Xanadu (1980)
6/10
So many problems...but it always makes me smile
19 June 2018
Warning: Spoilers
There is so much wrong with this film. The worst thing about the film? The performance of Michael Beck; you can't get much worse than that! His speaking was so off-based it was downright distracting. And then there was the letdown with the finale -- "Xanadu". It just seemed so anticlimactic.

On the other hand, we had the lovely Olivia Newton-John and wasn't it great seeing the energy and smile of Gene Kelly in one last "new" film; it looked like Kelly was having a ball at the age of 68!

And yet, despite its problems, there's something special about this hokey movie...and it hokey. But every few years I take out the DVD (or now the Blu-Ray) and sit there and take it all in again...and suddenly realize I'm just smiling!

And although the film is less than great, the soundtrack album was a smash, going platinum twice. Olivai Newton-John's vocals are tremendous and the Electric Light Orchestra was (at least in my opinion) never better.

So I don't care that the movie was a flop, or that the film was hokey, or that Olivia (and are) are now pushing 70! It just makes me smile.
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