This movie is like a trainwreck. You don't want to watch, but its impossible to resist. Some of the songs aren't bad at all! Earth Wind & Fire and Aerosmith turn in excellent performances. Overall the movie is so over the top and campy, that you can't possibly take as anything but a somewhat fun romp, the likes of which we will never see again.I can only speculate on the amount of drugs that were consumed on the set of this movie..haha. The ending has to be seen to be believed. A crowd of 70's personalities and musicians on a platform singing Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. I can only imagine what the 70's were like to live through, but if this is any indication...LOL...

This was an awful movie and there's no way to try to justify watching the film unless you are either a bad movie lover (like me) or you lived through the Disco Age and like to watch it for nostalgia sake (like me). Remember, that 1978 to 1980 brought us the most awful musicals of all-time--such as XANADU, THE APPLE, ROLLER BOOGIE, CAN'T STOP THE MUSIC (with the Village People) and this wretched film.

It will take a long time to list all the reasons the film stinks, so let's start with the singing--as there was almost no dialog in the movie--it's just one music video connected to another. Well, first off, no matter how good SOME of the performers are, they are NOT and can never replace the Beatles singing their own songs. The Fab Four decided (rather wisely) NOT to take on this project so the insane powers that be (a.k.a., Robert Stigwood) decided to do it anyways with the Bee Gees and Peter Frampton. Aside from these four and a few competent professional singers (such as Billy Preston, Alice Cooper and Aerosmith),the rest of the singing was done by people who could only hope to sing as well as Lee Marvin and Clint Eastwood did in PAINT YOUR WAGON--the singing was THAT bad!

Next, the biggest problem with the film was its rather substantial budget. Had the film not gotten such a huge infusion of cash, it never could have been as garish and tacky. And this film is T-A-C-K-Y---all in bright neon letters!!! Even for the late 70s, it was tacky--it was THAT tacky! Additionally, almost every 30 seconds, the characters had a complete wardrobe change and many of the outfits looked like they would have been more at home at a birthday party for Liberace! In addition, the money bought the most garish and stupid sets money would buy.

Now on to the film, scene by scene: --The film began with a surprisingly decent rendition of Sgt. Pepper (featuring the Bee Gees) but it was brought back down to Earth by Frampton--who in joining mid-song managed to flatten the overall effect. Plus, as I said earlier, no signature Frampton guitar solo!!

--George Burns began to sing and I tried to destroy my eardrums with an icepick just to make him stop. Later, I realized I could have just turned down the sound--talk about lousy timing.

--The lady playing Frampton's girlfriend sang. She had a nice voice--sort of like Karen Carpenter--which was all wrong for the Beatles tunes.

--Donald Pleasence appeared in a cheesy wig and actually sang. It might have been worse than Burns' number, but deciding which was worse is sort of like arguing which is worse, the Black Plague or Cholera.

--Pleasence made the four men stars in about five days and suddenly a montage appeared in which we saw old people dancing and grooving to rock music. This is just wrong. Old people do NOT dance to rock music !!

--An idiot named "Mustard" (Frankie Howerd) sang and every time he came on the screen I wanted to retch. Apparently this guy was a star of British TV, but I have never seen any of his shows (thanks--there IS a God!). I am just too traumatized to say more about him other than he was just awful and so were his STOOOPID robots--ugh!!!

--Robin Gibb sang a nice number and I realized that throughout the film he was given the best chance to show off his talents of the four. Way to go Robin!

--Steve Martin sang a comical number. I honestly don't know if it was intended to be funny, as he really stank, but I laughed.

--Alice Cooper appeared, though they had him made up to look more like Frank Zappa and his sequence was rather like a very forgettable acid trip.

--Maurice Gibb appeared and sang a number. You know Maurice--he was the forgotten Bee Gee who always sang backup and was without all the hair (sadly, he died just a few years ago).

--Earth, Wind and Fire sang a Beatles song. I thought this version was crap, but my wife said they were talented and the song sounded bizarre but good.

--Colonel (or was it "Mr.") Mustard sang a horrid rendition of "When I'm 64". To quote Kurtz, "the horror!".

--Aerosmith sang a number that was actually a slight improvement on the original Beatles song and this was the only time this happened during the film. So naturally, the idiots responsible for the film stopped them mid-song and killed them off! You can't have something GOOD mess up the general tempo of the film!

--Unexpectedly, a weather vane turned into Billy Preston and flew around on wires and gave everyone the finger, so to speak. Lightning and magical stuff came shooting out of it at everyone. As a result, everyone lived happily ever after...even the lady who had died several scenes earlier.

--In one brief scene before the final ensemble number, Barry Gibb shares some pot with Donald Pleasence. I assume Gibb was confused and thought he a member of the "Doobie Brothers".

--The only really interesting thing yet to come was a huge sing-a-long at the end. Look for the stars and has-beens for probably the most interesting part of the film.

The decade of disco, the 70s was ruled by the BeeGees especially after the release of Saturday Night Fever. So this film starring them with Peter Frampton should have been a slam dunk with the box office and the critics. It was neither and the critics really pounced on it.

Post 1965 Beatles music formed the score of Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band and the film is essentially fantasy opera. Frampton is in the title role and the BeeGees were the other band members.

No use to describing a plot, knitting the whole film together and giving it some structure is the voice of George Burns who utters the only speaking words in the film. I guess no one asked sugar throat Burns to sing.

A bunch of guest artists are here and if you are into that decade's music as well as Lennon-McCartney you will enjoy the film no matter what the critics say. They weren't kind, but I don't think it was that bad.

The kaleidoscopic colors of the decade's fashions really kind of overwhelm the viewer. That and the fact that Peter Frampton was the prettiest one in the film. Some of the scenes come close to soft core porn.

But it's the music you want with a film like Sergeant Pepper so sit back and enjoy.