Village People - Can't Stop the Music
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Movie Reviews of Village People - Can't Stop the Music
Movie Review: IT'S SO BAD IT'S... BAD.
Summary: 2 Stars
The producers of this megaflop have been trying to recoup their losses ever since, by periodically repackaging it and trying to promote it as a "camp classic". Perhaps there are people who actually believe that it is one because of this. Village People themselves have some claim to being genuinely camp. They were the creation of gay producer Jacques Morali, who hoped to capitalize on the fad for macho costumes and attitudes among urban gay men in the late 1970's. However, the group's initial releases proved to be so popular among straight audiences that he decided to play down (in fact, essentially conceal) the group's gay origins. I was coming out at about that time, and spent months wondering to myself... were they or weren't they? (Several of the group's original members were; a couple, including lead singer Victor Willis, definitely weren't.)
The movie, though set partly in Greenwich Village, basically ignored the gay aspect of the group as well, except in that coy production number YMCA. (Even in that number, Valerie Perrine is shown enthusiastically bouncing around the gym as if to reassure the heterosexual viewer that all these athletic young men are displaying themselves just for her sake.)
Take out the musical numbers (which are not exactly Rodgers & Hammerstein to begin with) and you're left with an embarrassingly unfunny sitcom (directly by sitcom veteran Nancy Walker) about a young songwriter (Steve Gutenberg) whose best friend, a popular fashion model (Perrine), uses her connections to get him a recording contract with his new group (Village People) she's helped him create. Bruce Jenner is awkwardly inserted into the plot as a love interest for Perrine, because apparently the songwriter isn't interested in her that way. (We are left to guess why that might be.)
Anyone with an interest in gay and lesbian cinema should see this movie, however, as a history lesson demonstrating to what lengths the entertainment industry was willing to go to deny any positive gay visibility. A decade after Stonewall, here's a gay-produced movie about a gay-themed group with gay members created by a gay man set in gay Greenwich Village... and not one overt reference to the subject of homosexuality anywhere.
Movie Review: Too Cool
Summary: 4 Stars
I love this piece of badly acted trash! Felippe Rose (the indian) goes to my gym and lives nearby. He's a lovely guy, tho he got a little irked when i asked if anyone got into Bruce Jenners pants during the filming..... "We were too busy WORKING!!" Well hard work pays off, and the payoff here was a cheezy camp classic! Movie Review: Relentlessly incredible
Summary: 5 Stars
This film is one of the best musical movies ever made. The Village People are incredible. I highly recommend this film to everyone that likes to watch a bunch of fun people having a great time.Movie Review: Can't stand the movie
Summary: 1 Stars
There are some movies so horrible that you watch them, not out of guilty pleasure but rather with the same interest as rubbernecking a 20 car pile-up on a major highway.Nothing works about this movie. It is bad, bad bad, not even Valerie Perrin can make it good. As for Bruce Jenner, what was he thinking. The rumour is that a lot of coke was used in the making of the movie, the reason, they all wanted to dull their senses it is that bad. I'm surprised anyone had a career after this.
Movie Review: So bad it's good? Hardly...
Summary: 1 Stars
Some movies are so inept and awful, that they're actually fun to watch. They have a certain charm that you feel like coming back to over and over again. That's not the case, however, with Can't Stop the Music. It's just truly, horribly awful. I'm sure the idea sounded good at the time. Disco was hot, the Village People were one of the hottest acts around, and Grease had just shown that a musical can still be a smash hit. While it may have been a good concept in theory, in practice it was just awful.With some truly awful movies, you can sit back, relax, and laugh at what makes them bad. With this, you are just so horrified at how abominable it really is that there's no way you could ever find any pleasure in watching it. It's painfully, sickeningly bad.
However, the movie itself looks and sounds good on DVD. If you have to own this (and God help you if you do), this is the best possible presentation you're going to get.