Writer-director Alan Parker's feature debut Bugsy Malone is a pastiche of American movies, a musical gangster comedy set in 1929, featuring prohibition, showgirls, and gang warfare, with references to everything from Some Like It Hot to The Godfather. Uniquely, though, all the parts are played by children, including an excellent if underused Jodie Foster as platinum-blonde singer Tallulah, Scott Baio in the title role and a nine-year-old Dexter Fletcher wielding a baseball bat. Cream-firing "spluge guns" sidestep any real violence and the movie climaxes cheerfully with the biggest custard pie fight this side of Casino Royale (1967).

Unfortunately for a musical, Paul Williams's score--part honky-tonk jazz homage, part 1970s Elton John-style pop--lets the side down with a lack of memorable tunes. Nevertheless, Parker's direction is spot on and the look of the film is superb, a fantasy movie-movie existing in the same parallel reality as The Cotton Club and Chicago. A rare British love letter to classic American cinema, Bugsy Malone remains a true original; in Parker's words "the work of a madman" and one of the strangest yet most stylish children's films ever made. --Gary S. Dalkin

Customer Rating:
Summary: BUGSY MALONE
Comment: THIS IS ONE OF THE BEST FILMS I HAVE EVER SEEN I RECOMEND IT ANYONE 5 STARS.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Works great despite region 3!
Comment: I'm 40 yrs old and have fond memories of this movie, and remember loving the music. I wanted to buy it for my kids to see now, and found it on amazon a year ago. Put off buying it, and at that time it was a Region 1 disc for $18. So when I looked it up again last week, I couldn't believe the region 1 was now $40! Started reading the reviews on the (cheaper) region 3 and was glad for the few that said it seemed to play fine. Took a chance, crossed my fingers and......received it today and it works perfect on my 6 month old Sony dvd/vcr combo player, as well as my 7+ year old Toshiba combo player! As someone said, there is no menu and it automatically starts playing in English. The back of the case says "English versions with on/off chinese/english subtitles". (Amazon should state this on the description.) Glad I didn't pay the extra $20 for a region 1!! Too bad they haven't digitally enhanced the picture, but it's rather nostalgic seeing it just as it was back in 1976. Can't wait to watch it with my 6, 8 and 11 yr olds this weekend!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Pretty good
Comment: The sound isn't that great but all in all a pretty good reproduction of the original movie. Worth the money. This is the only movie with Jodie Foster where she really looks sexy before time took its toll.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Bugsy Malone
Comment: My grown sons enjoyed this movie when they were young, so I purchased this as a nostalgic treat. It brought back some memories and some good laughs. It,s a new group of people doing "Little Rascals" types of activities. It was enjoyable.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Stop the Insanity!
Comment: OK, first let me say that I actually own this disk. Many of these reviews are for the movie--which I'm sure we all remember fondly from the Family Film Festival with Tom Hatten--but do not speak to the actual product being sold. (Amazon really should discourage this practice.) And I can understand why some people who have not purchased it are concerned, because the box looks all foreign and scary. I got my disk in a timely manner, and even though it is marked zone 3, it ran just fine in my bottom-of-the-line Samsung American-market DVD player. So I'm thinking it will work for you, too.
The disk itself is fairly bare-bones, without a lot of bells and whistles. There are no subtitles unless you want them (even on the credits) and the sound and picture are quite clean. If you have bought the motion picture soundtrack you will find that some of the vocals are slightly different, and I think the CD is perhaps a bit better. All in all this is a quality product that just looks weird. It's certainly worth the money, and while I can't absolutely guarantee that it will work for you, it sure did for me.

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