Customer Reviews

Xanadu [VHS]

5 star:		(168)
4 star:		(99)
3 star:		(43)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(24)

 

 

All the people that say the plot makes no sense, and they didn't know what was going on, need to read this review. To truly enjoy this movie, you have to be educated on black and white musicals, poetry, and greek mythology.
First of all I will explain the origins of the word "Xanadu".
In 1797 there was a poet named Samuel Coleridge who lived by himself. He was asleep, after taking a dose of Opium and washing it down with alcohol. In his dreams appeared a beautiful woman, (he later called her a muse) reciting a beautiful poem. Alas, a knock at the door from a friend broke him out of his dream, and he rushed to his table to write down what he could remember. The result was a poem titled "Kubla Khan"
In the poem, there is a heavenly place called XANADU, where there is eternal love and happiness. The word has sense been adopted to mean "heaven".
The movie is based on this poem. When Kira appears to a bewildered Gene Kelly, and tells him to call his new club XANADU, and together they recite the first lines of the poem KUBLA KHAN.
Now the reason Gene Kelly is in this film is because Kira has appeared in his life in the 1940's. She returns to help him out again, to inspire his dying ambitions, by inspiring him to open another music club. However he will need someone young and hip to help him out. So Kira also inspires Sonny Malone to quit his bland painting job and use his talents towards his dream. Therefore Kira brings the 2 men together.
Xanadu is a remake of a film titled "Down To Earth" starring Rita Hayworth. Rita also appears as a muse to inspire people to follow their dreams.
Gene kelly's character "Danny McGuire" was actually the name of Gene's character in the 1944 film "Covergirl".
If you are well read on Greek Mythology, you will know there are muses who represent the arts. They are called for in times of need to help inspire an artist's dying ambitions. Therefore the opening scene where the muses are coming out of the wall serves as a window between their world and ours.
Another good tidbit to know about the film, Andy Gibb was suppose to be the male star, not Michael Beck. Andy apparently was in ill health at the time and couldn't be insured by the company.
Xanadu was a film I saw as a 9 year old child. I had been severely injured and could not walk. I was hopeless and depressed. Then one night, Xanadu made its cable debut. I was carried into the living room to watch it (I couldn't walk). I had never seen Olivia Newton-John before, and I was mesmerized by the most incredible woman I had ever seen, dancing and singing through this magical fairy tale. My life had been hum drum up to that point, and the magic, glitz, animation, and music from this film made me want to get up. I was so anxious to walk and rollerskate (LOL) that I was up in no time walking around. I will forever love this movie and how a "muse" called Olivia inspired me to live again.

Xanadu did exactly what it was supposed to do - entertain and make you imagine what it would be like to have a muse like Olivia breathe life into your dreams and have a sugar-daddy like Gene finance them! This movie was not supposed to provoke political thought, cure world-hunger or make you a better person. It was created to make you dream, for your mind to be mesmerized by the colors, the music and the beauty of its entirety. The music was great, the plot was cute, and while today many might laugh at the roller-boogie of the last scene, it takes me back to my high school years where going to the rink was THE thing to do! Thank you Olivia, Gene and ELO for making a movie and music that I still enjoy to this day!!!!!

I LOVE this movie. Why talk about how bad it is? Because it is VERY bad. It's so bad it's good! Whose idea was it to merge fading musical star Gene Kelly with 80's pop sensation Olivia Newton John??? Throw in some ELO music and some neon special effects and you've got XANADU. Oh, it's fabulous!! Roller skating, off-the-shoulder 80's dresses, long hair, leg warmers.... This is XANADU. The storyline is negligable. You just wait till they get to the next song! The choreography is that Kenny Ortega 80's stuff. Look for Matt Latanzi (Olivia's ex) as a dancer in the background. By the time this movie gets to it's roller-skating in the round finale, you will be rocking! (The dancers/rollers chant: "Xanadu! Xanadu!" and perform some sort of choreographed hand-jive movements! I want to learn those moves!) Enjoy it, y'all. Like the song says: "Now that you're here, now that you're near ... Xanadu!"

XANADU is a harmless, fluffy little musical from the 80's, and is a guilty pleasure movie that sits right up there with DIRTY DANCING and FOOTLOOSE in terms of being dorky but charming.

Let's take a trip back in time...to a time when legwarmers, headbands and stonewash jeans were in vogue....oh no! It's the 80's!

XANADU tells the story of aspiring artist Sonny Malone (Michael Beck - THE WARRIORS) who has the dream but lacks the spirit to make the dream a reality. Enter roller-skating muse, Kira (Olivia Newton-John - GREASE) who enflames Sonny's desires as well as invigorating his creative juices.

Along the way, Sonny meets aged clarinet player Danny McGuire (Gene Kelly - AN AMERICAN IN PARIS, INVITATION TO THE DANCE) and together they decide to turn an abandoned old nickelodeon into a roller-skate disco called...you guessed it...Xanadu.

Of course, the main highlight of the film is the great soundtrack from ELO and Olivia Newton-John, while her skimpy outfits are a big attraction, too!

A forgotten classic.

Xanadu, Why do people criticize you so? All you ever wanted was to make people sing along, throw on a pair of roller skates, and boogie with Olivia Newton-John and ELO!

I LOVED this movie as a kid. It brings back alot of memories watching it (we had a roller derby disco in town when I was a kid and I loved going there, I wanted so much to be like Olivia)...and I love it now for all the same reasons I loved it then...

It's colorful, vibrant, visually appealing...and the music truly is incredible...all though the film is visually dated (the roller skates and all of the 80's type dress, hair, and makeup) the music remains timeless...the soundtrack album is considered a classic among many fans of Olivia as well as ELO...the songs are infectious and as slickly produced as the musical numbers that contain them.

Which brings me to my point...this movie is a full length music video, it is nothing more than a series of musical numbers played out in different vignettes...tied loosely together by a weak storyline...that is all it seemed intended to be...just visually appealing fun (like most everything from the 80's i.e. pac-man and rubik's cube), set to a backdrop of incredible music. High concept, low plot...but what's wrong with that? I just think people get so tied up in "art" they forget to have fun...

This movie also succeeded in celebrating two different eras musically...at the time Olivia Newton-John WAS 80's music, and Gene Kelly perfectly symbolized the musical films of yesteryear...I think it was good casting, it made sense for the time. And makes for an interesting collaboration in styles...particularly in the "Dancin'" number, in which the two eras collide into one song...fun and inventive.

Yes...the dialogue is stale, and the acting appears stiff (particularly in the lead character played by Michael Beck)...but this film never tried to compete for any Oscars...it was made to entertain, nothing more...and it succeeds in that pursuit.

Olivia Newton-John, neon lights, glitter, spandex, leg-warmers, and rollerskates...ahhhhhh, Xanadu...whatever happened to the 80's of my youth? Hopefully, they'll come flooding back to me as soon as I get a chance to buy this DVD! I can't wait...my video is warn out.

It is interesting to read all of the reviews posted before and note all those who get XANADU and those who don't. This is an absolutely wonderful film, an uplifting musical that exhilarates with its verve and joy. Olivia Newton-John is exquisite being both winsome and exotic/erotic as the greek muse. This was made during Newton-John's multiple personality phase of her career where one minute she was Sandra Dee from Muskogee, the next a Nordic Dominatrix from Hell. She manages to infuse both facets intriguingly here with her supernatural greek muse character being both sweet yet vaguely intimidating. As an earlier post stated, the script is very clever in it's allusions to greek mythology. The male lead is stiff but what can one do when Olivia is on the screen except stand there and be quiet. Gene Kelly is wonderful as well and I believe this was his final film appearence; an excellent final bow. The musical numbers and songs are magnificent-especially the dancing duet between Kelly and Newton-John, the big band/rock combo and the show stopping conclusion. What I think some viewers do not seem to comprehend is that this film is both a tribute and a reincarnation of the wonderful hollywood musicals of the thirties-sixties period. The animated sequence is an obvious homage/steal from ANCHORS AWAY and An AMERICAN IN PARIS. Unfortunatley, Xanadu was made in the eighties when the culture was already in freefall. So, of course, no one knew or knows what to make of it. For those who think this is a bad film--HEY! there's a new Bruce Willis movie on TV! Go watch it. For the rest, we can take pleasure in a charming musical fantasy that they just don't make anymore. Xanadu was the last. Thanks Olivia.

The one star rating isn't for the movie. Xanadu is what it is and I'm one of the people who love it. And because of that, I was really excited to discover they were putting out a special edition DVD. The original DVD only had the trailer as a bonus feature and between the movie's status as a cult classic and the success of the Broadway show I figured this edition would give it the treatment it deserved.

Boy, was I wrong.

Yes, it's cool that the DVD comes with a CD of the soundtrack. But most of the people who own the DVD have likely had the soundtrack for years. So now we have 2.

And the bonus features? The original trailer, a photo gallery, and one documentary. That's it. Which wouldn't even be too bad if the documentary was a good one. But it's not, not by a long shot.

For starters, there are no Olivia interviews in the documentary. I find it hard to believe that she wouldn't have sat down with the filmmakers for a few hours, but she's nowhere to be found except in the clips from the movie. And the clips from the movie? Apparently they weren't able to license the music because that's nowhere to be heard either. In it's place is just a bunch of generic synth music that wouldn't be out of place in an E True Hollywood Story.

And the real kicker? There isn't a single mention of Michael Beck in the entire featurette. How on earth do you do a documentary on a movie and completely ignore the male lead? It's just mind boggling.

All I can conclude is that this feature wasn't specifically produced for the DVD, but it was something they just found and threw in.

It's such a shame. There could have been a wealth of extras on this disc to satisfy the Xanadu diehards - a feature on the success of the music, a feature on the fashions, interviews with Olivia and Michael, a history of how the movie evolved into a cult favorite, deleted scenes, outtakes, karaoke versions of the musical sequences, something about the Broadway show and the previous stage versions......

But instead we get a photo gallery, the trailer from the first DVD, the CD that we all already have, and a single lame documentary.

What a missed opportunity.

Let's get one thing straight: You can't deliberately create a Guilty Pleasure camp classic. These things just happen by themselves. In the case of Xanadu, producers threw everything they could possibly think of (dance film legend Gene Kelly, beautiful pop superstar Olivia Newton-John, glowing neon, roller skates, leg warmers, Rodeo Drive fashion, Electric Light Orchestra's music, a Don Bluth animated sequence, etc.) up against the wall to see what would stick. The results are priceless! Now, let's get another thing straight: There is "film" and there are "movies". Xanadu is a MOVIE, which is why I cannot understand other posters reviewing and criticizing this movie as if it were in a league with Citizen Kane! It's most certainly NOT. What it remains is an entertaining, head scratching delight. Oh, there ARE moments when a viewer can see what might have been (the "I'm Alive" opening sequence, where the nine sisters jump off the mural and come to life before shooting up into the heavens, the charming "Whenever You're Away From Me" tap dance/duet between Kelly and Newton-John) but Xanadu falls victim to a half-baked script. Why four stars, then? Almost all the musical sequences are fun and energetic, if not bright, flashy, and blinding. The music soundtrack, itself, holds up extraordinarily well, with the eerie, hypnotic "magic" being one of ONJ's greatest recordings, and the ELO score one of their best. And, finally, Olivia Newton-John herself. Though often dismissed and greatly under-appreciated, she possesses a sweetness and charm that transcends even the weakest of material, while always being easy on the eyes. Xanadu is a flashy, fun, low calorie brain workout that remains a true pop culture Guilty Pleasure. Don't miss it!

Okay folks, it's not art (for the most part)...but c'mon, have some FUN. This film had the misfortune to be shot at the end of the disco era and the beginning of the so-called "New Wave" movement, only to be released after disco had died HARD. So, we are treated to a strange mix of 70's roller boogie/disco glitter, 40's nostalgia, and a premonition of 80's silliness to come (e.g., off the shoulder dresses, engineered hair--pass the mousse please, and leg warmers with flats). A film in which the men wear shirts unbuttoned to their navels half the time AND one that includes leg warmers and big hair on the women in the other scenes is a strange juxtoposition indeed!

I remember all the preceeding fads well, because I worked retail at the time, and believe me, I sold TONS of crap as seen in this film. People can rip on it all they want, but those 70's and 80's fasion faux pas were hugely popular.

If you can get past the tremendous cheese factor--or maybe you shouldn't--there are some lovely songs by Ms. Newton-John, several of which turned out to be pop hits, despite the commercial failure of the film. The "Whenever You're Away From Me" song/dance duet is absolutely precious. Gene Kelly is to be forgiven for that number alone.

The DVD version of the film has some nice bounuses, including some production notes on "What they were thinking" when they devised this vehicle. The print is scratchy and grainy in some spots and okay in others--obviously no one thought enough of this film to preserve it well, and as for a restoration? Not likely.

Overall, an odd, fun cheesy movie; enjoy it for what it is. Let the purists go watch "The French Lieutenant's Woman" or something else deep. I'd rather live in Xanadu, thank you.

Horrible, but in a good way. XANADU is the magical story of an artist who rips up his crappy drawing and throws it out the window in a humanitarian effort to spare the world from seeing his middle school level drawing. The pieces flutter around town until they land in front of a wall size mural on the side of a building. The women in the wall-size mural come alive and start dancing and exploding and roller skating! Oh...my. This is within the first two minutes (!) and it just gets stranger from there. By the 60 minute mark I was holding my drink up to the light to see if my buddy had spiked it with LSD or frog puss.

One of the girls from the wall painting is Olivia Newton-John, she's a muse sent from beyond to inspire Sonny, a record cover artist, to open up a roller disco cause, you know, that's what the world needs. She inspires him by blowing up his mind.

After their bizarre first meeting (which includes her kissing him then disappearing and him subsequently stealing a motorcycle, falling off a pier, stalking, being drug behind a hot dog truck then finally breaking into an abandoned building) they go on a series of psychedelic musical numbers that cracked the foundations of my mind, but in a good way.