A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Perhaps not every single joke lands perfectly, but the ones that do are jaw dropping in their hilarity, and the film has a consistent flavour of genuine entertainment. 'The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash' is a loving parody of who else but The Beatles, led largely by famed Monty Python member Eric Idle. The film is full of surprises castwise, as it contains cameos from the likes of Bill Murray. John Belushi, Paul Simon, Gilda Radner, Mick Jagger, and even George Harrison himself (albeit a very disguised George Harrison), who is well documented as having loved this classic spoof of The Beatles, among many other surprising faces. The music is amazingly done as it perfectly captures the many sounds of the original Beatles while still straying away from copying the exact chords, which is something many parodies of songs seem to refrain from doing. Anyone w/a stronger knowledge of The Beatles and their history and music will have a ball noticing the various clever references and in-jokes throughout this mock-rockumentary, while even viewers who are less familiar w/the band will have plenty to laugh along w/, as the film plays around w/general absurdity and silliness while containing a certain wit found in few other parodies of its kind.

I had the great pleasure to watch "All You Need Is Cash" last night at a Glasgow live music venue, where it was followed by a very enjoyable live performance by the band themselves, fronted by Neil Innes and still with John Halsey as the cuddly Barry (Ringo) Wom. Nice to not be the only Rutles fan around - in fact the real devotees were singing along and pre-empting dialogue like it was "The Rocky Horror Show". Cultdom indeed.Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed revisiting this parody / homage to the Beatles as conceived by Python Eric Idle with the music provided by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band's Neil Innes. Worked up from a brief sketch in an Idle BBC series, the story is I suppose fairly easily told, so well-known is the story of the most famous band ever. It's also fairly easy to spoof too and even if some of the jokes date back to when Sgt Pepper was a boy, there are plenty of laughs here.Idle gives himself the biggest part, not unnaturally, as the roving Whicker-esque reporter doing the narration and as Paul / Dirk in the band plus some other minor parts while there are effective cameos by a heavily disguised George Harrison, Paul Simon and Mick Jagger, the latter in particular in fine form. Blink and you might also miss fleeting appearances by most of the Saturday Night Live team of the time, not to mention Ronnie Wood and Michael Palin.The humour though wouldn't be strong enough to carry the show without Innes' quite superb pastiche music, with titles and arrangements instantly identifiable as Beatles take-offs but wholly enjoyable in their own right and in fact I believe the songs have dated far less than the comedy.It definitely helps your enjoyment if you're a longstanding Fab Four fan like me, but this sort of thing could very easily have gone wrong and it's a measure of the skill of Messrs Idle and in particular Innes that they get it so right. It certainly please pleased me.

This is not for the younger crowd (unless you are a big Beatle Fan) a very,VERY funny but affectionate spoof of Beatlemania insanity, it's not an actual spoof of the Beatles in fact it pays homage to their enormous talent, just the sleazy side of the music biz.The video and a lot of the jokes are a bit dated but although the costumes and re-creations of the original merchandise are really good the best thing about this parody is the AMAZING music, Neil Innes sounds just like John Lennon and their original songs sound exactly like the Beatles. The lyrics are hysterically funny and I think Lennon gets the worst of the ribbing especially on songs like "Cheese & Onions". George Harrison fully backed the project & makes a few small appearances and put up a lot of his own money to back the project.I used to play Rutles tracks at parties and night clubs and people thought they were bootleg or unreleased songs, I mean they really liked them.

A very clever film, but watching it again all these years later it seems a bit strained. Many of the jokes are pretty poor and the Python influence is very noticeable, but it is saved by the music and Mick Jagger's extremely natural 'interview'. The music was written by Neil Innes of the Bonzos, and he has perfectly captured the Lennon/McCartney style, so much so that some of the songs sound more like the Beatles than the Beatles ever did! To get the most out of this film, it is necessary to have a knowledge of the real story of the Beatles - their rise from the Cavern and the Bier Kellars of Germany to international stardom, their conquest of America, the 'God' incident, the Apple fiasco etc, and then you can watch the film with a knowing grin while you enjoy the music. All in all great fun, but you'll have to wear your 1978 head while you watch it.