Artist Sonny Malone (Michael Beck) is giving up. He goes back to painting enlarged record covers for AirFlo Records. He rips up his drawings which float to a mural of the Greek muses at the end of an alley. Kira (Olivia Newton-John) remains on earth to inspire Sonny to help Danny McGuire (Gene Kelly) create a roller disco club. For his assignment back at AirFlo, Sonny is told to enlarge a record cover with Kira on it.This is fun and silly. I don't know what people are expecting. The writing is cheesy. The effects are cheesy. Even the songs are cheesy. It was probably a little late for a Disco movie especially one that is so sincere and happy. There is something unabashedly naive about this movie. The only major complaint I have is Michael Beck. Apparently he didn't get the memo about what kind of movie this is. He's like a gloomy cloud in an otherwise bright sunny day. This movie needs a cheery guy instead of Michael Beck with his scowl. On the other hand, ONJ is the perfect magical musical muse. She can't stop giving off that fun vibe and she has some terrific catchy songs. Then there is the great Gene Kelly. He still has the spark and it shows. He brings with him some old fashion class.

This movie was just bad. I remember watching it when I was 7 years old and going to school and bragging about seeing it. Thank God I transferred to a different school a year later. The movie is embarrassing to watch. The dances and acting are so overblown and over-the-top it makes your toes curl as you watch. The only thing I can think is Hollywood was DESPERATE for musicals to make a serious comeback into the mainstream. All the dancers just danced too hard and their smiles were too big! It was just embarrassing to watch. You could say its a great "camp movie" but that's not so either. Camp movies were never meant to be blockbusters, this was. If you want to see a good camp movie from the 80's see Earth Girls Are Easy or Trancers!

Watching Gene Kelly is always a treat and he fares much better than Fred Astaire did in his last movie Finnian's Rainbow. Kelly is firmly entrenched in the past and memories of his "muse," the same one inspiring Beck in the present. It's fun watching how studios create sets and the quick switches from era to era. This movie is over the top produced (like the original The Wiz). How could anyone expect it to make its costs back. Suspend logic. Watch the original: Down to Earth. This is much better. But, it is easy to see why disco and its attended style was a flash in the pan. Newton is young and charming. Watch it for a glimpse of the past.

The poster for the movie shows FantasyFantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary plot element, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic and magical creatures are common. Fantasy is generally distinguished from the genres of science fiction and horror by the expectation that it steers clear of scientific and macabre themes.Xanadu is a fantasy!!! not serious,I love the movie because I love Oliva voice she sang and had a lot hits before this! IT SHOW A TIME THAT IS GONE BOTH OLD AND NEW OF IT'S TIME EARLY 1980'S AND 1940'SOLIVA perfect for it! music was great! it was great seeing Gene Kelly again and i believe he directed too. THEY could of found a better actor for her to costar with. there was cartoons, once again great music, dancing, dancing in roller skates, (roller skates never got to the big time like Olimpics and you don't see them in any dancing, but ice skates of course have) roller skates are of pas say now her dancing is rather choppy and when she sings the very last part of Xanadu when dressed a fantasy queen her lip sinking was horrible. maybe what was wrong for people was no sex for adults and not child like for children like oz or like stories that never ends and witches, magic wands and magical places and schools