I have given this picture six stars, rather out of sentiment than as an actual rating of this film.
Years ago, this film was a personal favourite of my sister and her best friend and through them, my brother and I also became quite hooked. The film was only about twenty years old then (if that) and still therefore looked rather hip and trendy in my eyes. We thought the characters were hilarious, the songs catchy and the dances amazing.
However after years of being lost in the obscurity of a growing mind, I was recently presented with a copy and I couldn't wait to load it into the now almost redundant VCR and relive this page of my youth.
Regrettably I learnt a hard lesson from this. Sometimes it is best for your past to remain where it is, and be remembered for what it was...it shouldn't be relived.
If the British film industry has one failing then it is musicals. We make great war films, love stories, Romantic comedies...need I mention the greatness of the Ealing comedies of the fifties and the subsequent Carry On's...amazing.
But when it comes to musicals...forget it....We are hopeless.
I still like the songs, I still find the characters amusing, but as for the plot and those almost cringe worthy dance numbers, I am afraid it has left me questioning my youth...Was it mis-spent? Why did I like this film so much? A musical number would just spring up out of nowhere, bearing no relation to the story being told, and I cannot stress too strongly that when it comes to the dance numbers.....well certain viewers may find certain scenes distressing.
But still, once again a product of its time...the swinging sixties.
Every single song in here is worthy of praise and merit and are sung beautifully by John 'Great Escape' Leyton, Mike 'Come Outside' Sarne and team, with I think the best performances coming from The Baker Twins' singing Romeo Jones and of course Freddie and the Dreamers, one act I personally thought were better than the Beatles and who signified youthful innocence and exuberance in a world rapidly going mad and psychedelic. A world and genre that was eventually to swallow them without trace.
Despite all these negative remarks, it is a good film and a bad film in one. Believe me it is possible...some films like this one, cannot be taken too seriously, so we love them for what they are despite the fact that they are on the whole dreadful.
It had been twenty years or probably even more since I last saw this film, now I have seen it again, it will probably be twenty more, but it was fun to look back...albeit with a due sense of disappointment...it just wasn't the same somehow.
I guess it appeals more to the 10/11 year old me, than it does the mature thirty something, I am now.
Years ago, this film was a personal favourite of my sister and her best friend and through them, my brother and I also became quite hooked. The film was only about twenty years old then (if that) and still therefore looked rather hip and trendy in my eyes. We thought the characters were hilarious, the songs catchy and the dances amazing.
However after years of being lost in the obscurity of a growing mind, I was recently presented with a copy and I couldn't wait to load it into the now almost redundant VCR and relive this page of my youth.
Regrettably I learnt a hard lesson from this. Sometimes it is best for your past to remain where it is, and be remembered for what it was...it shouldn't be relived.
If the British film industry has one failing then it is musicals. We make great war films, love stories, Romantic comedies...need I mention the greatness of the Ealing comedies of the fifties and the subsequent Carry On's...amazing.
But when it comes to musicals...forget it....We are hopeless.
I still like the songs, I still find the characters amusing, but as for the plot and those almost cringe worthy dance numbers, I am afraid it has left me questioning my youth...Was it mis-spent? Why did I like this film so much? A musical number would just spring up out of nowhere, bearing no relation to the story being told, and I cannot stress too strongly that when it comes to the dance numbers.....well certain viewers may find certain scenes distressing.
But still, once again a product of its time...the swinging sixties.
Every single song in here is worthy of praise and merit and are sung beautifully by John 'Great Escape' Leyton, Mike 'Come Outside' Sarne and team, with I think the best performances coming from The Baker Twins' singing Romeo Jones and of course Freddie and the Dreamers, one act I personally thought were better than the Beatles and who signified youthful innocence and exuberance in a world rapidly going mad and psychedelic. A world and genre that was eventually to swallow them without trace.
Despite all these negative remarks, it is a good film and a bad film in one. Believe me it is possible...some films like this one, cannot be taken too seriously, so we love them for what they are despite the fact that they are on the whole dreadful.
It had been twenty years or probably even more since I last saw this film, now I have seen it again, it will probably be twenty more, but it was fun to look back...albeit with a due sense of disappointment...it just wasn't the same somehow.
I guess it appeals more to the 10/11 year old me, than it does the mature thirty something, I am now.