Bugsy Malone

G

Released Sep 15, 1976

1 hr. 33 min.

Musical

Comedy

List

79%

29 Reviews

Tomatometer

80%

10,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Fat Sam (John Cassisi), Bugsy (Scott Baio) and Tallulah (Jodie Foster) are kids playing adults in Roaring '20s New York.

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Critics Consensus

Delightfully bizarre, Bugsy Malone harnesses immense charm from its cast of child actors playing wise guys with precocious pluck.

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J O

Read some of the more "modern" reviews, people cannot see the innocence of kids just being kids anymore….. First watched in the 80's, still hilarious, this world is going down the pan and the recent reviews show why..

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

04/07/24

Full Review

Nannie 4

This was the first movie I ever saw at the movie theater in 1976. It was a birthday party and we went to a movie theater as a group of kids. I loved the movie and I loved the songs. It was such a great movie and I was only 11 years old. I hadn't turned 12 yet. I will never forget the moment I got to go to a movie theater for the first time or seeing Bugsy Malone at the movie theater. Years later I got the soundtrack on EBAY, since it was a rare soundtrack. I had to get it from England. I still have the CD. I was so happy to get the movie on DVD years later. One of the best memories of my childhood.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

11/26/23

Full Review

Cezary P

An innovative perspective on a gangster film.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

07/05/23

Full Review

Luca B

Two rival gangsters battle for turf and a new, strategically important armament during the Prohibition Era -- a cliché if the entire cast were not children. It's a great idea: children playing the parts of hard-hearted gangsters implies that many of plots of the classic gangster films depend upon adults' childish behaviour and the film deals with gangster violence creatively: director Alan Parker could not have some kids stabbing and shooting each other so, he had tommy guns fire cream pies however it's too boring to sit that long on one joke. Genius and fun. The problem, however, is that the plot falls apart in the second act. Fat Sam is losing his turf war, and he ends up recruiting the lower classes to stockpile his army, but these characters come out of nowhere. By the end of the film, it had broken all its own rules, and I could not help but feel quite disappointed. Overall, it is a great idea, but a great idea can only carry a film so far. The Music was Cheesy and, in some times, useful for the plot. Out of the cast Jodie Foster was the standout as she played the character quite well and the morale of the story of taking control of your own destiny was quite cliché

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

07/03/23

Full Review

Taylor L

Yup, that's a 13-year old Jodie Foster playing a jaded Depression-era showgirl. If there was a road to get this child into a weirdly sexualized role that would never get cast the same way in a later era, a producer in the '70s would find it. Bugsy Malone is tough to rate, because there really isn't a lot to compare it to. It's a musical spoof of gangster flicks, where the entire cast is child actors and the worldbuilding features details like Tommy guns that shoot cream pies and cars that are pedaled like bikes. Just by the nature of the film - child actors in a goofy world - how can you level major criticism at a project like this? It's very cute but the whole thing is built on the same recurring joke told in different ways, kids talking in old-school noir accents and making wise cracks. It's never a boring film, partly because it's relatively short, but the child actors are unsurprisingly a bit limited (except for Foster and John Cassisi) and the plot really wanders around to cram in a few additional songs. The music is an unusual choice, recording adult singers and having the kids lip-sync to their performances, but they're plenty catchy, if simple. It reaches high and virtually nothing like it exists elsewhere, but I don't know if this film was really the right fit to screen at Cannes (and it was screened there). (2.5/5)

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/16/23

Full Review

liam k

It is an entertaining yet silly kids' gangster movie. Even if some of the performance is a little off-key, the youngsters' sincere smiles when they fumble their lines are endearing. The mild violence was an excellent technique to suggest violence without actually exposing children to too much of it. Despite some criticism, the acting is significantly superior to that of Vin Deasle, Ben Affleck, and Ice T. It is unfortunate that it is not transmitted at all, or even more frequently.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

11/19/22

Full Review

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Alan Parker

Director

Scott Baio

Bugsy Malone

Jodie Foster

Tallulah

John Cassisi

Fat Sam

Florrie Dugger

Blousey Brown

Paul Murphy

Leroy Smith

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Bugsy Malone: Official Clip - You Give a Little Love

2:03

Bugsy Malone: Official Clip - Dandy Dan's Double-Cross

2:13

Bugsy Malone: Official Clip - My Name Is Tallulah

2:12

Bugsy Malone: Official Clip - Down and Out

2:13

Bugsy Malone: Official Clip - Bad Guys

2:13

Bugsy Malone: Official Clip - Tomorrow

2:11

Bugsy Malone: Official Clip - So You Wanna Be a Boxer?

2:11

Bugsy Malone: Official Clip - What's So Funny?

1:06

Bugsy Malone: Official Clip - Splurge Shootout

1:52

Bugsy Malone: Official Clip - Fat Sam's Grand Slam

2:08

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Pauline Kael

New Yorker

Bugsy Malone is nothing but its godawful idea.

Dec 2, 2023

Full Review

Mark Monahan

Daily Telegraph (UK)

Parker's script is as sharp as a wiseguy's suit, his attention to period and genre detail a constant joy, and he coaxes scarily poised performances from his young performers.

Apr 18, 2014

Full Review

Peter Bradshaw

Guardian

It's boisterous and good-natured, with catchy songs, and always sublimely unaware of its own strangeness.

Rated: 3/5

Dec 30, 2006

Full Review

Eddie Harrison

film-authority.com

…was and is an innocent film, made by kids for kids, and with adult concerns only getting in the way…there’s an appropriately child-like glee in Bugsy Malone’s best songs, which all sound great today, and the staging is agreeably quaint...

Rated: 3/5

Mar 5, 2024

Full Review

Michael Barrett

PopMatters

Williams writes good songs and the whole production has a good-natured, uncynical vibe.

Rated: 7/10

Oct 22, 2021

Full Review

Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

Alan Parker directed a handful of exemplary musicals over the course of his career, but this isn't one of them.

Rated: 2/4

Sep 3, 2021

Full Review

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Synopsis

Fat Sam (John Cassisi), Bugsy (Scott Baio) and Tallulah (Jodie Foster) are kids playing adults in Roaring '20s New York.

Director: Alan Parker
Screenwriter: Alan Parker
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Production Co: Paramount Pictures
Rating: G
Genre: Musical, Comedy
Original Language: English (United Kingdom)
Release Date (Theaters): Sep 15, 1976, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Nov 6, 2018

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