Java_Joe
Without a word of a doubt, this has to be the gayest movie I've ever seen. I don't mean that in a bad way but there is just so much gay in this movie that it's practically overflowing with rainbows. The movie is a fictionalized explanation of how the Village People came to be. Their prime audience, at least at the start, were gay men and the outfits they wore were supposedly gay fantasy material. But in this movie the whole thing about the band being gay was really toned down to the point where it was never even mentioned. Every time you see one, he's with a woman. It might be his sister or a friend but it's never a lover and they're never alone especially with another man. Maybe this was the movie's way of being subtle. But then they throw in the tryouts for their final member and I swear they're trying to say something. Remember, this is a tryout for a singing position so explain the reasons for tumblers, muscle men who sing to their muscles and I swear a flaming gay stereotype twirling flaming batons which set off the sprinklers. Focus movie! Either they're gay or they're not. What are you trying to say with this?Of course there's Bruce Jenner in his first, and thankfully last, starring role. The man wasn't a good actor. And he's parading around at some point in shorts and a t-shirt with a bare midriff. Do you think they knew something about him even back then?Then there's the scene in the YMCA where they sing YMCA. And again, it's full of buff young men doing sports, changing clothes, swimming and eventually they all tumble down into a giant Y on the final strain of the song. This is giving out mixed signals. It's uneven. It serves as not only a vehicle for the Village People to play some songs but to see if former decathalete and Wheaties spokesperson Bruce Jenner could carry a movie. It failed in both regards.By the time the movie had come out, disco was no longer a thing and that more than anything else, killed it. It's even been said that this movie killed movie musicals for decades afterwards but I don't think that's fair. There were others that came afterwards that were worse. The movie itself is rather unremarkable. It's a bunch of bits tied together by Village People songs and performances. It's not a movie I'd recommend to anybody unless you're into bad movies or movies with heavy gay subtext in them.
Cristian
Is funny to talk good about a movie that for much people is actually bad, that is the reason of why talk about "Can't Stop the Music" is funny."Cant Stop the Music" is a semi - biographical musical of Disco famous group "The Village People", and when i talk about the biographical is because there some facts that actually happen to build the group, only that the film put some fictitious characters for give reason to some funny situations. So, the story is about a Steve Guttenber who wants to bring his music to the world and be famous, and how with the help of a Valerie Perrine (Bob Fosse's "Lenny") get men with good voice - You know who are they - for build a group and in this way be famous. This was the plot of "Cant Stop the Music", one of the first 80s musical (Of course, with "Xanadu").The movie win big of fame, but not as the Big and Great musical of the 80s, only as "This movie is bad than ... " and that kind of things. And is undoubtedly, "Cant Stop the Music" is one of the cheesy musicals of the 80s, for not saying THE cheesy. Anyway, this is cheesy funny film, that i think that don't deserves the fame that have for some reasons: Maybe, even if you like "Village People" don't going to love the film, but if the supposed problems that have doesn't care to you, and you love "Village People", you going to fall in love with this film. And, for being a musical in the 80s, times very hard for the Musical genre, this film have great and dazzlings choreography for each song. Besides, for a plot, yes, the things seems to be a fast unworried script, where well, it seems that don't much happens, and some of the problems not are the interesting, for much, thing, but that's part of all the fun. This is a easy and funny movie, but never unworried.There's another point that nobody ignores and even, blame this film, and is about the gay subtext. Unless this bother you, the time of this movie was 1980 and the musical was about "The Village People", now, is not a secret that this music impact in a lot of gay discos in San Francisco, the most shocked public by this music (In spite that the "YMCA" is very well known even between straight guys) was gay community. Even some of the "Village People" moved in the gay ambient (Felipe Rose, for example, was the first of the rest of integrates who begin the group, of course not alone. However, he was found it in a gay disco as a waiter, but this waiter have an Indian costume), and the costumes that their put it on, represents, i guess, all the worldwide masculinity symbols and are a kind of spoof of critic about machismo (Sorry if i'm wrong with that). So, with all these characteristics, How you can expect a film without that certain elements? They said in production notes that the movie have to be made of something straight. However, we see some scenes like the famous "YMCA" scene where a lot of hunks playing between them naked in the shower and even dance in a choreography for the exercises. So, this thing is don't bad, look it in this way, it was inevitable, it was them.There is another thing to understand the movie moods and this is explain thanks to the character of Valerie Perrine, Samantha, who told us a thing that is actually truth: "This is the 80s ... Your going to see things that you've never seen before" ... Well, "Cant Stop the Music" is one of that things, but it was the newly born 80s. It was the 80s of joy, before, no much much time before, but before anyway of the born of the doom of AIDS. "Cant Stop the Music" is actually that, the happy newly born 80s."Cant Stop the Music" is not so successful but really exciting and funny musical, really good and to pass good times, because, no matter in what time you born, "Cant Stop the Music" is like a time capsule that take you to an optimistic and happy 80s anytime you want.*Sorry for the mistakes...well, if there any.
JasparLamarCrabb
NOTE: I could not watch beyond the opening credits so this review only applies to that very painful few minutes.Steve Guttenberg quits his job at a record store after his fascist boss informs him that he'll be needed to work an extra shift. Guttenberg straps on a pair of roller skates and begins to weave in and out of Manhattan traffic. The titles roll along with him. Alternating urges to laugh and vomit swirl in the viewer's mind as the names Valerie Perrine, Paul Sand, Tammy Grimes, Leigh Taylor Young and others appear. A full-on assault to the gag reflex ensues once the words "Directed by Nancy Walker" appears. And why does this film "introduce" Bruce Jenner...he was an Olympic hero by this time! Ghastly. YES, you CAN stop the music...shut this nightmare off or walk out of whatever unlucky theater may run this! Better yet, roller skate away...FAST!
