Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978)
Average Rating: 2.9/10
Reviews Counted: 20
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 17
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 2.5/10
Critic Reviews: 5
Fresh: 0 | Rotten: 5
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 2.8/5
User Ratings: 7,299
Movie Info
Pop star Peter Frampton and the Bee Gees star in this musical, loosely based on the popular 1967 Beatles album Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. In the story, Billy Shears, who now heads the Lonely Hearts Club Band, is the grandson of the famous Sergeant Pepper. He is confronted by the need to save the magical musical instruments of the band from the bad guys, led by music tycoon B.D. Brockhurst (Donald Pleasance), who want to steal them. If they succeed, the magic which infuses
Jan 1, 1978 Wide
Aug 12, 2003
Universal Pictures
Watch It Now
Cast
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Peter Frampton
Billy Shears -
Barry Gibb
Mark Henderson -
Robin Gibb
Dave Henderson -
Maurice Gibb
Bob Henderson -
Frankie Howerd
Mean Mr. Mustard -
Paul Nicholas
Dougie Shears -
Donald Pleasence
B.D. Brockhurst -
Sandy Farina
Strawberry Fields -
Steve Martin
Dr. Maxwell Edison -
Aerosmith
Future Villain -
Alice Cooper
Father Sun -
Billy Preston
Sgt. Pepper -
Stargard
The Diamonds -
Earth Wind & Fire
Benefit Performer -
George Burns
Mr. Kite -
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Patti Jerome
Saralinda Shears -
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Max Showalter
Ernest Shears -
Dianne Steinberg
Lucy -
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John Wheeler
Mr. Fields -
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Hank Worden
Old Bandmember -
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Carel Struycken
The Brute -
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All Critics (20) | Top Critics (5) | Fresh (3) | Rotten (17) | DVD (4)
A totally bubblegum and cotton candy melange of garish fantasy and narcissism.
This crass moral pantomime is plain embarrassing.
Top CriticThis isn't a movie, it's a business deal set to music.
Indescribably awful.
A motion picture whose awfulness can hardly be imagined on a human scale.
Pathetic acting and a scattershot plot sink this pitiful attempt by producer Robert Stigwood to turn the landmark Beatles album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band into an engaging film.
Inert musical set to the bubblegum music of the popular 1967 Beatles album.
The music is really good, too. Never mind the 'story.'
Oh yeah, the Bee Gees are much better than that other band.
gleefully nutty chaos!
The only reason to watch this is to laugh at how bad it was. That, and the haircuts.
Sitting through what passes for a story here is like trying to make a meal out of a can of vanilla frosting. ...The comments on the test screening scorecards must have been priceless.
You need not see it to believe it.
Mermerizingly awful. A bad idea, badly executed
A fascinating mess with strong retro camp appeal.
I stared at the screen wondering how anyone thought this could possibly have found an audience, even in the degraded '70s.
Audience Reviews for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Super Reviewer
I have to start by letting you know what the producers thought this film was going to be. They considered this as the Gone with the Wind of the '70's generation. I shit you not. They were obviously on good drugs in 1977-78 because I wouldn't even call this film Break Like The Wind.
We have to begin with the leads. You have Peter Frampton, who put out some live album and then was never really heard from again. He's like Warren Zevon except Zevon had TALENT! So we get Frampton butchering Beatle tunes. But that's not all. That's not the worst of it. Guess who else gets to shit on the moniker of Lennon/McCartney. That's right, the Bee Gees. The Brothers Gibb weren't satisfied with destroying most of late '70's popular music, they had to wreck most of the '60's, too.
But that's not all. It's actually down hill from this point with each musical interlude more cringeworthy than the next. Donald Pleasence singing I Want You (She's So Heavy). No, it gets worse. How about Steve Martin puking up Maxwell's Silver Hammer? No, it gets worse. Alice Cooper doing Because. It keeps getting worse and worse until you just can't take it. You have to exit the room and defecate because it's one piece of shit after another.
Sgt. Pepper also jumps on the Star Wars band wagon. There's an odd little duel with hammers that light up and glow like- yes, you guessed it- lightsabers. And Mr. Mustard has to C3PO's with boobs
massaging him throughout the film. Oh, and apparently Billy Preston can raise the dead (and change your clothes).
Films like this are usually horrible, especially when the songs are taken out of the context that they were meant to be. Across the Universe is another such crapfest that features people who shouldn't be singing Beatle songs. Listen, if I wanted to hear people sing Beatles tunes badly around a gazebo I would take my iPod to the park. Such a horrible, horrible film using the music of the Beatles, particularly the Sgt. Pepper and Abbey Road albums is like eating and egg salad sandwich from a gas station- it looks good in the plastic but it consumes worth shit.
The minute John Lennon died his first act was rolling over because of the stench this film has left on society. You may be wondering why if this film is so bad am I giving it one star. Well, not to be a plot spoiler, but the villains spouting off against love and promoting money is the '70's coked up Aerosmith. They're called some kind of villain band and actually do a good coked up rendition of Come Together that still gets a little airplay. As I sat there I realized that this film is really a choice: you can be bad and go with Aerosmith or be good and hang out with George Burns and the Bee Gees. So it looks like I'm going to hell.
Super Reviewer
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