Hulkeasexo it is the rare 'crazy' movie that actually has something to say.

Robert Joyner The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Married Baby Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Pozdnyshev I'm giving this a "9" not because it's a great, well-crafted, well- scripted movie, like I think most people would agree "Chinatown" or "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" is. I think it deserves a 9 because it's just an unfiltered extension of Frank Zappa's music, which I love already: weird, unique, often rambling, with astonishing gems here and there. "Mystery Roach" and "Magic Fingers" stand out as favorites. But Zappa was better at music than he was at filmmaking. 200 Motels is an annoyingly opaque in-joke, a surreal jumble of skits with psychedelic video filters, weird-looking people in funny costumes, and cheap sets. They're not really funny or interesting, either, they're just weird. It pulls off a lighthearted vibe like Sesame Street, only the characters talk about the "penis dimension," how depressing it is for whores to sleep with traveling musicians, and people taking too much acid. That may sound dark, even offensive, but the tone of 200 Motels is just so silly that it's hard to take any of it seriously.I think there are deeper meanings woven into this thing, but they're odd, half-baked and just not interesting. For instance, there's a recurring theme of nuns doing dirty and undignified things like having sex with Alladin's Lamp (wtf?) and taking pills. I would actually rather NOT take that seriously because even though it comes from the mind of the great Frank Zappa, it's... stupid. Juvenile. Hurrr you don't like religion, let's flick a booger on a nun. Without going deeper into why he wants to depict nuns in such an undignified way, it's just more tacky and nonsensical stage-dressing.It's kind of like the Monkees' "Head". It's stupid, pointless, and self- indulgent, but it's also a feature-length music video for a popular band, if you're into them anyways. And the over-the-top psychedelia is interesting at times.

dizozza There is in 200 Motels an expression of insecurity matched by delusions of grandeur creating an atmosphere of low self-esteem. I realize musicians can provide a service that seamlessly blends with our lives, intensifying drama and fun, but seeing 200 Motels again at Anthology Film Archives I remember that the point of composing is to add something new to what's already out there...Some composers innovate while sounding pleasing, their music blending well with other music of the times... Acceptance may be the composer's most comfortable accomplishment...It is encouraging when people like your music, and perhaps you have also delivered something advancing the possibilities of sound... Zappa was completely capable of fitting in while being innovative and original. He's actually a very successful pop star, and his material was always somewhere within the mainstream of commercial distribution.He represents the universal reflexive response to rejection: reject! He wasn't accepted because why? He could have stepped into the orchestral shoes of the universally acclaimed Guy Lombardo! What a nice guy easing us into a new year with pleasing sounds.Anyway, in my rejected adolescent insecurity I wasn't appreciating Muzak. I wanted to hear beautiful explosive sounds, and at the time, 1960's-1970, harmonic innovation was part of pop music, primarily through Burt Bacharach, but also with The Beatles, The Fifth Dimension, The Mamas and the Papas... Other innovators of the time include Edgar Varese, Hans Werner Henze, Luciano Berio, Karl Stockhausen... for me the most accessible of radical orchestral composers is Leonard Bernstein. George Gershwin of course passed away at a young age (38) at the height of his innovations and discoveries...so again with Frank Zappa at 53. It appears that musical innovators are not long for this world and it's amazing what they accomplish in their short lives.The point here is that 200 Motels pushes away the refined classical crowd with a sense of vulgarity...the funniest outcome will be that a tuxedoed audience will jocularly sing along with the lyrics in the songs....200 Motels offers great performers and musicians interpreting Frank Zappa's writing, while spoofing his plagiarizing leadership, and they especially deserve to be recognized and glorified... and yes, Frank Zappa, through great effort, offers a path for the advancement of musical composition... I wish making the movie was less contentious... It is beautiful and inspiring.

Michael_Elliott 200 Motels (1971) *** (out of 4) If you've heard any of Frank Zappa's music then you should know what to expect in this semi-documentary and that's originality and strangeness. The film follows Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention on a tour but don't expect your typical Don't Look Back type of scenery. Instead we get all sorts of short stories including an animated sequence with an acid taking Donald Duck wannabe, two groupies and Ringo Starr playing both Zappa and a dwarf. This film also has the distinction of being shot on videotape, which allowed Zappa to finish the movie in ten days. It's really hard to recommend this film to anyone because I'm sure most won't know what to make of it and in fact as a Zappa fan I wasn't sure what to make of it but that there is what makes the film work. Another movie like this can't pop up in my mind and for my money that originality is what makes this film special. Zappa himself is scene throughout the movie but never heard. That's an odd thing to do but what's even odder is having Ringo play Zappa and it's shocking how close they look to one another. Keith Moon shows up as a "sexy nun" so that there should tell you how nuts this film is. If you're looking for an actual documentary on Zappa or his tour then you're going to be out of luck here but if you want pure strange images then give this a try. There's plenty of music throughout the film as well, which is another big bonus.

LCShackley After over 30 years of waiting, I finally caught this movie on late-night cable. It was definitely not worth the wait. As expected, FZ fanatics will dub virtually anything he did as a "work of genius," but this nasty piece of work is nothing more than a display of self-indulgence. FZ himself stays out of the limelight, using Ringo as his stand-in, but he hovers in the background as a God- or conductor-figure, the mastermind behind the mess. The film is choppy, vulgar, and so dead-weighted by 70s film techniques that it's a laughable look back at how awful entertainment could be in those days. And the band...aargh! Would anyone like to argue that the Turtles could never have made it in show biz after the advent of video? And why does the amazing George Duke waste all his time with a trombone? Zappa was no doubt a musician of talent and insight. For instance, I remember reading an article he wrote in STEREO REVIEW (around this same time) about the music of French avant-garde composer Edgard Varese. And he obviously was acquainted with current orchestral writing techniques (the segments in the film of purely orchestral music are the most durable). But what separates him from true genius is how he wasted his career trying to shock the cultural and religious establishment by being as crude and vulgar as possible. Many "geniuses" have shocked the world, but few if any of them spent their careers reveling in the muck as did Zappa. Genius requires something a bit more exalted than 200 MOTELS.