Product Details

• Directors: Eric Idle, Gary Weis
• Format: NTSC
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Wea-Des Moines Video
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (109 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 5551038696
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #453,243 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Originally hatched in 1978 as a short film parody for Saturday Night Live, this expanded, 70-minute mockumentary on a trend-setting quartet of British mop-tops bloomed into one of Eric Idle's better projects outside Monty Python. Taking the career (and hagiography) of the Beatles and inverting them quite nicely, Idle conjures up four doppelgangers who offer the familiar mannerisms but practically none of the intelligence of their models. If that sounds like the same gag that powered This Is Spinal Tap (which emerged six years later), it is, with the crucial difference that Idle's lampoon is precise where Tap was consciously generic.

In telling the saga of the Rutles, Idle (who doubles as earnest narrator and McCartney-esque Rutle Dirk McQuigley) works from a rich and immediately familiar trove of pop lore, and he has a ball revisiting and reinventing milestones from the Fab Four's fabled history. The attention to period detail helps elevate the gags further, but Idle's real secret weapon is Neil Innes, standing in as Ron Nasty, the Rutles' answer to John Lennon: it's Innes who serves as the musical architect for the wonderful Beatles parodies that give All You Need Is Cash a delicious kick, and Innes, a one-time principal in the legendary Bonzo Dog Band, is gifted enough to capture the band's lyricism and energy as well as their shifting sense of style.

With the blessing and on-camera participation of George Harrison, and wry cameos from Mick Jagger and Paul Simon, All You Need Is Cash is a perfect companion to the Beatles' own glorious screen comedies and a great antidote to sanctimonious pop documentaries. --Sam Sutherland

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

85 of 88 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tragical history tour? More like hilarious!, May 7, 2001

By 

Michael Paulsen (Rancho Santa Margarita, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Rutles - All You Need is Cash (DVD)

One of the funniest parodies of a rock band ever, and likely the very first "mockumentary", THE RUTLES: ALL YOU NEED IS CASH is a brilliant send-up chronicling the events of the "prefab four". This 70-minute "semi-feature" film conceived by ex-Python Eric Idle who plays the Paul McCartney-esque character Dirk McQuickly was produced by Lorne Michaels of SNL and includes various cameos from the classic SNL cast (Bill Murray, John Belushi, Dan Ackroyd, Gilda Radner) as well as cameos from Mick Jagger, Ron Wood, Paul Simon, ex-Python Michael Palin and even George Harrison himself as an interviewer! Neil Innes (who plays the John Lennon character Ron Nasty -- quite brilliantly I might add) also contributes some of the greatest Beatles song parodies imaginable -- they are both hilarious and actually quite clever in that they still manage to stand on their own as original songs. Anyone who has seen the later real documentary, THE COMPLEAT BEATLES (or even the ANTHOLOGY), will have to see this to believe it -- the major events of The Beatles twisted around and reapplied to The Rutles! The mock performances will have Beatles fans howling with laughter. For example, a flawless recreation of The Beatles' goofy, surreal "I am the Walrus" performance from the MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR film becomes "Piggy in the Middle", and the "Cheese and Onions" clip exactly imitates the animation from YELLOW SUBMARINE, except now it's YELLOW SUBMARINE SANDWICH! Oh and don't forget the hilarious album covers and their titles: OUCH!, SGT. RUTTER'S ONLY DARTS CLUB BAND, TRAGICAL HISTORY TOUR, LET IT ROT.

Now finally available on DVD, the extras include a brief intro by Eric Idle's narrator character some 23 years later ... well not really 23 years if you watch it a year or two from now (you'll get what I mean!), as well as audio commentary and text memoirs from Eric Idle, and a photo gallery.

35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars terrific sendup of Beatlemania stands up well after 25 years, August 3, 2003

By 

audrey (white mtns) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Rutles - All You Need is Cash (DVD)

In 1978 it was easy to remember Beatlemania, and this sendup of the mass hysteria was spot-on and hilarious. Starting as a skit for Saturday Night Live, and popular enough to get built into a feature-length film, this Eric Idle project is layered with jokes, spoofs, terrific songs, and great cameos by George Harrison, Mick Jagger, Paul Simon and Idle's wife, and it is still very funny 25 years later.

DVD extras are quite good. Eric Idle's commentary is excellent -- informative and entertaining. There are also 4 deleted scenes that last about 18 minutes; a photo gallery with 29 pictures; a "Play Songs Only" option, where you ee only the film's songs (Goose Step Mama, Number One, Between Us, With a Girl Like You, Hold My Hand, I Must Be in Love, Living in Hope, and Ouch!).

The look and sensibility of the film are exactly right, the writing is VERY funny, and the songs are surprisingly Beatle-like and quite listenable. If you are a Beatles or Monty Python fan, or if you just love good comedy, you will probably get a real kick out of this.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Side Splitting Hilarious, February 26, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Rutles - All You Need is Cash (DVD)

The movie was made more than 20 years ago, but retains its relevance as the Beatles continue to be a cultural icon. While the Rutles was not originally intended to be a full length movie, the product is great.

The project was completed long before John Lennon's murder, so all four members could approve the project. The Beatles are spoofed by the characters in the unique personality traits possessed by each member of the fab four and their scandals. The one-liners and song parodies prove Eric Idle's value to Monty Python and strength as comedic writer. The parody on Yoko Ono being "... a Nazi who's father invented World War II" is hilarious. Look for a scene midway through the song "Ouch!" in which Idle can not even control his own laughter at the monsterous woman in a bikini. I bet it a was too hard to get through a take with a straight face. This is a must for Beatles fans and Monty Python fans.