Category: Musicals

• 

  Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978)

  May 18, 2020

  1970s, Comedy, Fantasy, Music, Musicals, Rock

  A musical tribute to the classic Beatles album but with The Bee Gees and Peter Frampton singing the songs – without much change or interpretation in delivery. This is what Robert Stigwood (producer of hit film musicals like Tommy, Saturday Night Fever and Grease) gambled on with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978), resulting… Read.

• The Last Dragon (1985)

  April 6, 2020

  1980s, Action, Comedy, Martial Arts, Music, Musicals

  My favourite moment in Motown producer Berry Gordy’s The Last Dragon (1985) is when a packed movie theatre showing Enter The Dragon is interrupted randomly by two break-dancers and a boom-box, who are then shouted down and told to leave. Right before the unforgettable Sho’nuff (played by Julius J. Carry III in an indomitable performance)… Read.

• All That Jazz (1979)

  September 26, 2019

  1970s, Drama, Music, Musicals, New York

  I’d been keen to see Bob Fosse’s semi-autobiographical All That Jazz (1979) for awhile and I finally sat down with it over one weekend. Fascinating to watch such a reliable and straight-laced performer like Roy Schneider stretch himself, playing a version of Fosse that is glib, controlling, physical, exhausted and ultimately, a rueful asshole. Some… Read.

• Popeye (1980)

  September 13, 2019

  1980s, Comedy, Kids Movies, Music, Musicals

  I have vague memories of seeing the live action movie of Popeye (1980) on Saturday afternoon TV when I was a kid. In recent memory, one of its Harry Nilsson penned songs sung by Shelly Duvall was used in PTA’s Punch-Drunk Love (“He needs me”). It was time to rewatch and more fully understand the… Read.