not without flaws, but I still love it

Rating: 8/10 (2 June 2005)

This film is great fun to watch. I love the music, costumes, screenplay, story, actors, etc. There are just a few things that bug me about it.
First of all, the whole UFO Oscar Wilde thing is stupid. It really detracts from the story. Can't we celebrate an extraordinary talent without assuming that it had to come from outer space? And even if one wants to play along with that, then how do they all know where the pin came from, since Jack Fairy dug it out of the pavement? Second, they build us all up with the "rule the whole stinkin world" comment in the beginning, and Jack Fairy hardly turns out that way. The kids even comment "who's Jack Fairy?" when one of them points him out on the street.
Next, how did Brian and company go from sleeping in the park one minute to a slick, expensive MTV-looking music video to pitch to industry executives what seems like the next day? Did they cut a bunch of scenes? Don't get me wrong: awesome video! But very 80s looking, and totally out of nowhere. Nobody ever produced anything like that in the early 70s.
Finally, the reporter (Christian Bale) suddenly realizes who Brian Slade had turned into because he sees that mousy little assistant, but his only knowledge of her was through other people's eyewitness accounts. How could he possibly know what she looked like? Dumb.
Annoyances aside, I really love this movie.