Without a word of a doubt, this has to be the gayest movie I've ever seen. I don't mean that in a bad way but there is just so much gay in this movie that it's practically overflowing with rainbows. The movie is a fictionalized explanation of how the Village People came to be. Their prime audience, at least at the start, were gay men and the outfits they wore were supposedly gay fantasy material. But in this movie the whole thing about the band being gay was really toned down to the point where it was never even mentioned. Every time you see one, he's with a woman. It might be his sister or a friend but it's never a lover and they're never alone especially with another man. Maybe this was the movie's way of being subtle. But then they throw in the tryouts for their final member and I swear they're trying to say something. Remember, this is a tryout for a singing position so explain the reasons for tumblers, muscle men who sing to their muscles and I swear a flaming gay stereotype twirling flaming batons which set off the sprinklers. Focus movie! Either they're gay or they're not. What are you trying to say with this?Of course there's Bruce Jenner in his first, and thankfully last, starring role. The man wasn't a good actor. And he's parading around at some point in shorts and a t-shirt with a bare midriff. Do you think they knew something about him even back then?Then there's the scene in the YMCA where they sing YMCA. And again, it's full of buff young men doing sports, changing clothes, swimming and eventually they all tumble down into a giant Y on the final strain of the song. This is giving out mixed signals. It's uneven. It serves as not only a vehicle for the Village People to play some songs but to see if former decathalete and Wheaties spokesperson Bruce Jenner could carry a movie. It failed in both regards.By the time the movie had come out, disco was no longer a thing and that more than anything else, killed it. It's even been said that this movie killed movie musicals for decades afterwards but I don't think that's fair. There were others that came afterwards that were worse. The movie itself is rather unremarkable. It's a bunch of bits tied together by Village People songs and performances. It's not a movie I'd recommend to anybody unless you're into bad movies or movies with heavy gay subtext in them.

Can't Stop the Music (1980) ** (out of 4)Jack MOrell (Steve Guttenerg) is a struggling writer with the help of his friend (Valerie Perrine) manages to strike up a band called The Village People. Their attempt at getting someone to take them serious is a challenge but soon the whole world is going to catch on.CAN'T STOP THE MUSIC was a notorious flop when it was released and there have been all kinds of reasons given. It was supposed to hit during the disco craze but it turned out to be released as that music genre was quickly dying. Another problem is that the film itself got horrible reviews and this just helped keep more people away. Over the past decade or so the film has gained a strong cult following due to how campy it actually is.I honestly didn't think the film was too bad but there's no question that there are some major issues here. For starters, this was meant to show off The Village People but it doesn't do that. In fact, the film paints them as pretty boring people all around. Whenever they aren't singing they basically just stand around watching things so seeing their "success" story doesn't really hit us because they're so boring. If you don't like their music then you're even deeper into the "I don't care" thing. Is the film campy? Sure but aren't The Village People kinda campy now? The film has a really silly vibe to it as if the director was simply trying way too hard to make the characters and situation seem cool. Another problem is that some of the song clips are pretty much done in a video format and they are embarrassing. This is especially true for Y.M.C.A., which has to be seen to be believed.The performances from The Village People really aren't that good but there are a couple catchy songs. Steve Guttenberg is always fun to watch but he's not given too much to do here. I did think Perrine was quite good in her role. Then there's Bruce Jenner who is quite embarrassing here but his silly and over-the-top performance does add a few laughs.As it stands, CAN'T STOP THE MUSIC isn't nearly as awful as its reputation would make you believe but at the same time it's a pretty big embarrassment that fell well short of where it wanted to be.

I really don't like this film, because it didn't do the musical group, Village People, any justice. The movie delivers an unbalance, vague resemblance pseudo-story of the Village People's formation, rather than their actual story. I can't blame them, too much on it, since the real-life band creator, Jacques Morali & lead singer, Victor Willis weren't willing to pitch in, with this film production. I don't blame them, after all, the production for this film, was full of reports of cast members getting injury, tension between actors and the director, and last, but not least, complicated film locations, due to adjacent protests by gay activists over the 1980's film Cruising. There was no way, Morali and Willis was going to do this film. So, it makes kinda sense that they had to do a lot of rewrites; but why, did they, went way overboard on the certain things. A good example is the use of nudity. This really shock me, because the movie was supposed to be rated PG. So, why is there scenes of male & female full-frontal nudity!? Who bright idea was to rate, this movie PG? I guess, they thought, the film was a cartoon, due to the over the top cartoony humor, the film has. They really went overboard with this. Honestly, what does filler scenes like an old granny mugger or a woman stuck in a phone booth, has to do with the Village People!? Don't get me wrong, I like the fact that the movie directed by Nancy Walker tries to funny, but most of the jokes really fall flat, because how stupid & childish, they were. Honestly, if their music wasn't there, this movie would be nearly unwatchable. It's their disco and dance music that make this movie, somewhat entertaining. Sadly, some of their instant classics are somewhat missing. Two of the band's three biggest hits: "In the Navy" and "Macho Man" did not appear in the film. I was really disappointed, by that. At least, the band, biggest hit, 'Y.M.C.A" was feature. Still, I could had done, without any of the other mediocre minor hits songs like 'Milkshake', 'Magic Night' and 'Can't Stop the Music'. Their song, 'Liberation" was a great tune, but really feels, out of place, without the pacing of the film. I really didn't like, the film, use of other artist songs, such as "New York - The Sound of the City" & 'Samantha" by David London. Nor did, I like that the movie is giving free-advertisement for Jacques Morali's other band, the Ritchie Family, by featuring their songs, "Sophistication" & "Give Me a Break". Surprising, for a movie that features the Village People, it doesn't show much of them at all. Instead, the movie focus more on how the group was made by a struggling composer, Jack Morrel AKA Jacques Morali (Steve Guttenberg), with his friend, former supermodel Samantha Simpson (Valerie Perrine) & her on & off, boyfriend, Ron White (Bruce Jenner). These three have more screen time, than any member of the band. I get that, the movie didn't want the Village People try to act, too much, so they wouldn't make complete fools of themselves, but gees, Valerie Perrine, Steve Guttenberg and expressively, Bruce Jenner, are not great actors. They all, pretty bad! Not only that, their characters are written, horrible. Steve Guttenberg's character comes across as a smug businessman. Valerie Perrine's character is just sex bait. Last is Olympian Gold Medalist, Bruce Jenner's character, who comes across as a minor character that shouldn't even be there. He rarely does anything, besides being the victim to a bunch of awkward slapstick gags and wince about it. 124 minutes is wasted on these characters, and by the end of the film, you still, don't know, much about the Village People, since coming in. The movie's pacing is also overwhelming. Lots of long takes, and general emptiness makes it a hard watch. Most of the musical numbers didn't look fabulous and crisp, due to the picture quality in the prints that the early 1980s had. Lots of key scenes look way too discolored & grainy. Another problem is the movie was film, without thinking of using any widescreen aspect ratio. There is a lot of bad framing, throughout the film. With a budget of around $20 million, you would think the picture quality would be, better, but half of the budget was spent on a lavish world-wide dinner parties and a Baskin Robbins promotion, during the biggest Disco backlash in history. Really bad judgment call right there. So, it was no surprised that, Can't Stop the Music, the most expensive musical at the time, bomb at the box office. It became so notorious bad that the Razzies was created, just for it, to win Worst Picture of that year. Even members of the Village People, Policeman (Ray Simpson), Construction Worker (David Hodo), Indian (Felipe Rose), Cowboy (Randy Jones), Leatherman (the late Glenn Hughes), and the soldier (Alex Briley), have stated in interviews that they dislike this movie, because, how much they were wasted. Also, the fact that the movie has them, playing heterosexuals fantasy roles, despite their influence in gay male subculture. The only true heterosexuals members, was biker, Glenn Hughes and replacement lead singer, Ray Simpson who took over for Victor Willis, as the Cop gimmick. Nonetheless, there is still a lot of gay imagery here to create a gay cult following and it did. As much, as I kinda like Disco and the Village People; Overall: I really can't defend this movie. Thank goodness, this movie musical got stopped before it made a sequel! It was just plain awful.

This movie was bad in 1980. It is worst now! Talk about not aging well. There is a good reason it flopped so badly during initial release: bad story, bad acting, bad cast. But on a positive note, it does have a few catchy tunes such as YMCA, Magic Night and Can't Stop the Music. Too bad disco was over by the time it reached the screen.Producer Alan Carr actually thought he had another monster hit like Grease. Nothing could be further from the truth. One is almost embarrassed to watch this mess. It actually makes Xanadu look like high they thinking"? Bruce Jenner moves like cardboard and seems uneasy during this entire exercise. Valarie Perrine added another film to her list of flops. Steve Guttenberg is horrible beyond words. The movie is suppose to be the story of how the group The Village People got together. But that was deemed a little too gay so we have this love story going between Valarie and Bruce. The Village People get very little screen time which is a blessing. It is humorous to see the ultra gay Village People with their "girl friends" in several of the scenes.Stay away. Don't say I didn't warn you!