The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash

The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash
NBC
March 22, 1978
Comedy, Musical
VHS
B+

This movie is roughly equivalent to the big-screen Spinal Tap movie of six years later, although it's a more band-specific parody.  Much of the Beatles history-- including their looks and sounds-- is captured and lovingly but not gently satirized.  The Yellow Submarine Sandwich segment is up there with the top scenes ever made for television.  However, with the exception of Mick Jagger, I don't think the cameos are on the same level as the Lads from Rutland.

This first aired on the same network as Saturday Night Live (Lorne Michaels and much of his cast were involved) and was the worst-rated show of the week!  It did better on BBC2 a few days later and has since become something of a cult show.  Both Idle's corny McCartney and Innes's "nasty" Lennon are even funnier than they would've been at the time.  (I taped this off Comedy Central around '93.)

Magical Mystery Tour

Magical Mystery Tour
BBC
December 26, 1967
TV-Movie, Musical, Fantasy
VHS
C+

It's easy to see why critics blasted this 48 years ago, and why many fans have said, "It's not that bad."  It's always tricky to be objective about the Beatles, and gosh knows I've seen this multiple times, although not recently.  I think it remains an incoherent mess with some good songs in it, including a show-stopper by the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band.  In evaluating it now, I tried to just simply grade how entertaining it is, and I must admit that even the best songs are not filmed terribly well, and there's more filler in the film (including dream sequences) than I remembered.  I still would rather watch this than Help, and not just because it's shorter.

The genre labels are the best I can do: it's definitely a musical, the wizards make it fantasy, and it is a movie made for television.  It has been shown theatrically, but not till much later, unlike the situation with, for instance, Enchanted April, which was made for TV but got a big-screen release.