Product description

The Beatles - Help!

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Average customer rating: 3.5

Binding : DVD
EAN : 5099950952298
Label : EMI
Manufacturer : EMI
Publisher : EMI
Release date : 2007-11-05
Title : The Beatles - Help!
Actor : The Beatles
Audience rating : To Be Announced
Format : Array
Languages : Array
Number of items : 2
Region code : 2
Running time : 92
Studio : EMI
Theatrical releaseDate : 1965-08-25
MPN : 5099950952298
Number of discs : 2

Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
After the world-wide success of A Hard Day's Night, the Beatles and director Richard Lester reunited for a follow-up film, Eight Arms to Hold You. Well, that wasn't the final title; a pleading Lennon-McCartney tune provided the catchier handle: Help! A loose semi-spoof of the globe-trotting James Bond pictures, Help! has always been considered a somewhat disorganised comedown from its predecessor; but it presents "the famous Beatles" even more clearly as the English cousins of the Marx Brothers. The plot has an Eastern religious cult declaring that the new ring on Ringo's finger is the key element in a human sacrifice; they will stop at nothing to obtain it. Meanwhile, a mad scientist (crazed Victor Spinetti, who also appeared in A Hard Day's Night and Magical Mystery Tour) believes that if he has the ring, he could--dare we say it?--rule the world. The songs, including "Ticket to Ride" and "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away", are filmed with gleeful ingenuity, in locations such as the Bahamas, an Austrian ski resort and Salisbury Plain. The relentless nonsense becomes nearly the equivalent of a swinging-60s Alice in Wonderland: for instance, Paul shrinks to the size of a gum wrapper, John fishes a season ticket out of his soup, George wears a top hat on the ski slopes, the lads sing the "Ode to Joy" to a lion. Oh, and the film is dedicated to Elias Howe, "who in 1846 invented the sewing machine". Brilliant. --Robert Horton

Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-09-28 rating:

I love the Beatles, but this is not a good film
"Help!" is not actually the worst film ever made. There are several candidates for that: I would nominate "Easy Rider", "Funny Games" (both the original and the remake), "Ocean's Eleven" (again, both the original and the remake), "Star Trek V" (the one Shatner directed), anything by Lina Wertmuller, practically everything by Guy Ritchie...

But it's not very good. The original idea might have been better. Originally, Ringo was supposed to find out that he was terminally ill, whereupon he would hire a contract killer to off him before he died of natural causes, but then he would find out that he wasn't terminally ill after all, and the rest of the film would have been about his efforts to call off his own assassination...with, presumably, hilarious consequences. But it turned out that a Jean-Paul Belmondo film with a very similar premise was in production, so Lester hired a couple of new writers to knock this sloppy and somewhat racist story together. (The Belmondo film isn't a classic of world cinema. Aki Kaurismaki subsequently made a great little movie on the same basic premise of hiring someone to kill yourself and then changing your mind, "I Hired A Contract Killer" (1990) with Jean-Pierre Léaud and Margi Clarke.)

Perhaps it wouldn't have worked anyway. By this point, the Beatles were in a bit of a mid-career slump and were too lazy and too stoned to be bothered with the discipline required to make a good comedy film. The only thing they took seriously (apart from scoring more drugs) was making music, and even then the accompanying "Help!" album is notable for the number of less-than-stellar Beatle songs it contains. (There are some jewels, such as "Ticket To Ride", "Yesterday", "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away", "I've Just Seen A Face" and the title track, but also humdrum filler like "Another Girl", "The Night Before", "Dizzy Miss Lizzy", "You Like Me Too Much"...)

"Help!" the movie has its moments, but basically it's slack, boring and badly acted by its four supposed stars. Even the chaotic "Magical Mystery Tour" is a more rewarding evening's viewing, because at least the Beatles came up with the ideas themselves.

This is not, of course, the worst ever film associated with the Beatles. That would be the grisly "Sgt. Pepper" movie, the compulsory viewing of which is I believe regarded by the UN Commission on Human Rights as cruel and unusual punishment.

review by: date: 2007-11-26 rating:

Ban False Advertising
We've read it in the press, and we were promised it on the packaging, but the deleted scene with Wendy Richard is NOT included! What the cover should say is: "Wendy Richard talks about the deleted scene". It is disgusting that EMI described this feature as "Deleted scene with Wendy Richard", making us believe that the scene is actually on Disc 2.
Aside from that, the quality is excellent but the film is no match for
"A Hard Day's Night".

review by: date: 2007-11-21 rating:

Not as good as "A Hard Day's Night"
Having not seen Help! before owing to the fact that it had not been officially available on video or DVD in this country, I was looking forward to seeing the film.
Unfortunately I was to be disappointed on the whole by a movie that fell flat from almost the first frame.
The plot, as just about everyone knows, revolves around a sacred ring that is meant to be worn by a poor unfortunate about to be sacrificed by a mystical eastern cult.
Discovering that the ring has in fact found its way on to the hand of Ringo, the cult's leader (Leo McKern) travels to Britain to attempt to reclaim it.
Meanwhile, a pair of mad scientists (Victor Spinetti and Roy Kinnear) are also keen to get hold of the ring as they believe it could pave the way for world domination.
What follows is a madcap chase movie that sees the Fab Four desperately trying to evade their pursuers in a series of settings from Buckingham Palace to the Bahamas.
Having been fairly impressed by the Beatles' acting skills in "A Hard Day's Night" the stilted interplay and obvious discomfort of John, Paul, George and Ringo meant watching this film was something of a slog.
Some of the songs are good (Ticket To Ride, You've Got To Hide Your Love Away) but the comedy falls flat on far too many occasions.
One of the few scenes that did work was the one featuring the band in disguises at the airport. Surrounded by cult members dressed as businessmen reading newspapers that announce they are going to the Bahamas, the Beatles whisper to each other, "We're not going there, we're not going there," only to indeed land in the Bahamas.
The extras disc was more successful in that it included an interesting featurette on the making of the film with interviews from director Dick Lester and actress Eleanor Bron, but I would have to echo other reviews in that it was surprising and disappointing that the much-vaunted missing scene featuring Frankie Howerd and Wendy Richard was discussed but not included.
Similarly, the segment on the restoration of the scratched and worn 40-year-old film was enlightening but for some reason neglected to show before and after comparisons.
All in all, this is a DVD no Beatles fan should be without. But the film itself is, for me personally, a bit of a damp squib.

review by: sofaoutside date: 2007-10-30 rating:

Stop worrying HELP! is on the way!!
I am eagerly awaiting the release of Help! On DVD, I hadn't realised it was coming out.
I bought the video in the mid-nineties when it was first released, and then having watched it so many times was reciting every word of the film much to the annoyance of anyone else watching!

I watched it the other day with my children (11,8 and 5 years old), they absolutely loved it. They were also fascinated seeing the Beatles doing something other than singing. They watched the whole film, laughed at the funnier bits and kept asking which Beatle was which as they thought they looked alike with their hair etc.. I was on hand to put them right. My daughter would ask "why does Ringo look so sad!" bless her!

The music sections remain iconic, ageless and influential (larking about in the snow to Ticket to ride, The opening credits with darts being thrown at the screen, Travis copied on their "sing" video).
Being filmed in colour also captures the look and feel of 1965.

The storyline about the being chased for the ring did become slightly tiresome and repetitive, but as said, the musical sections made up for this, after all it is what the Beatles do best. Being split into chapters also means you can skip to the music sections. For this reason I'll award a 4 star rating. The end credits are funny, with the Beatles having a laugh over the music from "the barber of Seville".

It's a gem of a film and a new generation deserves to see the film Help! In it's remastered glory.

review by: date: 2007-10-26 rating:

The Beatles - Help! ASIN: B000VR4AB2 Aspect Ratio 16:9
Info relates to The Beatles - Help! ASIN: B000VR4AB2 and ' Not ' The Beatles - Help! Limited Edition ' ASIN: B000VJ4OUM

Now forget what the product details claim is correct
The Aspect Ratio: is not 1.33:1 it has a Aspect Ratio of 16:9

and it has the following special features

A Missing Scene - Featuring Wendy Richard
The Restoration of Help! - An in depth look at the restoration process.
Memories of Help! - The cast and crew reminisce
Theatrical Trailers - 2 US trailers and 1 Spanish trailer.
1965 US Radio Spots - Hidden in disc menus.
The Beatles in Help! - 30 minute documentary about the making of the film with director Richard Lester, the cast and crew, including exclusive behind the scenes footage of The Beatles on set.

Now I have to admit that I was very tempted to buy the 'Limited Edition ' ASIN: B000VJ4OUM only because I wanted a Widescreen version but as the bog standard two disk edition is in Widescreen I reckon I will save myself £ 23.78 by buying the cheaper version.

Yes I know that some people will be tempted to buy the Limited Edition and I wish I had enough spare cash to do so but I don't .

This is bound to be a best seller - why did it take so long to come out ?

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