Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

First off, Rocky Horror Picture Show is in my top 3 movies of all time. Maybe that makes me weird, but the people who go to the midnight screenings dressed in fishnet stockings would beg to differ...actually, reading that last sentence makes me want to reconsider my last choice. Anyways, moving on. Now, this movie has been critically acclaimed and universally hated. What I mean by that is, you'll probably hear just as many people say they hate this movie as critics saying they love it. Personally, I think this might be just because of the content. You know, Tim Curry dressed in drag and in severe danger of his man beans spilling out. That content. But looking at that as awkward funny (of which I'm a big fan) makes it better. Seriously, look.

But now to the review.



MUSIC:
This is without a doubt, a musical. It's a comedy, an oddball comedy, but a musical nonetheless. And what's the first thing you look for in a musical? Music. And this movie delivers. If you're into the classic rock sound, you'll enjoy this sound track. Being that the MOVIE came out in 1975 (this was originally a broadway musical before hand), it definitely has that era's sound. The songs all fit in with the movie scenes. There isn't one that makes you sit there and wonder if the producers just got bored and decided to throw in a song to get a laugh out of making us scratch our head.
The iconic lips that open the movie (which were actually the lips of the actress who played Magenta, but she didn't actually sing the song,) sing Science Fiction Double Feature. Everyone and their grandmother knows this song. If they don't know the name, they'll at least know the chorus. And the rest of the movie soundtrack continues on this way. From the most well known song "Time Warp" to rock guitars on "Rose Tint My World." Hey, even Meatloaf makes an appearance singing the saxophone laced "Hot Patootie (Bless My Soul)." I will say though, the ending song "Superheroes" is pretty boring. I understand why it was included, and it works well within the movie, but as part of the movie's standalone soundtrack, it would surprise me if you gave this one a skip. The soundtrack itself is great for all kinds of people as it has anywhere from rock, to smoother standard musical songs (none of which really get into the "showtunes" category, luckily) but unless you actually like soundtracks or have a broad musical taste, you'll probably skip one or more of the songs.

PLOT:
The plot of this movie is an interesting one. Brad and Janet, played by Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon, are taking a trip and wind up lost in the woods. They stumble upon a castle with some odd guests, aliens from Transylvania.

While that sounds weird, I assure you, there isn't really any mention of them as aliens and they just act as humans, so if you hate alien movies, don't let this deter you. They eventually discover that the house is owned by a man named Dr. Frank-N-Furter, played by Tim Curry. Working on trying make the perfect man, he makes Rocky Horror, who really is only ever referred to as Rocky. Frank-N-Furter essentially hold Brad and Janet captive while they have to try to unravel this mystery of what's going on.

Interesting side note though: the servants name's are Riff-Raff and Magenta. The man who plays Riff-Raff, Richard O'Brien, wrote the musical, the plot, all the songs, and sang in a lot of them. Multi-talent. Which is funny considering his character looks like Transylvania might be covered in nothing but radioactive waste. Think of him as Quasimodo going through chemo.

I can't really explain the plot much further than that without giving away plot points, and frankly, I don't want people showing up to this site and whining and complaining about how I ruined the movie for them. This movie came out in 1975, that's 37 years ago. If someone hasn't ruined it for you by now, you have amazing selective hearing.

The plot itself isn't the greatest plot in history, but it doesn't make you hate the movie. It's backed up by excellent casting. I really don't think anyone BUT Tim Curry could have pulled Frank-N-Furter off...no dirty joke intended. It isn't a tear jerker, but you kind of grow oddly fond of these characters. To this day, I still haven't figured out why. The movie itself would be an entertaining movie even if it wasn't a musical. Which says a lot about it. To be honest though, it probably wouldn't have risen to the cult-movie status it is now if it weren't a musical. So that's either a plus or a negative depending on how you see it.

END SUMMARY:
As a comedy, it's not bad. It won't have you laughing out loud all the time. As a musical, it's very good. Once you get past the shock of Tim Curry in fishnets, you'll find his character enjoyable. And there really aren't any annoying characters in this movie, which is a shock. Columbia might annoy some people, but she isn't in every scene. At the end of the movie, you are either going to want 2 hours back, or want to watch it some more. This is a movie with no in between, no gray area. I recommend it to anyone with an offbeat sense of humor and someone who likes musicals. If you don't like musicals, you may still like this, because of the way the songs don't follow standard musical songs. It's at least worth a watch.

SCORE: 8.7/10