Christopher Malpas Ok, this film is BAD. It is no surprise this film was a flop on release. However, it has gone on to become a cult classic and even spawned a Broadway show. What little plot the film contains is totally and utterly predictable. You can pretty much tell how Xanadu will end from the very opening scenes. On to the acting, Olivia Newton John does the best with what little she's been given to play with, Gene Kelly plays it brilliantly, essentially playing himself. Michael Beck however, is just a nothing in this. I'm not sure if this was the way his character had been written, or how he interpreted it, but other than standing about looking slightly bemused his character Sonny doesn't stick out in any way. No classic lines, no heroic actions.. Poorly executed characterisation aside, what Xanadu delivers in spades is music and visual spectacle. It is no surprise the soundtrack did far better than the film. ELO created something amazing. Add to that The Tubes, ONJ herself, and Cliff Richard (not so brilliant, but hey!), and you get a great sounding film.Visually the whole 40s/80s mashup does work, and the scenery throughout is bright and vibrant. Particular standouts are the Xanadu club itself, as well as the All Over The World section. As a lover of "bad" films this is a particular favourite. It was never going to win any Oscars but it is colourful, fun, with a great soundtrack. It doesn't drag or outstay its welcome clocking in at just over 90 minutes.

evanston_dad OK, can I say it? "Xanadu" isn't THAT bad.It's certainly not good, and that's not an opinion as much as it is an objective fact. But there's a lot to like, and its absolute commitment to nuttiness is infectious. Your only two options are to give in or turn the thing off. I decided to stick with it and I'm glad I did.Olivia Newton-John is perhaps the worst roller skating goddess ever captured on screen (though to be fair she may be the only roller skating goddess to ever appear on screen), but she's in lovely voice for all of "Xanadu"'s catchy disco tunes. Gene Kelly is a pro -- even in a bad movie he's able to showcase his talents, and a dance duet between him and Newton-John is a highlight. There's a running theme of old vs. young, and another highlight for me was a musical number in which members of a big-band era club have a dance off with those of a modern rock 'n roll club as the creators of Xanadu, the club that gives the film its name, imagine what their creation could be. I understand why this film has a terrible reputation and it's not like I really disagree with the general consensus regarding its quality, but even bad movies can have good qualities, and "Xanadu" is rather fun if watched in the right mood. (Alcohol probably helps too).Grade: B-

The_Film_Cricket In Xanadu did Kubla Kahn a stately pleasure dome decree. - Samuel Coleridge, poet I can't say much for Kubla Kahn but at least he had sense enough not to turn Xanadu into a disco roller rink.I am more or less indifferent to a movie like Xanadu, it asks so much and gives so little. I have found that it stands at an interesting crossroads in the history of American bad taste. It came out in 1980 right at the moment when disco was an endangered species and the early age of ear-shattering 80's pop music was about to be dubbed MTV. Between groovy and gnarly lies this humiliating effort to fuse the two eras together. It turns out to be little more than a long bit of publicity for the soundtrack. And yes, I do believe that this is a movie wrapped around Top 40 songs (though one is hard-pressed to call it a movie).The 'movie' takes place in a beach community in Southern California where we meet Sonny (stoic hunk Michael Beck) a frustrated commercial artist who specializes in the kinds of album covers that made Journey famous. As we first meet him he is . . . well, frustrated. How do we know he's frustrated? Because all dissatisfied artists in the movies destroy their work inches before completion. He shreds his work into confetti and tosses it out the window where it lands in front of a mural depicting nine muses from Ancient Greece. Well, that's what we are told anyway, because the girls are all dressed the latest fashions and are all sporting roller skates. They dance around in a blue glow like the post mortem Obi-Wan Kenobi.Apparently littering breaks the magic spell because the muses come to life. One of them is assigned to Sonny who sees her for the first time as she roller skates around him and disappears uttering only the information that her name is Kiera. She is played by Olivia Newton-John, the tow-headed, drink-your-milk pop star of Grease upon whose image this cinematic house of sand was constructed. She smiles and beams appropriately enough to sell Coppertone.Kiera skates into Sonny's life at just the right moment because Sonny has one of those gruff, butt-headed bosses that you only find in two places: the movies and real life. The tyrant throws an assignment at him to paint a beautiful girl (guess who) in front of a building. What?! Can this be?! Yes it can Sonny, this is a movie, shut up.Anyway, he finds Kiera roller-skating in an abandoned roller rink called the Platinum Palace. What we don't see coming is the presence of the greatest performer ever to put his feet on the floor. Enter: Gene Kelly. He beams as always as Danny Malone who tells Sonny that he once played clarinet for Glenn Miller's band and shows him a picture from WWII with Kiera on it. Shuffling Sonny out of the way, we get an extended scene in which the great hoofer is transported back to the good old days to dance with Kiera in full 40s regalia. The dancing? Remember those guys who used to spin plates on long sticks on The Ed Sullivan Show? It's like that.Sonny is inspired. He quits his job and devotes his time to the disco roller rink. It is Kiera who decides to name this dump. This new venture is celebrated as Kiera and Sonny turn into cartoons (don't ask) animated by the great Don Bluth, not doing his best work here. This is followed by a painfully disturbing shopping montage in which the lovers dance around affirming capitalism while the department store dummies sprout to life and start dancing (it's that bad).Turning the Platinum Palace into Xanadu apparently takes as much time as vacuuming your living room because it's up and running in a cinch (Kiera apparently got help from some of Zeus' contractors). The movie then moves on to the single dumbest moment (yes, there is a moment dumber then dancing department store dummies): After having pulled herself in and out of time, appeared in a 40 year old photograph, appeared and reappeared on Sonny's album cover, turned herself and her boyfriend into cartoons and animated dancing department store dummies, Kiera reveals to Sonny that she is a muse . . . AND HE HAS THE NERVE TO LOOK SURPRISED!! Oh, why couldn't it have been this Sonny who stopped at the tollbooth?! But the movie isn't over yet . . .Kiera reveals that her work here is done and that she must return home. He misses her so much that he decides to return to the wall from wince she came and skate head-first into it (Geez, what some dopes won't do for love). Instead of the massive concussion that one would expect, Sonny is instead magically transported to Mt. Olympus (yes, Mt. Olympus). Olympus, as represented here, is very large space where the guys who run the fog machine get paid handsomely. There he finds Kiera talking to Zeus and pleads for her freedom. Remember those scenes at the end of 'Mork and Mindy' where Mork reports to Orson about the lesson that he learned? It's kinda like that. Anyway, Zeus refuses, Sonny leaves, Kiera belts out a top 40 hit and Zeus grants parole.And still it's not over . . .There must be a closing musical number and Xanadu provides it at its most stomach churning. It's a roller-skating finale on Xanadu's opening night with hundreds of extras skating behind Olivia and clapping in unison as she knocks off the title tune as we inch (mercifully) to the closing credits. I'm no songwriter but I find it rather damaging when a movie's title song begins with the line 'A place where nobody dares to go'. Wouldn't you say?

Dalbert Pringle Favorite movie quote - "Don't give me any of your "white-ass" attitude!" If you're seriously looking for the cheesiest of the cheesiest of the cheesiest in movie-musicals (circa. 1980), then just say "Xanadu, please!" Nominated for 7 Golden "Razzy" Awards in such top categories as "Worst Actress", "Worst Actor", "Worst Picture", and "Worst Musical", Xanadu so rightly won this highly-coveted prize for "Worst Director" which so deservedly went to Robert Greenwald.When it comes to all-out silliness and stupidity that seems to prevail with so many Rom-Com/Fantasy/Musicals, I honestly don't think that any others in this genre get much more empty-headed and mind-numbingly inferior than did the likes of Xanadu.Neither camp, nor cute, nor hip, nor clever, Xanadu literally scraped the absolute bottom of the barrel when it came to its terribly conceived story-line, its lousy musical numbers and its completely amateurish performances by actors who convinced me that they were total boobs acting out their parts in a second-rate, high school production.This "so-bad-it's-bad" musical extravanganza was a total embarrassment on all counts. Xanadu took the meaning of the word "sucky" to a whole new level of loathsomeness.I cannot fathom why people incessantly rave about veteran actor Gene Kelly and his role in this musical mess. Kelly was 68 years old in Xanadu and not only was he pathetic to watch during his dance numbers (just like everyone else was), but his screen-charisma, in my opinion, registered at a complete "zero".Besides that, I thought that the trite and snivelling on-screen romance that transpired between the 2 lead characters (played by Olivia Newton-John & Michael Beck) sucked to the 10th power, and beyond.I can't believe how utterly dismal Xanadu's visual effects were. With its $20 million budget I should have been wowed right out of this world with this film's dazzling production values.And, talk about a shallow plot-line - Xanadu's dumber-than-dumb story actually hinged on (get this!) having one of Zeus's daughters (Kira) sent to Earth with the all-important mission of seeing to it that Hollywood got to have its very own roller-skating, disco place. (Spare me!) Yes. I will admit that some of ELO's catchy, synth-pop tunes were toe-tapping good, but this was in no way nearly enough to save this piece of extravagant nonsense from sinking down into the muck & mire of movie-musical disaster.I would call Xanadu the Titanic of all musicals, bar none. If you're like me you'll love to hate this movie with an undying passion.