Product Description

Screenwriter/Star Paul McCartney creates a rousing musical fantasy about a pop singer/composer (McCartney) who discovers the master tapes of his new unreleased album have disappeared. If he doesn't locate them by midnight, businessmen will take over his company. Among the musical highlights are fourteen spectacularly staged McCartney tunes including Beatles classics "Yesterday," "Eleanor Rigby" and "Good Day Sunshine."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30719 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-04-20
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Color, DVD, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Dubbed in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 108 minutes

Amazon.com
Critics were ruthless when Give My Regards to Broad Street was released in 1984, but the passing years have turned it into an offbeat curio from Paul McCartney's post-Wings era. The ex-Beatle was roundly panned for scripting this empty-headed vanity project, and it still qualifies as a mistake of sorts, dubiously combining new performances of Beatles classics with a few Wings hits and tracks from McCartney's popular 1982 solo album Tug of War. Most of these songs are performed as semi-lavish, blandly filmed production numbers ("Silly Love Songs" comes off like an embarrassing mix of Michael Jackson's Thriller and a Flock of Seagulls reunion), and the whole movie reeks of cheesy early-'80s New Wave/MTV influence, even in the casting of Tracey Ullman as a leather-clad Londoner with streaks of red hair dye.

The "plot" is entirely dispensable, consisting of "24 hours in the life of a rock star," in which Paul has until midnight to find the missing master tapes of his latest album, or lose his entire music empire to a slimy corporate takeover. (Parallels to Macca's loss of Beatle music rights to Michael Jackson are fascinating to consider.) It's all an excuse for a rambling, amiable mess of a movie, with slim supporting roles for Ringo Starr (who admirably refused to participate in re-recording the Beatles hits), his wife Barbara Bach, Linda McCartney, and, most inexplicably, Sir Ralph Richardson in one of many throwaway fantasy sequences. Critic Roger Ebert rightly called Broad Street "about as close as you can get to a non-movie" (which might explain why director Peter Webb never made another film), but the music's still good (look closely for Dave Edmunds and former Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones), and we'd sure like a spin in Sir Paul's groovy vintage hot-rod. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Give my fondest regards to Sir Paul
The star of this movie, panned as a vanity project by McCartney by a certain Leonard Maltin, is not only McCartney but the music, which is a mixture of Beatles songs, Wings songs, and solo McCartney, both old and new.

The plot, flimsy as it is, involves the loss of the master tapes to McCartney's latest album, which has already sold millions in advance copies. Suspicion immediately falls upon Harry, a friend with a police record who has gone straight and whom Paul lends a hand by offering him a job. If the tape is not recovered in 24 hours, businessmen who helped his record company during a cash flow crisis will take over, leaving him broke. Trouble is, Harry's gone missing, and he might have taken it to the notorious bootlegger Big Bob for a lot of lolly. The movie also is a day in the life of Paul, with a hectic schedule of stage and radio appearances, recording, etc., but in this case, the creditors go around harassing Paul and company.

The medley of "Yesterday/Here There And Everywhere/Wanderlust" is a treat very early in the movie. It's a nostalgic listen for Beatles fans and for the days when producer George Martin, who appears here, was like the fifth Beatle. The scene features a funny scene where Ringo spends two-thirds of the medley time finding brushes. He finally does and gets ready, only to find himself in time for "Wanderlust," which needs drumsticks, which he already had in the first place.

The "Ballroom Dancing" number is about a trio of grammar school kids who play with each other. They grow up as teenage toughs, the boys who fight over the girl. The fight then spills over to the elegant ballroom dancers. Chaos sets in as the dancers tussle with the toughs, knocking over bits of the stage in the process. Audience members watching get alarmed, wondering, "What's going on here?" The fact that it was all staged, as one of the toughs gives a hand to one of the dancers, is somewhat of a joke. Paul then calmly asks Linda, "Lunch?" after the calamity.

There's a funny scene in the BBC canteen when a man dressed in a hideously grotesque monster outfits scares someone nearby. In fact there are others on their lunch break who appear to be working on some sci-fi show that isn't Doctor Who.

The rock set, "Not Such A Bad Boy," "So Bad," and "No Values," are performed by the band including Dave Edmunds on guitar, and it's fun to see Barbara Bach, aka Ms. Starr, jamming out to the music while sitting down.

Hearing "The Long And Winding Road" in a version preferable to Paul made up my mind that this version is better than the Let It Be version. A pensive Paul is driving down the road, while Linda, Ringo, and Barbara are anxiously waiting for word, and Sandra (Harry's wife) is sadly looking at a picture of her missing husband.
The "Eleanor's Dream" daydream sequence involves an idyllic countryside and the cobblestones of a Dickensian England. Linda is shown in a majestic sequence during her last bit in it.

A brief scene between Paul and Sir Ralph Richardson, the latter's penultimate movie appearance, is touching as well as illuminating of Paul's character in the movie.

Guest stars who help out are of course Richardson, Tracey Ullman as Sandra, and Bryan Brown as Paul's manager, but TV veteran John Bennett as the menacing Ratchett, pulls off the most effective performance, without saying a solitary word in the movie! Now that's acting!

Fans of the Beatles and Paul in particular will give this video the rating I've given it--others might rate it 1 or 2, but who cares?

It's all perspective....
What you want out of the film might affect what you expect. This is a fun film. It's like a long music video. No More Lonely Nights,Not Such A Bad Boy, and No Values are 3 good new songs put on here. Some people feel it is a sacrilige for Paul to have re-worked Beatles tunes, but it at least offers an interesting twist. And oh, yeah, Paul was tyring to have some fun with the film. It seems some reviewers (see review below) are being way too serious and biased against Paul. To some "music fans" he can do no right. Not every project is genius, but Beatles fans can find fault with all solo Beatles material. None of them is a "saint", and all have their flaws.

This film would do nice with a DVD release with some extras. After all Shanghai Surprise (George's 1986 film) and Caveman (Ringo's 1981 film) are both on DVD and did not fare well commercially, either.

Enjoy this film as a music video with a thin plot. To me, it is a nice small film that deserves to be re-released. And if Paul would only do a video collection spanning 1970-Present onto DVD....

Well, SO WHAT if it ain't MTV?
Look....probably Big Mac himself would agree that this was never to be held up as "great cinema." OK, so maybe he DID use an MTV stunt or two; big whoop. And the fact that the plot is thoroughly non-existant - I mean, so what? Like "Miami Vice" ever made one WHIT of sense? This was released at the same time as was that inane Sally Fields movie (I saw both the same evening - guess which was the more entertaining) And despite what the liner notes say in "The George Harrison Memorial Show," that WASN'T the first time that Sir Paul and Ringo worked together after the Beatle demise. I just wish that Dave Edmunds/Chris Spedding/John Paul Jones/Ringo lineup from the movie could have become the latest edition of "Wings." Don't worry about the plights of the world, or the current presidential race, or the price of meds, etc...Just watch "Broad Street" and enjoy the music! Sir Paul won't let you down on that point!