I was a huge ELO fan in the Seventies, so of course I got the soundtrack album as soon as I could. Lotta good songs on it, many of which I now have on my iPod. Saw the movie again a few years ago and it still sucks (reminds of what was, perhaps apocryphally, the shortest movie review ever: Xanadon’t). Also saw the tongue-in-cheek stage musical of it, which was good, silly fun.
This - I have to stop and watch it every time I run across it.
Mr. Kat took me to this for my birthday a couple of years ago, bless his heart:
I enjoy the music, and Olivia Newton-John is always fun to look at. Definitely a stinker of a movie, though…
I saw this movie TWICE in the theaters in 1980, back before videos were ubiquitous. Then again, I think I was smack dab in the heart of their target market: 13-year-old girls, apparently. I still love the soundtrack, though.
The soundtrack is very good!
And I’m sure that a lot of guys went to the movie specifically to see Olivia, like I did.
Yes, and here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Hcd02rr-1I
They did something similar in Godspell: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txgcqvc8sJ8
Is there a name for that kind of musical technique, two dissimilar songs that combine so nicely?
There is but I’m blanking on it. “Lida Rose/Will I Ever Tell You” from The Music Man does this also.
My wife tells me they do it in Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas as well.
Counterpoint?
Counterpoint indeed: Counterpoint - Wikipedia
It’s a type of counterpoint called a quodlibet
Irving Berlin was famous for them. (“You’re Just In Love” from Call Me Madam, “Old Fashioned Wedding”, from Annie Get Your Gun, etc)
Xanadu wouldn’t have been so awful if it wasn’t for that Beck douche. If you’d gotten someone who could sing, dance and/or act (even one of the three would be an improvment) to take his place, it would have been a charming bit of fluff.
You guys also know that it’s a kinda-sorta sequel to Down To Earth, right?
“I knew John Travolta. John Travolta was a friend of mine. You, sir, are no John Travolta.”
My sister was 12 when it came out; she and her friend adored the movie, and it’s still a guilty pleasure for them to this day.
Myself, I was a 15-year-old boy, with a huge crush on Olivia, and ELO was (and still is) my favorite band. Those were my reasons. 
I believe that’s the TV appearance, not the cut from the movie.
The movie was poplar…wasn’t there a sequel made…something like “A Night In Paradise”?
If you mean Xanadu, then, no. The film barely broke even at the box office, and received mainly mixed-to-negative critics reviews. No reason to make a sequel. And after Grease and Xanadu, ONJ started working on a more adult/bad girl image, as in her Physical music video.
I don’t know. Most of it sucks. Parts of it feel like a genuine attempt to make movie magic.
A friend is very fond of Xanadu. We went to a free outdoor showing that attracted at least several hundred fans.
Agreed, and this is from someone who enjoyed the movie, even then.
IMDB indicates that it had an estimated $20 million budget (not a huge budget, even in those days), and it looks like it might have grossed $22.8 million.
Roger Ebert’s review from its original 1980 release is online; he gave it 2 stars, though, reading the review, I’m a little hard-pressed to see why he gave it 2:
One of the few good things he had to say about it: “it’s not as bad as “Can’t Stop the Music.”” 
From what I remember, Ebert’s review was pretty typical. There weren’t too many people, at that time, who liked it, and most found it to be just silly. It’s grown in popularity in the years since, and has become a cult favorite, at least in part for the camp value.
My favorite one-word review is still “Xanadon’t.”
BTW, Xanadu ranked #28 among the top-grossing movies of 1980. Heck, even the also-awful *Flash Gordon *(#23) beat it!