The Rutles - All You Need Is Cash (1978)

Originally hatched in 1978 as a short film parody for Saturday Night Live, this expanded, 70-minute mockumentary on a trend-setting quartet of British mop-tops bloomed into one of Eric Idle's better projects outside Monty Python. Taking the career (and hagiography) of the Beatles and inverting them quite nicely, Idle conjures up four doppelgangers who offer the familiar mannerisms but practically none of the intelligence of their models. If that sounds like the same gag that powered This Is Spinal Tap (which emerged six years later), it is, with the crucial difference that Idle's lampoon is precise where Tap was consciously generic.

In telling the saga of the Rutles, Idle (who doubles as earnest narrator and McCartney-esque Rutle Dirk McQuigley) works from a rich and immediately familiar trove of pop lore, and he has a ball revisiting and reinventing milestones from the Fab Four's fabled history. The attention to period detail helps elevate the gags further, but Idle's real secret weapon is Neil Innes, standing in as Ron Nasty, the Rutles' answer to John Lennon: it's Innes who serves as the musical architect for the wonderful Beatles parodies that give All You Need Is Cash a delicious kick, and Innes, a one-time principal in the legendary Bonzo Dog Band, is gifted enough to capture the band's lyricism and energy as well as their shifting sense of style.

With the blessing and on-camera participation of George Harrison, and wry cameos from Mick Jagger and Paul Simon, All You Need Is Cash is a perfect companion to the Beatles' own glorious screen comedies and a great antidote to sanctimonious pop documentaries. --Sam Sutherland Amazon.com

Monty Beatles

This movie is very well done. If you're a Beatles fan and you can appreciate the dry and subtle humor of Monty Python, then this movie is definitely for you. December 22, 2008

the music is good..damn good

just a quick note the music is my favorite part of this
its really great music and could easily have been hits on its own but people thought it to much of a joke and didnt take it seriously enough


go buy the song get up and go its a great song December 2, 2008

Superb Beatles spoof

This is a classic piece of lampooning. The songs are surprisingly good parodies of The Beatles, and the many star faces make this a very high value piece of comedy.

Lots of laughs, highly recommended. November 21, 2008

Brilliant!

Intelligent and silly at the same time. Worth watching over and over. The fabulously bad overdub of Ed Sullivan is worth the price alone. The songs are genius. Enjoy. November 4, 2008

Not Nearly As Funny As I Remember...

I remember watching this movie on VH1 years ago and thinking that it was funny. But watching it again recently, I realized it is not nearly as funny as it could be. There are a few funny gags, but not nearly enough funny, memorable lines. The pros of this movie are: great cameos, catchy Beatles-eque songs, the depictions of Idle as Paul and Innes as Lennon, and some funny laughs with Idle as the narrator. However, this movie is nowhere near as funny as Spinal Tap and doesn't even come close to Holy Grail. Whereas those two movies had lines that were so memorable that they are still quoted today, The Rutles movie is missing that. It doesn't have a very good flow to it and it feels choppy and there is too much time between each joke. Very original when it came out, but I think it will always be overshadowed by Spinal Tap. August 27, 2008

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