Bugsy Malone (1976)
Directed by Alan Parker
New York, 1929, a war rages between two rival gangsters, Fat Sam and Dandy Dan. Dan is in possession of a new and deadly weapon, the dreaded "splurge gun". As the custard pies fly, Bugsy Malone, an all-round nice guy, falls for Blousey Brown, a singer at Fat Sam's speakeasy. His designs on her are disrupted by the seductive songstress Tallulah who wants Bugsy for herself.
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What critics compared Bugsy Malone to
Stephen Holden, writing in the New York Times, panned the movie as a "flashy cinematic stunt" and compared it unfavorably to Alan Parker's 1976 kiddie-gangster musical Bugsy Malone.
Alan Parker's " Bugsy Malone " (1976) was a 1930s gangster movie cast with pre-teen kids (including Jodie Foster ).
One of the obvious antecedents for this film is Alan Parker's regrettable "Bugsy Malone," where children (and a 13-year-old Jodie Foster) played cops and robbers.
As a premise, it sounds cutesy-horrible, like an overlong episode of Jim Henson's Hammett Babies (or worse, a vaguely ped curio along the lines of 1976's Bugsy Malone), but the conviction and earnest wit involved carries it well past the conceptual experiment stage into a genuinely effective reinterpretation of classic noir.
In the end they must vanquish the lava monster Te Ka, and there are coconut-pirates along the way, escapees from some weird mashup of "Mad Max: Fury Road" and "Bugsy Malone."
With the borderline absurd excuse that juvenile minds are more adaptable and trainable, this “Bugsy Malone” treatment of “Starship Troopers” moves through the familiar boot-camp hoops; sometimes it feels like a two-hour training montage.
Early scenes have a fun, Day for Night-via-Bugsy Malone feel, briskly delineating key personnel: chubby, loud-mouthed director Charles (Riley Griffiths); sensitive, just-bereaved make-up artist Joe (Joel Courtney); and lead actress Alice (Elle Fanning), slightly older than the boys, trailing crushes in her wake.
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A cathartic class comedy for kids of all sizes, it's Bugsy Malone in rock pomp, Slacker meets Spy Kids.