Posted by tjparsons on Sun, 27 Sep 2009 11:41pm
Some fun musicals in no particular order of importance:
CULT MUSICALS
1) Hedwig and the Angry Inch 
- Wham bam and glam. Gender-bending but heartfelt electrifying tunes. Wigs optional.
2) Phantom of the Paradise
- De Palma made a musical? Classic Paul Williams. A musical I watched twice in the same day the first time I saw it. Curious? You should be. Give yourself a treat. Pick this one up for your collection.
3) Cannibal! The Musical
- How the hell was this thing made with that budget? Shows how you can stretch a dollar when you have unrelenting musical talent. A.K.A a musical based on the travels of Alfred Packer from Trey Parker and Matt Stone starring Dian Bachar. The commentary on this DVD is one of the funniest in existence bar none.
4) Shock Treatment 
- What? There was a sequel to The Rocky Horror Picture Show? Well sure, it pretty much fortold the reality TV fad.
5) Moulin Rouge 
- I have a love hate relationship with this movie. It's pretty engaging to hear modern pop rock in the backdrop of the turn of the century. It's a bit too sappy and dramatic for me most of the time. But the sound and the visuals are worth it in the long run making this gem a vibrant cinematic absinthe induced hallucination.
6) Hair
- Who would have guessed that the MPAA originally gave this a G rating. Put that in your pipe and smoke it....well poor choice of words given the subject matter. The tunes in this classic tale of love, loss of innocence, the human spirit and war haunted me (in a good way) for most of my life. Since watching recently, you might realize the styles of clothing change but history tends to repeats itself. I'm sure you've heard references to it your whole life. Check out this classic. Put this one in your collection for documenting marks in history, not to mention the soundtrack is forever. Age of Aquarius.
7) The Blues Brothers 
- Some of the most iconic cinematic musical performances in recent history: Ray Charles, Cab Calloway, James Brown just to name a few. Not to mention Performances that defined comedy. One of the biggest car crash scenes in history. Having a bad day? I guarantee one veiwing of this movie will make you forget what you were feeling "blue" about. Now that's a powerful movie.
8) Little Shop of Horrors 
- Frank Oz really knows his musicals. Levi Stubbs, Steve Martin, Rick Morranis, Ellen Green. This musical is a good started for that friend that swears he can't stand musicals. It will covert them into a believer; Not to mention that references to this movie seem to pop up everywhere.
9) Tommy
- You go, Anne Margret with your sexy self; sploshing around in a pool of beans. I am a big fan of the rock opera and I can tell you many that have been made and are currently being made are striving to be as behemoth as this one. Memorable character Tina Turner as the "Acid Queen" commands a presence that can't be denied.
10) Pink Floyd - The Wall
- Superb mix of music, textures, montage and animation. There is not a brooding teenager alive that hasn't watched it a zillion times. What is amazing to me is that 80% of the youth today use a viewing of "The Wall" as a rite of passage.
11) Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny (2 DVD Set)
- Jack Black gets back to his roots with "hard rocking amigo" Kyle Gass. If you are at any level a fan of Tenacious D this is a must have. Special appearances by Dave Grohl. I purchased the CD of the soundtrack before I moved, and on the entire 7 hour trip there was only 20 min I didn't have the soundtrack on repeat rocking out and singing at the top of my lungs.
*"this one goes to eleven" ( This Is Spinal Tap 
homage)
thanks for stopping by,
tjparsons
movies discussed in this list were:
