supernintendo128 I heard that when this movie first came out, it was panned by critics. Being a fan of the Beatles, I decided to watch it anyway, expecting it to suck. It didn't.The story is that Ringo takes his aunt on the Magical Mystery Tour with the other Beatles and a bunch of weird stuff happens. That's it, honestly. So don't expect a story that makes sense.The writing is literally nonexistent; This was all done impromptu. The Beatles literally just took all of their friends and family on a trip outside the country and made everything up as they gone.The comedy is admirably pretty decent. I liked the scene where a Drill Sargent taught everyone how to attack a cow and I found the racing scene mildly amusing, but I especially laughed at the stripper scene where her breasts come into view and they put a censor box over them. That was just really cheap that I couldn't help but laugh. Although I do think that some scenes drag on for too long.The cinematography was great and even innovative for it's time where it made use of the kaleidoscope lens, impressive lighting effects, cycling through colors (which I'm sure was impressive at the time because this was long before Windows Movie Maker), etc. Speaking of color, it's probably a good idea to bring up that this movie was shot in color and it was supposed to be released in theaters. Somehow, it ended up as a Made-For-TV Movie and first aired on the BBC1 which was only broadcasting in black and white at the time, which probably led to it's poor reception. The movie was later released on BBC2 which was broadcasting in color but that barely helped because only around 200,000 households had color TVs in the UK at the time.The highlights of the movie are definitely the music videos. Obviously the music is amazing, being a Beatles film and all, and the accompanying music videos are just as good. All of the videos fit the song really good. The music video for "The Fool on the Hill" captures the whimsical tone of the song, the one for "Blue Jay Way" fits perfectly with the eerie and mysterious atmosphere the song gives out, and the music video for "I Am the Walrus" makes about as much sense as the actual song. Special mention goes to the video for "Flying", which is just a bunch of landscapes with the cycling color effect. The video is actually kind of pretty. Except that, again, this film was originally broadcasted in black and white, and even when it was broadcasted in color a few days later, few people had a color TV. So back in the day, this video was boring and ugly.My final thoughts are that I think this movie is pretty decent and is not as bad as people make it out to be. Although while this movie did fail in it's home country, it did gain a cult following here in the US, mainly broadcasting on indie or public access TV. I recommend this film to Beatles fans or anyone who wants to know what the 60s were like.

justincward Look, I'll admit it. I hate Paul MaCartney, and even the Beatles stuff he did is now unlistenable to me because I hear his now florid narcissism in the whole of the Beatles catalogue in which he was involved. This is the man who wrote 'When I'm Sixty-Four' when he was fifteen. Rock'n'Roll! And Magical Mystery Tour is Paul's baby.While it's the nearest we'll get to seeing the late 60's Beatles performing live, and there are occasional glimpses of the sheer likability of John, George and Ringo which they all managed to share in 'Help' and 'Hard Day's Night', it's quite evident from MMT that Paul's self-regard was now becoming out of control.So if you're a MaCartney fan, you'll love MMT as much Paul loves himself: if you're a Beatles fan, it'll give you the frisson of seeing how the Fab Four fitted so well into the British media scene of the 60's, and how their money made possible a lot of artistic self-indulgence. If you've never really been that convinced that the Beatles were as good as EMI or MPL Communications' press offices might have you believe, you'll see MMT for what it was: a big budget being thrown at a few small ideas.

rzajac I'm an old Beatles fan, and I saw this when I was a teenager. The enjoyment I recall cannot be disentangled from the time and place. I enjoyed it back then, and watching it now is a sort of nostalgia rush.Certain aspects of it are great: There's a raw, improvisational energy to it that will strike many as artless, but works pretty well for me. Some of the dream/subconscious spew sequences approach Fellini or Brunuel for their purity of creative expression.And, of course, Magical Mystery Tour was one of the Beatles' best albums, and all the songs are showcased here.And how nice it is to see the Bonzo Dog Doodah Band, led by Stanshall, doing their thing!

preppy-3 Exceptionally poor TV "special" with the Beatles and a bunch of uninteresting people going on a bus and riding around. This was made in 1967 for British TV. When it premiered the critics gleefully tore it to pieces. The reviews were so negative that in never even played on American TV. In the 80s a revival cinema showed this (along with "A Hard Days Night", "Help", "Yellow Submarine" AND "Let It Be") and I caught it. To be truthful the critics were right. This thing is a pretty terrible vanity project started by Paul McCartney (who did it again in 1984 with "Give My Regards to Broad Street" that also bombed). There's next to no plot. It's just a bunch of people riding around in a psychedelic bus and seemingly filming anything they see. Also the Beatles play multiple characters in dream sequences...or hallucinations...or whatever the hell they are! This would be impossible to sit through if it weren't for the music and the footage of the Beatles interacting. THAT'S the only reason I'm giving this a 7 (I should add I'm a Beatles fan). Without that this is a boring pointless mess.