User reviews

Although some might call this "Xanadon't" it has redeeming qualities. The music is the most redeeming. I've always liked ELO and their music carries this film.

Several movies of this type were made about the same time: "Roller Boogie", "Skatetown U.S.A.", etc. If you liked any of these you'll most likely like Xanadu.

This is one of those films you just have to watch and decide for yourself. As you can see just by what's been written here, opinions vary tremendously. And all are valid.

I gave this movie a 6 of 10 because I liked the music and sets.

Just try it. You may like it.

It is best to fast-forward through the talking segment of XANADU and watch only the musical numbers, which ,mopsty of which are pretty terrific. This remake of a remake of a Rita Haworth movie has Gene Kelly and Michael Beck joining forces to open a rollerskating arena on a grand scale. To help them, a Muse played by Olivia Newton-John shows up in human form. She ain't no Haworth (or Ava Gardner In the first remake), but she tries hard and has a great song and dance number with Kelly. Otherwise, she is mostly window dressing. All of the acting is high school-level, with the talentless Beck totally miscast, although Kelly lends this often loony movie some class. The soundtrack is what makes XANADU a classic, of course.

XANADU is one of the most critically and commercially panned films in Hollywood history, a 'Nouveau Art' musical with Art Deco themes, a weirdly conceived animated interlude, and performances of such widely varying caliber that a viewer might wonder if the actors were all reading from the same script! But all that being said, I would like to offer a minority opinion, and say that I didn't find the film THAT terrible, and there are some aspects of it I actually enjoyed...

First and foremost, it offers the legendary Gene Kelly, in his last musical, as charming and wonderful as ever. As retired musician/businessman Danny McGuire, Kelly has the film's best moments, including a 'classic' song-and-dance scene with Olivia Newton-John and some silly but endearing 'post-disco' routines with the talented young dancers of the cast (including future CONAN star Sandahl Bergman). Seeing him on roller-skates again, leading everyone around the club he builds, to the music of the Electric Light Orchestra, makes one realize just how irreplaceable he is. Kelly could do it all, and with style!

The premise of the film, of a Muse coming from Olympus to inspire an artist, is far-fetched, but had been done on film several times in the past (ONE TOUCH OF VENUS, with Ava Gardner and Robert Walker, and DOWN TO EARTH, with Rita Hayworth, are the examples most often cited), and while Olivia Newton-John is oddly cast in the role, she tackles it gamely, with a smile and a wink, and isn't THAT bad. On the other hand, Michael Beck, best-known as the gang leader in cliched but powerful THE WARRIORS, is totally miscast as the artist she falls in love with. An actor with limited range and no singing or dancing talent, Beck lacks the charisma to pull off the role (one wonders why British pop star Cliff Richard, who voices Beck's animated duet with Newton-John, 'Suddenly', wasn't utilized to play the part).

While the film often veers off in bizarre directions, the 'Battle of the Bands' scene between popular 80s rockers, the Tubes, and a 'Tommy Dorsey/WWII'-style orchestra (as Beck and Kelly envision what the 'look' and 'sound' of their club, XANADU, should be), actually works, and is fun to watch. The entire score, by Barry De Vorzon and John Farrar, and Jeff Lynne (with ELO) is terrific (and made the soundtrack album a hit).

Sure, the ending is hokey, but it was also the same ending of ONE TOUCH OF VENUS and DOWN TO EARTH, so XANADU can't be totally faulted!

All in all, XANADU isn't the WORST film ever made, and if you give it a chance, you might find it a guilty pleasure!

I was amazed to discover that the director of this legendary fiasco is the same Robert Greenwald who would go on to make several shrewdly observed documentaries nearly a quarter century later - "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism", "Uncovered: The War on Iraq", "Unconstitutional: The War on Our Civil Liberties". What surprises me even more is how in its sheer, misguided exuberance one can just giggle at the studio mindset that came up with the hilariously awful concept and resulting production. On one hand, "Xanadu" is like passing by a car accident...you can't help but stare. On the other, you have to celebrate the fact that it is indeed unique and that we will never see a musical fantasy extravaganza as bizarrely conceived again...hopefully.

A mishmash of surreal, forehead-slapping elements that never really congeal, the 1980 movie's fanciful storyline centers on Sonny Malone, a struggling LA commercial artist tired of recreating album covers on canvas for a record company. He is visited by Kira, one of nine muses from ancient Greece, who come to life from a Venice Beach wall mural (set amusingly to ELO's "I'm Alive"). She inspires Sonny to partner with Danny McGuire, a wealthy eccentric whom she may have inspired when he was a big band clarinetist with his own supper club in New York 35 years earlier. Together, they decide to take the dilapidated, art-deco Pan Pacific Auditorium and turn it into a roller disco club called Xanadu. If that doesn't sound preposterous enough, the cardboard dialogue, overdone Vegas-style sets and cheesy special effects compound the absurdities exponentially.

At her virginally pretty peak, the florescent-lighted Olivia Newton-John plays Kira in the same wide-eyed manner she displayed as Sandy in "Grease". That she is able to sing, dance and skate with some ease is a pleasant albeit limited surprise. Looking like the lost Bee Gee, a wooden Michael Beck is a blank slate as Sonny, delivering lines as if playing a romantic lead amounts to an alien encounter. As Danny, the 68-year old Gene Kelly is simultaneously celebrated and humiliated as his character is ridiculously drawn in very broad strokes. He provides the film's one unequivocally lovely moment as he shows his still-fluid movements dancing with a uniformed Newton-John on the evocative big-band number, "Whenever You're Away From Me". Between her smooth singing and Kelly's soft-shoe dexterity, it's quite magical. Unfortunately, later on, Kelly goes through a series of color-challenged pimp outfits in the silly costume number set to ELO's toe-tapping "All Over the World".

But Kelly is not the only victim here as silly moments abound - a hilariously overdone 1945-meets-1980 musical fantasy extravaganza, "Dancin'", featuring 80's rock band, the Tubes, and outlandish, Solid Gold-type choreography; and there are a couple of gooey pas de deux numbers between Newton-John and Beck - one amid rising palm trees and other props set to "Suddenly" and the other set to ELO's "Don't Walk Away" with the pair wackily transformed into fish and lovebirds in a Don Bluth cartoon sequence. The most spectacularly inane moments are saved for last - the tacky final production number with a split-screen Kelly skating and Newton-John singing the title tune as she goes through a gamut of irrelevant musical genres and variety revue costumes.

The pacing of this movie feels very off and the editing choppy, as the 93-minute movie alternately skitters and drags along coming to a dead halt with Newton-John's overlong number in Tron-like heaven on "Suspended in Time". By the time the movie mercifully ends, one feels the same way an audience member felt watching "Springtime for Hitler" in "The Producers" - utter disbelief yet an unexplainable giddiness about how ludicrously it was all presented. I have to admit some of the music is damnably catchy, for example, "Magic". By the way, I saw this movie not on DVD but on the big screen in a pristine print at the fully packed Castro Theater in San Francisco as part of a roller-disco midnight madness program, and the crowd went wild at every absurdity. I have no doubt that this is the optimal way to see this movie.

I saw Xanadu back in the day, a few months after its original theatrical release my parents rented it on videotape. Back then and even now, Xanadu makes very little sense. It tried to be a grand musical trying to tie up two different musical eras. Under a more skilled director, Xanadu would've had a longer lasting impact. Suffice to say, the one thing that's a towering achievement is the epic soundtrack, more than half of it performed by Electric Light Orchestra. So epic that the songs are still being played on the radio as well as Olivia Newton-John's spectacular singing. The movie itself plays like a back up video for the impressive soundtrack, like 80 minute long MTV video.

Despite my low rating, I DO have a soft spot for Xanadu. My eldest daughter grew up adoring the movie and the songs, but I have to put my feet on the ground and admit that it is not a great movie by any stretch of the word.

If it weren't for the soundtrack, Xanadu would probably have faded into oblivion, but thankfully the collaboration between Olivia and ELO was pure magic. Too bad that magic wasn't truly captured in the movie.

Xanadu, which has received some scathing one-sentence reviews, flopped in a big way at the box office, and even helped inspire the creation of the Razzies, is underrated. Not as underrated as that statement would normally imply, but enough. The reason why it is underrated is similar to the reason why it stinks. Xanadu consists of two parts, each of which can be divided into two parts depending on how successful each scene making up those two parts are.

The first part is all dialogue, in which Michael Beck, Gene Kelly, Olivia Newton-John, or combinations thereof, spend a lot of screen time talking about the importance of following one's dreams. The success of this part of the film depends largely on how tightly integrated it is with the musical part. When the male leads discuss music in particular, it starts to fall flat as the artistic sentiment of a bygone era tries unsuccessfully to gel with the lowest-common-denominator mentality of what was then the present. The music sequences that fit in with this rule tend to suffer a lot, too. The attempt to blend a 1940s jazz band with Electric Light Orchestra, who were never really that representative of any culture, even those of the 1980s, is especially embarrassing. It dates the whole film beyond return.

On the other hand, when the musical and dialogue sequences are not connected to one another, they work so well. Michael Beck's dialogues with the supporting cast about how his dreams of artistic freedom failed are brilliantly executed. The dialogue between Beck and Kelly in which the latter basically tells the former that quitting now will leave him with a lifetime of regret is pure gold. The conversation in which Beck's and Newton-John's characters argue with the voices of the gods, performed by Wilfrid Hyde-White and Coral Browne, works wonderfully in spite of the ludicrous costume on Beck. But the real gem in this flick is the climactic rollerdisco scene. I don't know how long it took them to coordinate and stage this myriad of sequences, but the result was worth every bit of effort.

Unfortunately, the film is not without its problems. Many sequences are either boring or outright ludicrous. The animated part in particular fails to fit in with the rest of the film. Major rewrites began close to production as the producers tried to distinguish the production from other rollerskating-themed films of the time. According to Olivia Newton-John, the film was literally being written as it was shot, and nowhere does this show more than in the final musical sequences of the aforementioned rollerdisco scene. It was as if the makers decided to put in as many shots of Olivia singing and dancing in as many costumes as they could. Perhaps the problem was in the editing, as the aforementioned on-the-spot writing would have caused a problem with knowing exactly when to call it over. Truth be told, it does stretch a little past its welcome, if only by a few minutes. But then, show me a film that is not guilty of the same offense, and I will show you a masterpiece.

Truth be told, this film is nowhere near as bad as the IMDb rating would have you believe. It is not all that good, either, but it gets a little bit more right than wrong. Compared to excruciatingly bad musicals that take themselves far too seriously, such as the recent Chicago adaptation, this is pure gold. Hence, in spite of a lot of problems, I rated Xanadu a seven out of ten. It is a real guilty pleasure of a film, and really needed more time in pre-production, but it is entertaining for more than half of its running time, which is more than I can say for a lot of other films. Especially of this genre.

Out of all the movies that I loved from my childhood, none of them entranced me more as Xanadu starring Olivia Newton-John. I was four when it was released in theaters and being that age, music and visuals are a really big thing to a kid. That is something that Xanadu definitely had! Even if the music and special effects are out of date now, the style of the film is truly inspiring. I wont waste my time with the Xanadu haters.... But the people that love the film know what I'm talking about. Yes, it's not Oscar worthy material but who cares? There is an entire generation of fans that love it for its simplistic magical wonder. The soundtrack is one that I've always rocked out too... I've owned it on record, tape, CD, and even 8-track!! You cant go wrong with the talent of ONJ or the creative ethereal sounds of the Electric Light Orchestra. The film has entertained me now for 25 years and it will for the rest of my life. It's movies like this that bring back great memories and take you back to a time when innocence wasn't such a bad thing. XANADU FOREVER!

I was 12 when I saw this movie and loved it. I would dream of being a magically glowing roller skating being from another realm for a couple years after the movie. And that's the point of this comment. There is magic there for the taking if you're looking for some. But if you'd rather sit there with your pencil and steno pad, notating every intellectual criticism you can brainstorm; I'm sure you can come up with a lot.

You get to see Olivia skate and sing with Gene Kelly. There are some great songs by legendary pop band Electric Light Orchestra. There is some great music and a fun parallel universe available any time you want to put your pencil down.

I wonder what Gene Kelly was thinking as he watched Xanadu unfold before his eyes. Did he regret signing on? Was he amused at how the making of musicals had deteriorated since his day? Did he deplore the waste of time and money.

More than likely one thing must have been clear to him. Xanadu proves that with the collapse of the studio system where a place like MGM where Kelly made some of the best musicals ever, you can't pay the talent enough for what they're worth. When Kelly made The Pirate and Summer Stock, he and Judy Garland were drawing a straight salary from MGM and Arthur Freed the producer was also on salary and could command all the resources that MGM had behind the camera. The big budget flops of the sixties proved the musical was just too expensive to make.

But the success of Grease for Olivia Newton-John prompted this film, of course the big names from that film were again not big names yet. And Grease did have a built in following from Broadway which sometimes guarantees a box office.

Xanadu bears some resemblance to the Rita Hayworth film Down to Earth where Terpsichore comes down to earth to lend her talents to a Broadway bound show. Here one of the nine Muses, this one played by Olivia comes to life and inspires and falls for Michael Beck who is an artist and would be club owner.

Olivia also inspires some nostalgia in Gene Kelly who remembers back in the day when he had a club during World War II. In fact Kelly's character is named Danny McGuire, the same as in his one of his biggest hits back in the day, Cover Girl. And his character did own a club in Brooklyn in that film.

When Kelly and Beck start comparing notes and decide to collaborate, some strange things happen. In fact so strange that I could barely follow the flow of the story.

On the plus side Xanadu has some nice songs for Olivia Newton John to sing and she's a fine singer and a beauty. She also is exactly the same age as your's truly so I always have a soft spot for her. Poor Gene Kelly though, the only thing that Xanadu shows him is how old he's getting. He danced much better with Fred Astaire in those filmed sequences of That's Entertainment Part II. Kelly looks completely lost here.

By the way note that while Xanadu got a whole lot of Razzie award nominations including worst musical in the existence of the award for their first 25 years which it won, one career got started here. Choreographer Kenny Ortega who later did Newsies and now is riding high with the High School Musical franchise made his bones here.

And that in itself says something. All the talent in front and behind the camera for the High School Musical films is under studio contract to the Magic Kingdom.

Learn that lesson folks.

I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. But, you know what, that's my opinion and I don't think I should have to feel ashamed of it so there!

On to the review.

No true connoisseur of cheesy movies can die happy withought feasting their eyes on the Miracle That is "Xanadu". There are so many things wrong with this movie I don't know where to begin, but somehow they all fit together in a final form that is remarkably endearing. It's best to watch it withought the vaguest idea of what it's about, but I will say this:

This is exactly what "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" would have looked like if Willy quit the candy business and decided to turn the factory into a disco.

I am a huge fan of Olivia, and of ELO and of Gene Kelly. The production values are night, the musical sequences are wonderful, there are some great songs and the 40s/80s blend really works between Olivia & Gene. But as much as I love Olivia, the 'straight' bits are very weak. It actually improves, but the early scenes are so dreadfully scripted (like scenes from a kids tv show of the era) that the cringe factor is hard to shake off even if you try to 'get into it'.hot off Warriors Michael Beck is sincere but lost, Olivia is brittle but the director knew it, using her to her best advantage in a series of musical sequences where she is unsurprisingly strong. Gene gives us his last turn as a song and dance man with Olivi and it's a lovely scene. Sadly Beck and Olivia don't click at all. Pity Gene was too old to have that part! It looks great and the music is great and wonderfully staged. But even a fan like me looks the other way when the linking scenes are on and the music dies down.

I remember seeing this film when I was a kid with my mother and grandmother and finding it excruciating. I have subsequently been dragged off to see the stage musical, and was astonished to find that a really fun and delightful show. It started me thinking that perhaps I had been too hard on the film as a child and I caught it again recently on cable TV. The only surprise was how in the world a film so devoid of life could have ever managed to become a camp classic! A bunch a Greek muses dance out of a collage in the tacky opening sequence. One of them, played by Olivia Newton-John, returns to "inspire" down-on-his-luck artist Michael Beck to realize his dream of opening a roller disco and they naturally fall in love. Incredibly this is the case where the score provided by John Farrar and the Electric Light Orchestra is pretty good, but literally nothing else in the film works. The "production numbers" are so low-key and deadening that they come off like a cross between something from an episode of Saved by the Bell crossed with Little Rock dinner theater. In fact, the concluding number of the title, wherein one would expect a lot of effort to be thrown is particularly dismal. The plot is incredibly boring and there is nothing in the way of conflict for the two lovers to overcome (unless one counts the dodderingly disapproving voice of an offscreen Wilfrid Hyde-White as Zeus). While it is great to see old pro Gene Kelly on screen, one could only wish that it was in a far better vehicle. Newton-John is surprisingly charmless as the wan muse and shares no chemistry with co-star Beck. However, Beck is the worst performer of the bunch. Whose bright idea was it to cast in a musical a leading man who cannot sing or dance, has no chemistry with the leading lady or any discernible comic timing, and looks so thoroughly appalling roller-skating around California in tiny shorts? I am uncertain I would brand this as the worst screen musical, but I may classify it as the most wrong-headed or tedious - the latter of which should have definitely prevented its "rebirth" as a camp fixture.

When I saw this movie when I was 8yrs. old, I was wonderstruck. There was definitely a magic to it that held me. Of course, I was already awe-struck with Olivia, seeing her in "Grease". I remember looking up the word "Muse" in the dictionary and highlighting it. Yes, I was 8 and impressionable, but the movie has held a "magic" over me ever since and inspired me to write poetry and even use the word Muse in a license plate. It may be campy to some, but for me it was a good movie. I saw Olivia in Concert at Saratoga in 2001. It was a starry night and when she sang "Magic" and "Xanadu" I had tears in my eyes. It was great to hear her sing those songs perfectly and still look like a Muse.

I saw this one multiple times in the theater when I was about seven. My big sister was in charge of watching me and she was a huge ONJ fan so I got drug to it quite often. I think I was forced to see it four times in one weekend! (GASP). Anyway, I survived the ordeal, but some people are convinced I should be in therapy.

Okay, I'll stop the kidding and get down to business with the review. Xanadu is not great cinema. It is, however, not a total waste. If nothing else, the soundtrack is excellent, and Olivia is smokin'!!! She plays a muse who is sent to inspire a down-on-his-luck artist. Olivia does fine with her role, and she gets to sing some pretty neat little songs along the way. Michael Beck is BADLY miscast as the artist. He did so well in The Warriors, but this film killed his career. After this, he went on to star in classics like Megaforce, Warlords of the 21st Century, and that bad TV show with Michael Pare. It's too bad because I think he's pretty talented.

The film also stars Gene Kelly in one of his last roles. Who knows why he agreed to be in this film, but he does very well with his character.

As I mentioned earlier, this movie has an exceptional soundtrack. It's half ONJ and half ELO, and there are some truly catchy tunes. The songs come to life in a series of music video-type scenes. Some of these are very well-done, others are laughable. I loved the scene where the muses come to life. There are some truly beautiful women on that wall. Look closely and you can spot AHNOLD's woman from the first Conan movie as one of the muses. The final dance numbers at the club are odd, but entertaining all at the same time. The worst scene in this movie by far is the one where they're trying to buy Gene Kelly some fancy clothes at some trendy store and a bad video sequence erupts. That scene is just indescribably awful!

This film was made during the rollerboogie craze of the early 80's. All the colors of the rainbow and then some are represented in the outfits people wear in this film. The special effects don't look so special today, but I'm sure they were cutting edge back then.

I'd recommend this film ONLY for fans of either Olivia Newton-John or ELO. Anyone else will absolutely hate it.

Since I like both artists, I'll be generous and give it 6 of 10 stars.

So sayeth the Hound.

Album cover painter Michael Beck (as Sonny Malone) unknowingly summons magical muse Olivia Newton-John (as Kira) from Greek mythology. She kisses him, then disappears on roller-skates. He grabs a bike and tries to find her, but has better luck on roller-skates. On the beach, Mr. Beck meets clarinet-playing Gene Kelly (as Danny McGuire), a wealthy ex-musician fretting about his advanced years. Beck admits to enjoying big band music and Mr. Kelly likes rock 'n' roll. Inspired by Ms. Newton-John, Beck and Mr. Kelly open the roller-disco "Xanadu"...

This poorly presented film reached a new low in wasted resources. Perhaps most interesting is how producers could get the three stars to compete for worst acting honors. Producers assemble some capable people here, but have no idea how to use them. The result is wretched excess (italicize wretched).

* Xanadu (8/8/80) Robert Greenwald ~ Olivia Newton-John, Michael Beck, Gene Kelly, Matt Lattanzi

C'mon ... all you people who insist on slamming this movie. Tell me, were you duped into thinking you were going to see something of Oscar caliber or did you know going in that it was a musical roller-skating fantasy? Yeah, bad acting abounded and the plot line may have had its issues if you're going to critique it but I'll bet you caught yourself tapping your feet along to the music more than once.

I saw this movie when I was about 8. I fell in love with it. I remember leaving the theater and wanting to be ONJ. I had the ribbons in my hair and I spent countless hours skating in the kitchen to the soundtrack. For years I thought I was odd but as time passes, I encounter more and more people who adore this film. It's good to know I'm not alone.

Now I have it on DVD and the soundtrack on CD. I still get that same feeling whenever I watch it or hear the music and THAT'S what it's all about. Try watching it one more time. Throw out your criticisms and opinions and watch it for what it is, pure entertainment - something that rarely exists these days in such an innocent and pure form.

Here's to all those who get it!!!

"Xanadu" (1980 release; 95 min.) brings the story Sonny and Kira. As the movie opens, Sonny is seen as a struggling painter. He tears up his latest bad painting and tosses it out the window, where the wind carries it over a mural depicting the Muses of Olympia. Magically, the muses come to life (as ELO's "I'm Alive" blasts away), and it's not long before Kira encounters Sonny in a nearby park, kisses him, and then leaves him. "Hey, you, wait a minute!", yells Sonny as he chases her... At this point we are less than 10 min. into to movie.

Couple of comments: I saw "Xanadu" upon its release in 1980, when I was 20 years old. Let's be clear: the movie is a super-cheesy attempt to recreate a musical from Hollywood's golden era in the 40s or 50s. For good measure, Gene Kelly gets a major role (his last role ever) to provide some credibility. "Xanadu", coming on the heels of the global mega-success of "Grease" was intended to launch Olivia Newton John as someone who can carry a movie on her own. She was 32 when this came out, and at the peak of her music super-stardom. Alas, the script is very weak and light as a feather. Not to mention that Michael Beck is just plain miscast in the role of Sonny. I guess that production mega-budget of $20 million (a stunning $65 million in today's dollars) simply didn't allow for a better script or actor. All that aside, I quite enjoyed the movie, in particular for its stellar music, half of which was written by John Farr (performed by Olivia) and the other half courtesy of Jeff Lynn (performed by Electric Light Orchestra). It all culminates in the sublime title track (performed jointly by Olivia and ELO). I love how many of the songs actually advance the movie's story line (check: "I'm Alive", "Suspended In Time", etc.). Come for the cheesy fantasy, stay for the stellar music.

Widely panned upon its original release (and a commercial flop), the movie has steadily gained traction in the subsequent decades, culminating in a delightful Broadway adaptation in 2007 (I saw it in 2008, and LOVED it). I don't know when was the last time I saw the movie, I'm guessing at least 15-20 years, and I stumbled upon it on Showtime this past weekend. I just had to watch it again! I found myself humming along all of the music, which I've known by heart for years and years. "Xanadu" will be FORTY years old next year, and like a good wine, is ageing very nicely.

It depends on what mood you're in when you watch this movie on how you'll feel about it. If you are looking for an extremely light entertainment this might fill the bill but if you want anything resembling a well made, properly paced film look elsewhere.

Already dated upon its release when the roller disco phase had passed its very short expiration date the picture although it only runs 96 minutes is seemingly interminable. In its favor it has some flashy numbers, though they have no substance at all, and a few good songs performed by ELO-Magic being the best of those. Unfortunately it also has Olivia Newton-John who can be an enjoyable entertainer but who doesn't have the presence to carry a film on her own. Michael Beck is pallid as her leading man and Gene Kelly, in his last feature film, somewhat embarrassing in his hammy "Hey look at me!, Gee ain't I still young enough to compete with the kids" performance. He isn't.

One of those pictures its hard to be lukewarm about. You either love it or hate it. There are a few pleasant moments but mostly its a turgid bore.

I have been a fan of ONJ since 1973. At that time, she had already been in three movies. She was only 18 years old when she appeared in an Australian flick called "Christmastime Down Under." In 1970, she starred in a film called "Toomorrow," a science-fiction fantasy that involved alien abduction. Then in 1972, she was in a movie with Cliff Richard where she sang her latest record ("Banks of the Ohio") and a duet with Cliff.

Flash forward 8 years and history is repeated with "Xanadu," only this time Olivia is the star and Cliff joins her for a song ("Suddenly").

Filming started on "Xanadu" with no script. All that existed was an 18-page treatment (plot summary) and an overarching theme: The Big Band Era meets the 80s Rock Era.

Because everyone hired to work on the film was given this overall theme to work with, they all went off to their respective departments and started working: Set designers began designing sets, location scouts went out looking for shooting sites, costume designers started their work...and while all this was going on, development of the script was largely ignored.

The music was written and recorded long before what can be called the "final script" was written. On each day of shooting, the actors were handed a few pages of the script that had been written only the night before. By the time principal filming was done and the film was assembled, so many incongruities and inconsistencies in the film were apparent that scenes had to be rewritten, re-shot, or cut entirely.

Olivia was somewhat of a phenomenon by 1980. She was already named the most successful female recording artist, out-selling even Barbra Streisand. And she happened to star in the most successful musical film of all time: "Grease." At the time, studios came at her from every which way, offering handsome deals so that they could cash in on her enormous commercial appeal.

The producers of "Grease" also approached Olivia with another project, but Olivia's management balked at the money they offered. Allan Carr, the more vocal of the "Grease" producers, said of Olivia's refusal, "She's a pretty face, but she ain't no Streisand." The film Allan Carr wanted Olivia Newton-John to star in was called "Disco Heaven," which was later retitled as "Can't Stop the Music." Instead, the lead role went to Valerie Perrine ("Superman: The Movie"). Her costars...none other than The Village People.

"Can't Stop the Music," although not without a charm of its own, is arguably THE worst musical motion picture of all time.

Another strong contender for worst musical motion picture of all time would have to be Olivia's other film, "Toomorrow." The movie was produced by the same folks who played a role in creating "The Monkees." Because "The Monkees" was such a money-making concept in the US, producers felt they could repeat the success in England. While The Monkees were enjoying success on television in the United States, Toomorrow (also the name of the musical quartet) would star in a series of big screen films in the cinema. Toomorrow would never enjoy such success. Their first outing lasted only a week in theaters before it was pulled from theaters.

Perhaps its failure had something to do with the music. The songs and the singing in "Toomorrow" are poor. The only member of the four-member group that does not sing off key is Newton-John. There is no choreography to speak of. Instead, people dance in place and, I must admit, it is amusing to see Newton-John gyrate like Goldie Hawn did on "Laugh-In." Don Kirshner, the man credited for having invented The Monkees, The Archies, and Toomorrow, still holds the rights to the 1970 movie. He is rumored to have said that he will never allow the film to be released as long as he is alive. In fact, during her own hey-day, Olivia refused to acknowledge she ever made the film. Today, however, she embraces it, having recently hosted a successful and fun midnight showing of the movie.

Many people feel the saving grace of "Xanadu" is its music. Critics said the only positive thing to say about "Toomorrow" was its special effects. For its time, the special effects were cutting edge (it was one of the first movies to incorporate CGI on film). Vic Kemper (who recently passed away) is the man behind the cinematography and special effects for both "Xanadu" and "Toomorrow." "Xanadu" effectively put a huge black mark on Newton-John's credibility as a big screen actress ("Two of a Kind" put to rest any doubt on the matter), but I am glad that Olivia is still alive to see "Xanadu" and "Toomorrow" finally get the acknowledgment and recognition the films deserve, even if their worth as works of art is found only in their nostalgic value.

For a musical that had its songs written before the script, the film came together nicely in the final analysis. And while Newton-John is no longer bad-mouthing the movie when asked, co-star Michael Beck ("Sonny") is still bitter. He made a telephone appearance during a "This Is Your Life" program honoring Newton-John a few years back and his snide comments made Newton-John squirm in her seat.

Gene Kelly never mentioned regret for having participated in the film, although he did say something was terribly wrong with the way modern movies are made. God rest his soul.

Sadly, it was announced that another member of the "Xanadu" cast has passed away. Fred McCarren, the young actor who played Richie (Sonny's co-worker artist friend) died of cancer on July 2, 2006. He was 45. God rest his soul.

I am deducting two stars because the makers of this film should have known better than to start filming without a script.

Artist Sonny Malone (Michael Beck) is giving up. He goes back to painting enlarged record covers for AirFlo Records. He rips up his drawings which float to a mural of the Greek muses at the end of an alley. Kira (Olivia Newton-John) remains on earth to inspire Sonny to help Danny McGuire (Gene Kelly) create a roller disco club. For his assignment back at AirFlo, Sonny is told to enlarge a record cover with Kira on it.

This is fun and silly. I don't know what people are expecting. The writing is cheesy. The effects are cheesy. Even the songs are cheesy. It was probably a little late for a Disco movie especially one that is so sincere and happy. There is something unabashedly naive about this movie. The only major complaint I have is Michael Beck. Apparently he didn't get the memo about what kind of movie this is. He's like a gloomy cloud in an otherwise bright sunny day. This movie needs a cheery guy instead of Michael Beck with his scowl. On the other hand, ONJ is the perfect magical musical muse. She can't stop giving off that fun vibe and she has some terrific catchy songs. Then there is the great Gene Kelly. He still has the spark and it shows. He brings with him some old fashion class.

Having just watched the disco '70s hit Thank God It's Friday and written a comment on that, I was prepared to sit down and view another musical made two years later called Xanadu. (Incidentally, I just discovered that the tall woman who punched her date in TGIF, Hilary Beane, is one of the dancers in this movie's end sequence) What a mess of a mishmash! In a nutshell, Michael Beck is an artist who's tired of conforming to other's ideas while subsuming his own. After ripping one of his materials in pieces, those pieces fly over to a mural of several women who all come to life and skate over to various places. Olivia Newton-John is one of them and she glides to where Beck is walking and kisses him before disappearing. She suddenly appears in his paintings and also in an old photo of former musician/now construction businessman Gene Kelly's scrapbook. Kelly, being a kindly old man who befriends both Beck and Newton-John, agrees to transform a closed Art Deco building into the title roller-disco dance hall. When Kira (Olivia's character) reveals the truth about herself, Beck gets depressed but eventually things turn out all right...Where do I begin? I love most of the music but something like the big band/rock "Dance with You/Dancin'" sung by Olivia and The Tubes hints at the culture clash that permeates much of the movie. Kelly was still a wonderful hoofer here and he did a great duet with Newton-John on "Whenever You're Away From Me" but his costume changes along with the constant special effects on Electric Light Orchestra's "All Over the World" is very surreal bordering on the ridiculous. The same can be said of the ending title number which also includes Newton-John changing musical styles and costumes. Oh well, both are better than some of the clunky dialogue (like when the elder Kelly says, "I love rock 'n' roll." Like Wayne Campbell would say, "Yeah...right!"). I also wondered what the point of the Don Bluth animated sequence was, entertaining though I found it. And did Beck seem lost for the most part? Wouldn't blame him if he did. Actually, most of the dance sequences were entertaining but there was so much that after a while, I just wanted the movie to end. This movie obviously made some impact since it's now staged on Broadway which is why I finally decided to watch this after avoiding it for 27 years...