Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978)

This is a movie featuring the Bee Gees singing Beatles songs. I'm reminded of such classic movies about the Beatles like "A Hard Day's Night" and "Yellow Submarine". Those were much better...because they actually had the Beatles in them! This movie features a villain named Mr. Mustard who wants to steal the band's magic instruments. It's about as dumb as it sounds. At least it's not worse.The worst thing is that they try to put a plot together while singing all these songs. I know that the Beatles were known for being surreal, but this is just sloppy. Nothing is coherent and you can't follow the plot because the songs are too random. The one saving grace of the film is George Burns, who is honestly quite enjoyable in this film. I remember this appearing on Wikipedia's list of movies considered the worst. It has been removed and it's probably not one of the worst. *1/2

Yeah. This is a train-wreck of a movie. But, even the Beatles worst madcap movie, Magical Mystery Tour, is no gem. Their movies had a hand-held, home movie style. What's sad about this one is they seemed to pile on a lot of talent and throw dazzle at it. I doubt anyone can justify the dripping cheeseburger as a centrepiece in the main square? That said, 38yrs later, this does have it's good moments. Singing by the BeeGees, Peter Frampton, Aerosmith, EWF and Billy Preston I enjoyed. I don't usually like to hear other artist do The Beatles songs. Last, where will you ever see Carol Channing singing with Tina Turner? Crappy movie? Yes. Worth a look? Yes, at fast-foreword.

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.

A strong contender for worst movie of the 1970s. The idea of dramatizing the Beatles songs into a full length movie may have sounded like a good idea after the success of The Who's TOMMY, but in execution, SGT PEPPER is mind numbingly bad. Peter Frampton and the BeeGees substitute for the Fab Four as a band who have to battle the evil Mr. Mustard (Frankie Howerd)for control of their hometown Heartland. Heartworm is more like it. The mayor is the decrepit George Burns and people like Elvin Bishop, Peter Allen, Carol Channing and Leif Garrett make up the town's population. An abysmal, out of touch movie that soils the reputations of a lot of really talented people. Thrown into the mix are Aerosmith, Donovan, Minnie Riperton, Steve Martin and Donald Pleasence...which makes one wonder if the casting director was suffering from a fit of dementia when assembling this lot.