I think that your age will most likely strongly affect what you think of this film. If you grew up during the era of the Beatles, then I am pretty sure you'll appreciate what they've created in "The Rutles". However, I think younger generations will just look at it and wonder what they are missing. As for me, I don't quite fall in either group. The group broke up when I was 7 and I never really was caught up in the whole Beatlemania but I still could understand the many Beatle-like references in the film.
"The Rutles" is a mockumentary--one that debuted well before the more recent spate of such films. And as a fake documentary it's much more the style that tries to imitate the original--and it does a great job of creating the look and sound of the Beatles in the fictional group The Rutles. But if you are looking for laughs, this does not appear to be the main purpose--it's more imitation and a homage to the original instead of a laugh out loud film. This isn't a criticism--more just an observation of the overall effect.
The main force behind this project were apparently Eric Idle (who plays three different roles) and Neil Innes. Idle was pretty much what you'd expect. I was very impressed by Innes, as I know he was the musical mind behind the film and his John Lennon-like character was spot-on. In addition to these two, the film was blessed to have the cooperation of various celebrities (though some of the cameos were pretty unimpressive--especially those by most of the Saturday Night Live alumni who just seemed a bit wasted). Of note are the many times you see Mick Jagger, a nice cameo by George Harrison as well as Ron Wood).
As I said above, whether you'll like this probably has a lot to do with when you grew up, as younger crowds won't get the many Beatles references and much older audiences will probably want to turn it off and listen to some Sinatra music! For me, it was worth a look but didn't change my life. Very clever...but not full of a lot of big laughs.
"The Rutles" is a mockumentary--one that debuted well before the more recent spate of such films. And as a fake documentary it's much more the style that tries to imitate the original--and it does a great job of creating the look and sound of the Beatles in the fictional group The Rutles. But if you are looking for laughs, this does not appear to be the main purpose--it's more imitation and a homage to the original instead of a laugh out loud film. This isn't a criticism--more just an observation of the overall effect.
The main force behind this project were apparently Eric Idle (who plays three different roles) and Neil Innes. Idle was pretty much what you'd expect. I was very impressed by Innes, as I know he was the musical mind behind the film and his John Lennon-like character was spot-on. In addition to these two, the film was blessed to have the cooperation of various celebrities (though some of the cameos were pretty unimpressive--especially those by most of the Saturday Night Live alumni who just seemed a bit wasted). Of note are the many times you see Mick Jagger, a nice cameo by George Harrison as well as Ron Wood).
As I said above, whether you'll like this probably has a lot to do with when you grew up, as younger crowds won't get the many Beatles references and much older audiences will probably want to turn it off and listen to some Sinatra music! For me, it was worth a look but didn't change my life. Very clever...but not full of a lot of big laughs.