MovieChat Forums > Xanadu (1980) Discussion > Just an unfounded opinion...

Just an unfounded opinion...

posted 13 years ago by artguylarry
12 replies | jump to latest

Yes this movie is cheesy as HELL, but I love every minute of it. I love how good it is and I love how bad it is. I have not seen this in its live performance, but I do have the Broadway soundtrack, and based solely ON that, I am gonna venture to say that this hideously bad 80's movie probably towers LEAPS AND BOUNDS over the Broadway musical. The butchering they did to this music to make it "suitable" for the stage is cringe-worthy on every single note (when, in my opinion, it was WELL suitable for the stage to begin with). I have to thank them for the release of the soundtrack, because it saved me the money on a ticket. I will forever be content to stand alone and love the hell out of this ridiculous little movie. It's my guiltiest of pleasures.

[–] stanleyhetz 13 years ago

Yes this movie is cheesy as HELL, but I love every minute of it. I love how good it is and I love how bad it is. I have not seen this in its live performance, but I do have the Broadway soundtrack, and based solely ON that, I am gonna venture to say that this hideously bad 80's movie probably towers LEAPS AND BOUNDS over the Broadway musical. The butchering they did to this music to make it "suitable" for the stage is cringe-worthy on every single note (when, in my opinion, it was WELL suitable for the stage to begin with). I have to thank them for the release of the soundtrack, because it saved me the money on a ticket. I will forever be content to stand alone and love the hell out of this ridiculous little movie. It's my guiltiest of pleasures.

I totally disagree with you when you call this a "hideously bad 80's movie" because I think it's great!

[–] LordLustworthy 12 years ago

It's time to stop calling this a bad movie. It's a flawed but good movie. There is no way this many people would like it this month.

And don't let the IMDb score fool you. This site is filled with people who think Guy Ritchie's Snatch is a masterpiece but wouldn't give a Doris Day classic a second look. (Some would I know, but not nearly enough.)

This site has that annoying white-male-gentile-heterosexual majority that often results in suckiness in any form of art or culture and allows people like Adam Sandler to have careers way longer than they deserve. But hey, can't totally blame them if others do not step up and demand their shares of the pop culture pie.

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[–] artguylarry 12 years ago

Well I should correct myself. Yes I called it bad. But not in the sense that it's a "bad" movie, it is just very dated. All music, costumes, hairstyles, etc were so very 80's that they couldn't even carry over into anything we refer to today as "retro." I LOVE this movie for the very element of nostalgia it creates.

When referring to the music that disgusted me, it was the newer Broadway music I can't stand. I don't think this music should have been TOUCHED before translating it to the stage. The music, as it is in the film, is PERFECTLY suited for the stage production, yet they whittled it down to "small indy company" status.

I will always cherish this movie. But thanks to the Broadway soundtrack, I will NEVER watch it on stage.

Sorry for my use of the word "hideous". It is not hideous at all. It is just incredibly 80's. Or rather, it is incredibly 70's since in 1980, the 80's hadn't even had time to establish a style yet.

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] jayhn1111 12 years ago

Simply calling this movie bad, is way too kind.

[–] FranLovesBetteD 9 years ago

It's time to stop calling this a bad movie. It's a flawed but good movie. There is no way this many people would like it this month. And don't let the IMDb score fool you. This site is filled with people who think Guy Ritchie's Snatch is a masterpiece but wouldn't give a Doris Day classic a second look. (Some would I know, but not nearly enough.)

This site has that annoying white-male-gentile-heterosexual majority that often results in suckiness in any form of art or culture and allows people like Adam Sandler to have careers way longer than they deserve. But hey, can't totally blame them if others do not step up and demand their shares of the pop culture pie.

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[–] WarpedRecord 12 years ago

Anything this entertaining is hardly "hideously bad," in my opinion, and I feel no guilt for my pleasures as long as they don't hurt anyone. 8/10 stars from me.

[–] ChitoRaffferty 11 years ago

It's bad. Now if you didn't expect much to begin with than it isn't too bad.
It came at the end of the disco era. That explains a few things.

[–] 11 years ago

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[–] 11 years ago

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[–] miracleorange 11 years ago

Necroing this, but it's important to note that the Broadway show isn't a straight film to stage transfer, but it's more of an affectionate parody, which you don't get from the cast album (minus the small snippets of dialogue and Kerry Butler's amazingly bad Olivia Newton-John impression), but it's very, VERY funny. While I could see where your complaints about the music being hacked to pieces are valid (it took me a little bit to get used to the stripped down arrangements), they had to make it so all the songs could be done with the same very small band, and the performances in the songs more than make up for it in my opinion. Suddenly, Suspended in Time, and Have You Never Been Mellow are all fantastic performances from that show.

[–] oprlvr33 10 years ago

Blame it all entirely on the budget push for very pre-mature release. It's production was scheduled to wrap by December 1980, but got shortened to summer instead, while the special FX wizards still had tons of work and editing to finalize. That's like telling a surgeon to speed up a heart transplant and just sew up the patient - stupidly 'praying' that the patient doesn't die from such negligence.

Whenever a production time and editing is cut too soon, or downsized, it usually spells warning or *bonk* for a promising new film. They can't deliver the full goods on that. Very sad too, because the intended fantasy effects could have delivered properly, what the early release was forced to suffer.

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