Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

1978

Action / Adventure / Comedy / Fantasy / Musical

8
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 44% · 27 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 44% · 5K ratings
IMDb Rating 4.3/10 10 7519 7.5K

the beatles bus convertible record producer robot theft

Plot summary

A small town band makes it big, but loses track of their roots, as they get caught up into the big-time machinations of the music biz. Now, they must thwart a plot to destroy their home town. Built around the music of The Beatles, this musical uses some big name groups like Peter Frampton and Aerosmith.

Director

Michael Schultz Photo
Michael Schultz

Top cast

Sean Moran Photo
Sean Moran as Dancer
Nils Lofgren Photo
Nils Lofgren as Our Guests at Heartland
Gwen Verdon Photo
Gwen Verdon as Our Guests at Heartland
Donovan Photo
Donovan as Our Guests at Heartland
720p.BluRay 1080p.BluRay
1023.66 MB
1280*544
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 51 min
Seeds 2
2.05 GB
1920*816
English 5.1
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 51 min
Seeds 6

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by MIK7x3 5 / 10

I Liked It. Well, EXCUUUUUUUSE ME!

Am I the only one who liked this movie? After hearing nothing but bad press about it for years, I finally went out and saw it. I thought it was one of the most fun flicks I'd seen in years. All the characters were named after Beatles songs! Starring Billy Shears (Peter Frampton) and the Hendersons (the Bee Gees) "were all there" as well, "Sgt. Pepper" featured Strawberry Fields (Sandy Farina) as Billy's leading lady, and Mr. Mustard (Frank Howerd) was "such a mean old man." Let's not forget Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (Dianne Steinberg), the Sun King (Alice Cooper), and Sgt. Pepper played by an old Beatles protege (Billy Preston). The movie also depicted countless cover versions of Beatles songs, including Earth Wind & Fire's "Got to Get You Into My Life." As the narrator, Mr. Kite (George Burns) even covered "Fixin' a Hole." Critics of the movie should be so critical"when they're 64," let alone 82! Sure, the plot wasn't worthy of a Kubrick screenplay, but what could be more accurate than explaining how corporatism is anathema to the fun of music, and how profound an impact the Beatles had on later artists. Look for Dame Edna (Barry Humphries) in one of the many crowd scenes. I have one final case for "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." It had one of my favourite comedians (Steve Martin) singing one of my favourite Beatles songs (Maxwell's Silver Hammer). I'm picking out a thermos for this movie!
Reviewed by tgbldkam 5 / 10

Pure 100% Grade A Cheese

If you are looking for a movie that you can just sit back, relax and forget about the world, this movie is it.
Reviewed by wjellick 5 / 10

Well... it had some moments.

Judging from the range of comments it produced, this one could very well become the gold standard for a 'cinema-Rorschach' test. Yes, the 70's eventually degenerated into over-the-top, disco-drenched silliness so of course it's understandable why some frame the film that way. All syrupy, wrong-headed excess. And part of me agrees with them - even Stigwood's other 70's 'successes' such as Jesus Christ Superstar and Tommy strike me as not good enough to be called absurd. And remember that this IS a musical - which means you have to check your normal perspective at the door anyway. And THAT usually means you are either a musical lover or hater.So, what are we actually reacting to here? 'I liked the 70's AND I like musicals - so I like this movie'? Or, 'I hated the 70's AND I hate musicals - so I hate this movie'? Or, 'I LOVE the Beatles - NO ONE can ever do their music the way they did it - so I hate this movie'.OK, so it doesn't work for you or maybe it does. I thought the premise was inane (I generally don't like musicals anyway) and the acting was , well, inane also. And I didn't like the 70's when I lived through them and like them even less in retrospect - so I have some fairly deep garbage to wade through to give something like this a decent shake.But, there are some qualities to recommend this film. I found the Bee Gees to be a surprisingly good fit for a lot of the Beatles tunes. Their rich harmonies complimented and in some cases provided unexpected new dimensions to the Beatle's themes. Not every song worked but most did. Unfortunately that was not the case with Frampton. His soft demeanor just didn't deliver on many of the tunes (Sgt Peppers theme, for example). Forget the acting - I ignored most of it.Rather than pick the whole thing apart, I decided to reside in the camp that says 'sit back, shut off the brain and just listen to the music'. And that allowed me to appreciate George Martin's unerring hand on the throttle. His timing, attention to detail and sophisticated musical guidance were ever-present. The production quality should seem familiar to true Beatles fans.So in the end, I thought the whole attempt to be so much lesser than any individual Lennon/McCartney song (many of them are entire stories in their own right anyway). And squeezing something as sublime as 'Because' out of Alice Cooper was just sad. But even so, I'd say overall the music as steered by Martin makes this one at least worthy of a listen, if not a viewing.
Read more IMDb reviews

4 Comments

Be the first to leave a comment