MovieChat Forums > Xanadu (1980) Discussion > Worst movie with the best soundtrack

Worst movie with the best soundtrack

posted 9 years ago by I_Love_Hutch
2 replies | jump to latest

I actually don't hate "Xanadu", but I know it was reviled by the critics. I can sort of see why. It was not at all cohesive and it was very corny. But there's something about certain bad movies that have their own quirky appeal.

But, at any rate, the soundtrack on this movie is excellent. ELO made the most amazing music. Nothing corny or low quality about their output. It's just kind of an unusual combination. ELO is one of my favorite music groups and my favorite song of theirs happens to be "The Fall" , which is part of the "Xanadu" soundtrack.

A few years earlier, Donna Summer's song "Last Dance" actually won the Oscar for what is generally deemed a terrible movie, "Thank God It's Friday", which is another I can enjoy while knowing the whole time that it's not a very good movie.

[–] metatron1970 9 years ago

I remember in advance of the movie in the summer of 1980 that "Magic" was all over the radio and was a huge and deserved #1 hit. It was such a strange and mysterious--and atypical--single that I ended up getting the LP before even seeing the movie. Some of the singles were so radio-worthy I was surprised they weren't bigger hits:ELO's "I'm Alive" (my favorite song on the album) topped out at #16 on the charts, and "All Over the World" at #13. When I finally saw the movie, I was as cold to it as the rest of the public (though Olivia has never looked better), but the imaginative (though garish) sets and costumes and almost all the music have earned it cult status over the years. You don't find that same affection for the similar 1980 big musical flop Can't Stop the Music, which, though equalling Xanadu in bad acting and bad screenplay, has, unlike Xanadu, an awful soundtrack. I haven't seen the Broadway version (in itself, proof of the film's lasting appeal), though I hope liberties were taken with Xanadu's original screenplay, which was abysmal.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

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