Xanadu (1980)

Director: Robert Greenwald

Starring: Olivia Newton-John, Gene Kelly, Michael Beck

A struggling artist living in Los Angeles meets a girl who may hold the key to his happiness.

Michael Beck stars as Sonny Malone, an artist working for a record company painting their promotional posters. When a girl, Kira (Olivia Newton-John) literally bumps into him, he immediately falls in love and tries to find out who she is. (Uhm, Hollywood once again mistakes lust for love. Surely you only truly fall in love with someone after getting to know them first…)

Anyway, that besides the point. Hollywood convinces us this is a love story. This cheesy love story was all too clichéd and not believable, but the film in its entirety was entertaining enough for me to oversee this. The film’s highlight by far, was the music by ELO and Olivia Newton-John. Gene Kelly was also a highlight, in the role of Danny McGuire – a former musician longing to open his own 40’s style club. I really enjoyed this character, and rooted for him more than I did for Sonny.

The fusion of 40’s and 80’s music was awesome. This fantasy musical has its moments, and then there were moments that had me raising an eyebrow and shaking my head. While the film won’t go down as a classic (for me), the soundtrack most definitely will.

As it turns out, ‘Xanadu’ was a box office disappointment, while the soundtrack album went double platinum. ‘Xanadu’ received 11 award nominations, but 8 of these were in the ‘worst’ categories… Oops!

Would I watch it again? No.