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Can’t Stop the Music <\/strong>(1980)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Associated Film Distribution\/Musical\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 124 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (brief nudity, adult themes, double entendres)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Nancy Walker\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Allan Carr and Bronte Woodard\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Jacques Morali\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Bill Butler\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 20, 1980 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: The Village People, Valerie Perrine, Bruce Jenner, Steve Guttenberg, Paul Sand, Jack Weston, Tammy Grimes, June Havoc, Barbara Rush, Altovise Davis, Marilyn Sokol, Leigh Taylor-Young, Dick Patterson, The Ritchie Family.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $2M (US)<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Rating<\/strong>: ****<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Is Can’t Stop the Music <\/strong>o<\/strong>ne of the biggest musical flops of all time? Yes, but I love it anyway! For starters, it’s got one hell of a cast. It stars Olympic runner Bruce Jenner (now known as Caitlyn), sexy Valerie Perrine (Superman I & II), Steve Guttenberg of the Police Academy movies and 70s disco group The Village People whose fifteen minutes of fame were up by the time their movie hit theaters. PLUS, it\u2019s directed by Nancy Walker aka Rosie the waitress from the Bounty commercials. What\u2019s it all add up to? Like the poster says, it\u2019s \u201cThe Movie Musical Event of the 80s\u201d!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Okay, so Can’t Stop the Music <\/strong>didn\u2019t actually turn out to be eventful. It was more of a non-event. This came as a surprise to producer Allan Carr who predicted it would be as big a hit as Grease. It turned out to be more of a fiasco like Sgt. Pepper\u2019s Lonely Hearts Club Band. \u00a0By the time it was released, disco was breathing its last breath. Can’t Stop the Music<\/strong> finished the job. Critics savaged it; audiences avoided it like the plague. By the time it finished its run (it was largely gone by Independence Day), it grossed only one-tenth of its $20M price tag. It was one of several flops (Raise the Titanic, Times Square and The Jazz Singer) that brought about the demise of AFD.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Can’t Stop the Music <\/strong>is a loose telling of the rise of The Village People. They\u2019re formed by Jack Morell (Guttenberg) who quits his job at a record store with the exclamation \u201cMy time is NOW!\u201d This leads into one of the goofiest opening sequences ever captured on film. We get to see Guttenberg roller boogie through New York City while \u201cThe Sound of the City\u201d plays on the soundtrack. It\u2019s truly a sight to behold.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Now unemployed, Jack convinces his platonic roommate, recently retired supermodel Sam (Perrine), to ask her ex, music executive Steve Waits (Sand, The Hot Rock), to listen to a demo of his song. He likes the song, but not the singing. No matter, Jack comes up with the idea of forming a supergroup comprised of some very interesting types, all from Greenwich Village (hence the name Village People). Some of you younger readers probably have no idea who or what I\u2019m talking about, so let me run it down for you. The group consists of men dressed in different costumes. There\u2019s a Native American (Felipe Rose), construction worker (David Hodo), a cowboy (Randy Jones), a cop (Ray Simpson), a leatherman (Glenn Hughes) and a G.I. (Alex Briley). They had a few hits in their brief brush with fame- \u201cMacho Man\u201d, In the Navy\u201d and their most popular song \u201cY.M.C.A.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Somewhere along the way, straight-laced tax lawyer Ron White (Jenner) gets pulled into their story. He\u2019s initially freaked out by all the weird people, but comes around when he realizes he\u2019s attracted to Sam whose former boss Sydney Channing (Grimes, Somebody Killed Her Husband) and her assistant Lulu (Sokol, Foul Play) also play roles in the group\u2019s meteoric rise to success. Jack\u2019s mother Helen (Havoc, Brewster\u2019s Millions) is also on hand to offer up motherly interference and Jewish food. It\u2019s an eclectic bunch, but what else would you expect in Greenwich Village?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Can’t Stop the Music <\/strong>is a bad movie, no question about it. BUT, it\u2019s one of those great laughably bad movies that you watch with friends while making wise cracks the whole time. It is the very definition of campy. There\u2019s a reason it\u2019s popular with the LGBTQ+ community. The acting is all over the place yet it never goes anywhere close to good. Watching it, you\u2019ll understand completely why Jenner didn\u2019t become a movie star. He might have a few gold medals, but he will never have a gold statuette. Perrine looks stunning as always. Guttenberg is his usual goofy self. The Village People essentially play themselves, just not very well. It\u2019s a good thing they can sing. As for the rest of the cast, they\u2019re just there for the party.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Can’t Stop the Music<\/strong>, as you might expect, contains quite a bit of dopey (and sometimes suggestive) dialogue. One of my favorite lines is when Jack says to Sam, \u201cAnyone who could swallow two Snowballs and a Ding Dong shouldn\u2019t have any trouble with pride.\u201d Now I wonder what he really<\/em> meant by that? And what about this howler from Lulu: \u201cHousework is like bad sex. Everytime I do it, I swear I will never do it again. Until the next time company comes.\u201d And let\u2019s not forget this prescient comment from part-time philosopher Sam: \u201cThe 70s are dead and gone. The 80s are going to be something wonderfully new and different and so am I.\u201d We have writers Allan Carr and Bronte Woodard to thank for these lines and many more.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0The musical numbers are wonderfully tacky and oddly catchy. Besides Guttenberg’s display of his roller boogie skills, you get the guys singing \u201cMagic Night\u201d at a backyard party at Sam\u2019s. By the end, everybody is dancing and boogieing in a circle. The construction worker daydreams about being a future star while singing \u201cI Love You to Death\u201d. The group makes a tacky commercial for milk, dancing and singing to \u201cDo the Milkshake\u201d. None of those top the movie\u2019s big number \u201cY.M.C.A.\u201d If there was ever any doubt to the rumors about the Village People being gay, this number will erase each and every one. It features half-naked (and fully naked) young men engaging in manly activities like swimming, diving, gymnastics, exercising and showering. That last one gives a whole new meaning to the idea of \u201changing out\u201d. Perrine is the only female in this scene and she keeps her clothes on the entire time. Let’s not forget the big finale when the boys perform the title song before an enthusiastic crowd. Of course, the rest of the cast joins them on stage.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0I didn\u2019t see Can’t Stop the Music <\/strong>at the movies. I wanted to, but nobody would take me. I didn\u2019t get to see it until it showed up on cable in summer 1987. I wasn\u2019t impressed at the time. I rented it on video in \u201994 and ran off a VHS copy for myself. That\u2019s when it became one of my greatest guilty pleasures. It\u2019s right up there with Xanadu, The Apple and Grease 2.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Okay, so Can’t Stop the Music <\/strong>is<\/strong> essentially a collection of clich\u00e9s taken right from countless musicals from the 30s and 40s., I kept waiting for somebody to say “Let’s put on a show!”. I’m a real sucker for cheesy musicals from the 70s and 80s. I\u2019m also a big disco fan. As such, this movie is a real treat on many levels. It’s like time warping back to a more innocent time when people bought music at record stores, roller boogied around town, went to discotheques and buddied around with strange people from the Village. I don\u2019t care what anybody else says or thinks of me, I LOVE Can’t Stop the Music<\/strong>!<\/strong><\/p>\r\n Can’t Stop the Music (1980)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Associated Film Distribution\/Musical\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 124 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (brief nudity, adult themes, double entendres)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Nancy Walker\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Allan Carr and Bronte Woodard\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Jacques Morali\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Bill Butler\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 20, 1980 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: The Village People, Valerie Perrine, Bruce Jenner, Steve Guttenberg, Paul Sand, Jack Weston, Tammy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":989,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-guilty-pleasures","category-musical"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Cant-Stop-the-Music-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":991,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276\/revisions\/991"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Cant-Stop-the-Music-POSTER.jpg?resize=620%2C938&ssl=1\")
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