Can't Stop the Music

Yeah this is the only time you're gonna be wishing for more Village People because when one of them isn't onscreen the movie is paradoxically awful.

One of the absolute best "bad" movies ever made. Every single line is a gem and the YMCA sequence is some of the hardest I've laughed at any movie. This should've won the Oscar, not the Razzie.

Compulsively watchable for its awful, sunny crassness.

The Village People. OK, that should stop most of you from wanting to see it right there. The tired musical plotting and sometimes blatant homoeroticism ought to turn away the rest of you. The strangest part is that, not surprisingly for a movie directed by a woman, there's an interesting theme buried in here about how a woman is the real power behind the throne of many a successful man... which belongs in a much better movie than this one. This pic makes me want to play Anthrax REALLY LOUD

Aside from Steve Guttenberg's immensely irritating performance, CAN'T STOP THE MUSIC has the "virtue" of not being an especially hateable film. It's horribly inane, terribly written, with no dramatic conflict to speak off, weak humor, and characters that hardly exist. But the people making it mostly seemed to have had fun, and a little bit of that mindless cheer comes across from time to time. Highlights include the construction worker's (of the Village People, that is) heterosexual fantasy.

This film is too long. It's 2 hours when it should have been 75 minutes. I say this not just because its boring but because they start repeating themselves in each scene just to pad it out. Any drama regarding the "will they get a record contract?" plot just melts away as just before they go out and perform, Steve Gutenberg just waltzes in with a bunch of signed documents and starts squeeling that he's "made it." Then we have the final song which goes on for 10 agonising minutes.

Terrible, yet fabulous--it positively revels in its awfulness.

As far as celebrity vehicles go, it is surprising how little screen time and lines members of Village People got in their own movie. There are some must-see scenes here but sitting through the whole thing is a chore.