Village People: Can't Stop The Music

No, you can’t stop the music, neither can you stop the camp with this 80’s disco comedy ‘classic’ that makes films like Saturday Night Fever look positively intellectual! Can’t Stop The Music is the story, if one can call it that, of how six singing macho men from New York’s Greenwich Village became camp cult act The Village People.

NY DJ/songwriter Jack Morell (Steve Guttenberg) needs one big break (as you will do after having watched this movie!) to land a record deal. His roommate Samantha (Valerie Perrine) – a retired supermodel - offers her devoted support. With the help of stuck-up tax attorney Ron White (Olympic champion Bruce Jenner) and Sam’s ex-boyfriend Steve Waits (Paul Sand), president of Marrakech Records, things soon blossom from bleak to ultra-colourful when Sam decides that Jack’s own vocal talents won’t do and therefore drafts in six outrageous characters from her neighbourhood…

It’s difficult to say what’s more atrocious – the hair-do’s of all the cast involved, the outfits of all the cast involved, the acting of all the cast involved or the overall production which is dripping with cheese. Luckily, at least The Village People can sing - although tracks like ‘YMCA’, ‘Macho Men’, ‘Do The Milkshake’ and of course the title song are admittedly acquired taste. Producer Allan Carr had just completed the worldwide smash Grease when shooting begun on Can’t Stop The Music during the height of the disco craze. While there might be several factors that contributed to killing off disco fever, this no-brainer has got to be one of the biggest factors. On a more positive note, the flamboyant choreography and dance numbers make the DVD two hours of the campiest, kitschiest and great-fun-for-all-the-wrong-reasons music film you’ll ever see!
Btw the sound is in mono, so don’t be disappointed in case the walls refuse to shake.