Bugsy Malone

Having popular young actors from a television series star in a feature film is nothing new and usually it helps that actor's career and shows the audience a new dimension to their ability to entertain. But when you use a movie genre like gangster films as the basis for the movie and fill the entire cast with child actors, all under fourteen it looks like, and then turning it into a musical, you are heading for disaster. This movie was shot in the guise of trying to be a 70s version of the Little Rascals from the 20s, 30s and 40s, but unfortunately it just doesn't work. The two big names that are attached to this film are Scott Baio and Jodie Foster, but even their rising stars aren't enough to make this movie palatable.
While a gang war is brewing in New York, Bugsy Malone falls for a singer at a local speakeasy and is then coerced into helping one of the gangs defeat the other. There are no real guns used in this film, in fact a big part of the storyline deals with the introduction of a new gun that shoots cream pie filling, yes I said it, it shoots the deadly cream pie filling. Now with the entire cast being kids I understand that can't have real guns, but I'm sure they could have come up with a better idea than peddle cars to be used in the film. Since this is a musical you have to have singing, but the singing isn't done by any of the actual actors, it's all voiced over and just doesn't fit well in the scenes.
This film is bad in every which way you can think of, from poor acting to bad songs and singing to the fact that there are no guns or cars in this gangster like film. There's so many things that are wrong with this film it's hard to say that I've mentioned all of the problems, but needless to say I've touched on enough to steer some of you away from this true disaster film from the 70s. So if you truly want to see a gangster film with young actors in it try Once Upon a Time in America or Mobsters, I'm sure you'll be far more better off.