03/16/06 The Magic Christian

The Magic Christian (1969), directed by Joseph McGrath

watched w/ Leslie (partially); DVD rental (Netflix) @ home

It's weird how one week you will have absolutely no clue about one particular subject, hear about it in passing, then that same subject seems to be everywhere you look and you are keenly aware of it. This is how I approached "The Magic Christian." Hearing the Badfinger song "Come And Get It" on the radio (you may recognize this as a song that sounds like the Beatles, so you thought it was the Beatles, but it's not...I'll explain), I got some of the background info on it. Apparently Paul McCartney wrote the song for them, they did it, later the Beatles did too, it's famous, but they originally did it for this movie alone. Totally fascinating I thought, then I read the plot of the movie. At the peak of their tripped-out psychedelic Sgt. Pepper's era, Ringo Starr plays the newly adopted adult son of a wealthy bored guy, Peter Sellers. They go on numerous silly adventures, out to prove the over-commercialization & greed of the world wrong, and basically do as many random things as possible. Sounds fun, but the Badfinger song is the best part. It had potential for a great drug-influenced movie, a la "Head" by the Monkees. That movie made no sense too, but it was entertaining and creative. This one proves that even with a ton of cameos (Raquel Welch, Richard Attenborough, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Yul Brynner, Roman Polanski and Christopher Lee) and nudity, nothing could save this flick. The whole story culminates aboard the Magic Christian pleasure cruise-liner where, well, I'm not sure what the hell the point is. Just look for Raquel Welch being the slave-driving mistress of about 100 topless women rowing the boat in the galley. Oh, and there's a bunch of suits who go swimming in stinky sewage for money, do I hear Fear Factor anyone? "If you want it, here it is, come and get...but you better hurry 'cause it's going fast."

2 out of 5 stars