this is pure gold. Hence, in spite of a lot of problems, I rated Xanadu a seven out of ten. It is a real guilty pleasure of a film, and really needed more time in pre-production, but it is entertaining for more than half of its running time, which is more than I can say for a lot of other films. Especially of this genre.