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Bye Bye Birdie

Bye Bye Birdie

List Price: $27.95
Your Price: $22.36
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Really cute!
Review: This is a great movie! Very touching and very funny! Ann-Margret and Bobby Rydell are excellent as the two young leads. They have beautiful voices when they sing the lovely songs. This is a billion times better than the horrendous 1995 remake. Nothing can beat out the opening and closing scenes with Ann-Margret singing the title song! This movie will make you feel good all over! Guaranteed. :o)

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: as Ed Sullivan says," A somewhat big shoooow."
Review: The show Bye Bye Birdie harkened back to a "much simpler" time. To this day, it is often revised by high schools and community groups throughout the world. This I feel is based on the reputation of the play, not this movie. The director is no stranger to musicals having helmed many including "Showboat", "Annie get your Gun" and "Kiss Me Kate." But, that experience does not show through in this film. The inherent problem is the presentation of 1 dimensional characters. Rosie (Janet Leigh) is at many times unlikable because all we know of her is she often flirts to make Albert jealous even to go as far as stripping for a group of shriners... (Admittedly, the bit where the shriners are being dragged under the table is funny). oh,sure, she 'tells' us about the other, nicer side of her personality but we never see it. Similarly, Albert (Dick Van Dyke) is so obsessed with his mother, we can not see what Rosie sees in him. This makes his sudden "Put on a Happy Face" seem shockingly out of character. Conrad Birdie (Jesse Pearson) is so uncharismatic and untalented that it lead me to have poor thoughts about the time period... Was Elvis ever that boring? The parents are additionally 1 dimensional... Momma Peterson (Maureen Stapleton) is always the victim and Harry McAfee (Hysterical Paul Lynde) is all about his business. We see very little growth in any of them throughtout the film. Actually, Rosie and Albert get back together not because he has changed but, because one of the things that was distracting him (Conrads on-screen kiss) is finished. Very little growth. On the positive side, Hugo (Bobby Rydell), even in a very small role, plays a much younger preppy teen very honestly and Ann-Margret, the focus of the story as Kim McAfee is well worth the focus. Some of the choreography is very good, even taking into account the non-dancers with big dance numbers. So, the show did not transfer too well, even losing a couple great songs, I especially miss the barbershop sounding "Baby, Talk to me..."

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: fabulous musical
Review: BYE BYE BIRDIE, the Broadway smash, comes to the screen with charm in spades and heart by the bucketful.

Young Kim McAfee (Ann-Margret) gets the chance to kiss Conrad Birdie (Jesse Pearson) before he is drafted. The little town of Sweet Apple is turned upside-down by the prescence of the hip-swivelling chick-magnet, and the town will never be the same again!

With Dick Van Dyke, Janet Leigh, Bobby Rydell, Maureen Stapleton and Paul Lynde, BYE BYE BIRDIE is assured of having powerhouse performances and fabulous screen moments.

The songs include the Title Song, "Kids", "Rosie", "One Last Kiss" and Leigh bringing the house down in the showstopping "Shriner's Ballet".

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Was It Really THAT Long Ago?
Review: I like this movie somewhat because it put a standard song into circulation, "Put on a Happy Face." On the other hand I dislike it somewhat because it monkeyed with the Broadway script way too much: on the stage Albert's ever-patient secretary, Rose deLeon, was Rosa Alvarez, who got to sing a nice sarcastic song ("Spanish Rosa") about the perils of being stereotyped. It would have been fun to have Chita Rivera in the movie too, though Janet Leigh did her best with the material given her. Also, instead of a songwriter Albert became a chemist! That called for more story-tinkering later, but I won't reveal it.

As an English teacher, I have noticed that college-age kids treat the movie as "camp." That's fair: the movie came out in 1963 and today's 20-year-olds have about the same time-relation to the early 1960s as us grizzled Baby Boomers did to the late 1920s. Such concepts as Mom in the kitchen with housedress on, virginity before marriage and compulsory patriotism were gently razzed in the Broadway show but left alone or even celebrated in the movie. That's camp. And, since the best kind of camp is unintentional, having Paul Lynde in the cast is kind of like double-bonus camp. I daresay that to a 40-year-old (unless you're a hopeless musical addict, like me) "Bye Bye Birdie" on DVD or tape would just be moderately amusing, but it might be worth trying on a 20-year-old, particularly female. If she doesn't like it, she can always return it; if she does like it, she'll be astonished at your intuition.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: movie is stupid but the play we are doin is awesum
Review: We are doing this play in school. Its so cool. We are going to be so good fri sat and sun the movies stupid cuz they take out english teacher and american boy here is 1 of the songs

We luv u conrad o yes we do weluv u conrad and we'll be true when ur not near us we're blue oh conrad we luv u

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Ann-Margret, you're a GAS!
Review: Ann-Margret was in some ways the Ricky Martin of her day in that she was rocketed to national attention by her extremely sexy performance of a song on an awards show. The film adapters of the Broadway show BYE BYE BIRDIE, sensing her potential appeal, cast her as Kim, and decided to let her take over the whole shebang. As a result, Dick Van Dyke and Janet Leigh (in the part of Rosie played on Broadway by Chita Rivera) are relegated to the sidelines, as is much of the stage show's plot and everything else.

The result is somewhat mixed. The show's plot becomes so altered that the ending makes very little sense, and Van Dyke and Leigh are so marginal to the film's interest that their characters become almost tiresome. The only number from the original show that seems to have been improved in the translation from stage to screen is the classic "Telephone Hour," which is every bit as much a showstopper as it should be: the most exciting song ever composed by Charles Strouse, its incessant rhythms make for a very lively edited film number that is the film's highpoint of excitement. Unfortunately, it occurs much too soon--everything else is largely downhill.

The exception to this is Ann-Margret. She IS every bit the star the film's producers make her out to be, and she steals ever scene she's in. At times you can't help looking at her, even when Conrad Birdie, who is SUPPOSED to be the star, is onscreen (no wonder she was later cast--in VIVA LAS VEGAS!-- opposite the real Elvis Presley, whose lipbiting and hipwriggling antics she mirrors; she's almost his exact female equaivalent). The filmmakers asked for an original number for her to start the film (they knew what a find they had in her), and they came up with an almost hyperreal rendition of the title song the composers created, with Ann-Margret hyperactively racing around in front of an electric blue backdrop as the camera tries to keep up with her. The result is nothing short of hypnotic.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great movie
Review: This is a wonderful movie version of the musical "Bye Bye Birdie". However, they do not sing "An English Teacher", "One Boy", "A Healthy Normal American Boy", or "Kids". In spite of this, I reccomend the movie to everyone.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: "The Ann-Margret Show featuring Dick Van Dyke"
Review: This is a likeable film adaptation of the popular Broadway Musical about the teen idol who is drafted into armed service. The opening scene prepares you for what's going on: A young, beautiful and talented Ann-Margret is introduced as the next big star emerging from Tintsle-Town; this film musical should have been titled "The Ann-Margret Show", because although her character is a minor one, she dominates the movie. The musical numbers are still excellent, but once again the usual warning: Don't watch this if you've seen the play, because it doesn't quite measure up to the original.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent Movie
Review: I like the story and the music in there. I think Ann Margret was really good in it.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: You Gotta Be Sincere
Review: I remember seeing this in high school before we did a lousy stage production. It was really good and I enjoyed it. The difference between the stage play and the movie is the story line. The writers and director took a big chance changing the storyline and lyrics around. The gamble paid off. Bye Bye Birdie is a watchable, enjoyable film. Paul Lynde makes me laugh with his rendition of Harry McAffee. Even unknown Jesse Pearson shines as Conrad Birdie. Bobby Rydell also gives a funny performance as Hugo Peabody. Overall, a well done movie.


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