Product Details

• Actors: Jodie Foster, Scott Baio
• Directors: Alan Parker
• Format: NTSC, Import
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English
• Region: All Regions
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: G (General Audience)
• Studio: ITV Studios
• DVD Release Date: September 9, 2008
• Run Time: 89 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (138 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0015YY740
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #22,005 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
  • #59 in Movies & TV > Blu-ray > Musicals

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Writer-director Alan Parker's feature debut Bugsy Malone is a pastiche of American movies, a musical gangster comedy set in 1929, featuring prohibition, showgirls, and gang warfare, with references to everything from Some Like It Hot to The Godfather. Uniquely, though, all the parts are played by children, including an excellent if underused Jodie Foster as platinum-blonde singer Tallulah, Scott Baio in the title role and a nine-year-old Dexter Fletcher wielding a baseball bat. Cream-firing "spluge guns" sidestep any real violence and the movie climaxes cheerfully with the biggest custard pie fight this side of Casino Royale (1967).

Unfortunately for a musical, Paul Williams's score--part honky-tonk jazz homage, part 1970s Elton John-style pop--lets the side down with a lack of memorable tunes. Nevertheless, Parker's direction is spot on and the look of the film is superb, a fantasy movie-movie existing in the same parallel reality as The Cotton Club and Chicago. A rare British love letter to classic American cinema, Bugsy Malone remains a true original; in Parker's words "the work of a madman" and one of the strangest yet most stylish children's films ever made. --Gary S. Dalkin

Product Description

Import only Blu-Ray pressing. Region All. Special features include, Promotional Trailers, Photo Gallery, 'From Sketch to Screen' featurette. 1080p / 16:9 - 1.78:1. Dolby Digital 5.1. This award winning film directed by Alan Parker (1976) stars Jodi Foster and Scott Baio. A child gangster determined to rule over New York City. Instead of throwing fists or bullets, the prohibition-era kiddie mobsters sling confections at one another. When he learns that a rival gang has developed a secret weapon capable of firing sweets as quick as a machine gun shoots bullets, he sets out to heist the high-tech tart-launcher. ITV. 2008.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

80 of 80 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very nice import copy., October 19, 2004

By 

J. Christensen (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bugsy Malone (DVD)

The DVD that is being shipped is an import from Hong Kong, and was marked for all zones, so it should play anywhere. Very nice copy with a good clean picture and dolby 5.1 sound.
Titles are in english and chinese, but there are no annoying subtitles on the screen when you play it. I have been waiting for years for this to come out in DVD and I am very happy with the DVD.

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stop the Insanity!, September 4, 2007

By 

B. Crist (LA, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bugsy Malone (DVD)

OK, first let me say that I actually own this disk. Many of these reviews are for the movie--which I'm sure we all remember fondly from the Family Film Festival with Tom Hatten--but do not speak to the actual product being sold. (Amazon really should discourage this practice.) And I can understand why some people who have not purchased it are concerned, because the box looks all foreign and scary. I got my disk in a timely manner, and even though it is marked zone 3, it ran just fine in my bottom-of-the-line Samsung American-market DVD player. So I'm thinking it will work for you, too.
The disk itself is fairly bare-bones, without a lot of bells and whistles. There are no subtitles unless you want them (even on the credits) and the sound and picture are quite clean. If you have bought the motion picture soundtrack you will find that some of the vocals are slightly different, and I think the CD is perhaps a bit better. All in all this is a quality product that just looks weird. It's certainly worth the money, and while I can't absolutely guarantee that it will work for you, it sure did for me.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why wont Paramount release this in the US??!!, September 13, 2008

By 

R. Lockerby "Papa's Got a Brand New Pigbag" (LA, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Bugsy Malone [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

First off, although this Bluray disc is region free, the bonus features are PAL and will not play in US Bluray players. The film itself does (director's commentary track too.) The picture quality is great and so is the 5.1 soundtrack. There does seem to be a little motion blur at times but the clarity and color is better than I've ever seen for this film. Bugsy Malone has always been more popular in the UK but I'm still not sure why Paramount hasn't released this on DVD in the states. At least with this release you can toss your crappy asian bootlegs. Still this is one of my childhood favorites and Jodie Foster is wonderful. So is Paul Williams great soundtrack. I still want a spurge gun!