Toomorrow

I absolutely love ONJ. She has always brought a smile to me and can't whisk me into a good mood. I was so excited to find a bootleg of this on Ebay (soundtrack disk included!) and rushed to watch it.

Ummm, It felt longer than Gandhi, the music was uber cheesy but catchy..i vaguely recall rolling in bed later that night, having nightmares to the tune of "Taking Our Own Sweet Time", one of the films stickier jams. The drummer has swing, Olivia feels underused and the music is competent, if uninspired.

Toomorrow's special effects were good though. Xanadu is my favorite of ONJ's films and this definitely pre-dates some of that neon blue post disco vibe with its trail effects.

My Disk came with some extra gifts, one being the CD soundtrack to the film. This thing is gonna collect some serious dust. If Aliens need the music of Tomorrow to survive, there surely isn't intelligent life out there.

My disk came with an Extra of her performing "Have You Never Been Mellow" on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. That was the point when I really felt I got my money's worth.

If you liked Grease and are curious about an older film of hers, don't bother. If you are a completest, feel free...but you have been warned.

Val Guest was an extremely busy director who first of all made a lot of films and secondly produced a surprisingly large number of good films. This, however, is not one of them. It is a very commercial publicity stunt for a band derived from a casting. The band is mediocre (except for goddess Olivia of course) and the film is...well...calculated. The story is odd: aliens hear the sound of the band Toomorrow and discover that they need those vibes to survive. Friendly alien kidnaps them and they save the aliens' world. Sounds pretty stupid? It is. There's some nice and funny stuff about student life in the 60s/70s but essentially the film is an excuse for showing the band and...Olivia's legs. In fact The legs of Olivia would have been a far better title as that's what the film really is about. And they alone make it worth watching. Essentially the film is silly-funny entertainment and at least you can smile about it. But I felt a bit disappointed after having hunted high and low for the film for years.

This thing is a mess but a fun mess. A strange hybrid of sci-fi aliens, lame rock music and counter culture message film. Yes, a very young and darling Olivia Newton-John stars as the lone girl in a band called Toomorrow and they play the softest, non-threatening "rock" you've ever heard and yet the hippies and the stoners go crazy for them like they are hearing Hendrix at Monterey. The "special" effects are ridiculous and the movie really is entertaining for all the wrong reasons - jaw dropping dialogue (like when the band is zapped aboard an alien UFO "Hey man, I don't dig space!") and lame attempts to inject Beatles/Monkees type comedy with a few of them sharing bathwater and changing clothes in the car on their way to a big gig. So of it's time, so dated and yet real fun. Hard to find - the DVD we got had Japan subtitles and as someone else mentioned - when the movie ended - it also had Olivia appearing on Johnny Carson as a big new singing sensation in America (no mention of Toomorrow though - hmmmm). The whole script has that feeling of fifty year old writers typing away what they think "the long hairs" are saying and doing. Laff riot.

Fetching and talented young stars, a delightfully groovy soundtrack that really bops; a primary plot that seems a precursor for 'Bill and Ted's excellent adventure' and its sequels; a subplot revolving around student organization and collective action - this movie has it all! There's much about 'Toomorrow' that's a bit dated, yet cheesy as it may be, the fun hasn't aged one bit. I can't help myself: this is a really good time!

It's not lost on me that musical movies are quite relegated to a very niche audience. Pick a genre, from singing cowboys to 'A hard day's night,' from Disney ditties to 'Pitch Perfect,' and there's no denying that they are likely in one way or another to appeal to only select audiences. That's kind of unavoidable with the kitsch that often accompanies performance, to say nothing of personal preferences when it comes to music. This is really quite unfortunate, as not only does a lot of work go into these pictures, but if one can get past their preconceptions, there's a whole lot to like about them. Like the titular band, 'Toomorrow' only wants to have a blast, and that's just what we get. The original songs penned by Ritchie Adams and Mark Barkan are rich and enticing, and from one to the next it's hard to pick a favorite - though as the first sound to greet our ears, the title song has an unfair advantage. For that matter, the original score of Hugo Montenegro is also a definite treat. One certainly wishes the contributions of Adams, Barkan, and Montenegro were all featured even more throughout the length.

The cast are wonderfully charming; though there's no real depth to the characters, all on hand do a fine job of bringing the parts to life with great spirit - and naturally, Olivia Newton-John rather steals the spotlight. Like the character writing, the plot is very light. It's all that it needs to be, however, to provide 90 minutes of satisfying entertainment, and there are some smart inclusions at one point or another, including some sly cleverness in the dialogue and scene writing to pepper the picture with a touch of humor by way of quips and sight gags. There's no missing the jest poking fun at then-burgeoning electronic music; I deeply appreciate the passing line that rightly criticizes a young civilization governed by old minds. Just because 'Toomorrow' is built for uncomplicated amusement doesn't mean that it can't also bear some wit and intelligence!

The special effects are pretty much on par for the timeframe. The more heavily they're centered in a scene, the less believable they are, but at large the post-production measures are just fine. The filming locations are swell, while the sets built at legendary Pinewood Studios are rather fantastic. The alien spaceship could have gone very wrong, but it looks duly trippy in keeping with the tone of the film; the aliens themselves leave a bit to be desired, but we don't see much of them. The costume design and hair and makeup work are super, and for that matter, basically all the work put in behind the scenes is just swell. The real focus in 'Toomorrow' is on the music, and to a lesser extent on the cast, with writing sufficient to give form and pretense to the silliness. When all is said and done this maybe isn't an essential must-see, but I also rather think it's sadly neglected - more than a little gauche, 'Toomorrow' only wants its audience to enjoy themselves, and I for one absolutely did. Recommendable especially for viewers who admire pop music of the late 60s and early 70s, as far as I'm concerned this is well worth a mere 90 minutes of your time!

One of the first films I went to see on my own (in 1970), at the tender age of 14. Well into the synth music of the time, a short piece on TV pushed me to go and see it.

I understood RCA had a number of legal problems with it and thought it would never see the light of day again. However, I managed to obtain a copy of the sound track some 25 years later, but would still love to see the original film again.