Matrixston Wow! Such a good movie.

Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

SoftInloveRox Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

Sam Panico Often one goes into a bad movie asking — to borrow the name of a highly entertaining podcast — how did this get made? Or worse, you have to stop and ask yourself, in the case of a film that ends up offending both target audiences, such as 1972s The Pink Angels, who exactly is this movie being made for?Let me reiterate: In 1978, a movie version of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart Band — starring the Bee Gees and Peter Frampton — probably made all the sense in the world.The Brothers Gibb had just come off Saturday Night Fever (1977), a movie that transcended the screen and spawned a movement. Or at least a fad. But between that and Barry Gibb producing Grease's title song (and I just want to throw in that the Bee Gee's also wrote and arranged 1979's Dolly Parton/Kenny Rogers opus, "Islands in the Stream"), the boys from Manchester via the Isle of Man were on the top of the world. It truly does not get any higher a mountain and the fall, we'll soon see, does not get any further.Peter Frampton — after a journeyman career of playing in bands and being seen as a viable solo artist — had finally scored big with Frampton Comes Alive! in 1976. The album spent 97 weeks on the charts, selling 8 million copies. That number today is well nigh impossible to reach today; it equals around 13% of the overall records sold in 2016.So this ersatz Fab Four — if you will or won't — had star power, at least on vinyl. The Bee Gees had also covered the Beatles for a BBC doc in 1976, despite years of critical derision that they were simply clones of the boys from Liverpool.Stars were aligning. Even better, Saturday Night Fever and Grease came out on Robert Stigwood's RSO Label. Stigwood purchased 29 of the Beatles' best songs for use in a Broadway play and then had the brainstorm to create a film, using the aforementioned big music stars. He got Beatles' producer George Martin and Abbey Road Studios on board. And even worked with Paramount — the same studio who launched Saturday Night Fever — to get the movie green lit. Add in what I editorialize was the kind of cocaine mountain that only the '70s and Martin Scorsese could concoct and…ladies and germs, we got ourselves a motion picture!So up until now, until that first shot of the film, this all makes sense. It's when reality allows its ugly head to intrude that we see just what an epic failure of a movie this is. Writer Henry Edwards had never written a script before. And oh, does it show. Whereas the Beach Boys' Pet Sounds directly influenced and made the audio Sgt. Peppers an aural feat, there was no such film to inspire this outing. In fact, there isn't even a story, unlike the Who's Tommy. So to get across the tale — such as it is — George Burns would be the only person to speak (he's the Mr. Kite, he of whom the song For the Benefit of… is about) with every other bit of dialogue being sung.That's right, kids! It's the hip sound of today, as croaked out by the star of Oh God! Meanwhile, the Bees Gees play Mark, David and Bob Henderson. Why those names? Don't ask! And in the starring role, Peter Frampton is Billy Shears (and not the man who took the place of the headless Paul McCartney if you believe in urban legends)!Read the rest of this review at: www.thatsnotcurrent.com/movie-review-sgt-peppers-lonely-hearts- club-band-1978/

irishm Full disclosure: I don't like the Beatles, and in fact will go out of my way to avoid them. Nothing personal to their millions of fans, but I see nothing there that's the least bit appealing. To give you an idea exactly how much I know about popular music, though: for years I thought that was Mick Jagger singing lead for the FVB… silly me; it's Steven Tyler. Oops.I don't like fantasy. Nor do I like the Bee Gees… well, maybe more specifically, I don't like disco and I still resent having it shoved down my throat every day of my life when I was in high school. The Brothers Gibb actually sound okay when they sing, as long as it's something other than disco… nice harmonies.You might as well add George Burns to the things I don't like, as long as we're at it, and seeing as he's here.During my most recent viewing, it finally occurred to me that perhaps Beatles fans actually see this kind of thing in their minds when they listen to the original music… perhaps they understand the odd lyrics and find meaning in them independently. Perhaps that meaning is even different for each listener. My own imagination can't find that kind of meaning in nonsensical things like walruses and strawberry fields and yellow submarines, but when it's all laid out for me as a story I can follow, even in an awkwardly cobbled-together effort like this one, I do like it. It's weird, exploitive, poorly acted by many (I'm looking at you, Mr. Frampton), over-long, grotesque in places (now I'm looking at Mr. Howerd and Mr. Martin) and very much a crass pop-culture money-making effort with questionable staying power… yet I'm entertained by it. I've probably seen it a half-dozen times. Sometimes I don't know why I'm watching it… but I still watch it, all the way to the end. I don't really 'get it', necessarily, but I enjoy it on some level.Beatles fans probably universally dislike this production, and I don't blame them. I'd dislike it if I was a fan of the source material, but since I'm not, I approach this film on a whole different level and it works for me.

Michael_Elliott Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978) 1/2 (out of 4)Thankfully the entire "let's turn a great album into a horrid movie" genre didn't make it past this abomination, which is just one bad idea after another. The Bee Gees play the title characters of the legendary Beatles album and for some reason they travel from one vignette to another. I really wish I could explain the "story" a little better but there's really not one or at least not one that you can figure out without the help of a lot of drugs. It's funny to think how popular pop was when the album was made and by the time the film had came out many rock stars had jumped to cocaine and heroin and I think the result of this film proves that those drugs just don't work. I'm really not sure what George Martin was thinking when he threw this together. I'm guessing it had to do something with money because why on Earth would you have The Bee Gees singing the songs of The Beatles? It's nothing against the group as they were great at what they did but throwing them into this film was just a huge mistake as the songs range from suicide worthy to embarrassing. Another horrible thing about the film is its actual look. The entire thing just looks so over-the-top, childish and silly that you can't help but wonder what the set decorator and director were thinking. Things aren't much better in regards to the supporting comic bits where the likes of George Burns and Steve Martin sing. Really? Whose idea was it for them to sing? Of all the guest performances there are only a few who actually shine. One is Alice Cooper doing a nice version of "Because" and then there's Aerosmith doing "Come Together," which is the only version, which is actually better than that of the original. However, the keep with the badness of the entire film, someone had the bright idea of cutting Aerosmith's song off in middle. SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND is without question one of the worst films ever made. The lowest spot? Probably the horrendous version of "Here Comes the Sun" by Sandy Farina.

dspear777 I don't know why this has such a low rating. Sure the story is silly, but that's the idea. It's simply FUN which were what the Beatles were all about. Look at the actual Beatle movies like "Help". Stupid plot, but fun. The music was well sung, especially "long and winding road". I also especially enjoyed Steve Martin's version of Maxwell's Silver Hammer. And that shot of the plane coming into the smog covered "City of Angels" was priceless. Of course, the final sequence of all sorts of people (Carol Channing, "dspear.usacom", Donavan, etc) was a copy of the original record album, with all sorts of people on the cover. This movie really characterized what the Beatles were about better than any other movie I've seen.