Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

The acting in this movie is really good.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

That's Entertainment! (1974)*** 1/2 (out of 4)As Frank Sinatra says at the start of the program, certain studios were great at horror and others were known for their great gangster movies but MGM will always be remembered for their grand musicals. This documentary covers some of their greatest moments and has clips from dozens of films and legendary stars.There are too many film clips shown here to list all of them but I assure you that all of the big titles are here. THE WIZARD OF OZ, SINGIN' IN THE RAIN, THE BAND WAGON, ON THE TOWN, THE PIRATE, BABE IN ARMS, MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS and SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS. Again, there are dozens of other clips shown from the late 20s up to the late 50s when MGM was the king of musicals.Best of all is that these are broken down into various segments where we get some terrific hosts to discuss their time on the MGM lost. These names include Sinatra, Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby, James Steawrt, Mickey Rooney, Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds, Lisa Minnelli and Elizabeth Taylor.If you're a fan of musicals then this is a no-brainer, although one could argue that the best way to experience these songs and dance numbers are seeing the films in their entirety. This might be true but what's here is still incredibly wonderful and certainly entertaining. If you're unfamiliar with these movies then THAT'S ENTERTAINMENT! is even more valuable as it gives you a great idea of why these people became legends.

It is very easy to see why 'That's Entertainment' was and still is such a hit. It was followed by two sequels, both of them also well worth watching.'That's Entertainment' makes for a truly delightful couple of hours, a nostalgic trip down memory lane it is affectionate, hugely entertaining and also moving and makes one want to watch or re-watch the films and scenes included.A vast majority of the hosting and narrating segments are very informative and interesting, a fair few of them being knowledgeable and make one want to listen for hours. Behind the scenes stuff and personal lives could have been elaborated on more though. Particularly good was Liza Minnelli's, it is essentially a tribute to her mother Judy Garland but it is an exquisitely poignant one and saw some of her most justifiably famous or iconic scenes such as "Over the Rainbow" ('The Wizard of Oz'), "The Trolley Song" and "Boy Next Door" ('Meet Me in St Louis) and "Get Happy".Not all of them work, there are two exceptions. One is Elizabeth Taylor who looks bored and uncomfortable. The other is Frank Sinatra, whose seemingly "objective" opinion on the very impressive (though sometimes criticised for being overlong) dance sequence from 'An American in Paris', a flawed but still hugely enjoyable musical being MGM's greatest achievement being a sweeping generalisation and for a fair few (myself included) an opinion they don't share, his comments on the chorus girls is also not going to go down well (the point is clear but it just came over wrong).What immediately captivated was seeing the who's who of musical/dance/singing talent being featured. The production values are lavish and just beautiful to look at, the music dazzles and is full of emotions and the choreography is often enough to make the jaw drop. Some scenes could have been better edited and some are too short, and while almost all the scenes featured are fantastic, even masterpieces, those with Joan Crawford don't even come close to the unintentional humour factor. It was interesting seeing James Stewart and Clark Gable singing and such, though one would be lying saying they were great.Of the singing, Judy Garland is definitely a standout in several numbers from particularly 'Meet Me in St Louis', as are Gene Kelly in the iconic 'Singin In the Rain' number, William Warfield's timeless rendition of "Ol Man River" from Showboat" and Mario Lanza's "Be My Love".Dancing-wise, Fred Astaire and Kelly can't be beat, all of Kelly's routines show what a choreographic and dancing genius he was and Astaire's ceiling and walls dance in "You're All the World To Me" is similarly incredible. This said, it was also an absolute joy seeing Ann Miller, the barn dance from 'Seven Brides for Seven Brothers' and Esther Williams' water ballet.Overall, has some flaws here and there but simply wonderful entertainment on a very grand scale. Fans of the MGM musical should not miss this. 9/10 Bethany Cox

Clips of MGM's musical films from the 1920s through the 1960s, together with commentary by Hollywood stars, provide a reasonably good overview of that studio's contribution to the genre. Stars include Fed Astaire, Gene Kelly, Liza Minnelli, Mickey Rooney, and others. The film begins with a written statement: "Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer produced a series of musical films whose success and artistic merit remain unsurpassed in motion picture history." That is thoroughly debatable. But the film is not about debate or objectivity but praise for the studio's efforts; viewers are expected to agree."Musicals were fantasy trips for the audiences of their day", intones Frank Sinatra, the first commentator, clearly reading from cue cards. What he really thought is unknown. Most of the musicals from that era were gaudy, extravagant, flamboyant, garish, and escapist. But they did have talent. Jeanette MacDonald's singing, Fred Astaire's dancing, Esther William's swimming, Ann Miller's tap dancing are examples of terrific skill and showmanship, so much so that, by comparison, today's "stars" seem hardly more than opportunistic talking heads.It's not all self-promotion. Viewers get a taste for some notable flops, like when Joan Crawford "tries" to dance; she was wise to stick to dramatic acting. Then there are all those silent film stars whose later efforts didn't work out too well, as technology transitioned to talkies.Probably my favorite segment is a big dinner at which actors sit at rows of tables. As the camera pans down the long rows, some familiar faces include: Ava Gardner, Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Robert Young, Angela Lansbury, Red Skelton, Walter Pidgeon. But other faces were not at all familiar to me; wish the director had inserted everyone's name as the camera passed by.My main complaint is the studio's canned script, gushing over its accomplishments. Still, the film offers a good historical perspective of the musical film genre. And to see all those talented people, very few of whom are still with us, is great fun.

In a departure from my normal practice, I will not be awarding "That's Entertainment!"a mark out of ten. There seems little point in rating a film when ninety percent of it consists of clips taken from other films. This film is not a straightforward documentary history of the Hollywood musical. It was made by MGM as a celebration of MGM musicals, and studiously ignores anything made by that studio's rivals. Clips of song-and-dance numbers from some of those musicals are introduced by a number of the stars who appeared in them, such as Debbie Reynolds, Frank Sinatra and Mickey Rooney.This compilation was probably made because of the way the cinema was changing in the mid-seventies. Although the early part of the decade had seen two particularly fine examples in "Fiddler on the Roof" and "Cabaret", by 1974 the traditional cinema musical was on the decline. There was also a move away from shooting on sets towards shooting on location. Some of the introductory scenes are shot where the musicals themselves were filmed, on MGM's famous backlot which, by 1974, was starting to look very shabby and dilapidated. (It was to be demolished for redevelopment shortly afterwards).The first part of the film was not particularly interesting, largely because so many of the featured clips were taken from films which are now forgotten and even thirty-five years ago were probably little-known. I also wondered why so much attention was given to Esther Williams, who certainly looked good in a swimsuit but was a very limited actress and whose choreographed water-ballets must have looked hopelessly cheesy by the seventies. One thing that I did learn, however, is that the musical genre was so popular in the thirties and forties that many actors, who today would not be thought of as musical stars, were press-ganged into service, regardless of vocal talent (or the lack thereof). We therefore see clips of the likes of James Stewart, Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Crawford and Clark Gable performing in some very obscure old films. (Stewart and Taylor also serve as presenters). Of these, it is Gable who acquits himself with the greatest honour, but his musical career never took off, apparently because his fans felt that all that singing and dancing was a bit sissy and out of keeping with his he-man image.Things liven up in the second half of the film, because it now starts to concentrate on the really famous musicals for which MGM is still remembered today. The smug, self-congratulatory tone is still present, but the studio can be forgiven a little self-congratulation when it is talking about films as good as "Show Boat", "Seven Brides for "Seven Brothers", "An American in Paris" and "Singin' in the Rain". These last two, of course, both starred Gene Kelly, who also acts as a presenter. Kelly and Fred Astaire, with their very different styles of dancing, were often perceived as rivals, so it was a good idea to have Kelly present a tribute to Astaire and Astaire present one to Kelly. The most moving moment comes when Liza Minnelli presents a tribute to her mother, Judy Garland, who had died a few years earlier."That's Entertainment!" was obviously popular, because it was followed two years later by "That's Entertainment II"". (There were to be two more similar compilations, "That's Dancing!" in the eighties and "That's Entertainment III" in the nineties). The appeal of films like this at the time was probably their nostalgia value for the older generation who could remember the original musicals. Today they seem more like a curiosity, albeit an entertaining one.