Bugsy Malone

An absolute classic , if you don't enjoy this you need to go see your Doctor , it may be you don't have a heart or a soul

What an incredible film. So weird. So good aside from its absurd premise. Reminded me of something Adult Swim would air right now, but made on film with total deadpan sincerity (and pre-Airplane!). Highly recommended.

Read some of the more "modern" reviews, people cannot see the innocence of kids just being kids anymore….. First watched in the 80's, still hilarious, this world is going down the pan and the recent reviews show why..

This was the first movie I ever saw at the movie theater in 1976. It was a birthday party and we went to a movie theater as a group of kids. I loved the movie and I loved the songs. It was such a great movie and I was only 11 years old. I hadn't turned 12 yet. I will never forget the moment I got to go to a movie theater for the first time or seeing Bugsy Malone at the movie theater. Years later I got the soundtrack on EBAY, since it was a rare soundtrack. I had to get it from England. I still have the CD. I was so happy to get the movie on DVD years later. One of the best memories of my childhood.

An innovative perspective on a gangster film.

Two rival gangsters battle for turf and a new, strategically important armament during the Prohibition Era -- a cliché if the entire cast were not children. It's a great idea: children playing the parts of hard-hearted gangsters implies that many of plots of the classic gangster films depend upon adults' childish behaviour and the film deals with gangster violence creatively: director Alan Parker could not have some kids stabbing and shooting each other so, he had tommy guns fire cream pies however it's too boring to sit that long on one joke. Genius and fun. The problem, however, is that the plot falls apart in the second act. Fat Sam is losing his turf war, and he ends up recruiting the lower classes to stockpile his army, but these characters come out of nowhere. By the end of the film, it had broken all its own rules, and I could not help but feel quite disappointed. Overall, it is a great idea, but a great idea can only carry a film so far. The Music was Cheesy and, in some times, useful for the plot. Out of the cast Jodie Foster was the standout as she played the character quite well and the morale of the story of taking control of your own destiny was quite cliché

Yup, that's a 13-year old Jodie Foster playing a jaded Depression-era showgirl. If there was a road to get this child into a weirdly sexualized role that would never get cast the same way in a later era, a producer in the '70s would find it. Bugsy Malone is tough to rate, because there really isn't a lot to compare it to. It's a musical spoof of gangster flicks, where the entire cast is child actors and the worldbuilding features details like Tommy guns that shoot cream pies and cars that are pedaled like bikes. Just by the nature of the film - child actors in a goofy world - how can you level major criticism at a project like this? It's very cute but the whole thing is built on the same recurring joke told in different ways, kids talking in old-school noir accents and making wise cracks. It's never a boring film, partly because it's relatively short, but the child actors are unsurprisingly a bit limited (except for Foster and John Cassisi) and the plot really wanders around to cram in a few additional songs. The music is an unusual choice, recording adult singers and having the kids lip-sync to their performances, but they're plenty catchy, if simple. It reaches high and virtually nothing like it exists elsewhere, but I don't know if this film was really the right fit to screen at Cannes (and it was screened there). (2.5/5)

It is an entertaining yet silly kids' gangster movie. Even if some of the performance is a little off-key, the youngsters' sincere smiles when they fumble their lines are endearing. The mild violence was an excellent technique to suggest violence without actually exposing children to too much of it. Despite some criticism, the acting is significantly superior to that of Vin Deasle, Ben Affleck, and Ice T. It is unfortunate that it is not transmitted at all, or even more frequently.

This is certainly an amusing film, a pretty quirky one at that, with the all child cast and the distinctly adult settings. Its a bit of a weird combination, certainly and some moments, esp. those with Jodie Fosters character flirting with the male characters, are a bit uncomfortable to watch these days but that aside, its pretty entertaining, with some good musical numbers and fairly witty dialogue in the script. I thought it was funny watching the kids chase others in 'cars' powered by feet (a la the Flintstones) and I also thought it was funny that the 'guns' (referred to as 'splurge guns') fire mashed potato or something similar, rather than bullets. Its pretty good choreography given the young ages of the cast. The music is pretty decent too, suits/matches the time its set in. Yes I'd recommend this film, particularly if your intrigued to see Jodie Foster in an early role.

"Whee! I'm Dick Tracy! Bang! Take that Pruneface! Now I'm Pruneface, take that Dick Tracy! Now I'm Prune Tracy, take that Dick—" [*gets creampied by splooge gun*]