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We’re optimists when it comes to cinema. Despite the (often ironic) title of our podcast, we strive (whenever possible) to see the good in everything. However, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band pushed us to the brink.
This is the musical equivalent of C-SPAN: long, dull stretches of banality. And that’s shocking as the source material comes courtesy of arguably the greatest band of all-time, The Beatles. But what’s done to their music is as much a crime as the fashion variety, above.
Sgt. Pepper’s is an attempt to slap a story together around the album of the same name, and everyone connected to the Fab Four (save for George Martin and Billy Preston) had the good sense to stay the hell away.
The Lonely Hearts Club Band comprises the Bee Gees, and Peter Frampton. They sign a deal with BD records, who immediately tries to exploit them and steal their “magical” instruments. Alice Cooper and Aerosmith appear as evil villains, with the Bad Boys from Boston decked out in some kind of odd Fascist uniform regalia.
Ex-Vaudeville legend George Burns, sorta ties the proceedings together as the kindly narrator – and it’s a good thing too, as without him, the film would approach nigh-incomprehensibility.
It’s hard to pick which musical number is the worst, but there are some front-runners including Barry Gibb’s butchering of, “A Day in the Life.” It feels more like a week.
Still, your intrepid hosts soldier on, plowing through a different genre film every week. While we focus on horror and action, we delight in tackling the odd bizarro musical flop like this one. If you like what you hear on the Really Awful Movies Podcast, tune in and be sure to leave us a review on iTunes.
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We’re used to titles summing up horror movies. The likes of Hospital Massacre, Sorority House Massacre, etc, don’t leave much to the imagination, and little of it is apparent in the finished product. The Incredible Shrinking Man, while not a horror film in the traditional sense, is pretty darn horrifying. An obvious title that lays bare the plot, belies a very interesting, thoughtful, and quirky little movie.