Xanadu

"Xanadu" cannot possibly be described as a good movie, but it can be recommended to those who can tolerate large amounts of intravenous marzipan.

This modern musical with tunes written by Where Are They Now pop band ELO falls flat on its face simply because the premise is so utterly ludicrous.

The acting is wooden, the direction and cinematography confused, the special effects largely out of place, the dramatic interest nonexistent.

Stupendously bad.

While the movie is every bit as garish and overly shellacked as the other bomb musicals of its era, at least this one looks like irresponsible amounts of money were thrown around.

An experience so vacuous it's almost frightening.

The much-pilloried roller disco musical went on to become a Broadway hit and cult classic, and upon further reconsideration... still deserves its reputation as an all-time dud.

It is one of the dumbest movies of the 1980s, and one of the most joyful movies of the 1980s.

…This may not be Xanadu as Orson Welles or Coleridge imagined it, but it you’re looking for a gaudy pleasuredome with Gene Kelly dancin’ to ELO, you’re absolutely welcome to this one…

It was never designed to age well and oddly, because of that fact, it remains relevant to this day. It's this impermanence that makes Xanadu feel significant; a then-product now-relic of the 1970s that celebrates the disco-era long after its demise.