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Product Description
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Remember that scene in Jerry Maguire where the title character suddenly realizes the foolhardiness of his impulsively written manifesto? That's how director Alan Parker (Mississippi Burning) ought to feel every day of his life since making this dopey, 1976 musical featuring an all-kid cast playing Prohibition-era gangsters and molls. What was Parker thinking? The cuteness of the concept never did hold up for more than 10 minutes, but the film extends it impossibly into a feature. Jodie Foster is on hand, lip-synching a Paul Williams song (Williams wrote the score), but even she can't detract from Parker's silliness. It's a toss-up as to whether children will enjoy watching it, since the characters and the milieu are based on adult situations. --Tom Keogh
Review
Bugsy Malone is nothing if not unusual. Very few other films have featured a cast comprised entirely of children, and possibly no other film has called upon those children to play adult roles, let alone adult gangster roles. There's a curiosity value to this concept, but there doesn't seem to be any real reason for its existence -- what's the purpose behind the children as gangsters metaphor? Director/screenwriter Alan Parker has not developed the idea so that there's a real payoff, and as a result the joke wears out long before the film is over. Parker also hasn't developed the "universe" in which these children exist beyond the basics (whipped cream instead of bullets, pedal-driven cars, etc.). Were the rest of the film more involving, this wouldn't matter, but since it isn't, one keeps waiting for more "kid-oriented" devices (in much the same manner that one waits for amusing anachronisms when watching The Flintstones.) Paul Williams' score is undistinguished (and often is distinctly not of the period), and though the actors try hard, most lack the experience to pull off what is required of them. Jodie Foster is the major exception, marvelous but wasted in a supporting role. She's the only one who really seems to be an adult caught in a child's body rather than a child overwhelmed by adult clothes. Martin Lev is almost as good, filling his role with more quiet power than one would expect of someone his age. The physical production is attractive, and Parker has shot some of it with great care -- particularly the "Ordinary Fool number and the expertly-edited finale. There's enough here to make Bugsy Malone palatable, but it still feels like an over-extended skit. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
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