lionhart7

Unlike the previous comment, I think the Kids in the Hall can definitely lay claim to being Canada's favorite troublemakers. Just because the series was filmed in Toronto, doesn't make them a Toronto comedy troupe. If you look at where they each came from, you will find only one of them is from Toronto...the rest are from Edmonton, Ottawa, Montreal and North Bay. Pretty diverse example of Canadiana, I think.

There seems to be a misconception that only Martime/Newfie humour (This Hour..., Rick Mercer, Codco) makes up good Canadian humour. Not all good Canadian comedy has to come from the Atlantic Coast...as the Kids and Brett Butt (Corner Gas) have proved.

I'm a big ELO fan, and I remember hearing about the movie, waiting for any advance word...

When the soundtrack's first single, ELO's "I'm Alive", was released just before the movie, I had severe reservations. The song had the catchy harmonies, and strings (although produced by synthesizer). and I still liked it...but it sounded sort of kitschy and cheezy. It was the first ELO release that I didn't go nuts for. Even so, I went to the movie, not knowing what to expect.... ...the movie was tolerable at best, although cringe-inducing in some scenes.

I felt cheated. Alright, I wasn't surprised it was a bit of a 'chick-flick', since Olivia Newton-John was the star...but how did I find myself entering a "disco" movie better suited to a romance comic book??? I mean, with a musical cast of soft-rock/country goddess Olivia, classic/prog-rock masters Jeff Lynne and ELO, early new-wave rockers The Tubes, and 60's rocker Cliff Richards; star of 50's music-and-dance Gene Kelly--basically the most accomplished star of musicals in movie history; and an up and coming animation pioneer like Don Bluth...how the heck did they end up doing a tacky live-action cartoon the Bee-Gees, the Krofft brothers' puppets and Donna Summer would be more at home in???

I have to wonder how the guy who pieced this thing together was ever able to work in movies ever again. What incompetent assembed this diverse group of talented people together, throwing in a male lead that nobody had heard of (or heard from again), and selecting a director whose previous work was restricted to television work: basically a couple cheesecake extravaganza "Portrait of ..." movies of the week and some disaster called "Flatbed Annie and Sweetiepie, Lady Truckers"??

To this day, I still have a copy of this movie and soundtrack only to complete my ELO collection. A bad, misguided movie project on the cusp of the MTV video age slowed ELO's career much like fellow 70's rock icons Journey (Tron) and Queen (Flash Gordon). Yes, the early 80's played havoc with my movie senses, luring me into bad movies with the false promise of good soundtracks. Having to tailor their music to fit cheezy disco-pop formulas damaged their reputations as serious rockers. Many a good 70's rock band destroyed their credibility in the early 80's. The song was very true, video *did* kill the radio star....

Unfortunately for ELO, this movie harmed their careers more than any other participant. To date (Sep 2004), ELO's penchant for hits in the mid-to-late 70's should have guaranteed them a spot in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Yet, they still haven't made it, while less accomplished contemporaries have been admitted. I directly blame their decision to do this movie for the nagging doubts keeping them from The Hall. Classics like "Evil Woman", "Strange Magic", "Telephone Line", "Don't Bring Me Down", "Fire on High"...all obscured by a bad artistic choice to do disco-ish music for this movie. Aside from ELO, Jeff Lynne could arguably be a Hall of Famer on his own, based on his work since Xanadu. He has worked with and produced George Harrison and the other Beatles (two others individually and as a group post-John Lennon's death), Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, Randy Newman, Dave Edmunds, Helen Reddy, Del Shannon, Brian Wilson, Tom Jones...has provide stellar music for other movies (Robin Hood, Electric Dreams, Lethal Weapon 2, Joyride, Indecent Proposal)...has been a member of supergroup The Traveling Wilburys and 60's cult band The Move...been nominated for and won Grammies....and he'll NEVER live down Xanadu. He and ELO took "The Fall"...indeed!

Olivia went on to do a few more cheesy movies before she became a relic of the 70's/80's...The Tubes never did hit 'the big time' after this movie...Cliff Richards slipped back into the past...and Gene Kelly unfortunately had this movie as one of his final star credits. At least Don Bluth was able to break the stigma of doing Xanadu. There isn't anyone else involved with this movie that I would care about slightly as far as "what ever happened to..." goes. Except for one.

What happened to the guy who pieced together Xanadu, exec producer Lee Kramer? Not much...other than another 1980 project "The Man Who Saw Tomorrow", he has no other credits in IMDb. I won't be digging through the discount bin at Blockbuster to find *that* gem.

This movie should only be used in film production class on how not to produce a movie. Absolutely Crap-tacky-ular.